In 2024, North Highlands Medicaid providers billed $793,799 for dental services, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This represents a 23.9% rise compared with 2023, when providers submitted $640,483 in claims for the same category.
Medicaid, a public health insurance program managed by states and funded by both federal and state governments, serves low-income individuals, seniors, children, and people with disabilities, making it one of the largest segments of the U.S. health care system.
Because Medicaid is taxpayer-funded, shifts in local billing levels highlight how public health resources are distributed within communities.
The “Dental Services” category includes a range of Medicaid-billed treatments grouped by care type, following standardized HCPCS and CPT code definitions. Each billing code in the analysis was classified into a single service category using consistent code prefixes and numeric ranges, ensuring related services were measured together, avoiding duplicates, and maintaining ranking accuracy over time.
Diversity in Medicaid spending growth was seen across multiple service categories, with Dental Services ranked third by total Medicaid payments in North Highlands for 2024.
Statewide in California, Dental Services placed 11th for total Medicaid payments in 2024.
From 2019 through 2024, Medicaid payments for dental services in North Highlands increased by $639,630, or 414.9%. The growth rate accelerated at times, with significant annual increases logged in 2023 and 2022.
While dental services spending extended across North Highlands, payments were clustered in specific ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 95660 reported $793,798 in dental Medicaid payments, making up 100% of the local total in this category that year.
Dental category Medicaid payments were also focused within a narrow group of individual billing codes.
To compare, dental services Medicaid payments rose 23.9% in North Highlands between 2024 and 2023, while all Medicaid claim categories in the city saw a 41.6% change during the same period.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, total federal and state Medicaid spending reached approximately $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, which was roughly 18% of total national health expenditures, a sharp increase from about $613.5 billion in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This growth reflects an increase of about 40% over a few years, mainly the result of expanded enrollment and higher use during and after the pandemic.
Recent federal budget actions under the Trump administration have included major proposals to reduce federal Medicaid funding and change its structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” passed in 2025, is set to cut more than $1 trillion in federal Medicaid support over 10 years, introducing policies such as work requirements and higher cost-sharing that could lessen coverage and funding for certain beneficiaries. These provisions are expected to move additional costs to states and limit federal Medicaid growth, even as the program continues to help millions of Americans.
| Year | Total Medicaid Payments | % Change From Previous Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $154,169 | -36.5% |
| 2021 | $229,264 | 48.7% |
| 2022 | $365,779 | 59.5% |
| 2023 | $640,483 | 75.1% |
| 2024 | $793,798 | 23.9% |
| Rank | Category | Medicaid Payments | Share of City Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies | $29,120,945 | 87.4% |
| 2 | Medicine Services and Procedures | $1,403,113 | 4.2% |
| 3 | Dental Services | $793,798 | 2.4% |
| 4 | Evaluation and Management | $536,981 | 1.6% |
| 5 | Temporary National Codes (Non-Medicare) | $527,131 | 1.6% |
| 6 | Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies | $510,815 | 1.5% |
| 7 | Drugs Administered Other than Oral Method | $206,141 | 0.6% |
| 8 | Pathology and Laboratory Procedures | $126,421 | 0.4% |
| 9 | Surgery | $63,183 | 0.2% |
| 10 | Procedures / Professional Services | $24,093 | 0.1% |
| 11 | Medical And Surgical Supplies | $9,737 | <0.1% |
| 12 | Radiology Procedures | $3,299 | <0.1% |
| 13 | Temporary Codes | $3,190 | <0.1% |
| 14 | Anesthesia | $1,405 | <0.1% |
| 15 | Vision Services | $1,313 | <0.1% |
| HCPCS Code | Description | Medicaid Payments | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| D0150 | Comprehensve oral evaluation | $192,484 | 182 |
| D0120 | Periodic oral evaluation | $179,243 | 168 |
| D0210 | Intraor comprehensive series | $122,011 | 152 |
| D0230 | Intraoral periapical ea add | $103,536 | 194 |
| D0220 | Intraoral periapical first | $74,380 | 236 |
| D0274 | Bitewings four images | $70,753 | 163 |
| D0603 | Caries risk assess high risk | $15,596 | 58 |
| D0330 | Panoramic image | $7,403 | 62 |
| D0270 | Dental bitewing single image | $7,225 | 121 |
| D0350 | Oral/facial photo images | $6,811 | 53 |
| D0272 | Dental bitewings two images | $6,100 | 38 |
| D0240 | Intraoral occlusal film | $2,820 | 7 |
| D0145 | Oral evaluation, pt < 3yrs | $2,253 | 6 |
| D0601 | Caries risk assess low risk | $1,525 | 9 |
| D0602 | Caries risk assess mod risk | $1,513 | 9 |
| D0140 | Limit oral eval problm focus | $140 | 1 |
| D0170 | Re-eval,est pt,problem focus | $0 | 1 |
| D0171 | Re-eval post-op visit | $0 | 2 |
| D0191 | Assessment of a patient | $0 | 13 |
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.