Medicaid payments for Surgery services in Ridgely rise to $163 in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Ridgely billed $163 for Surgery services, based on data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This marks a 196.4% increase from 2023, when billing for these services totaled $55.

Medicaid, a public health insurance program operated by states with joint federal and state funding, covers low-income adults and children, seniors, and people with disabilities. It is among the largest parts of the U.S. health care system, as explained by the Commonwealth Fund.

Since Medicaid payments rely on public funds, changes in local billing highlight how health care dollars are being spent in each community.

The “Surgery” category consists of services billed to Medicaid according to their care type, organized by standardized HCPCS and CPT code groupings. Codes are assigned to defined service categories using set code prefixes and numerical ranges. This approach enables comparisons of related services, avoids duplicate counting, and maintains accuracy in historical rankings.

While several Medicaid service categories recorded payment increases, Surgery was the second-largest category by total Medicaid disbursements in Ridgely for 2024.

Statewide in Tennessee, the Surgery category ranked 10th for total Medicaid payments in 2024.

Looking at the five-year period before 2024, Medicaid payments in Ridgely for the Surgery category grew by $32, or 16.4%. Spending climbed faster in some years, especially with notable increases from 2022 and 2023.

Despite covering a range of locations, Surgery-related Medicaid payments were concentrated in a handful of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 38080 accounted for $162, representing 99.7% of all Surgery category Medicaid payments in Ridgely.

Medicaid disbursements in the Surgery category were further focused on just a few specific billing codes.

For further context, the 196.4% increase in Surgery category Medicaid payments in Ridgely between 2023 and 2024 contrasts with a 34.6% change seen across all Medicaid categories during the same period in the city.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined federal and state Medicaid outlays reached approximately $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, which is about 18% of all national health care costs. This figure is a steep rise from $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This represents a roughly 40% increase within just a few years, driven by elevated enrollment and greater utilization during and following the pandemic period.

Recent federal budget measures under the Trump administration have brought forward proposals that would reduce federal Medicaid spending and make program changes. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed in 2025, is projected to decrease federal Medicaid spending by over $1 trillion in the next decade. The law strengthens work requirements and higher out-of-pocket costs, which may decrease coverage and funds for some recipients. Effects are expected to shift more costs to states and restrict increases in federal Medicaid allocations, even as the program continues to cover 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.