Alaska ranks 2nd in nation for per-user Medicare ambulance spending

Published 9:04 am Thursday, September 17, 2026

A recent study has revealed that an ambulance ride in Alaska carries one of the nation’s steepest price tags for Medicare patients.

Researchers from ValuePenguin analyzed ambulance spending using aggregate and standardized data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Medicare Geographic Variation Public Use File. The data found that Alaska saw the largest increase in total Medicare ambulance spending from 2015 to 2024, rising 63.8% from $14 million to $23 million.

Alaska had the eighth-lowest annual cost in 2015, moving up to 13th overall in 2024 for annual cost.

Ambulance costs for Medicare beneficiaries was $2,025 annually — the second-highest per-user ambulance costs in 2024. Per-user ambulance spending rose 17.2% from 2015 to 2024, and Alaska had 261 ambulance events per 1,000 Medicare beneficiaries in 2024.

In 2024, Alaska had 11,359 Original Medicare ambulance users, 87.1% of whom were 65 years of age or older.

Standardized Medicare ambulance spending was highest in Anchorage with $4.87 million, followed by the Kenai Peninsula at $3.44 million, Fairbanks North Star with $2.12 million, $1.97 million in Matanuska-Susitna, and $1.45 million in Juneau.

“These geographic figures reflect where beneficiaries live, rather than where the calls occurred,” said Joseph Muscente, public relation specialist at LendingTree, ValuePenguin’s parent company. “Spending is standardized to account for geographic payment differences.”

Muscente added that the dataset doesn’t include call types or reasons for transport.

ValuePenguin is a personal finance and lead-generation website that helps consumers compare insurance policies, credit cards, and banking products.