Washington Medicaid outlays for ambulance and transport services climb to $95,319 in 2024

In 2024, providers in Washington billed $95,319 to Medicaid for services in the Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies category, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This was a 2.4% rise compared to 2023, when billings for these services totaled $93,079.

Medicaid, funded jointly by state and federal governments and administered by the states, insures low-income families and individuals, seniors, children, and people with disabilities. It is among the largest health care programs in the United States.

Because taxpayers fund Medicaid payments, shifts in local billing demonstrate how public health dollars are distributed within a community.

The “Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies” category includes services grouped by care type, classified under standardized HCPCS and CPT coding. In this review, each billing code was assigned to one service category using consistent code prefixes and ranges to group related services and ensure accurate tracking and rankings over time without duplication.

Medicaid spending increased in several service categories, but in 2024, Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies stood as the leading Medicaid spending category in Washington.

At the state level in Illinois, Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies was the second highest category by total Medicaid expenditures in 2024.

From 2019 to 2024, Medicaid spending on Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies in Washington rose by $67,264, or 239.8%. Certain periods saw especially notable increases, with sharp growth in both 2021 and 2022.

Payments for Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies were distributed citywide but were primarily concentrated in a small number of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 61571 logged the highest Medicaid payments at $95,318. The top ZIP code represented 100% of citywide Medicaid payments for the category that year.

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

Spending on Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies in Washington increased by 2.4% from 2023 to 2024, while the overall rise for all Medicaid claim categories in the city during the same timeframe was 2.7%.

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

This approximately 40% increase was primarily fueled by enrollment growth and higher service use during and after the pandemic.

Recent federal budget measures under the Trump administration introduced significant proposals to reduce federal funding for Medicaid and restructure the program. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, aims to cut more than $1 trillion from federal Medicaid spending over the next decade, adds work requirements, and increases cost-sharing—changes expected to limit funding and coverage for some recipients. These measures are poised to transfer greater funding responsibility to states and restrain federal support, even while Medicaid continues to cover many 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.