Vision Services Medicaid expenses rise 4.6% to $10,891 in Lackawanna for 2024

In 2024, claims submitted by Medicaid providers in Lackawanna for services grouped under the Vision Services category totaled $10,891, figures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database show. The amount is an increase of 4.6% compared with 2023, when providers billed $10,408 for similar services.

Medicaid is a public health insurance program, managed at the state level with joint funding from both federal and state sources. It provides health coverage to lower-income individuals and families, as well as seniors, children, and people with disabilities, making it a major segment of the U.S. health care system.

Changes in Medicaid billing at the local level indicate shifts in the use of public health dollars within each community, as those dollars are sourced from taxpayers.

The “Vision Services” grouping is comprised of Medicaid-billed care based on specific standardized HCPCS and CPT codes. For reporting purposes, each code was mapped to a single service type, using uniform prefixes and numeric values, allowing categorical spending to be tracked consistently from year to year while preventing overlap or miscounting.

Vision Services was the fourth highest category in Lackawanna for total Medicaid payments reported in 2024, despite overall spending increases also appearing in multiple other service areas.

For context, Vision Services ranked 18th across the state in New York for total Medicaid payments that year.

From the start of the five-year period through 2024, there was a $7,250, or 199.1%, increase in Medicaid payments for Vision Services in Lackawanna. Prior years, particularly 2020 and 2021, saw some of the sharpest year-to-year increases in claims for this care category.

While residents citywide accessed Vision Services, examples of concentrations can be seen by ZIP code. For 2024, all Medicaid payments for Vision Services in the city were associated with ZIP code 14218, totaling $10,891. That area represented 100% of such Medicaid payments in Lackawanna that year.

Additionally, the majority of local Medicaid spending within Vision Services occurred in only a handful of individual billing codes in 2024.

Looking solely at Lackawanna, spending tied to Vision Services grew by 4.6% from 2023 to 2024. By comparison, the total value of all Medicaid claims in the city saw a 38.1% change over the same timeframe.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, total federal and state Medicaid spending reached roughly $871.7 billion during fiscal year 2023 and made up about 18% of all national health expenditures—well above the approximately $613.5 billion level before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019.

Medicaid outlays have grown by about 40% in just a few years, mainly driven by larger program enrollment and greater demand for services during and following the pandemic period.

Recent federal budget measures, approved under the Trump administration, have contained key proposals to cut federal Medicaid contributions and revise underlying program rules. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is projected to reduce federal Medicaid funding by more than $1 trillion over a decade. Its changes—including work requirements and greater cost responsibilities for some—could result in decreased coverage and spending for certain recipients. If implemented as expected, these proposals would move more costs to state governments and restrain the growth of federal Medicaid support, even as millions continue to use the program nationwide.

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.