Medicaid spending for alcohol and drug abuse treatment in Littleton reaches $10,934,245 in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Littleton submitted $10,934,245 in claims for services classified under 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 represents a 4.2% rise from 2023, when providers recorded $10,488,854 in claims for the same service type.

Medicaid, a public health insurance program operated by states and funded through both federal and state governments, insures low-income people and families, seniors, children, and individuals with disabilities, making it a major part of the U.S. health care system.

Since Medicaid payments originate from taxpayers, shifts in local billing totals reflect changes in how public health care resources are distributed in a community.

The “Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment” category consists of a set of Medicaid-billed services grouped based on the type of care, using standardized HCPCS and CPT code ranges. For this report, each billing code was matched to one service category using established numeric ranges and code prefixes, enabling analysis of related services together without double counting and supporting consistent rankings over time.

Although there were increases in Medicaid spending across service categories, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment was the second-highest category by total Medicaid payments in Littleton in 2024.

Statewide in Colorado, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment ranked as the third-largest category for Medicaid payments in 2024.

Across the five years ending in 2024, Littleton’s Medicaid payments in this category grew by $8,950,251, amounting to a 451.1% increase. Spending saw accelerated growth during some periods, notably with significant year-over-year rises in 2020 and 2022.

Although services in the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category spanned Littleton, payments were mainly concentrated within a few ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 80120 saw $6,344,268 in Medicaid payments for this category, 80127 had $2,523,044, and 80121 accounted for $2,044,449. Combined, these top 3 ZIP codes made up 99.8% of all Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Medicaid payments in Littleton for the year.

Within the category, most Medicaid reimbursement was consolidated into a small subset of individual billing codes.

To compare, Medicaid payments for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment in Littleton increased by 4.2% from 2023 to 2024, while all Medicaid claim categories in the city saw a change of 19.9% over the same period.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services report that in fiscal year 2023, combined state and federal outlays for Medicaid were about $871.7 billion, making up roughly 18% of total national health expenditures—an increase from around $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This jump reflects a growth rate of approximately 40% over a few years, largely due to increased enrollment and service usage during and following the pandemic.

Recent federal budget measures signed under the Trump administration introduced major proposals to reduce federal Medicaid contributions and restructure the program. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”, enacted in 2025, is expected to trim federal Medicaid funding by more than $1 trillion over ten years and implements policies like work requirements and expanded cost-sharing, possibly limiting funding and coverage for certain beneficiaries. These changes are projected to transfer more financial responsibility to states and restrict the growth of federal Medicaid support, even as the program remains essential to tens of millions of Americans.

Note: HCPCS codes are provided for context within the category. All category totals and rankings referenced here rely on standardized groupings of services, not individual billing codes.

This article’s data comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. You can access the source data here.