Arlington Medicaid spent $148,515 or more for COVID-19 services in 2024

At least $148,515 in Medicaid payments were made in Arlington in 2024 for services billed under HCPCS codes strictly tied to COVID-19, based on data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database.

Medicaid, one of the largest components of the U.S. health care system, is a public health insurance program managed by states and funded in partnership between federal and state governments. The program serves low-income families and individuals, seniors, children and people with disabilities.

Taxpayer-funded Medicaid expenditures mean local billing trends can indicate how public health care resources are distributed in a community.

For this study, researchers identified COVID-19 services using HCPCS codes marked as “COVID-19” or “coronavirus” in official descriptions or cross-references. Therefore, the totals reflect only services explicitly indicated as COVID-related in billing data and exclude pandemic care that may have used broader medical coding.

To compare, Richmond had the highest Medicaid expenditure linked to COVID-19 services in Virginia in 2024, with $775,923 in claims assigned to those codes.

Seven providers billed Medicaid for COVID-19–related services in Arlington during 2024. The code labeled COVID Specific was most frequently charged, totaling $109,534.

For reference, Arlington’s average Medicaid payment per provider for COVID-19 services came to $21,216, compared to the statewide average of $28,521.

Throughout the pandemic years, bills specifically marked as COVID-19 resulted in a notable share of Medicaid spending increases for Arlington.

Medicaid payments across all other categories rose by $21,666,413 from 2020 through 2024, a 62.3% gain.

The average annual Medicaid payment for Arlington in the two years prior to the pandemic was $25,549,646.

Data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services shows federal and state Medicaid expenditures reached nearly $871.7 billion during the 2023 fiscal year, accounting for an estimated 18% of total health spending nationwide and marking an increase from the $613.5 billion total in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This growth equates to nearly 40% over just a few years, primarily driven by higher enrollment and increased use of services during and following the pandemic period.

Recent Trump-era congressional budgets included major initiatives to cut federal Medicaid funding and reorganize operations. For instance, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed in 2025, is set to reduce federal Medicaid spending by more than $1 trillion in the next 10 years and introduces new requirements like work mandates and increased cost-sharing. These policies are projected to shift greater financial responsibility to states and, at the same time, slow the pace of federal Medicaid expansion, even as the program continues to cover millions of people.

Note: Totals include HCPCS codes clearly identified for COVID-19; the figures do not capture all health expenditures tied to the pandemic.

This article’s information is sourced from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. The original source data can be found here.