Kingsport Medicaid spending for pathology and lab services climbs to $2,753,853 in 2024

Kingsport Medicaid providers submitted $2,753,853 in claims for services under the Pathology and Laboratory Procedures category in 2024, based on data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. That amount was up 23.2% from 2023, when claims totaled $2,235,717 for these services.

Medicaid, a state-administered program funded jointly by state and federal governments, provides health insurance to low-income families and individuals, children, seniors, and people with disabilities, making it one of the major parts of the nation’s health care system.

Since Medicaid payments are funded by taxpayers, shifts in local billing reflect changes in how community health care dollars are allocated.

The “Pathology and Laboratory Procedures” category consolidates Medicaid-billed services defined by standardized HCPCS and CPT billing code groupings. Each code in this analysis was placed in a single service category with consistent code prefixes and ranges, grouping related services for clearer review without duplicate counts or misrankings over time.

Pathology and Laboratory Procedures ranked second among Medicaid service categories by total payments in Kingsport in 2024, as spending rose across multiple service groups.

Statewide, Pathology and Laboratory Procedures held the sixth spot for Medicaid payments in Tennessee during 2024.

From 2019 through 2024, Medicaid expenditures linked to Pathology and Laboratory Procedures in Kingsport grew by $1,979,243—a 255.5% rise. Higher growth was observed in particular years, with especially strong year-over-year gains seen in 2022 and 2021.

Distribution of Pathology and Laboratory Procedures payments spanned Kingsport, though most were concentrated in a few ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 37660 saw $2,582,921 in claims, and 37663 accounted for $170,931, meaning these top 2 ZIP codes represented the full Medicaid dollars billed for the category in the city that year.

Across the Pathology and Laboratory Procedures section, a small subset of billing codes made up most Medicaid payments.

Medicaid spending in the Pathology and Laboratory Procedures grouping in Kingsport grew 23.2% from 2023 to 2024, which surpassed the 8.2% increase recorded across all Medicaid claim categories in the city in the same period.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined federal and state Medicaid spending reached approximately $871.7 billion in fiscal 2023, representing about 18% of all national health expenditures. That’s up from roughly $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This increase amounts to about 40% growth over several years, largely tied to more enrollees and greater usage during and after the pandemic.

Federal budget laws under the Trump administration have introduced significant changes to Medicaid funding. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is forecast to decrease federal Medicaid support by over $1 trillion over 10 years and enforces changes such as work requirements and higher cost-sharing; these measures may reduce coverage or funding for some Medicaid recipients, potentially increasing state responsibility for program costs as it continues serving 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.