COVID-19 services led to $774,189 in Medicaid payments in Mobile for 2024

At least $774,189 in Medicaid payments were made in Mobile in 2024 for services billed using HCPCS codes directly tied to COVID-19, based on data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database.

Medicaid, the joint state and federal public health insurance program, covers eligible low-income individuals and families, seniors, children, and those with disabilities. This makes it one of the mainstays of the nation’s health care infrastructure. More on how the program is financed can be found here.

Taxpayer funding underpins Medicaid, making local trends in Medicaid claims an indicator of how public health resources are distributed within a community.

COVID-19–related billing for this story includes only HCPCS codes that were described or categorized as “COVID-19” or “coronavirus” in billing records or reference details. The totals reflect medical services directly labeled as COVID-19–specific and do not capture pandemic care billed under other categories or codes with broader medical purposes.

For context, Medicaid payments linked to COVID-19 services were highest in Birmingham for 2024 in Alabama, amounting to $1,029,178 in virus-related claims.

There were 22 distinct providers in Mobile who submitted Medicaid claims for COVID-19 services in 2024. The largest share was for the COVID Specific code, which made up $696,232 of the overall billing.

The average Medicaid payment per provider for COVID-19–specific services in Mobile reached $35,190, compared with a state average of $35,056.

COVID-19–specific claims represented a significant portion of Medicaid billing increases in Mobile during the pandemic years.

Meanwhile, Medicaid spending across other claim types in Mobile rose by $293,280 from 2020 to 2024—a growth of 0.6%.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, joint state and federal Medicaid spending totaled about $871.7 billion in fiscal 2023, making up roughly 18% of overall national health costs—an increase from about $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 public health emergency.

This growth—close to 40% in just a few years—has mainly resulted from increased enrollment and higher demand for health services during and following the pandemic.

Recent federal funding proposals and budget packages under the Trump administration included major measures affecting Medicaid. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which became law in 2025, is anticipated to reduce federal Medicaid spending by more than $1 trillion over 10 years, adding requirements such as mandatory work and greater cost-sharing that could reduce eligibility or funding for some participants. These provisions could prompt states to bear a higher share of costs as federal Medicaid growth faces new limits, even as the program remains central for millions of Americans.

Note: Includes HCPCS codes explicitly labeled for COVID-19 services; totals do not represent all pandemic-related health care spending.

Information in this article was compiled from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. Source data is available here.