Torrance Medicaid spending for pathology and lab services reached $18,325,656 in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Torrance billed $18,325,656 for Pathology and Laboratory Procedures services, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending data shows. This amount represented a substantial increase of 479.2%, compared to $3,163,747 in claims for these services in 2023.

Medicaid operates as a public health insurance program managed by states and funded jointly by federal and state governments. It provides coverage for low-income people and families, seniors, children, and individuals with disabilities, making it among the largest pieces of the U.S. health system.

Because Medicaid payments draw from taxpayer funds, changes to billing levels at the local level reflect how health care resources are distributed in a community.

The “Pathology and Laboratory Procedures” category represents Medicaid-billed services grouped by the type of care, using standardized HCPCS and CPT codes. For this review, service categories were determined based on consistent code prefixes and number ranges, ensuring similar services were analyzed together without duplicate counting for clear ranking year to year.

Pathology and Laboratory Procedures was the third largest Medicaid payment category in Torrance in 2024, as spending rose across a range of medical service types.

Statewide in California, the Pathology and Laboratory Procedures classification ranked fifth for total Medicaid payments in 2024.

Torrance Medicaid spending for these services grew by $16,910,108, or 1194.6%, over the five years prior to 2024. Increases accelerated in some years, with significant gains reported in 2023 and 2022.

Although Medicaid-funded service use in this category could be found throughout Torrance, certain ZIP codes concentrated payments. ZIP code 90501 accounted for $16,820,653 in 2024, while 90503 totaled $1,107,342, and 90505 registered $386,259. Altogether, these top 3 ZIP codes made up 99.9% of all Medicaid payments for this category in the city that year.

Only a limited set of individual billing codes accounted for most Medicaid payments within the Pathology and Laboratory Procedures category.

To compare, Medicaid payments associated with this category in Torrance surged 479.2% from 2023 to 2024, while claims across all Medicaid categories rose just 3.9% during that same span.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined federal and state Medicaid expenditures reached about $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023. Medicaid made up roughly 18% of overall U.S. health costs—an increase from about $613.5 billion in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This change amounts to growth of around 40% in a handful of years, primarily driven by expanded enrollment and greater service use during and after the pandemic.

Recent federal legislation during the Trump administration introduced measures aimed at reducing Medicaid’s federal funding and overhauling aspects of the program. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” for example, became law in 2025, projecting more than $1 trillion in federal spending cuts across the decade. The law put new requirements like work rules and higher cost-sharing into place, changes that may affect coverage and funding for specific people. Experts expect budgets to shift more burden onto states and slow the growth of federal Medicaid support, even while still covering tens of millions.

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.