A Look Into Healthcare Expenditures in Northwest Arkansas

Average Annualized Medical Expenditures in Northwest Arkansas

Total medical expenditures in 2021 for the four counties spotlighted here ranged from $103 million in Madison County to nearly $1.2 billion in Benton County, an elevenfold difference due in large part to the significant population differences between the counties. Average annualized (i.e., estimated for a full year whenever data for a full year were not available) expenditure calculations available in the dashboard allow users to get a clearer understanding of per-person spending regardless of population size.

Statewide, the average annualized per-person expenditure for medical care was $9,277. At the county level, however, those average annualized expenditures varied across the state from a low of $7,412 in Northwest Arkansas’s Washington County to a high of $13,632 for Bradley County in Southeast Arkansas. All four Northwest Arkansas counties had average annualized medical expenditures lower than the statewide average.

As noted above, Washington County had the lowest average annualized per-person medical expenditure at $7,412, 20% lower than the state average. It was followed by Benton County at $7,585, Madison County at $7,790, and Carol County at $8,013, still 14% lower than the statewide average. These figures are in sharp contrast to the four Southeast Arkansas counties explored in a previous post, where average annualized medical expenditures were as much as 20% higher than the statewide average.

Medicare and Medicare Advantage Enrollment and Expenditures

Since Medicare Advantage was introduced as an alternative to traditional Medicare plans in 1997, it has seen increasing adoption by Medicare-eligible populations. As of 2021, 39% of Medicare-eligible residents in Northwest Arkansas’s Benton, Carroll, Madison, and Washington counties were enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans. Madison County had the highest adoption of Medicare Advantage with 44% of the Medicare-eligible population enrolled, whereas Washington County had the lowest adoption at 34%.

Average annualized medical expenditures were consistently higher for traditional Medicare enrollees than for Medicare Advantage enrollees across all four counties in 2021.

• In Benton County, the average annualized medical expenditure for Medicare Advantage enrollees was $6,130 less than the average expenditure for Medicare enrollees in the county.
• In Carroll County, the average annualized medical expenditure for Medicare Advantage enrollees was $3,892 less than the average expenditure for Medicare enrollees in the county.
• In Madison County, the average annualized medical expenditure for Medicare Advantage enrollees was $4,765 less than the average expenditure for Medicare enrollees in the county.
• In Washington County, the average annualized medical expenditure for Medicare Advantage enrollees was $5,166 less than the average expenditure for Medicare enrollees in the county.

Of all the payer types included in the dashboard — commercial, traditional Medicaid, Medicaid qualified health plans (QHPs), Medicare, and Medicare Advantage — traditional Medicare had the highest total expenditures for all four counties at $830 million, representing 32% of payments for medical care in 2021.

Medicaid Expansion Enrollment and Expenditures

Medicaid QHPs cover most of the state’s Medicaid expansion population. In the four Northwest Arkansas counties, Medicaid QHPs covered 44,619 low-income adults, accounting for 11% of covered individuals, in 2021. Medical payments for Medicaid QHP patients totaled $274 million.

The publication of the Arkansas Healthcare Expenditures Dashboard in November 2024 marks the first time data on the state’s healthcare expenditures have been made available at this level in an accessible and interactive manner. The dashboard can be used to ask a wide array of questions about healthcare spending in Arkansas, including much more specific and varied questions than those asked in this post.