Chelan Medicaid spending on radiology procedures climbs to $120,587 in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Chelan billed $120,587 for radiology procedures, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This represented a 90.3% increase from 2023, when providers billed $63,366 for the same services.

Medicaid operates as a public health insurance program administered by the states and funded jointly by federal and state governments. It serves low-income individuals, families, seniors, children, and people with disabilities, making it a vital component of the U.S. health care system.

Since Medicaid funding is taxpayer-based, local billing trends offer insight into how community health care resources are distributed.

The “Radiology Procedures” category encompasses a set of Medicaid-billed services identified by standardized HCPCS and CPT code groupings. For the purposes of this analysis, each billing code was uniquely assigned to a service category by consistent code prefixes and numeric ranges, keeping related services grouped together without duplication and maintaining accurate rankings over time.

While Medicaid spending rose across different service areas, Radiology Procedures was the fifth-largest category by total Medicaid payments in Chelan in 2024.

Statewide in Washington, Radiology Procedures ranked eighth among all Medicaid service categories for total payments in 2024.

Over the five years through 2024, Medicaid payments for radiology procedures in Chelan increased by $116,548, or 2,885.7%. Certain periods, particularly 2021 and 2022, saw notable surges in annual spending growth.

Although radiology procedure payments were spread citywide, they were highly concentrated in just a few ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 98816 had the highest Medicaid payments for this category, totaling $120,587. This sole ZIP code comprised 100% of all Medicaid radiology procedure payments recorded in Chelan for the year.

Medicaid payments within the radiology procedures category were also concentrated among a small subset of billing codes.

For context, in Chelan, Medicaid payments for radiology procedures grew 90.3% from 2023 to 2024, compared with an overall change of 17.1% for all claim categories in the city for the same period.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined federal and state Medicaid expenses reached about $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023. This represented roughly 18% of all national health care expenditures, a substantial rise from about $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This amount reflects growth of approximately 40% over several years, largely fueled by higher enrollment and increased utilization during and after the pandemic.

Recent federal budget measures under the Trump administration have brought notable proposals to reduce federal Medicaid funding and restructure the program. For example, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is set to cut federal Medicaid spending by over $1 trillion over the next decade, introducing policies such as work requirements and enhanced cost-sharing that may decrease coverage or funding for certain beneficiaries. These policy changes are expected to shift greater financial responsibility to states and restrict the potential for federal Medicaid spending growth, while the program continues to serve tens of 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.