Romulus Medicaid spending for alcohol, drug abuse treatment hits $5.4 million in 2024

Romulus Medicaid providers submitted $5,402,647 in claims for services in the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category in 2024, based on data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This total increased 15.4% compared to 2023, when $4,681,485 was billed for the same category.

Medicaid is a joint federal-state public health insurance program. It provides coverage for low-income people and families, seniors, children, and individuals with disabilities. This embedded public insurance framework makes it one of the largest sectors of the U.S. health system, with funding coming from both governments and overseen by the states. Learn more at this explainer.

Since Medicaid spending is financed by taxpayers, trends in area billing demonstrate how public health dollars are allocated locally.

The “Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment” designation comprises Medicaid-paid services categorized by the corresponding care, with classifications determined from standardized HCPCS and CPT code groupings. In compiling this analysis, billing codes were assigned to service categories using consistent prefixes and range guidance, supporting accurate grouping, ranking, and avoiding duplicates over time.

Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment accounted for the highest Medicaid payment total among all service categories in Romulus in 2024.

Across Michigan, this treatment group also posted the top total Medicaid payments statewide in 2024.

From 2019 through 2024, Medicaid payments for the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category in Romulus climbed by $1,782,712, a 49.2% increase. Sharper gains occurred during select years, most notably in 2021 and 2022 on a year-over-year basis.

While spending for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment services was spread across Romulus, the largest concentration was tied to a limited number of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 48174 accounted for $5,402,647—the entire sum—meaning the top ZIP code constituted 100% of local Medicaid payments for this treatment category during the year.

Within this treatment group, Medicaid reimbursements were primarily allocated to a small set of specific billing codes.

For perspective, payments associated with the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category in Romulus climbed 15.4% from 2023 to 2024, compared with a 5.4% change across all local Medicaid claim categories in that span.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reports that combined Medicaid spending by federal and state governments reached $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023—about 18% of all U.S. health spending—rising sharply from $613.5 billion in 2019 ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This cumulative growth represents roughly a 40% jump within a few years, with contributing factors including larger enrollment and increased service use during and following the coronavirus pandemic.

Recent federal budgets under the Trump administration included measures to reduce national Medicaid funding and make structural changes to the program. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”, enacted in 2025, is expected to decrease federal Medicaid contributions by more than $1 trillion over 10 years while implementing work requirements and greater cost-sharing—shifts likely to curb coverage or funding for some enrollees. With these changes, increased financial responsibility is anticipated to fall to states, and the pace of federal Medicaid spending growth is expected to slow, though the system will continue to support tens of millions nationwide.

Note: HCPCS codes are provided to aid context within the group. Totals and category rankings discussed here rely on standardized groups of services rather than just billing codes.

Details in this article are based on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. Original data is available here.