Medicaid providers in Harwood Heights report $3,605 in Surgery services billed for 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Harwood Heights billed $3,605 for services under the Surgery category, as reported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This amount was 30.1% higher than 2023, when providers submitted $2,770 in claims for similar surgical services.

Medicaid, a public health insurance initiative managed by states and jointly financed by federal and state governments, covers low-income residents, seniors, children, and individuals with disabilities. It constitutes a substantial component of the U.S. health care landscape.

Because Medicaid payment levels are funded by taxpayers, shifts in local billing give insight into how publicly funded health resources are allocated within the community.

The “Surgery” service group is defined by care type, categorized by standardized HCPCS and CPT billing codes. Each code in this assessment was matched to a single service category using established prefixes and numeric sequences, ensuring related services remain grouped together, eliminating duplication and permitting precise comparisons over time.

While Medicaid spending increased across several groups, Surgery placed fifth among service categories in Harwood Heights by total Medicaid payments for 2024.

For all of Illinois, Surgery ranked 18th for total Medicaid spending during 2024.

Between 2019 and 2024, Harwood Heights’ Medicaid payments for Surgery rose by $2,769, representing a 43.4% gain. Certain years, specifically 2020 and 2023, saw particularly significant annual increases in spending on these services.

Though Medicaid spending in the Surgery category spanned the entire city, most payments in 2024 were associated with a limited set of ZIP codes. In that year, ZIP code 60706 accounted for $3,605 in Surgery payments, making up 100% of category spending in Harwood Heights for the period.

Payments within the Surgery category were focused primarily around a small set of individual billing codes.

Comparatively, while Surgery-related Medicaid spending in Harwood Heights climbed 30.1% between 2023 and 2024, the overall increase across all Medicaid service categories in the city reached 40.6% in the same timeframe.

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

This marks an estimated 40% increase in only a few years, largely due to higher enrollment rates and increased service use linked to the pandemic and its aftermath.

Recent federal policy under the Trump administration has included major measures to curb federal Medicaid funding and reorganize the program. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,”, passed in 2025, is forecast to reduce federal Medicaid expenditures by more than $1 trillion over a decade. It implements work requirements and greater cost-sharing, potentially lowering funding and enrollment for some participants. These changes are expected to increase financial burden on states and restrict federal Medicaid support growth, even as millions continue to use the program.

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.