Plumsteadville Medicaid payments for ambulance and transport services surged to $29,634 in 2024

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database, Medicaid providers in Plumsteadville reported $29,634 in billings for Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies in 2024. This represents a 270.4% rise from 2023, when providers billed $8,000 for the same service category.

Medicaid is a state-administered public health insurance program financed by both federal and state governments. The program insures low-income people and families, seniors, children, and people with disabilities, and is a major component of the U.S. health system.

Because Medicaid is funded by taxpayers, fluctuations in local billing reflect how public health care funding is directed at the community level.

The “Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies” classification includes Medicaid-billed services based on the nature of care provided, using standard HCPCS and CPT code groupings. For this review, each billing code was assigned to a single category through uniform code prefixes and numeric ranges, ensuring related services were grouped without double counting and allowing for precise ranking comparisons over time.

While overall Medicaid outlays grew across several categories, Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies led Plumsteadville in total Medicaid payments in 2024.

Statewide in Pennsylvania, Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies ranked sixth among all Medicaid payment categories during 2024.

Over the previous five years through 2024, Medicaid payments for Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies in Plumsteadville rose by $24,534, or 481.1%. Certain periods saw more rapid growth, including significant increases in both 2021 and 2023.

Spending for this category was distributed throughout the city, but most payments were focused within a small set of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 18949 accounted for $29,633 in Medicaid payments for Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies. The top ZIP code comprised 100% of the category’s Medicaid payments in Plumsteadville that year.

Payments within the Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies group concentrated on a few primary billing codes.

For context, the 270.4% year-over-year increase for this category outpaced the 25.9% overall rise in Medicaid payments for all claim types in Plumsteadville during the same period.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined state and federal Medicaid spending totaled about $871.7 billion in the 2023 fiscal year, representing roughly 18% of all national health expenditures, sharply up from about $613.5 billion in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This increase totals about 40% over a few years, largely due to greater enrollment and usage in and after the pandemic period.

Recent federal budgets passed during the Trump administration included significant Medicaid funding reduction proposals and program restructuring. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is expected to reduce over $1 trillion in federal Medicaid outlays over 10 years and brings new policies including work requirements and more cost-sharing, potentially decreasing coverage and funding for some participants. This shift could place more fiscal responsibility on states and slow federal support growth, even as the program continues to cover tens of millions of Americans.

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.