Data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database shows that Medicaid providers in Gadsden billed $958,684 in 2024 for Dental Services. This reflects a 5% rise compared with 2023, when claims for the same services totaled $913,465.
Medicaid, a joint federal and state public health insurance program, provides coverage for low-income individuals and families, seniors, children, and people with disabilities, making it one of the largest components of the U.S. health care system. Funding details can be found here.
Since Medicaid is funded by taxpayers, shifts in local billing illustrate how public health care dollars are distributed throughout a community.
The “Dental Services” group consists of Medicaid-billed services identified by care type, using standardized HCPCS and CPT coding methods. For this analysis, each code was designated to only one category using uniform prefixes and numerical ranges to group related services, ensuring consistency and preventing duplication in rankings from year to year.
Even though Medicaid spending increased across several service categories, Dental Services placed third in terms of total Medicaid payments in Gadsden for 2024.
At the state level, Dental Services ranked as the ninth-largest Medicaid spending category across Alabama in 2024.
During the five-year period leading up to 2024, Medicaid payments in Gadsden connected to Dental Services grew by $569,424, or 146.3%. Much of the increased spending was recorded over specific intervals, particularly during 2021 and 2022.
Medicaid spending on Dental Services, while spread across Gadsden, was concentrated in a handful of ZIP codes in 2024. Payments in ZIP code 35903 reached $630,974, and ZIP code 35901 saw $327,709, together making up 100% of Gadsden’s Medicaid Dental Services payments that year.
Within the broader Dental Services group, a few individual billing codes saw the majority of Medicaid payments.
For perspective, Gadsden’s Medicaid spending for Dental Services climbed 5% from 2023 to 2024, while total Medicaid claims across all categories in the city grew by 17.9% over the same period.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, federal and state Medicaid spending totaled approximately $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, which was about 18% of national health expenditures. This rose sharply from $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The difference represents nearly 40% overall growth in several years, mainly attributed to expanded rolls and greater use during and after the pandemic.
New federal budget laws under the Trump administration brought major proposals to scale back federal Medicaid funding and change its structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is expected to reduce federal Medicaid spending by more than $1 trillion over 10 years, with measures such as new work requirements and increased cost-sharing, potentially limiting benefits and shifting more financial responsibility to states as Medicaid continues to serve millions nationwide.
| Year | Total Medicaid Payments | % Change From Previous Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $389,259 | -26.5% |
| 2021 | $627,453 | 61.2% |
| 2022 | $796,951 | 27% |
| 2023 | $913,464 | 14.6% |
| 2024 | $958,684 | 5% |
| Rank | Category | Medicaid Payments | Share of City Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Evaluation and Management | $4,615,178 | 43.2% |
| 2 | National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies | $2,433,810 | 22.8% |
| 3 | Dental Services | $958,684 | 9% |
| 4 | Medicine Services and Procedures | $944,552 | 8.9% |
| 5 | Pathology and Laboratory Procedures | $756,658 | 7.1% |
| 6 | Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies | $452,469 | 4.2% |
| 7 | Anesthesia | $146,884 | 1.4% |
| 8 | Radiology Procedures | $105,350 | 1% |
| 9 | Vision Services | $84,902 | 0.8% |
| 10 | Surgery | $74,632 | 0.7% |
| 11 | Procedures / Professional Services | $27,825 | 0.3% |
| 12 | Durable Medical Equipment | $22,896 | 0.2% |
| 13 | Medical And Surgical Supplies | $15,578 | 0.1% |
| 14 | Orthotic Procedures and services | $12,124 | 0.1% |
| 15 | Temporary National Codes (Non-Medicare) | $8,217 | 0.1% |
| 16 | Coronavirus Diagnostic Panel | $6,160 | 0.1% |
| 17 | Drugs Administered Other than Oral Method | $5,735 | 0.1% |
| 18 | Temporary Codes | $437 | <0.1% |
| 19 | Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment | $0 | <0.1% |
| 19 | Outpatient PPS | $0 | <0.1% |
| HCPCS Code | Description | Medicaid Payments | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| D0120 | Periodic oral evaluation | $316,862 | 96 |
| D0330 | Panoramic image | $147,947 | 88 |
| D0220 | Intraoral periapical first | $121,866 | 67 |
| D0230 | Intraoral periapical ea add | $112,079 | 39 |
| D0272 | Dental bitewings two images | $109,257 | 82 |
| D0274 | Bitewings four images | $60,240 | 63 |
| D0150 | Comprehensve oral evaluation | $53,656 | 29 |
| D0140 | Limit oral eval problm focus | $35,766 | 49 |
| D0251 | Extraoral posterior image | $1,008 | 3 |
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.