Winnemucca Medicaid spending on radiology procedures up 307.6% in 2024

Data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database show that Medicaid providers in Winnemucca billed $665,910 for services in the Radiology Procedures category in 2024. This total is up 307.6% from 2023, when $163,382 in claims were filed for the same category.

Medicaid operates as a state-administered public health insurance program funded by federal and state governments together. It offers coverage to low-income families and individuals, seniors, children, and people with disabilities, and represents one of the main components of the U.S. health care system.

Since taxpayer funds support Medicaid payments, tracking local billing levels gives insight into how health care expenses for the public are distributed within a community.

The “Radiology Procedures” designation includes a defined set of Medicaid-billed services based on standardized HCPCS and CPT codes. For the purposes of this analysis, billing codes were grouped into categories using predetermined prefixes and number ranges so that similar services could be analyzed together, minimizing double counting and improving year-over-year comparability and ranking accuracy.

Although increases occurred for several types of services, Radiology Procedures had the third-highest Medicaid payment amount in Winnemucca for 2024.

For Nevada overall, Radiology Procedures ranked as the seventh-largest service category by total Medicaid payments in 2024.

Across the five years preceding 2024, Medicaid payments for the Radiology Procedures category in Winnemucca rose $636,606, a 2172.4% expansion. Periods with rapid growth, notably in 2022 and 2021, accelerated spending gains during the span covered.

The data indicate that, while radiology procedure-related spending took place citywide, payments were focused in just a handful of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 89445 had the highest Medicaid-related payments for Radiology Procedures, accounting for the full $665,910 billed in the category that year. This single ZIP code made up 100% of Medicaid billing for Radiology Procedures in Winnemucca in 2024.

Analysis also found Radiology Procedures payments were concentrated among a limited set of billing codes within the category.

During the same period, Medicaid spending for Radiology Procedures in Winnemucca climbed by 307.6% from 2023 to 2024, compared with a 68.5% change seen across all Medicaid service categories citywide.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, total federal and state Medicaid spending hit about $871.7 billion in fiscal 2023, making up nearly 18% of total U.S. health expenditures, up from $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This amounts to roughly a 40% increase over several years, largely tied to increased enrollment and greater service use during and after the pandemic.

Recent federal budget acts passed under the Trump administration have included prominent proposals to trim federal Medicaid outlays and overhaul the program’s structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed into law in 2025, is expected to reduce federal Medicaid expenditures by more than $1 trillion over the coming decade and introduces elements such as work requirements and increased sharing of costs, which may diminish coverage and funding for certain beneficiaries. These reforms are likely to push greater funding responsibilities onto states and constrain federal Medicaid growth, though the program continues to provide coverage for 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.