Medicaid spending on durable medical equipment rises to $322,660 in Albany for 2024

Albany Medicaid providers billed a total of $322,660 for Durable Medical Equipment services in 2024, as reported in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This represented a 25.5% increase from 2023, when $257,012 was billed for this category of care.

Medicaid is a public health insurance initiative managed by states and financed through a partnership of federal and state governments. It provides coverage for low-income individuals and families, seniors, children and people with disabilities, making it one of the largest components of the U.S. health care sector.

Since Medicaid payments are sourced from taxpayers, fluctuations in billing reflect how public dollars for health care are distributed within a community.

The “Durable Medical Equipment” grouping represents Medicaid services categorized by the type of care, structured by specific HCPCS and CPT code groupings. In this analysis, each code was designated to a single service grouping using consistent prefixes and numeric ranges. This ensured similar services were reviewed together and prevented overlapping counts, supporting consistent rankings.

Even as Medicaid expenditures grew in multiple categories, Durable Medical Equipment placed 13th in Albany by total Medicaid payments for 2024.

Across New York, Durable Medical Equipment ranked 15th statewide for total Medicaid payments that year.

From five years prior to 2024, Medicaid expenses related to Durable Medical Equipment in Albany increased by $182,266, or 129.8%. There were periods of accelerated spending growth, notably with significant year-over-year increases in both 2021 and 2022.

While Durable Medical Equipment spending occurred across Albany, it was primarily concentrated in a small number of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 12205 accounted for $322,660 in Medicaid spending for this category. This ZIP code represented 100% of all Medicaid payments tied to Durable Medical Equipment within the city for the year.

Within the category, Medicaid disbursements were focused on a few key billing codes.

Medicaid payments for Durable Medical Equipment in Albany climbed 25.5% between 2024 and 2023, compared to a 21.6% rise across all Medicaid claim categories in Albany in the same period.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined state and federal spending on Medicaid reached about $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, making up around 18% of total national health expenditures—sharply higher than the approximately $613.5 billion recorded in 2019, before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This increase amounts to roughly 40% in just a few years, primarily attributed to expanded Medicaid enrollment and increased utilization during and in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Legislation enacted under President Trump’s administration has introduced major changes to the federal Medicaid program and its funding. For instance, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed in 2025, is set to cut more than $1 trillion in federal Medicaid spending over the next decade, adding provisions like work requirements and higher cost-sharing that may limit coverage and funding for certain groups. These moves are expected to lead to greater state responsibility for Medicaid costs, constraining federal funding growth even as the program continues to support 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.