Winterset Medicaid claims for medical and surgical supplies rise to $8,432 in 2024

Data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database shows that Winterset Medicaid providers billed $8,432 for medical and surgical supplies in 2024. This amount was 162% higher than in 2023, when providers reported $3,218 worth of claims in the category.

Medicaid is a public insurance initiative operated by state governments in partnership with federal funding. The program provides coverage for low-income adults and families, seniors, children and individuals with disabilities, making it a key pillar of the U.S. health care system.

Since Medicaid is funded by taxpayers, shifts in local billing figures reflect how health care spending is distributed throughout the community.

The “Medical And Surgical Supplies” category encompasses a set of Medicaid-billed services grouped by care type, based on HCPCS and CPT code standards. The analysis consistently assigned each billing code to one service category by using uniform code ranges and prefixes to facilitate accurate trend and comparison data over time while preventing duplication.

While Medicaid expenditures increased across various service categories, medical and surgical supplies ranked eighth by payment size among Winterset Medicaid services in 2024.

Across Iowa, medical and surgical supplies stood as the 11th largest service category by Medicaid payments for 2024.

Looking at the period covering the five years through 2024, Winterset’s Medicaid-linked payments for this category climbed by $7,808, or 48.1%. Some of the most pronounced yearly percentage gains occurred during 2022 and 2023.

Though spending in this category was reported citywide, the majority of payments came from a small group of ZIP codes. In 2024, Medicaid payment activity for medical and surgical supplies was most concentrated in 50273, with a total of $8,431 — representing 100% of local spending for the category in the city that year.

Additionally, a small number of distinct billing codes accounted for the majority of category-specific Medicaid payments in Winterset.

For context, Medicaid payments for this service category were up 162% between 2024 and 2023 in Winterset, compared to a 35.6% change across the city spanning all Medicaid claim types over the same period.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, national Medicaid spending from federal and state funds was around $871.7 billion for fiscal year 2023, making up close to 18% of all U.S. health expenses. This total was up significantly from $613.5 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This jump reflects an overall growth of 40% in a few years, fueled primarily by increases in program enrollment and greater health service utilization during and after the pandemic.

Legislation affecting the federal budget enacted under the Trump administration has advanced proposals to decrease federal Medicaid allocations and modify its structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed in 2025, is anticipated to reduce federal outlays by over $1 trillion through the next decade, implementing new work requirements and increased copayments—changes expected to push more funding obligations to the states and potentially lower coverage growth rates for eligible beneficiaries, while the program continues to insure millions of people 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.