Camden sees 13.6% rise in Medicaid spending for pathology and laboratory procedures, reaching $92,549 in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers billed $92,549 for Pathology and Laboratory Procedures services in Camden, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This amount represents a 13.6% uptick compared with 2023 when these providers billed $81,458 for the same services.

Medicaid, funded collectively by federal and state governments but administered by the states, provides coverage for low-income individuals, families, seniors, children, and people with disabilities. The program is among the largest elements of the health care system in the U.S.

Since Medicaid payments depend on taxpayer funds, local billing trends highlight how public health care spending is distributed within a community.

The “Pathology and Laboratory Procedures” category groups Medicaid-billed services according to the clinical nature of care, using HCPCS and CPT code collections. In this study, each code was mapped to a single service group using consistent prefixes and code ranges, ensuring related procedures could be tracked without duplication and providing accurate standings over time.

Spending grew in several Medicaid service categories, with Pathology and Laboratory Procedures third-highest in Camden for total Medicaid payments in 2024.

Statewide in Tennessee, payments for Pathology and Laboratory Procedures ranked sixth among Medicaid categories in 2024 by dollar amount.

Over the five-year period before 2024, Camden’s Medicaid payments for Pathology and Laboratory Procedures rose by $60,906—a 192.5% increase. Certain intervals saw sharp gains, particularly in 2022 and 2021.

Although care payments under this category were distributed citywide, the majority were paid within a small subset of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 38320 saw the largest amount, $92,548. That area comprised 100% of all city Medicaid payments for this category that year.

Within Pathology and Laboratory Procedures, payments were further concentrated among a relatively small group of billing codes.

In Camden, while Medicaid payments for Pathology and Laboratory Procedures climbed by 13.6% between 2024 and 2023, the increase across all categories in the city during the same timeframe was 71.1%.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reports that combined federal and state Medicaid expenditures reached roughly $871.7 billion in fiscal 2023. That represented about 18% of national health spending, up from approximately $613.5 billion in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 crisis.

This signifies about 40% growth in just a few years, driven mainly by rising enrollment and greater service utilization through the pandemic period and beyond.

Recent federal legislation passed during the Trump administration introduced major proposals to curtail federal Medicaid outlays and revamp the program’s structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed in 2025, is expected to reduce federal Medicaid funding by more than $1 trillion over the next 10 years, implementing changes like work requirements and higher cost-sharing. These measures could limit coverage for certain individuals and push more funding responsibility to states, even as the program continues to support millions.

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.