Medicaid payments for durable medical equipment in Smithers rose to $18,194 in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Smithers billed $18,194 for services in the Durable Medical Equipment category, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This represented an 8.1% rise from 2023, when providers filed $16,834 in claims for this service type.

Medicaid, funded in partnership by federal and state governments and run by the states, is a public health insurance program that covers low-income individuals, seniors, children and people with disabilities. This program stands as one of the largest segments of the U.S. health care system.

Variations in local billing levels highlight how taxpayer-funded Medicaid dollars are utilized within a community.

The Durable Medical Equipment category encompasses a set of Medicaid-billed services defined by care type, using standard HCPCS and CPT code groupings. For this report, billing codes were organized into service categories based on consistent code prefixes and numeric ranges to group related services, avoid overlap, and maintain precise rankings over time.

Spending for Medicaid climbed in several service categories, with Durable Medical Equipment coming in second by total Medicaid payments in Smithers in 2024.

Statewide, Durable Medical Equipment placed 10th among Medicaid payment categories in West Virginia for 2024.

Between 2019 and 2024, Medicaid payments for Durable Medical Equipment in Smithers climbed by $12,603, or 40.9%. Growth in spending sped up during select years, including notable increases in 2020 and 2023.

Although payments for care in the Durable Medical Equipment category were spread across Smithers, a small number of ZIP codes accounted for most of the spending. In 2024, ZIP code 25186 led with $18,193 in Medicaid payments for this category. Altogether, the top ZIP code represented 100% of Smithers’ Medicaid payments for Durable Medical Equipment during the year.

The Durable Medical Equipment payments were notably concentrated in a small subset of billing codes.

In comparing growth, Medicaid payments for Durable Medical Equipment in Smithers increased by 8.1% from 2023 to 2024, while all Medicaid claim categories in the city experienced a 27.1% change during this period.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data show combined federal and state Medicaid expenditures reached about $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, accounting for approximately 18% of total U.S. health spending. This is up significantly from roughly $613.5 billion in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This increase marks nearly 40% growth in just a few years, mainly due to higher enrollment and greater service use during and after the pandemic.

Recent federal budget laws enacted under the Trump administration have featured major proposals to trim federal Medicaid funding and restructure the program. For example, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed into law in 2025, is expected to reduce federal Medicaid spending by over $1 trillion in the next 10 years and establish policies such as work requirements and higher cost-sharing. These changes may lower coverage and funding for some recipients, with more costs anticipated to shift to states and reduce the pace of federal spending growth, even as Medicaid continues to serve 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.