Pathology and laboratory Medicaid expenses climb to $51,398 in Henderson for 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Henderson submitted $51,398 in claims for services within the Pathology and Laboratory Procedures category, based on information from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This was a 72.3% jump from 2023, when providers billed $29,838 for the same services.

Medicaid, a public health insurance program, operates under joint state and federal funding, according to the Commonwealth Fund. The program serves low-income people and families, children, seniors, and individuals with disabilities, and represents a significant portion of the U.S. health care system.

Because taxpayer resources support Medicaid, any local shifts in billed amounts reveal how public health funding is distributed in the area.

The Pathology and Laboratory Procedures classification includes a set of Medicaid-billed services defined by the type of care, identified through standardized HCPCS and CPT code ranges. For this article, each billing code was categorized into only one service group based on consistent prefix and numerical designations to maintain category accuracy and prevent double counting or skewed rankings over time.

While multiple service groups saw increases in Medicaid spending, Pathology and Laboratory Procedures was the fifth-largest category in Henderson by total Medicaid payments in 2024.

Statewide, this category ranked sixth in Tennessee for total Medicaid payments in 2024.

From 2019 to 2024, Medicaid payments in Henderson for Pathology and Laboratory Procedures went up by $29,600, or 135.8%. Spending surged in certain periods, with the most notable year-over-year increases happening in 2022 and 2021.

Although these services were billed throughout Henderson, a handful of ZIP codes received the majority of payments. In 2024, ZIP code 38340 accounted for $51,398, making up 100% of Henderson’s Medicaid claims in this service category.

Claims for this category were also concentrated among a small set of billing codes.

When compared with overall Medicaid expenditures in Henderson, Pathology and Laboratory Procedures payments grew by 72.3% between 2024 and 2023, whereas all claim categories combined rose 44.8% in the same timeframe.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined federal and state Medicaid outlays reached around $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, making up roughly 18% of the nation’s total health expenditures, up from about $613.5 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This represents an increase of about 40% in just a few years, largely attributed to growth in enrollment and greater usage during and following the pandemic.

Recent budget policies under the Trump administration included major proposals to decrease federal Medicaid funding and restructure the system. For example, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is expected to reduce federal Medicaid spending by more than $1 trillion over the next decade and introduces measures such as work requirements and higher cost-sharing, potentially reducing funding and coverage for some recipients. The changes are likely to place greater financial responsibility on states and restrain future federal Medicaid support, even as the program covers tens of millions nationally.

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.