Bakersfield Medicaid spending on Procedures / Professional Services hits $57.5 million in 2024

In 2024, Bakersfield Medicaid providers billed $57,483,505 for services listed under the Procedures / Professional Services category, data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database shows. That amount reflects a 7.1% gain over 2023, when claims for the same service type reached $53,657,104.

Medicaid, a state-run program funded collaboratively by federal and state governments, provides coverage for low-income people, seniors, children, and those with disabilities. It forms a significant segment of the U.S. health care landscape.

Because Medicaid payments are sourced from tax dollars, shifts in local billing figures highlight trends in how public health care funds are dispersed throughout a community.

The “Procedures / Professional Services” category covers a set of Medicaid-billed services grouped by type of care, using standardized HCPCS and CPT code ranges. For this overview, each code was assigned to one service category based on consistent numeric groupings, enabling analysis of related services and accurate tracking over time without duplication.

While multiple service categories experienced higher Medicaid expenditures, Procedures / Professional Services placed fourth in Bakersfield by overall Medicaid payments in 2024.

Statewide in California, Procedures / Professional Services ranked sixth in total Medicaid spending in 2024.

Medicaid payments for Procedures / Professional Services in Bakersfield rose by $45,876,860, or 395.3%, over the five years ending in 2024. Growth was especially strong in certain periods, including significant year-over-year jumps in 2022 and 2023.

Although funds for Procedures / Professional Services were distributed around the city, the majority went to a handful of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 93309 saw $22,945,275 in payments, ZIP code 93301 received $17,174,205, and ZIP code 93306 got $9,530,153. These top 3 ZIP codes represented 86.4% of all Medicaid payments for this category in Bakersfield for the year.

Within the Procedures / Professional Services group, payments were focused among a relatively small set of individual billing codes.

Bakersfield’s Medicaid payments for Procedures / Professional Services climbed 7.1% from 2023 to 2024. In comparison, overall Medicaid claims in the city increased by 6.2% during the same timeframe.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, federal and state Medicaid costs reached about $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, making up around 18% of national health spending, and rising notably from about $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This increase translates to roughly 40% growth over several years, driven mainly by rising enrollment and greater use of services during and after the pandemic.

Recent federal budget measures enacted under the Trump administration have featured proposals to cut federal Medicaid funding and alter the program’s structure. For instance, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” approved in 2025, is projected to reduce federal Medicaid spending by over $1 trillion over the next decade. It also introduces policies such as work requirements and higher cost-sharing, which could shrink both coverage and funding for certain enrollees, shifting costs to states and slowing federal support while Medicaid continues to serve 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.