Clearwater Medicaid payments for medical and surgical supplies reach $18,737,357 in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Clearwater submitted $18,737,357 in claims under the Medical And Surgical Supplies service category, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This reflects an 11.7% increase over 2023, when the total reached $16,778,394 for these services.

Medicaid is a public health insurance program that is administered by individual states and funded through cooperation between federal and state governments. The program provides insurance for low-income individuals and families, seniors, children and people with disabilities, making it a key component of the U.S. health system.

Because taxpayer funds support Medicaid payments, changes in local billing patterns demonstrate how public health dollars are distributed in each community.

The “Medical And Surgical Supplies” classification represents a group of Medicaid-billed services based on type of care, determined by standardized HCPCS and CPT code groupings. This analysis assigned each applicable billing code exclusively to a single category using uniform code prefixes and numeric ranges, ensuring grouped service evaluation and accurate comparisons over time.

Although multiple categories saw higher Medicaid spending, Medical And Surgical Supplies led all categories in Clearwater for total payments in 2024.

Statewide in Florida, the Medical And Surgical Supplies grouping ranked eighth in total Medicaid payments for 2024.

In Clearwater, the amount of Medicaid payments connected to the Medical And Surgical Supplies category increased by $10,507,924, or 127.7%, over the five years leading up to 2024. Certain years, including 2023 and 2020, saw especially marked year-over-year growth.

Medicaid payments for Medical And Surgical Supplies services were not equally distributed throughout the city, with most payments concentrated in a select number of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 33762 accounted for $18,290,603 in Medicaid payments under this category, followed by 33760 with $444,169, and 33765 with $2,005. Combined, these top 3 ZIP codes represented 100% of Medicaid payments for Medical And Surgical Supplies in Clearwater during the year.

Within Medical And Surgical Supplies, a small number of billing codes accounted for a large share of Medicaid payments.

Compared to overall Medicaid claim categories in Clearwater, which saw a 22.5% year-over-year increase from 2023 to 2024, spending within the Medical And Surgical Supplies category rose by 11.7% in the same time frame.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, federal and state Medicaid spending totaled approximately $871.7 billion in fiscal 2023, representing about 18% of all national health expenditures—an increase from roughly $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This amounts to growth of around 40% over several years, primarily the result of expanded enrollment and higher utilization following the pandemic.

Recent federal budget changes signed during the Trump administration included major reforms that impact federal Medicaid funding. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which became law in 2025, is anticipated to slash over $1 trillion from federal Medicaid spending over the next decade and implements new policies such as work requirements and higher cost-sharing, potentially reducing both coverage and benefits for certain participants. These revisions mean greater costs may shift to state governments and limit the expansion of federal support for Medicaid, even as the program continues to cover 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.