According to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database, Medicaid providers in Colonial Beach billed $298 for services in the Surgery category in 2024. This represents a 102.7% rise compared to 2023, when claims for the same category totaled $147.
Medicaid, a public health insurance program, operates under state administration with joint funding from federal and state governments. It supports low-income individuals and families, seniors, children, and those with disabilities, making it a major part of the U.S. health care system.
Because taxpayer funds support Medicaid payments, fluctuations in local billing levels illustrate shifts in how public health care dollars are spent in a community.
The “Surgery” category encompasses a subset of Medicaid-billed services identified by specific types of care, using standardized HCPCS and CPT code groupings. For this report, each billing code was categorized based on consistent code prefixes and ranges to track related services and support precise rankings while avoiding duplicate counts.
Spending on Medicaid services increased in several categories, with Surgery ranking No. 3 for total Medicaid payments in Colonial Beach in 2024.
Statewide in Virginia, the Surgery category ranked eighth for total Medicaid payments in 2024.
Medicaid payments tied to the Surgery category in Colonial Beach advanced by $106, or 55.2%, in the five years prior to 2024. Certain years, including 2022 and 2021, saw especially high year-over-year increases.
Surgery-category Medicaid payments were allocated across the city but showed concentration in select ZIP codes. For 2024, ZIP codes with the greatest Medicaid payments in this category included 22443, making up $297. The top ZIP code accounted for 99.9% of all such Surgery payments in Colonial Beach for the year.
Within the Surgery category, a small number of individual billing codes represented the majority of Medicaid payments.
Between 2023 and 2024, payments linked to the Surgery category in Colonial Beach grew 102.7%, compared to a 20.3% change across all Medicaid claim types in the city over the same timeframe.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, federal and state Medicaid spending combined for about $871.7 billion in fiscal 2023, making up roughly 18% of total national health expenditures. This is a steep increase from roughly $613.5 billion in 2019, predating the COVID-19 pandemic.
This rise equates to approximately 40% growth in a short span, primarily attributed to increased enrollment and utilization during and following the pandemic.
Federal budget legislation signed under the Trump administration in 2025, such as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” has aimed to reduce Medicaid funding by more than $1 trillion over the next decade. The bill includes expanded work requirements and higher cost-sharing, which could curb coverage and federal funding for certain beneficiaries. Such policy changes are expected to shift more Medicaid expenses to states and restrict the pace of federal support backdrop, while Medicaid continues to cover tens of millions of Americans.
| Year | Total Medicaid Payments | % Change From Previous Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $192 | -11.8% |
| 2021 | $219 | 14.3% |
| 2022 | $285 | 30.2% |
| 2023 | $147 | -48.4% |
| 2024 | $297 | 102.2% |
| Rank | Category | Medicaid Payments | Share of City Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Evaluation and Management | $15,862 | 83.5% |
| 2 | Medicine Services and Procedures | $2,834 | 14.9% |
| 3 | Surgery | $297 | 1.6% |
| HCPCS Code | Description | Medicaid Payments | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| 36415 | Coll venous bld venipuncture | $297 | 9 |
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.
