Erin Medicaid claims for COVID-19 services climb to $29,144 in 2024

At least $29,144 in Medicaid payments were made in Erin in 2024 for services billed under HCPCS codes specific to COVID-19, data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database shows. This amount marks a 4.2% rise from 2023, when $27,983 in claims with these codes were submitted by providers.

Medicaid is a public insurance program managed by the states and jointly funded by federal and state governments. Covering low-income residents, families, children, seniors and people with disabilities, it is one of the largest components of the U.S. health care system.

Since Medicaid utilizes taxpayer monies, shifts in the amount billed locally indicate how public health care spending is distributed throughout a community.

For this report, researchers identified COVID-19–related services based on HCPCS codes labeled or described as “COVID-19” or “coronavirus” in their billing information or reference data. As a result, the reported totals capture only those services clearly marked as COVID-related in billing records, omitting any pandemic-linked care billed under broader codes.

Comparatively, Spring Hill saw the highest Medicaid payments connected to COVID-19 services in Tennessee for 2024, with virus-related claims reaching $4,274,403.

Within Erin, two providers billed Medicaid for COVID-19 service codes in 2024, and among those, the COVID Specific code accounted for $20,986.

To provide additional context, the average Medicaid payment per provider for COVID-19 services in Erin stood at $14,572, below the Tennessee state average of $43,799.

During the pandemic period, services coded specifically for COVID-19 contributed substantially to the increase in Medicaid spending in Erin.

Across other claim types, total Medicaid payments in Erin rose by $75,242 from 2020 to 2024, representing a 29.5% increase.

Before the pandemic, the average annual Medicaid payment in Erin was $210,490 over the previous two years.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined federal and state Medicaid expenditures reached about $871.7 billion for fiscal year 2023—making up around 18% of total national health costs, and a significant jump from $613.5 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This rise reflects an increase of about 40% over a short period, caused largely by expanded enrollment and greater service use during and after the height of the pandemic.

Recent federal budgeting in the Trump administration included major proposals to scale back federal Medicaid spending and alter the program’s structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is expected to reduce federal Medicaid funding by more than $1 trillion over 10 years and adds new requirements, such as work conditions and increased beneficiary cost-sharing. These changes are expected to shift a larger share of Medicaid costs to the states and may slow the growth of federal funding for the program, even as it continues to serve tens of millions of Americans.

Note: Includes HCPCS codes explicitly labeled for COVID-19 services; totals do not represent all pandemic-related health care spending.

Information presented here draws from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. Source data is available here.