Baker Medicaid billing for ambulance and transport services reaches $183,510 in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Baker submitted claims totaling $183,510 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 show. This amount reflects a 91.1% gain compared with 2023, when $96,022 in claims were submitted in the same category.

Medicaid is a state-managed public health insurance initiative financed jointly by state and federal governments. The program provides health coverage to low-income Americans, including families, children, seniors, and those with disabilities, remaining among the largest components of the U.S. health system.

Since Medicaid funding is derived from taxpayer dollars, shifts in billing at the local level indicate how community health care funds are distributed.

The “Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies” grouping encompasses specific Medicaid service codes classified by type of care provided, which follow standardized HCPCS and CPT code frameworks. For this review, billing codes were consistently assigned to categories according to code prefixes and numerical ranges to evaluate related services as a group while avoiding double counting and ensuring ranking accuracy over time.

Even though overall Medicaid expenditures rose in several categories, Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies ranked as the fifth highest by total Medicaid reimbursements in Baker for 2024.

Statewide in Louisiana, Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies also stood as the fifth-largest Medicaid payment category for 2024.

From five years before 2024, Medicaid reimbursements in this category in Baker climbed by $183,510, or 0%. Growth trends accelerated at certain points, with particularly large year-to-year increases noted in 2022 and 2023.

Although care spending was dispersed throughout Baker, most Medicaid payments in this category came from a small cluster of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 70714 accounted for $183,510 in payments, representing 100% of claims in this category across the city that year.

A small selection of individual billing codes made up the bulk of Medicaid payments within the Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies grouping.

Comparing the 91.1% increase for this category in Baker between 2024 and 2023 with the citywide rise of 15.7% across all Medicaid claim categories during the same span highlights the category’s significant growth.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined federal and state spending on Medicaid reached approximately $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, making up around 18% of national health expenses. This was up sharply from roughly $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This increase amounts to about 40% growth over several years and is attributed chiefly to higher enrollment and greater utilization during and after the pandemic period.

Federal budget actions under the Trump administration have incorporated broad proposals aimed at reducing Medicaid’s federal funding and changing its structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is set to cut federal Medicaid outlays by more than $1 trillion over a decade. It also introduces policies such as work requirements and increased cost-sharing, potentially decreasing benefits and federal assistance for some enrollees. These measures are expected to shift greater costs to states while slowing federal Medicaid funding growth, though the program continues to cover tens of millions nationwide.

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.