Who Made the Most Money During COVID?
We compared every provider's pre-pandemic billing (2019) to their post-pandemic peak (2021). Some increases are legitimate. Others raise serious questions.
Key Findings
- ▸City of Chicago: $23M → $240M (+942%) — the single largest percentage jump among major billers
- ▸Consumer Direct Care Network Virginia: $0 → $2.1B — didn't exist before 2020
- ▸COVID testing code U0003 generated $3.9B in total Medicaid payments
- ▸46 new Arizona providers appeared post-pandemic and immediately billed $800M+ combined
The COVID-19 pandemic didn't just change healthcare — it reshaped how money flows through Medicaid. Some providers saw their billing explode by hundreds or thousands of percent. While some growth is expected (telehealth expansion, testing, vaccines), the scale of certain increases demands scrutiny.
The City of Chicago: $23M to $240M
The City of Chicago's Medicaid billing jumped 942% during the pandemic — from $23 million to $240 million. That's a $217 million increase. What was the city billing for? Our data shows this NPI is associated with ambulance services, where Chicago charges $1,611 per transport vs a national median of $163.
Freedom Care LLC in New York, a consumer-directed personal care agency, grew from $169M to $380M (+125%). Consumer Direct Care Network similarly jumped from $150M to $323M. These are home care providers that expanded dramatically as demand for in-home services surged during lockdowns.
Context matters
The pandemic was a gold rush for Medicaid billers. Some increases were legitimate — telehealth expansion, COVID testing infrastructure, home health demand. But the government essentially wrote a blank check with minimal oversight, and the data shows that many providers took full advantage. Increases concentrated in a single billing code or with unusual per-claim costs deserve serious scrutiny.
Top 100 Pandemic Billing Jumps
Key Takeaways
- ▸The City of Chicago's Medicaid billing jumped 942% ($23M → $240M), linked to ambulance services charging 10x the national median.
- ▸Home care agencies (Freedom Care, Consumer Direct) saw 100%+ growth as in-home care demand surged during lockdowns.
- ▸Some growth is legitimate (telehealth, testing, vaccines), but extreme single-code concentration or unusual per-claim costs warrant investigation.
Source: HHS Medicaid Provider Spending Data (2018–2024) · 227M records
Frequently Asked Questions
How much did COVID inflate Medicaid billing?
Some providers saw billing increases exceeding 900% during the pandemic. Chicago-area providers collectively jumped from $23 million to $240 million — a 942% surge.
Which provider had the biggest pandemic billing jump?
One provider went from $0 in pre-pandemic Medicaid billing to $2.1 billion during COVID — an entity that essentially didn't exist before the pandemic created billing opportunities.
How did pandemic policies enable billing fraud?
Continuous enrollment requirements, telehealth expansion, and emergency provider enrollment relaxations removed normal guardrails, allowing both legitimate growth and fraudulent exploitation.