Medicaid spending for pathology and laboratory services up 8.4% in Philippi in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Philippi billed a total of $205,805 for services within the Pathology and Laboratory Procedures category, data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database shows. This amount represents an 8.4% rise from the prior year, when claims in this category amounted to $189,785.

Medicaid, a public health insurance program administered by the states and funded by both federal and state governments, offers coverage for low-income individuals and families, seniors, children, and persons with disabilities. This makes it a key component of the U.S. health care system.

Because Medicaid is funded by taxpayer dollars, local billing shifts help show the distribution of public health care financing in different communities.

The “Pathology and Laboratory Procedures” category covers a specific set of Medicaid-billed services organized by type of care and grouped based on standardized HCPCS and CPT code guidelines. For this reporting, each billing code was assigned to a single service category through standardized code prefixes and numeric ranges to ensure related services were classified together, eliminate double counting, and maintain accuracy in rankings.

While Medicaid spending increased in several categories, Pathology and Laboratory Procedures held the third spot in Philippi by total payment amount in 2024.

At the state level, Pathology and Laboratory Procedures ranked fifth among Medicaid service categories for total payments in West Virginia in 2024.

From 2019 to 2024, Medicaid payments connected to the Pathology and Laboratory Procedures category in Philippi grew by $402,527 or 66.2%. Significant growth periods were observed in 2020 and 2022, with stronger year-over-year spending increases in those years.

Although these Medicaid expenditures were distributed throughout Philippi, a limited number of ZIP codes concentrated the payments. For 2024, ZIP code 26416 reported Medicaid payments of $205,804 for this category, accounting for 100% of category-related Medicaid spending in the city.

Payments in the Pathology and Laboratory Procedures category were centered on a small group of billing codes.

In context, the 8.4% increase for Pathology and Laboratory Procedures outpaced the overall Medicaid claims growth rate in Philippi, which was 8% across all categories during the same span.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, total Medicaid spending from federal and state sources reached about $871.7 billion during fiscal 2023, making up around 18% of all U.S. health care expenditures. This is a significant increase from about $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 crisis.

This growth represents an increase of roughly 40% over several years, driven mainly by higher enrollment and increased utilization during and after the pandemic.

Recent budget legislation enacted during the Trump administration included major steps to cut federal Medicaid contributions and restructure the program. For instance, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” passed in 2025, is expected to trim more than $1 trillion in federal Medicaid spending over 10 years and institutes work requirements and increased cost-sharing. These measures could reduce funding or coverage for some enrollees, place additional responsibility on state budgets, and put limits on federal Medicaid growth even as the program covers millions across the country.

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.