Jerome sees $562 in Medicaid claims for COVID-19 services in 2024

In 2024, Jerome Medicaid providers claimed at least $562 under HCPCS codes directly associated with COVID-19, data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database shows.

Medicaid, a health insurance program jointly funded by state and federal governments, serves low-income residents, families, children, seniors, and people with disabilities, and remains a core component of the U.S. health care system.

Shifts in local Medicaid billing reflect how taxpayer-funded health care dollars are distributed within a community.

For this report, services classified as COVID-19–related were those identified with HCPCS codes featuring “COVID-19” or “coronavirus” keywords in billing descriptions or reference lists. As such, these findings include only those procedures distinctly labeled as COVID-related at the code level and exclude COVID-linked care billed under more general or varied codes.

Garden City, by comparison, registered the highest total for COVID-related Medicaid payments in Idaho for 2024, reaching $60,366 in such claims.

Urgent Care Of Idaho, LLC was the sole provider in Jerome filing Medicaid claims for COVID-19–specific services throughout 2024, according to the data.

Other Medicaid payment categories in Jerome rose by $329,771 from 2020 to 2024, marking a 17.4% growth.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services report combined federal and state outlays for Medicaid reached about $871.7 billion in fiscal 2023, roughly 18% of overall U.S. health expenditures, up from about $613.5 billion in 2019 before the COVID-19 crisis.

This uptick represents nearly 40% growth over several years, much of it attributable to higher enrollment and increased medical utilization during and following the pandemic.

Recent budget measures passed during the Trump administration proposed major modifications to federal Medicaid funding and the program’s structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, aims to reduce federal Medicaid spending by over $1 trillion in the next decade and implements work requirements and higher out-of-pocket costs for some beneficiaries. These policy changes could press states to absorb more Medicaid costs and curb federal funding growth, while Medicaid continues to support tens of millions of Americans.

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

Reporting for this article relied on data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. The dataset is available here.