Crystal Lake Medicaid spending on transport service claims rises to $1,291,773 in 2024

Providers in Crystal Lake submitted $1,291,773 in Medicaid claims for Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies in 2024, based on figures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This represented a 9.4% rise from 2023, when these claims totaled $1,181,116 for the same service category.

Medicaid, the state-administered public health insurance program financed jointly by federal and state governments, covers people with low incomes, older adults, children, and people with disabilities, holding a key role in the U.S. health care system.

Local billing changes for Medicaid reflect how taxpayer-funded health care resources are distributed throughout communities.

The “Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies” group includes a range of Medicaid-billed services, categorized by care type as indicated by standardized HCPCS and CPT code sets. In this analysis, service categories were assigned by applying uniform code prefixes and numerical bands to avoid overlap, prevent double counting, and to accurately see annual shifts.

Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies was the second-highest category in Crystal Lake for total Medicaid disbursements in 2024 among multiple growing service categories.

This service grouping also ranked second by total Medicaid payments statewide in Illinois in 2024.

From 2019 through 2024, Medicaid payments connected to the Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies category in Crystal Lake increased by $725,859, or 128.3%. Significant year-over-year gains were seen in both 2020 and 2021 within that period.

While these transport service payments were made throughout Crystal Lake, the amounts were concentrated in just a handful of ZIP codes. The 60014 ZIP code alone accounted for $1,291,773 in Medicaid transport payments in 2024. These top ZIP codes represented 100% of category payments in the city that year.

Concentration was also observed within specific individual billing codes inside the Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies category.

Between 2024 and 2023, Medicaid payment totals for this category increased 9.4% in Crystal Lake, exceeding the 7.7% growth seen across all Medicaid claim types citywide for the same time frame.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined federal and state spending for Medicaid reached approximately $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023 and comprised about 18% of all U.S. health expenditures. This is a sharp increase from roughly $613.5 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 emergency.

This 40% gain over several years was largely driven by more enrollees and higher usage connected to the pandemic years and aftermath.

Recent federal budget measures passed during the Trump administration brought notable changes aiming to curb federal Medicaid funding and remap the program. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” passed in 2025, is set to trim federal Medicaid expenditures by over $1 trillion through the next decade, including measures such as work requirements and higher cost-sharing. These steps may limit growth in federal Medicaid backing and shift more costs to states, potentially reducing coverage and funding for certain groups while the program remains vital for 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.