Delano Medicaid payments for surgery jump 70.4% in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Delano billed $317,332 for services labeled under the Surgery category, data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database shows. This represents a 70.4% rise when compared to 2023, during which providers billed $186,273 for the same services.

Medicaid is a public health insurance initiative managed by states and funded in partnership between federal and state governments. It provides coverage for low-income people and families, children, seniors, and those with disabilities, positioning it as a major element of the national health care system.

Since Medicaid payments are taxpayer-funded, changes in billing levels locally illustrate public health care spending patterns in the area.

The “Surgery” category groups together Medicaid-billed services according to care type, using standardized HCPCS and CPT coding. For this study, billing codes were sorted into a single service category using uniform code prefixes and ranges, allowing similar services to be grouped, avoiding duplicates, and supporting consistent rankings across years.

Even though increases occurred across several Medicaid service categories, Surgery was eighth in Delano for total Medicaid payments in 2024.

Statewide in California, Surgery was the 12th-highest Medicaid payment category in 2024.

From 2019 to 2024, Medicaid payments for the Surgery category in Delano grew by $151,394, or 91.2%. Some years saw especially rapid increases, with significant year-over-year gains recorded in 2022 and 2022.

Though Surgery-related care was billed throughout Delano, the majority of Medicaid payments came from a few ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 93215 saw $317,331 in Surgery category payments. Collectively, the top 1 ZIP codes comprised 100% of all Surgery category Medicaid payments for the city that year.

Within Surgery, Medicaid payments were further concentrated to a small set of billing codes.

To provide context, Medicaid payments for Surgery in Delano rose by 70.4% between 2024 and 2023, whereas overall Medicaid claim payments citywide increased by 6.1% in the same comparison period.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data show that combined federal and state Medicaid spending reached about $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, making up roughly 18% of all national health spending. This was a major increase from roughly $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The change amounts to a roughly 40% rise over several years, mainly driven by expanded program enrollment and increased health care usage during and after the pandemic.

Recent federal budget measures under the Trump administration have put forward significant reductions to federal Medicaid allocations and program restructuring. As an example, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is expected to cut federal Medicaid funds by more than $1 trillion over the next 10 years and introduce requirements such as work provisions and higher cost-sharing. These could lower coverage and funding for some beneficiaries. The changes are likely to shift more financial responsibility to states and restrict the future expansion of federal Medicaid support, despite the program serving tens of 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.