Surgery-related Medicaid payments in Perryville surged to $2,929 in 2024

Perryville Medicaid providers billed $2,929 for services categorized as Surgery in 2024, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This represented an increase of 511.5% from 2023, when claims for the same type of service totaled $479.

Medicaid is a government program administered by states and funded in partnership by federal and state governments. It provides coverage for seniors, people with disabilities, children, low-income individuals and families, making it a significant segment of the U.S. health care system.

Since Medicaid payments are taxpayer-funded, fluctuations in local billing levels indicate how public health resources are distributed across a community.

The “Surgery” category encompasses a range of Medicaid-billed services determined by care type, using standardized HCPCS and CPT code groupings. For this assessment, each billing code was assigned to just one service category based on consistent code prefixes and numbering, grouping like services while avoiding duplication and ensuring precise year-over-year comparisons.

While Medicaid spending climbed across several service categories, Surgery ranked as the fifth highest by total Medicaid payments in Perryville for 2024.

Statewide in Arkansas, the Surgery category was ranked 10th in Medicaid payments in 2024.

During the five years before 2024, Medicaid payments associated with the Surgery category in Perryville grew by $2,929, or 0%. Certain periods saw accelerated spending increases, notably in 2021 and 2023.

Although Surgery payments were made throughout Perryville, they were mainly concentrated in only a few ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 72126 accounted for $2,929 of Surgery-related Medicaid payments, representing 100% of the total for this category in the city that year.

Only a small subset of individual billing codes made up the bulk of Medicaid payments within the Surgery category.

Bills connected to the Surgery category in Perryville climbed 511.5% from 2023 to 2024, compared to a 30.2% shift across all Medicaid claim categories in the city for the same timeframe.

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

This rise reflects almost 40% growth over several years, driven by increased enrollment and utilization throughout and following the pandemic period.

Recent federal budget legislation under the Trump administration has put forth substantial proposals to decrease federal Medicaid support and modify the structure of the program. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is projected to reduce more than $1 trillion in federal Medicaid spending over 10 years and introduces policy changes like work requirements and increased cost-sharing, which could limit funding and coverage for certain beneficiaries. These policy adjustments are expected to transfer more financial responsibility to states while slowing federal Medicaid growth even as the program remains vital for tens of millions of Americans.

Note: HCPCS codes are displayed to illustrate the category. In this article, category totals and rankings are derived from standardized service groupings, not individual billing codes.

Data in this story comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. The source material is accessible here.