Harrington sees 280% surge in Medicaid payments for ambulance and transport services in 2024

Harrington Medicaid providers billed $47,910 for Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies in 2024, based on data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This represents an increase of 279.9% from 2023, when $12,610 in claims were filed for the same service group.

Medicaid is a state-administered public health insurance program funded by both federal and state governments. It provides coverage for low-income individuals, families, seniors, children, and people with disabilities, making it one of the largest parts of the U.S. health care infrastructure.

Changes in local Medicaid billing patterns reflect how taxpayer-funded public health care dollars are spent in the community.

The “Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies” group covers a set of Medicaid services defined by specific care types, using standardized HCPCS and CPT code ranges. For this report, each code was classified into a single category according to code prefixes and number ranges, enabling analysis without double counting and maintaining precise year-over-year rankings.

Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies became the leading category by total Medicaid payments in Harrington in 2024, among multiple service areas with increased spending.

Statewide in Delaware, this category ranked 11th for Medicaid payments in 2024.

Between 2020 and 2024, Harrington’s Medicaid payments for Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies rose by $19,881, or 70.9%. Certain periods, such as 2020 and 2022, saw steeper annual increases in spending.

Although spending in this category was seen across Harrington, payment totals were most pronounced in select ZIP codes. For 2024, the ZIP code 19952 received $47,910 in Medicaid payments for this service category, making up 100% of Harrington’s total for the year.

Medicaid support for this category was also concentrated in a limited set of individual billing codes.

Compared to a 20.3% rise for all Medicaid claim categories in Harrington over the same time frame, Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies payments alone recorded a 279.9% year-over-year jump from 2023 to 2024.

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

This reflects growth of about 40% in a few years, fueled largely by an expansion in enrollment and greater service use during and after the pandemic.

Recent federal budget laws enacted during the Trump administration included large proposals to reduce federal Medicaid spending and revise program structure. For instance, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed into law in 2025, is expected to reduce federal Medicaid spending by over $1 trillion over the next 10 years, introducing work requirements and higher cost-sharing that are likely to lower benefits and funding for certain participants. These changes are set to shift higher costs to states and curb the growth of federal Medicaid assistance, even as the program covers tens of millions nationally.

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.