Pine Bluff Medicaid providers billed $22,064 in 2024 for services under the Temporary Codes category, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. Compared to the prior year, when $17,574 was claimed for these services, this represented an increase of 25.5%.
Medicaid, a health insurance initiative managed by the states and funded with joint federal and state support, provides coverage to low-income individuals and families, seniors, children, and people with disabilities. It remains among the largest components of the nation’s health care system.
Because taxpayer funds support Medicaid, shifts in local billing levels reflect how public health care spending is distributed in a community.
The Temporary Codes designation groups certain Medicaid-billed services together based on specific types of care, using standardized HCPCS and CPT codes. For this analysis, each billing code was sorted into a single service group using consistent code ranges and prefixes, so related services could be tracked together while maintaining accurate rankings year over year and avoiding duplicate counts.
Although Medicaid expenditures increased for multiple service groups, Temporary Codes placed 12th by total Medicaid payments in Pine Bluff in 2024.
Statewide in Arkansas, the Temporary Codes group ranked 22nd by total Medicaid payments in 2024.
From 2019 through 2024, Medicaid payments associated with the Temporary Codes category in Pine Bluff rose by $45,433, or 67.3%. Spending climbed most rapidly at certain points, with year-over-year gains most pronounced in 2022 and 2020.
Payments for care in the Temporary Codes group were recorded throughout Pine Bluff, but were focused in a small number of ZIP codes. The ZIP code 71603 accounted for the highest Medicaid payments in this category in 2024, totaling $22,063. Altogether, the leading single ZIP code made up 100% of these Medicaid payments in Pine Bluff for the year.
Within the Temporary Codes classification, Medicaid payment volume was also tied to a select set of individual billing codes.
To compare, Medicaid reimbursements for the Temporary Codes category in Pine Bluff rose by 25.5% from 2023 to 2024, outpacing the 17.9% growth across all Medicaid claim categories for the city within the same period.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined federal and state Medicaid outlays reached about $871.7 billion in fiscal 2023. That figure accounted for around 18% of all national health expenditures and marked a sharp rise from roughly $613.5 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The difference reflects an increase of nearly 40% over just a few years, largely driven by broader enrollment and greater use of services during and after the pandemic.
Recent federal budget laws enacted under the Trump administration have introduced significant proposals aimed at trimming federal Medicaid spending and changing program structure. For instance, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed into law in 2025, is set to cut more than $1 trillion in federal Medicaid outlays over the next decade. It also introduces measures such as work requirements and higher cost-sharing, changes that may reduce coverage and funding for certain recipients. These policies are expected to push more costs to states and slow federal Medicaid funding growth, even as the program continues to serve tens of millions of Americans.
| Year | Total Medicaid Payments | % Change From Previous Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $67,496 | 6.5% |
| 2021 | $23,956 | -64.5% |
| 2022 | $45,196 | 88.7% |
| 2023 | $17,573 | -61.1% |
| 2024 | $22,063 | 25.5% |
| Rank | Category | Medicaid Payments | Share of City Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies | $3,404,904 | 26.7% |
| 2 | Medicine Services and Procedures | $2,519,899 | 19.7% |
| 3 | Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment | $1,561,404 | 12.2% |
| 4 | Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies | $1,365,351 | 10.7% |
| 5 | Pathology and Laboratory Procedures | $1,236,131 | 9.7% |
| 6 | Evaluation and Management | $1,206,291 | 9.4% |
| 7 | Dental Services | $680,818 | 5.3% |
| 8 | Radiology Procedures | $369,626 | 2.9% |
| 9 | Surgery | $246,429 | 1.9% |
| 10 | Drugs Administered Other than Oral Method | $58,767 | 0.5% |
| 11 | Medical And Surgical Supplies | $54,855 | 0.4% |
| 12 | Temporary Codes | $22,063 | 0.2% |
| 13 | Anesthesia | $20,830 | 0.2% |
| 14 | Procedures / Professional Services | $11,517 | 0.1% |
| 15 | Temporary National Codes (Non-Medicare) | $9,295 | 0.1% |
| 16 | Durable Medical Equipment | $4,215 | <0.1% |
| 17 | Administrative, Miscellaneous and Investigational | $1,055 | <0.1% |
| 18 | Coronavirus Diagnostic Panel | $424 | <0.1% |
| 19 | Hearing Services | $408 | <0.1% |
| 20 | Durable medical equipment (DME) Medicare administrative contractors (MACs) | $276 | <0.1% |
| 21 | Other Services | $0 | <0.1% |
| 21 | Outpatient PPS | $0 | <0.1% |
| HCPCS Code | Description | Medicaid Payments | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q4081 | Epoetin alfa, 100 units esrd | $18,845 | 10 |
| Q9967 | Locm 300-399mg/ml iodine,1ml | $3,218 | 12 |
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.
