Cresson Medicaid expenditures on ambulance and transport services rise to $135,251 in 2024

In 2024, providers in Cresson billed $135,251 to Medicaid for Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies, based on U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending data. This amount represents a 112.1% rise over 2023, when $63,769 in claims were submitted under the same service group.

Medicaid, which is administered by the states and funded by both federal and state governments, insures low-income individuals and families, children, seniors, and those with disabilities, and is a core part of the U.S. health system.

Because taxpayer funding supports Medicaid, local changes in billing amounts reflect how a community’s health care funding is distributed.

The Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies category includes services grouped according to care type, using standardized HCPCS and CPT code clusters. For this analysis, each billing code was assigned to a single service category using established prefixes and number ranges to ensure comparisons and rankings remained consistent and double counting was avoided.

Of all service categories analyzed, Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies had the highest total Medicaid payments in Cresson in 2024.

Statewide in Pennsylvania, Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies ranked sixth by total Medicaid payments in 2024.

From five years prior to 2024, Medicaid payments within this category in Cresson climbed $121,664, or 895.4%. Growth rates accelerated at certain times, including notable jumps in 2021 and 2023.

Spending on these services occurred throughout Cresson, but payments were mostly concentrated in a small number of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 16630 accounted for $135,251 in payments, with this single area making up 100% of Cresson’s Medicaid payments for the category during the year.

Within the Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies category, Medicaid spending was concentrated among just a few specific billing codes.

Comparatively, Medicaid payments in this category in Cresson saw a 112.1% increase between 2024 and 2023, while total Medicaid claim categories citywide changed by 101.8% over the same time span.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data shows combined federal and state Medicaid expenditures reached $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, comprising about 18% of all U.S. health spending—a sharp rise from $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This growth represents an increase of about 40% in a few years, driven principally by greater enrollment and service use associated with the pandemic period and its aftermath.

Federal budget laws passed during the Trump administration included significant proposed reductions to federal Medicaid funding and program restructuring. For instance, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is projected to decrease federal Medicaid spending by more than $1 trillion over the next ten years and to implement policies such as work requirements and expanded cost-sharing, potentially reducing coverage and funding for select groups. These changes are expected to shift more financial responsibility to states and limit federal Medicaid growth, even as the program remains vital 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.