Visual Data Story

Medicare By The Numbers

A decade of American healthcare spending, distilled into the numbers that matter most.

$854.8B

Total Medicare Payments Over 10 Years

From 2014 to 2023, Medicare paid out $854.8 billion to providers across America — nearly a trillion dollars flowing through a single program.

1,721,798

Unique Providers

Nearly two million individual providers billed Medicare at least once. From solo family doctors to billion-dollar lab corporations.

24.5B

Services Delivered

24.5 billion individual medical services — office visits, lab tests, surgeries, injections — every one logged and paid for.

$94B

2023: The Highest Year Ever

Medicare spending hit a record $94 billion in 2023, continuing an upward trend that shows no signs of slowing.

$81B

2020: The COVID Crash

The pandemic caused the only spending dip in the decade. Elective procedures vanished, and Medicare payments dropped to $81 billion.

4,636

"Impossible" Providers

Providers who billed for more services per day than is physically possible. Some logged over 1,000 services in a single working day.

500

AI-Flagged for Fraud

Our machine learning model identified 500 providers with billing patterns consistent with fraud — charging far above peers with suspicious volume.

3.77x

Average Markup Ratio

Providers charge Medicare 3.77 times what they actually get paid. The gap between billed and paid is a $2 trillion write-off.

$93.2B

Top State: California

California leads the nation in Medicare spending — more than any other state by a wide margin, driven by population and high-cost specialties.

$44.4B

Top Procedure: 99213 (Office Visit)

The 15-minute office visit is the backbone of American medicine. Code 99213 generated $44.4B in Medicare payments over the decade.

Want to dig into the data yourself?

Every number on this page comes from public CMS data. We analyzed 10 years of Medicare provider records.

Data source: CMS Medicare Provider Utilization and Payment Data, 2014–2023.