Los Alamitos Medicaid spending on pathology and lab services reaches $216,393 in 2024

Medicaid providers in Los Alamitos billed $216,393 for services classified in the Pathology and Laboratory Procedures category in 2024, data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database shows. This reflected a 4.5% increase over 2023, when claims for this service type totaled $207,001.

Medicaid is a state-managed public health insurance program jointly funded by federal and state governments. It provides coverage for low-income people, families, seniors, children, and individuals with disabilities, making it one of the largest components of the U.S. health care system. For more details, see the Commonwealth Fund Medicaid explainer.

Since Medicaid funding comes from taxpayers, shifts in local billing trends reflect the allocation of public health care resources within the community.

The “Pathology and Laboratory Procedures” category covers a set of Medicaid services defined by the specific care provided, based on standardized HCPCS and CPT code groups. This analysis assigns billing codes to unique service categories using systematic code ranges and prefixes, allowing similar services to be considered together while avoiding duplication and maintaining reliable annual rankings.

Pathology and Laboratory Procedures was the sixth-largest Medicaid payment category in Los Alamitos for 2024, though growth was observed in several categories.

Statewide in California, Pathology and Laboratory Procedures ranked fifth among Medicaid payment categories in 2024.

Comparing figures over a five-year period through 2024, Medicaid payments connected to the Pathology and Laboratory Procedures category in Los Alamitos rose by $106,298, or 96.6%. The increase accelerated at certain times, particularly in 2022 and 2023.

Although payments for pathology and laboratory care were distributed across Los Alamitos, most Medicaid payments concentrated in a small number of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 90720 accounted for $216,392, and this single ZIP code made up 100% of all Medicaid spending in this category in the city that year.

A small group of individual billing codes accounted for most Medicaid payments processed in the Pathology and Laboratory Procedures category.

When comparing year-over-year changes, Medicaid payments for this category in Los Alamitos were up 4.5% between 2024 and 2023, whereas total Medicaid claims in all categories for the city climbed by 23.2% during the same interval.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services report federal and state Medicaid spending combined was about $871.7 billion for fiscal year 2023, which made up around 18% of all national health costs—-an increase from $613.5 billion in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This increase reflects around 40% growth over several years, largely due to higher enrollment and increased service use driven by the pandemic and its aftermath.

The Trump administration enacted federal budget measures in recent years that introduced significant Medicaid funding reductions and program structural changes. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed in 2025, is projected to reduce federal Medicaid spending by over $1 trillion in the next decade, adding work requirements and higher cost-sharing, which could decrease coverage and funding for certain recipients. These changes are anticipated to create additional cost burdens for states and may limit how fast federal Medicaid dollars grow, despite the program continuing to serve millions of Americans.

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.