Hastings reports at least $176 in Medicaid claims for COVID-19 services in 2024

In 2024, Hastings registered at least $176 in Medicaid expenditures for services billed with HCPCS codes specifically designating COVID-19, based on information from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database.

Medicaid, funded jointly by federal and state governments and administered by the states, covers a range of groups including low-income families, older adults, children, and individuals with disabilities. This makes it a major component of the American health care system. More details are available from the Commonwealth Fund.

Because taxpayer money supports Medicaid, shifts in billing at the community level highlight how public health funds are distributed locally.

For this report, analysts identified COVID-19–related Medicaid claims by referencing HCPCS codes described or classified as “COVID-19” or related terms in either billing or reference data. The resulting numbers represent claimed services labeled as COVID-specific, but do not account for broader care delivered during the pandemic that could appear under other code groups.

As a basis of comparison, Medicaid claims for COVID-19 related services in Minneapolis reached $269,940, representing the highest total in Minnesota for 2024.

Data shows that Allina Health System was the sole provider submitting COVID-19–specific Medicaid claim activity within Hastings in 2024.

During the pandemic period, Medicaid spending dedicated to COVID-19-related services accounted for a significant part of Hastings’ Medicaid cost increase.

Across the two years leading up to the pandemic, Hastings averaged annual Medicaid payments of $2,816,348.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, federal and state Medicaid spending combined totaled about $871.7 billion for fiscal year 2023, representing roughly 18% of U.S. health expenditures. This was a significant rise from $613.5 billion in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This change marks a jump of around 40% in a span of several years, largely as a result of enrollment growth and greater service usage during and following the pandemic.

Recent congressional budget measures signed during the Trump administration introduced major changes for Medicaid, including efforts to scale back federal spending and modify the program’s structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is expected to cut federal Medicaid spending by over $1 trillion over the next 10 years. Provisions such as new work requirements and added cost-sharing could result in fewer covered individuals and reduced funding, potentially shifting a greater share of financial responsibility to individual states. Despite these adjustments, Medicaid continues to serve millions nationwide.

Note: The data includes only those HCPCS codes specifically attributed to COVID-19 services and does not reflect the entirety of health care expenditures influenced by the pandemic.

Data for this article comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. The original dataset is available here.