Medicaid Surgery payments in Itasca reached $48 in 2024, up 9.1%

Providers in Itasca billed $48 to Medicaid for services categorized as Surgery in 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This represented an increase of 9.1% compared with 2023, when $44 was billed for these services.

Medicaid, which is administered by states and jointly funded by federal and state governments, provides health insurance for low-income individuals and families, seniors, children, and people with disabilities, representing one of the largest segments of the U.S. health care system.

Shifts in local Medicaid billing reflect how tax-funded public health care resources are distributed at the community level.

The Surgery category includes a range of procedures defined by the type of care rendered, sorted using standardized HCPCS and CPT code groupings. This analysis designated each billing code to one service group based on established numeric ranges, facilitating accurate comparisons over time while preventing overlap or double counting.

In Itasca, Surgery was the 8th-highest Medicaid spending category for 2024, with multiple categories seeing overall spending growth.

Statewide, Surgery ranked 18th among Medicaid categories in Illinois in 2024 based on total payments.

Medicaid spending linked to Surgery services in Itasca rose by $136—or 73.9%—over the five-year period leading up to 2024. Peak periods of growth were evident during several recent years, with the largest annual increases occurring in 2022 and 2023.

Although Surgery-related Medicaid payments in 2024 were dispersed throughout Itasca, a small number of ZIP codes accounted for the bulk of spending. ZIP code 60143 generated $48, and the top 1 ZIP codes made up 100.1% of Surgery-related Medicaid payments in the city during 2024.

Individual billing codes within the Surgery group also saw a high degree of concentration in Medicaid payments.

The 9.1% increase in Surgery-related Medicaid payments in Itasca between 2024 and 2023 outpaced the 8.2% rise seen across all Medicaid categories in the area during the same time frame.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, total federal and state Medicaid expenditures reached approximately $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, representing about 18% of nationwide health spending. This was a significant increase from roughly $613.5 billion in 2019, pre-pandemic.

This rise equates to growth of approximately 40% within a few years, driven primarily by expanded enrollment and increased service use during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Recent federal legislation introduced under the Trump administration proposed notable federal Medicaid funding reductions and program changes. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is expected to decrease federal Medicaid spending by more than $1 trillion in the next 10 years, introducing policies such as work requirements and higher cost-sharing, which may reduce funding and access for certain groups. States are anticipated to assume a larger share of Medicaid costs while federal support growth slows, although the program will continue serving 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.