Medicaid spending on ambulance, transport services rises 86.5% to $169,878 in Claymont for 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Claymont submitted $169,878 in claims for the Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies category, data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database shows. This represents a rise of 86.5% from 2023, when providers billed $91,070 under the same service category.

Medicaid is a public health insurance initiative operated at the state level and funded by both federal and state governments. The program insures low-income individuals and families, seniors, children and people with disabilities, making it a central component of the U.S. health care landscape.

Because Medicaid is taxpayer funded, shifts in local billing activity reveal how public health care resources are allocated in different communities.

The “Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies” designation includes a range of Medicaid-billed services as defined by care type and consistent HCPCS and CPT code groupings. Each billing code was categorized into a single type using uniform prefixes and number ranges, facilitating category-based analysis while preventing double counting and supporting accurate historical ranking.

Despite growth in various Medicaid service categories, Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies held the fifth spot for total Medicaid payments in Claymont in 2024.

Statewide, the Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies category was ranked 11th in Delaware by total Medicaid payments for 2024.

Across the five years preceding 2024, Medicaid payments for the Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies category in Claymont rose by $134,446—an increase of 379.5%. Growth accelerated in select years, with especially strong year-over-year rises in 2020 and 2023.

Within Claymont, spending related to Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies was spread citywide but mainly concentrated within a small number of ZIP codes. In 2024, the largest Medicaid payments in this category came from ZIP code 19703, representing $169,877. Altogether, the top 1 ZIP code made up 100% of such Medicaid payments in the city that year.

For this service category, Medicaid spending clustered around only a few individual billing codes.

Comparatively, Medicaid payments in Claymont for this category grew 86.5% from 2023 to 2024, a steeper rise than the 10.9% increase seen across all Medicaid claim categories in the city during that period.

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

The increase represents an approximate 40% rise in just a few years, mainly due to expanded enrollment and increased use of services during and following the pandemic period.

Recent federal budget measures during the Trump administration have proposed major reductions to federal Medicaid funding and changes to the program’s structure. For instance, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed in 2025, is set to cut more than $1 trillion from federal Medicaid spending over the next decade, introducing policies such as work requirements and higher cost-sharing that may reduce coverage and federal funding for certain beneficiaries. These changes are likely to place more financial responsibility on states and limit the potential for federal Medicaid expansion, even as the program continues to provide coverage for 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.