Patterson Medicaid spending on ambulance, transport services rises to $69,577 in 2024

Providers serving Medicaid beneficiaries in Patterson submitted $69,577 in 2024 for Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This amount represented a 37.5% uptick from 2023, when claims for this service category totaled $50,586.

Medicaid, a public health insurance program managed at the state level and jointly financed by state and federal sources, provides coverage to low-income individuals and families, older adults, children, and people with disabilities. It is one of the largest segments of the U.S. health care landscape. More information is available from the Commonwealth Fund.

Since Medicaid funds are sourced from taxpayers, a shift in billing patterns at the community level offers insight into how public health care resources are distributed locally.

The “Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies” grouping includes a set of Medicaid-billed services identified by the specific care provided, using standard HCPCS and CPT code classifications. For this evaluation, each billing code was mapped to a distinct service grouping by utilizing consistent code prefixes and numeric intervals, which enabled aggregation of related services and accurate annual ranking.

While overall Medicaid spending grew across various service types, Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies was the third-largest category in Patterson by payment volume in 2024.

Statewide in New York, Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies placed eighth by total Medicaid payments for 2024.

Reviewing the five-year span through 2024, Medicaid expenditures for Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies in Patterson rose by $44,163, or 173.8%. There were significant jumps in certain years, most notably in 2020 and 2023.

Although spending in this category occurred throughout Patterson, the majority of payments were concentrated in a small number of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 12563 alone received $69,577 in Medicaid payments for Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies, accounting for 100% of such payments in the city that year.

A limited set of billing codes drove the bulk of Medicaid payments in this service category.

When compared with other services in Patterson, the 37.5% increase in Medicaid payments to Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies between 2024 and 2023 was much less than the 1938.9% increase seen across all Medicaid claim categories during this period.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, state and federal Medicaid spending reached about $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, making up approximately 18% of national health spending. That figure is up substantially from $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

This represents about 40% growth in just a few years, attributed largely to greater enrollment and increased usage during and after the pandemic.

Recent federal budget legislation under the Trump administration has introduced proposals to limit federal Medicaid contributions and change the program structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed in 2025, is expected to cut more than $1 trillion in federal Medicaid funds over 10 years and implements measures like work requirements and raised cost-sharing, potentially reducing assistance and resources for some recipients. Such changes are projected to shift greater financial responsibility to states and may curtail increases in federal Medicaid funding, even as millions of Americans remain covered by the program.

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.