Worthington Medicaid providers submitted $315 in claims for services in the Surgery category in 2024, data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database show. This represents a 542.9% spike compared with 2023, when claims for the same category totaled $49.
Medicaid is a public health insurance program administered by state governments and funded in partnership with the federal government. It insures low-income adults and families, children, older adults and individuals with disabilities, making it one of the nation’s most significant healthcare programs.
As Medicaid payments come from public funds, shifts in billing levels locally illustrate how taxpayer health dollars are distributed within a community.
The Surgery category includes a defined set of Medicaid-billed services classified according to standardized HCPCS and CPT code groupings. For the purpose of this report, each billing code is assigned to a single service group using uniform code prefixes and number ranges, grouping similar services and avoiding duplication, which helps maintain accurate rankings through the years.
Medicaid expenses rose in several service categories, but Surgery ranked fourth in Worthington by total payments in 2024.
Statewide, Surgery was the 10th largest Medicaid service by total payments in Indiana in 2024.
Between 2019 and 2024, Medicaid spending on the Surgery category grew by $23, or 8%, in Worthington. The rate of growth picked up in some years, with significant year-over-year gains posted in 2020 and 2021.
While Medicaid surgery-related spending was observed citywide, most payments for the category were concentrated within a handful of ZIP codes. The top ZIP in 2024, 47471, recorded $314 in Surgery-category Medicaid payments—accounting for 100% of this spending in Worthington for the year.
Only a small number of procedure codes accounted for the bulk of Medicaid Surgery payments in Worthington.
In comparison, Medicaid Surgery payments increased by 542.9% from 2023 to 2024 in Worthington, compared to 23% growth across all Medicaid service categories in the city over the same interval.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined federal and state Medicaid expenditures totaled about $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, which made up nearly 18% of all national health expenditures. That figure rose from roughly $613.5 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This amounts to a roughly 40% rise within a few years, driven primarily by increased enrollment and higher usage during and following the pandemic period.
Recent federal budget measures passed during the Trump administration have proposed major reductions to federal Medicaid allocations and structural changes to how the program operates. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed into law in 2025, is forecasted to cut over $1 trillion in federal Medicaid outlays throughout the next decade and implements work requirements and greater cost-sharing, potentially lowering both funding and coverage for some recipients. These policies are likely to push additional costs onto state budgets and limit the expansion of federal support, even as Medicaid continues to benefit tens of millions of Americans.
| Year | Total Medicaid Payments | % Change From Previous Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $291 | 129.8% |
| 2021 | $322 | 10.5% |
| 2022 | $278 | -13.6% |
| 2023 | $48 | -82.4% |
| 2024 | $314 | 544.2% |
| Rank | Category | Medicaid Payments | Share of City Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Evaluation and Management | $96,897 | 74.4% |
| 2 | National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies | $30,386 | 23.3% |
| 3 | Medicine Services and Procedures | $2,624 | 2% |
| 4 | Surgery | $314 | 0.2% |
| HCPCS Code | Description | Medicaid Payments | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| 36415 | Coll venous bld venipuncture | $314 | 4 |
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.