North Carolina Medicaid payments for medical and surgical supplies rise 8.2% to $81.4 million in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid disbursements for services classified as Medical And Surgical Supplies reached $81,362,698 statewide in North Carolina, data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database shows. This reflects an 8.2% uptick over 2023, when providers reported $75,190,451 in claims for these services.

Medicaid is a public insurance program operated by states with joint federal-state funding, covering low-income adults and families, children, seniors and individuals with disabilities. It remains one of the largest components of the U.S. health system.

Because Medicaid relies on taxpayer support, local billing patterns illustrate how health care resources are distributed throughout communities.

The Medical And Surgical Supplies classification includes a group of Medicaid-billed services defined by specific care types, organized using standardized HCPCS and CPT coding systems. For this analysis, individual billing codes were mapped to a single service class based on consistent prefixes and number ranges, supporting accurate comparisons over multiple years and avoiding double counting among categories.

Some categories may bundle different, related services when commonly billed together to Medicaid, such as medical visits, diagnostic procedures and associated treatments.

Between 2019 and 2024, North Carolina’s Medicaid spending on Medical And Surgical Supplies services increased by $30,892,279—a rise of 61.2%. Year-over-year increases were especially notable in both 2020 and 2023.

Payments for these services were distributed across North Carolina but were heavily concentrated in a handful of ZIP codes. In 2024, the ZIP codes with the largest Medicaid-related expenditures for Medical And Surgical Supplies included 28704 at $43,418,203 (53.4% of the total), 28621 with $4,667,210 (5.7%), and 28403 reporting $4,351,334 (5.3%).

Together, these three ZIP codes comprised 64.4% of total statewide Medicaid spending for Medical And Surgical Supplies in 2024.

Comparatively, Medicaid spending for all service categories in North Carolina rose by 3.2% from 2023 to 2024.

Although multiple categories saw increased spending, Medical And Surgical Supplies ranked in the top 10 statewide categories by overall Medicaid payments during 2024.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the combined national total for federal and state Medicaid expenditures reached approximately $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023. That accounts for about 18% of U.S. health spending, up from $613.5 billion in 2019 before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This jump marks an increase of close to 40% over several years, largely attributed to expanded Medicaid enrollment and more frequent service use during and following the pandemic period.

Recent budget policy changes at the federal level under the Trump administration have included substantial proposals to cut Medicaid funding and alter the program structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is forecast to reduce federal Medicaid spending by more than $1 trillion over the next decade and introduce changes such as work requirements and increased cost-sharing. These changes may decrease program coverage and shift additional costs to states while federal Medicaid assistance is curtailed, though the program will continue to cover tens of millions of people nationwide.