Greenville sees 4.5% rise in 2024 Medicaid spending for ambulance, transport services

In 2024, Greenville Medicaid providers submitted $56,611 in claims for services 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 was a 4.5% increase from 2023, when $54,189 was billed for the same services.

Medicaid is a state-run public health insurance program funded jointly by federal and state governments. It provides coverage to low-income individuals and families, seniors, children, and people with disabilities, and is a key component of the U.S. health care system.

As Medicaid payments draw from public funds, shifts in local billing totals indicate how health care resources are distributed within a community.

The “Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies” grouping covers a range of Medicaid-billed services defined by care type, using standardized HCPCS and CPT code groupings. For this analysis, each billing code was mapped to a specific service category based on consistent code prefixes and numeric spans, helping to group related services, eliminate duplicate counts, and maintain accurate rankings over time.

Though Medicaid expenditures have grown in several service areas, Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies was the fourth-largest Medicaid spending category in Greenville in 2024.

Statewide in Rhode Island, Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies placed 10th by Medicaid payments in 2024.

Throughout the five years preceding 2024, Greenville’s Medicaid payments for Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies rose by $47,537, representing a 523.9% gain. The most notable jumps occurred during certain periods, especially in 2021 and 2023.

Although service spending was distributed citywide, the majority of payments were concentrated in just a few ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 02828 alone accounted for $56,611 in payments, making up 100% of the Medicaid spending in this category in Greenville for that year.

Within this category, Medicaid payments focused on a small selection of individual billing codes.

Between 2024 and 2023, Medicaid spending for Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies in Greenville climbed 4.5%, compared with a 0.5% change across all Medicaid claim types locally in the same timeframe.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, total federal and state Medicaid spending reached approximately $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, representing about 18% of all U.S. health expenditures. This was up from $613.5 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This growth, nearly 40%, was mainly driven by expanded enrollment and increased health service usage during and after the pandemic years.

Recent federal budget laws under the Trump administration included proposals to decrease federal Medicaid contributions and overhaul the program. For instance, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is estimated to slash over $1 trillion from federal Medicaid funding over 10 years and introduce measures such as work requirements and higher cost-sharing, potentially reducing access and funding for some beneficiaries. These policy changes are likely to increase the fiscal burden on states and place limits on future federal Medicaid growth, though the program continues to cover tens of millions of people.

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.