Hartselle Medicaid vision services billings rise to $37,790 in 2024

In 2024, Hartselle Medicaid providers submitted $37,790 in billings for Vision Services, based on data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This represented a 77.2% rise over 2023, when billings for the same service category totaled $21,325.

Medicaid is a state-administered public health insurance program jointly financed by federal and state governments. It insures low-income families and individuals, children, seniors, and people with disabilities, playing a major role in the U.S. health care system.

Since Medicaid is funded by taxpayers, local changes in billing reflect how public dollars are spent on health care in the community.

The “Vision Services” category includes a set of Medicaid-billed services defined by the care provided, classified using standardized HCPCS and CPT code groupings. For this analysis, each billing code is placed into a single service category using consistent code prefixes and numeric ranges, grouping related services together to prevent double counting and ensure accurate historical rankings.

Though Medicaid spending increased across several categories, Vision Services was the third-highest category in Hartselle for Medicaid payments in 2024.

Statewide in Alabama, Vision Services ranked as the 14th largest category by Medicaid payments in 2024.

During the five years before 2024, Hartselle’s Medicaid payments for the Vision Services category increased $22,971, or 155%. Some years saw especially rapid increases, notably in 2021 and 2022.

While the spending for Vision Services was dispersed throughout Hartselle, most payments were concentrated in only a few ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 35640 alone accounted for $37,790 in Medicaid Vision Services payments. Overall, this single ZIP code made up 100% of the Medicaid payments for Vision Services within Hartselle that year.

Within this category, a small group of billing codes made up the majority of Medicaid payments.

From 2023 to 2024, the 77.2% increase for Vision Services in Hartselle outpaced the 24.5% growth seen across all Medicaid claim categories in the city during that time frame.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined federal and state Medicaid expenditures totaled about $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, or roughly 18% of total U.S. health spending, a sizable jump from the $613.5 billion spent in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This increase equates to growth of around 40% in just a few years, largely due to higher enrollment and increased utilization related to the pandemic.

Recent federal budget legislation during the Trump administration has contained major proposals to decrease federal Medicaid funding and alter the program. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is expected to cut more than $1 trillion in federal Medicaid spending over the next 10 years and establish work requirements and greater cost-sharing. This could reduce both coverage and funding for some recipients. As a result, states may absorb more of the costs as federal funding growth slows, though the program will continue to serve millions nationwide.

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.