South Salt Lake saw $599,597 in Medicaid claims for alcohol and drug treatment in 2024, a 151.3% jump

Medicaid providers in South Salt Lake submitted $599,597 in claims for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment services in 2024, drawing on figures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This total was up 151.3% compared to 2023, when the amount recorded for the same services reached $238,630.

States run and partly fund Medicaid, a public health insurance initiative, together with the federal government. Medicaid serves low-income families and individuals, seniors, children, and people with disabilities, placing it among the largest segments of the U.S. health care system. For more details, see this explanation on the program’s funding.

As Medicaid is financed by taxpayer dollars, changes in local payments can indicate how health care resources are being used in different communities.

The “Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment” category covers a distinct selection of Medicaid services, grouped according to service type using standard HCPCS and CPT codes. Billing codes were assigned to one service category based on structured code ranges and prefixes, so related services could be compared collectively while avoiding duplication and keeping period-to-period rankings accurate.

Within South Salt Lake, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment represented the top Medicaid payment category in 2024.

Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment ranked as the second-largest payment category statewide in Utah for 2024.

In South Salt Lake, Medicaid payments in the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category increased by $576,216, or 2464.4%, during the five years leading up to 2024. The pace of growth surged during particular intervals, especially in 2021 and 2022.

While these services were billed throughout the city, a few ZIP codes accounted for most payments. For 2024, the highest reported payments for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment went to ZIP code 84115, totaling $599,597. Altogether, the leading ZIP code was responsible for 100% of Medicaid payments in this category in South Salt Lake for the year.

Most Medicaid spending within the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category centered on a small set of individual billing codes.

For reference, payments for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment in South Salt Lake rose by 151.3% between 2023 and 2024. Citywide, total Medicaid payments across all claim categories during that time changed by 37.3%.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined state and federal Medicaid spending reached about $871.7 billion in fiscal 2023, representing roughly 18% of all national health expenditures and marking a significant uptick from around $613.5 billion in 2019, the year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This surge amounts to a rise of approximately 40% in a few years, fueled largely by greater enrollment numbers and heightened service usage during and after the pandemic.

Recent federal budget laws passed during the Trump administration have included major plans to cut federal Medicaid funding and reshape the program. Notably, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is estimated to slash federal Medicaid spending by over $1 trillion in the coming decade and includes policies like work requirements and increased cost sharing, which could curb coverage and funds for certain recipients. As a result, states may shoulder more costs and face limitations on the future growth of federal money—at a time when Medicaid continues to insure tens of millions of Americans.

Note: HCPCS codes are provided for context within the category. Totals and rankings discussed in this article are based on standardized service groupings, not by individual code.

Information in this article comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. The original dataset is hosted here.