Des Plaines Medicaid spending on substance abuse treatment climbs to $281,078 in 2024

Des Plaines Medicaid providers reported billing $281,078 in 2024 for services in the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category, data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database shows. This total was 12.4% higher than the amount billed in 2023, when providers submitted $250,172 in claims for these services.

Medicaid is a public health insurance initiative managed by the states and funded collectively by federal and state governments. Serving low-income families and individuals, seniors, children, and those with disabilities, it remains one of the nation’s largest health care programs.

As Medicaid payments are funded by taxpayers, shifts in local billing levels highlight how public health care resources are allocated within a community.

The “Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment” grouping encompasses a range of Medicaid services, categorized by the nature of care provided using prescribed HCPCS and CPT code designations. In this report, each billing code was classified into a single service grouping based on code prefixes and numeric thresholds, facilitating accurate comparisons and preventing double counting in rankings across different years.

Spending in the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category held the sixth-highest position among Medicaid service types by overall payments in Des Plaines in 2024.

Statewide, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment ranked third in Illinois based on total Medicaid payments for 2024.

Between 2019 and 2024, Medicaid billing for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment in Des Plaines rose by $82,859, or 41.8%. The pace of growth increased during particular periods, with distinct annual gains showing in both 2022 and 2020.

While these Medicaid payments were distributed throughout Des Plaines, they were heavily concentrated in just a few ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 60016 alone accounted for $281,077 in Medicaid payments for this treatment category. This single ZIP code represented 100% of the city’s Medicaid payments for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment that year.

Within this treatment category, the majority of Medicaid spending centered on a small number of individual billing codes.

In the comparison period from 2023 to 2024, Medicaid payments for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment in Des Plaines increased by 12.4%. In contrast, total spending across all Medicaid claim categories in the city rose by 41% during the same timeframe.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined state and federal Medicaid outlays reached about $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, making up roughly 18% of all national health care spending. This marks a sharp rise from the $613.5 billion reported in 2019, ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This amount represents an approximate 40% increase within just a few years, mainly attributed to higher enrollment and greater service utilization during and following the pandemic period.

Recent federal budget laws under the Trump administration included major proposals to lower federal Medicaid contributions and overhaul the program’s structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is expected to reduce federal Medicaid funding by more than $1 trillion over ten years, including new policies like work requirements and increased cost-sharing that could limit coverage and funding for certain groups. These adjustments are likely to shift more financial responsibility to states and could restrict future federal Medicaid support, even as the program continues to serve tens of millions of Americans.

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.