In 2024, Foley Medicaid providers reported $327,825 billed for Dental Services, with data drawn from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This total reflected an 81.9% rise from 2023, when claims for the same service category amounted to $180,241.
Medicaid, a state-administered program that is jointly funded by federal and state governments, offers public health insurance for low-income individuals, families, seniors, children and people with disabilities. It is a major part of the U.S. health care system.
Shifts in Medicaid payment levels highlight how taxpayer-supported public health resources are distributed in a given area.
The Dental Services category includes Medicaid-billed care types classified through standardized HCPCS and CPT coding. This analysis assigned each code to a single category using uniform code prefixes and number ranges, allowing similar services to be reviewed together and preventing double-counting for accurate time-based comparisons.
Dentals Services placed third in Foley’s total Medicaid funding by category in 2024, following an increase in Medicaid allocations across several service types.
Statewide in Alabama, Dental Services ranked ninth for total Medicaid payments that year.
From 2019 to 2024, payments for Dental Services through Medicaid in Foley rose by $187,869, or 134.2%. More significant annual growth occurred in 2022 and 2023.
While disbursements for Dental Services occurred citywide, most payments were concentrated in a small number of ZIP codes. Of note, 2024 data show that ZIP code 36535 accrued the entire $327,825 in Medicaid Dental Services billings, making up 100% of category payments in Foley.
Within Dental Services, a relatively small group of billing codes accounted for the bulk of Medicaid payments.
For context, the 81.9% spike in Foley’s Dental Services Medicaid payments between 2024 and 2023 compares with a 23.8% change across all Medicaid billing categories in the city for the same timeframe.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, joint federal and state Medicaid spending reached approximately $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023 and made up almost 18% of national health expenditures. This figure was a substantial rise from just over $613.5 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The change marks an increase of about 40% in several years, largely driven by higher enrollment and service use during and after the pandemic.
Recent federal budget legislation passed during the Trump administration introduced major proposals aimed at lowering federal Medicaid funding and reforming the program structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed into law in 2025, is estimated to reduce federal Medicaid spending by more than $1 trillion over 10 years, imposing new requirements such as work mandates and increased cost-sharing that could limit coverage and funding for certain groups. Such changes are expected to place more financial responsibility on states and possibly restrict federal Medicaid growth while the program continues to support tens of millions of Americans.
| Year | Total Medicaid Payments | % Change From Previous Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $139,956 | -16.1% |
| 2021 | $133,988 | -4.3% |
| 2022 | $115,108 | -14.1% |
| 2023 | $180,241 | 56.6% |
| 2024 | $327,825 | 81.9% |
| Rank | Category | Medicaid Payments | Share of City Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Evaluation and Management | $2,007,198 | 63.1% |
| 2 | Pathology and Laboratory Procedures | $332,733 | 10.5% |
| 3 | Dental Services | $327,825 | 10.3% |
| 4 | Medicine Services and Procedures | $316,151 | 9.9% |
| 5 | Vision Services | $147,639 | 4.6% |
| 6 | Radiology Procedures | $31,761 | 1% |
| 7 | Procedures / Professional Services | $16,402 | 0.5% |
| 8 | Durable Medical Equipment | $2,015 | 0.1% |
| 9 | Surgery | $410 | <0.1% |
| 10 | Drugs Administered Other than Oral Method | $32 | <0.1% |
| HCPCS Code | Description | Medicaid Payments | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| D0120 | Periodic oral evaluation | $87,091 | 52 |
| D0330 | Panoramic image | $47,480 | 50 |
| D0150 | Comprehensve oral evaluation | $45,513 | 23 |
| D0272 | Dental bitewings two images | $40,135 | 46 |
| D0230 | Intraoral periapical ea add | $37,212 | 30 |
| D0220 | Intraoral periapical first | $33,241 | 47 |
| D0140 | Limit oral eval problm focus | $25,383 | 29 |
| D0274 | Bitewings four images | $11,768 | 24 |
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.