Stockton Medicaid billing for COVID-19 services reached $1,938,715 in 2024

At least $1,938,715 in 2024 Medicaid payments in Stockton were for services billed under HCPCS codes directly linked to COVID-19, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This total marked a 142.1% jump from the $800,696 submitted with those codes in 2023.

Medicaid, a state-run program financed jointly by the federal and state governments, provides health coverage for low-income residents, seniors, children, and people with disabilities, making it one of the nation’s largest health insurers.

Because Medicaid draws on taxpayer dollars, changes in local billing trends reflect how public health care spending is distributed within communities.

For this report, COVID-19–related services were defined by using HCPCS codes described or indexed specifically as “COVID-19” or “coronavirus”-related in the billing data. The results cover only services explicitly labeled in this way and do not include pandemic response care billed under different or broader medical categories.

San Jose led California in Medicaid dollars tied to COVID-19 services for 2024, recording $5,601,479 in claims for virus-related care.

Six providers in Stockton submitted Medicaid claims for COVID-19–related care in 2024. Among the primary codes billed was COVID-19 Vaccine Administration, which made up $1,708,042 of the total.

On average, each Stockton provider billed $323,119 for COVID-19–related services, surpassing the state’s per-provider average of $52,976.

COVID-19–specific services contributed significantly to the increase in Medicaid spending in Stockton during the pandemic.

Medicaid payments across all other service categories grew by $39,718,830 in Stockton from 2020 to 2024, a 20.7% rise over the period.

In the two years before the pandemic, average annual Medicaid payments in Stockton were $174,606,388.

Data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services show that combined state and federal Medicaid expenditures were approximately $871.7 billion for fiscal 2023, making up about 18% of U.S. health spending. This is up substantially from the $613.5 billion spent in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This increase, driven largely by boosted enrollment and higher usage during and after the pandemic, amounts to about 40% growth in a few years.

Recent federal budget laws under the Trump administration have introduced major proposals to cut federal Medicaid support and shift the program’s structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed in 2025, is expected to reduce federal Medicaid expenditures by over $1 trillion over 10 years and enacts policies such as work requirements and cost-sharing, potentially reducing coverage and increasing costs for some recipients. These regulatory changes could transfer more financial responsibility to states and limit federal Medicaid funding, even as the program continues to cover millions of U.S. residents.

Note: Includes HCPCS codes specifically designated for COVID-19 services. Totals do not reflect all pandemic-related medical expenditures.

The information in this report is based on data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. Source data is available here.