Strafford Medicaid spending on alcohol and drug treatment grows 13.4% in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Strafford billed $26,513 for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment services, based on data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This represented a 13.4% rise from 2023, when providers billed $23,390 for the same services.

Medicaid, run by states with both federal and state funding provided jointly, covers low-income residents, families, seniors, children, and individuals with disabilities. It is one of the largest components of U.S. health care.

Because Medicaid payments are drawn from taxpayer funds, changes in local billing demonstrate how public health care resources are distributed in each community.

The “Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment” group consists of Medicaid-billed care categorized by service type, based on standardized HCPCS and CPT code ranges and groupings. Each code is assigned to a single service category using consistent prefixes and numerical brackets for this report, grouping similar services and preventing duplicate counts while ensuring accurate time-based rankings.

Medicaid spending grew across several service groups, but Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment had the highest Medicaid payment total in Strafford in 2024.

Across New Hampshire, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment registered as the second-largest Medicaid payment category for 2024.

Over the five years prior to 2024, Strafford’s Medicaid payments for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment jumped by $23,285, equating to 721.3%. Expenditure accelerated at certain points, with year-over-year increases especially marked in 2023 and 2022.

The funds spent on Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment were distributed across the city, but payment totals were focused in few ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 03884 accounted for $26,513, comprising 100% of Medicaid spending for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment in Strafford that year.

Only a small portion of individual service codes within the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment group received the bulk of Medicaid payments.

For context, Strafford’s Medicaid payments for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment rose 13.4% from 2023 to 2024, while all Medicaid billing categories in the city experienced a 15.1% change during the same timeframe.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reports that joint state and federal Medicaid outlays reached about $871.7 billion in 2023, making up roughly 18% of U.S. health spending—a significant climb from $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

That growth amounts to approximately 40% over several years, largely fueled by higher enrollment and increased use of services during and following the pandemic.

Federal legislation backed by the Trump administration recently featured proposals targeting deep cuts to Medicaid and altering its structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is expected to reduce federal Medicaid spending by more than $1 trillion in the next decade and implements policies like work requirements and higher cost-sharing, which could decrease both Medicaid coverage levels and funding for some recipients. States are anticipated to bear more of the program’s costs as future federal growth slows, even as Medicaid continues to serve tens of millions nationally.

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.