Orange Beach Medicaid Dental Services payments rise to $31,854 in 2024

Orange Beach Medicaid providers billed $31,854 for services in the Dental Services category during 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This was a 65.3% rise from 2023, when providers submitted $19,271 in claims for the same service type.

Medicaid is a public health insurance plan operated by states and funded in partnership with the federal government. The program serves low-income individuals and families, seniors, children, and people with disabilities, and remains a major segment of the U.S. health care system.

Because taxpayer dollars fund Medicaid payments, shifts in local billing amounts reflect how a community allocates public health care resources.

The “Dental Services” category includes Medicaid-billed treatments defined by care type, grouped using standardized HCPCS and CPT codes. For this analysis, each billing code was assigned to only one service category based on consistent code prefixes and number ranges. This approach allowed related services to be tracked together, avoiding double counting and maintaining accurate category rankings over time.

While spending increased in multiple service types, Dental Services led all categories by total Medicaid payments in Orange Beach for 2024.

Across Alabama, Dental Services stood ninth statewide in total Medicaid payments for 2024.

In the five years preceding 2024, Medicaid payments for the Dental Services category in Orange Beach grew by $31,854, which amounts to 0%. Some periods saw spending accelerate faster, including significant year-over-year gains in 2023 and 2022.

Dentistry-related payments were spread throughout Orange Beach, but primarily concentrated in a small set of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 36561 comprised $31,853 of these Medicaid payments—representing 100% of Orange Beach’s Dental Services spending for the year.

Among Dental Services, Medicaid payments were focused within a limited group of billing codes.

Looking at local trends, Medicaid payments for Dental Services in Orange Beach grew by 65.3% between 2024 and 2023. This compares to a 16.2% change across all claim categories citywide during that same period.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services figures show that federal and state Medicaid spending combined totaled about $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023. This accounted for roughly 18% of overall national health spending—up sharply from $613.5 billion in 2019, ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The increase amounts to nearly 40% growth over several years, mostly due to expanded program enrollment and greater use during and following the pandemic period.

Recent federal budget legislation passed under the Trump administration included major proposals to reduce federal Medicaid contributions and modify the program’s structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is expected to reduce federal Medicaid spending by over $1 trillion over the next 10 years while introducing work requirements and higher cost-sharing. These policies may reduce access and funding for certain beneficiaries, transferring more program costs to states and slowing the pace of federal Medicaid funding growth, even as the program covers tens of millions of Americans.

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.