Medicaid spending on Medicine Services and Procedures in Novato hits $692,287 in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Novato billed a total of $692,287 for services in the Medicine Services and Procedures category, based on figures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This amount is a 2% increase from 2023, when the same services generated $678,542 in claims.

Medicaid, a public insurance program supported by both federal and state governments, provides coverage to low-income individuals, families, seniors, children and people with disabilities, making it a leading component of the U.S. health system.

Because tax dollars fund Medicaid payments, changes in local billing patterns highlight how publicly funded health care resources are distributed in a community.

The Medicine Services and Procedures category includes Medicaid-billed care grouped by service type, defined through standardized HCPCS and CPT coding structures. For this report, each billing code was placed in a single service category using consistent code ranges and prefixes. This method ensured similar services were grouped, avoided duplicate counts, and maintained accurate rankings over time.

Medicaid expenses in Novato increased across several categories, with Medicine Services and Procedures accounting for the second-highest total Medicaid payments in the city for 2024.

Statewide, the Medicine Services and Procedures category ranked third for Medicaid payments in California in 2024.

Looking at the five years before 2024, Novato’s Medicaid payments for Medicine Services and Procedures grew by $265,681, or 62.3%. Growth accelerated in certain years, with significant annual increases noted in both 2022 and 2023.

Although payments for Medicine Services and Procedures were spread throughout Novato, most were concentrated in a small number of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 94945 accounted for $668,942, while ZIP code 94949 made up $23,344. Combined, these two ZIP codes represented 100% of Medicaid payments for this category in Novato throughout the year.

Within the broader category, Medicaid spending was focused on a relatively small selection of billing codes.

For context, Novato’s Medicaid payments for Medicine Services and Procedures rose 2% between 2023 and 2024, compared to an overall 46.4% change for all Medicaid claim types in the city during that timeframe.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicaid spending from federal and state sources totaled about $871.7 billion in the 2023 fiscal year, making up roughly 18% of all U.S. health expenditures. That was a sharp increase from $613.5 billion in 2019, before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This amount reflects approximately 40% growth over a few years, driven mainly by higher enrollment and increased utilization during and following the pandemic.

Federal budget decisions under the Trump administration brought forward major proposals to cut federal Medicaid funding and restructure the program. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which became law in 2025, is projected to reduce federal Medicaid outlays by more than $1 trillion over ten years. The law introduces measures such as work mandates and higher cost-sharing, which could impact coverage and funding for certain beneficiaries. As a result, states are expected to assume a larger share of Medicaid costs and overall federal support is likely to grow more slowly even as the program serves millions nationwide.

Note: HCPCS codes are shown for context within the category. Category totals and rankings in this article are based on standardized service groupings rather than individual billing codes.

Information in this article was obtained from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. The source data can be found here.