Newport Beach Medicaid providers billed $606,949 for COVID-19 care in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Newport Beach submitted claims totaling at least $606,949 for health care services classified under HCPCS codes associated with COVID-19, based on data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database.

Medicaid operates as a state-administered public health insurance program with combined funding from federal and state sources. Covering low-income families and individuals, seniors, children, and people with disabilities, it forms one of the largest segments of the U.S. health care system. More information can be found through the Commonwealth Fund.

As Medicaid spending relies on taxpayer dollars, changes in local claims provide a picture of how community funds are directed toward public health care.

This assessment identified COVID-19–specific services by targeting HCPCS billing codes marked as “COVID-19” or “coronavirus”-related in claims descriptions or analytic reference lists. Therefore, the overall totals in the figures represent strictly COVID-labeled billing and exclude health care targeted more broadly under other code categories.

San Jose, for comparison, had the highest Medicaid COVID-related billing for services in California for 2024, with cumulative claims reaching $5,601,479.

In Newport Beach, five Medicaid providers filed COVID-19–related claims in 2024. The code labeled COVID Specific made up the bulk of this billing at $427,780.

The average Medicaid billing per provider in Newport Beach for COVID-19–associated services was $121,390, higher than California’s average of $52,976 per provider.

COVID-19–labeled services contributed heavily to Medicaid payment growth in Newport Beach during the pandemic period.

Across other categories of Medicaid claims, payments jumped by $20,616,011 from 2020 to 2024, for a growth rate of 135.3%.

In the two years ahead of the pandemic, annual Medicaid payments in Newport Beach averaged $12,084,715.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, total spending by federal and state governments on Medicaid was approximately $871.7 billion for fiscal year 2023, which represented about 18% of U.S. health expenditures nationally. That’s a significant rise from $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak began.

This marks an increase of about 40% over just a few years, mainly due to expanded program enrollment and greater service use during and following the pandemic.

Recent federal legislative actions during the Trump administration contain major plans to decrease federal Medicaid funding and alter the program’s structure. For example, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed in 2025, is expected to trim federal Medicaid expenditures by more than $1 trillion in the next 10 years, and introduces new policies like work requirements and higher cost-sharing. These changes could mean reduced coverage and additional funding responsibilities for states, even as Medicaid continues supporting millions nationwide.

Note: Includes HCPCS codes explicitly labeled for COVID-19 services; totals do not represent all pandemic-related health care spending.

This report uses information from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. Source data are available here.