Medicaid spending for Chemotherapy Drugs in North Carolina climbs 73% in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid payments in North Carolina reached $89,630 for services within the Chemotherapy Drugs category, data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database shows. This represents a 72.7% rise from 2023, when claims for these services totaled $51,908.

Medicaid is a public health insurance program administered by states and jointly funded by federal and state governments. It provides coverage for low-income people and families, seniors, children, and individuals with disabilities, making it a major component of the U.S. health care system.

As Medicaid is funded by taxpayers, shifts in billing within a community reflect how public health care dollars are distributed locally.

The “Chemotherapy Drugs” category encompasses a group of services billed to Medicaid as defined by type of care, based on standard HCPCS and CPT code groupings. For the purposes of this report, every billing code was linked to a single service category using consistent code prefixes and numeric ranges. This approach ensures related services are grouped together, avoids double counting, and maintains accurate rankings over time.

Some categories include several types of related underlying services. When that is the case, the category covers associated care routinely billed together in Medicaid, such as office visits, diagnostic tests, and therapeutic procedures.

During the five years prior to 2024, Medicaid payments for the Chemotherapy Drugs category in North Carolina increased by $61,863, or 222.8%. Growth in spending accelerated during certain years, especially in 2021 and 2022.

The distribution of spending on Chemotherapy Drugs services was seen statewide, though the majority of payments occurred in a few ZIP codes. In 2024, the highest Medicaid payments in this category were in ZIP Code 28387 with $25,362 (28.3% of the total), ZIP Code 27609 with $25,047 (27.9%), and ZIP Code 28803, which logged $13,384 (14.9%).

Together, these top three ZIP codes made up 71.2% of all Medicaid payments for Chemotherapy Drugs throughout the state in 2024.

By comparison, overall Medicaid payments across all claim categories in North Carolina rose 3.2% between 2023 and 2024.

Even as Medicaid payments increased across a number of service categories, Chemotherapy Drugs ranked among the top 27 Medicaid service categories statewide in 2024.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined federal and state Medicaid spending reached about $871.7 billion in fiscal 2023, which was approximately 18% of the nation’s total health expenditures and an increase from $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This growth represents an increase of around 40% over a few years, primarily due to expanded enrollment and higher program usage during and after the pandemic.

Recent federal budget measures passed during the Trump administration included major proposals to decrease federal Medicaid funding and alter the program’s structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is expected to reduce federal Medicaid spending by over $1 trillion over 10 years and introduces policies such as work requirements and increased cost-sharing, which could reduce coverage and funding for some enrollees. These changes are likely to shift more financial responsibility to states and may slow the growth of federal support for Medicaid even as the program covers tens of millions of Americans.