Medicaid spending for pathology and laboratory procedures in Eldon rises to $1,025 in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Eldon reported $1,025 in claims for pathology and laboratory procedures services, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This represented a 51.6% rise from 2023, when providers billed $676 for these services.

Medicaid is run by each state with funding provided by both federal and state governments. It provides health insurance coverage to low-income individuals and families, as well as seniors, children and people with disabilities, making it one of the cornerstone programs in the U.S. health care system.

As Medicaid is funded through taxpayer dollars, shifts in the level of local billing reflect how community health resources are distributed.

The “Pathology and Laboratory Procedures” classification includes Medicaid services grouped by specific types of care, each identified using standardized HCPCS and CPT coding. For this analysis, every billing code was mapped to one service category by matching common code prefixes and number ranges. This approach ensures that similar procedures are counted together, eliminates duplicate reporting, and maintains consistent year-over-year rankings.

While Medicaid expenditures climbed across several categories, pathology and laboratory procedures were the fourth-largest Medicaid payment category in Eldon in 2024.

On a statewide basis, pathology and laboratory procedures were the eighth highest Medicaid payment category in Missouri for 2024.

From five years prior to 2024, Medicaid payment totals for pathology and laboratory procedures in Eldon rose by $1,025. This overall growth included significant year-over-year increases in both 2023 and 2022.

Although care payments for pathology and laboratory procedures were paid citywide, a small number of ZIP codes received the largest share. In 2024, ZIP code 65026 accounted for $1,024 of the total, with the top 1 ZIP code making up 100% of all city payments in this category during the year.

Within the grouping of pathology and laboratory procedures, Medicaid claims were focused on a handful of specific billing codes.

Comparatively, Eldon’s Medicaid claims for pathology and laboratory procedures rose by 51.6% from 2023 to 2024. For all claim categories in the city, the year-over-year increase was 47.2%.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined federal and state Medicaid costs reached about $871.7 billion for fiscal year 2023, making up roughly 18% of the nation’s health expenditures. This marks a sharp rise from $613.5 billion in 2019 before the pandemic.

This escalation represents approximately 40% growth, fuelled in large part by expanded participant enrollment and higher service usage during and following the pandemic.

Recent federal budget bills enacted under the Trump administration have included large-scale proposals to cut federal Medicaid spending and reorganize the program. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed into law in 2025, is set to reduce federal funding for Medicaid by more than $1 trillion over a decade and introduce changes such as new work requirements and higher cost-sharing, which could limit benefits and access for some recipients. As a result, states are expected to bear greater financial responsibility, even as Medicaid remains essential for tens of millions of Americans.

Note: HCPCS codes are presented for context within the category. Article totals and rankings are determined based on aggregated service groups rather than individual billing codes.

This article draws information from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. Source data is available here.