Guilderland Medicaid spending on ambulance and transport services increases 14% in 2024

Guilderland Medicaid providers billed $279,205 in 2024 for services classified under 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 represented a 14% increase from 2023, when claims for these services totaled $244,831.

Medicaid is a public health insurance program administered by states and supported by both federal and state governments. Its coverage extends to low-income individuals and families, seniors, children, and people with disabilities, making it one of the largest segments of the U.S. health care landscape.

Taxpayer funding for Medicaid means shifts in local billing can reflect how communities use public health care dollars.

The “Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies” classification groups services delivered under Medicaid, organized by HCPCS and CPT code sets. For this report, each billing code was included within one service category using consistent coding prefixes and numbers. This approach enables similar services to be reviewed together, avoids duplicative counts, and maintains accurate rankings over time.

Among all service categories, Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies led in Guilderland by total Medicaid payments in 2024.

Statewide in New York, this category held the eighth position for Medicaid payment totals in 2024.

During the five years up to 2024, Guilderland’s Medicaid payments linked to Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies grew by $176,930, or 173%. Notable growth occurred during specific periods, including significant annual gains in 2021 and 2022.

Although these payments were distributed throughout Guilderland, most were concentrated within a small number of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 12084 accounted for $279,205 in Medicaid payments for these transportation services. Taken together, the top 1 ZIP codes comprised 100% of associated Medicaid spending in Guilderland that year.

Payments within this category were also concentrated among a small group of specific billing codes.

Comparing categories, Medicaid payments for Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies increased by 14% in Guilderland from 2023 to 2024, while all Medicaid claim categories combined rose by 23.6% in the city over the same timeframe.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined federal and state Medicaid expenditures reached approximately $871.7 billion for fiscal year 2023, making up about 18% of total national health care spending, which is up considerably from $613.5 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This increase equals roughly 40% growth in just a few years, largely attributed to expanded enrollment and higher program utilization during and following the pandemic.

Recent federal budget measures enacted under the Trump administration have incorporated substantial proposals to scale back federal Medicaid funding and redesign the program. As an example, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed into law in 2025, is set to reduce federal Medicaid expenditures by more than $1 trillion over 10 years and adds provisions like work requirements and increased cost-sharing, which could curtail benefits and funding for some recipients. These adjustments are expected to place more financial responsibility on states while limiting the rate of federal support, even as Medicaid continues to cover tens of millions nationwide.

Note: HCPCS codes are displayed for category context. Totals and rankings in this article reflect standardized groupings by service rather than individual codes.

Details for this article were gathered from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. Source data is available here.