South Gate Medicaid providers claimed $3,228,779 for Dental Services in 2024, based on figures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This amount was 1.3% higher than in 2023, when $3,188,862 was billed for these services.
Medicaid is a health insurance program operated by states and jointly funded by the federal and state governments. The program provides coverage for low-income people, seniors, children, and those with disabilities, and is a major part of the U.S. health care landscape. More about Medicaid funding is available from the Commonwealth Fund.
Changes in local Medicaid billing levels reflect shifts in how taxpayer-financed health care funds are distributed within communities.
The “Dental Services” classification groups Medicaid-billed services by type of care, relying on standardized HCPCS and CPT code sets. This analysis assigned each billing code to a single service group using specific prefixes and code ranges to ensure accurate tracking and ranking over time, with related services considered together and double counting avoided.
Dental Services was the second-highest Medicaid payment category in South Gate for 2024, with total payments outpaced by just one other category.
Statewide, Dental Services ranked 11th among all Medicaid payment categories in California in 2024.
From 2019 through 2024, Dental Services-related Medicaid payments in South Gate grew by $1,432,555, or 79.8%. Some of the sharpest annual gains occurred in 2022 and 2021.
Spending in the Dental Services group was distributed citywide, but significant portions were tied to specific ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 90280 accounted for $3,228,778 in Medicaid Dental Services payments, representing all such claims in South Gate for the year.
A small number of individual billing codes represented the bulk of payments in the Dental Services group.
For perspective, Dental Services Medicaid payments in South Gate increased by 1.3% from 2023 to 2024. Across all Medicaid categories in the city, the change during this period was 33.1%.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the combined Medicaid spending by federal and state governments was about $871.7 billion for fiscal 2023, which made up roughly 18% of national health expenditures and reflected a sharp increase from $613.5 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
That jump amounts to about 40% growth within a few years, largely as a result of increased enrollment and utilization during and following the pandemic period.
Recent federal budgets under the Trump administration proposed major federal Medicaid spending reductions and restructuring. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is estimated to reduce federal Medicaid spending by over $1 trillion in the next decade. It includes policies such as work requirements and new cost-sharing rules that may reduce coverage for certain beneficiaries and shift more of the funding burden to individual states, even as Medicaid continues covering tens of millions nationwide.
| Year | Total Medicaid Payments | % Change From Previous Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $1,796,224 | -14.4% |
| 2021 | $2,413,267 | 34.4% |
| 2022 | $3,252,693 | 34.8% |
| 2023 | $3,188,861 | -2% |
| 2024 | $3,228,778 | 1.3% |
| Rank | Category | Medicaid Payments | Share of City Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies | $39,257,583 | 84.9% |
| 2 | Dental Services | $3,228,778 | 7% |
| 3 | Medicine Services and Procedures | $1,418,355 | 3.1% |
| 4 | Temporary National Codes (Non-Medicare) | $712,131 | 1.5% |
| 5 | Anesthesia | $700,753 | 1.5% |
| 6 | Evaluation and Management | $561,378 | 1.2% |
| 7 | Medical And Surgical Supplies | $105,628 | 0.2% |
| 8 | Procedures / Professional Services | $94,022 | 0.2% |
| 9 | Vision Services | $43,747 | 0.1% |
| 10 | Surgery | $41,673 | 0.1% |
| 11 | Drugs Administered Other than Oral Method | $21,806 | <0.1% |
| 12 | Radiology Procedures | $20,940 | <0.1% |
| 13 | Pathology and Laboratory Procedures | $18,441 | <0.1% |
| 14 | Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment | $0 | <0.1% |
| 15 | Temporary Codes | $0 | <0.1% |
| HCPCS Code | Description | Medicaid Payments | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| D0120 | Periodic oral evaluation | $1,226,847 | 395 |
| D0150 | Comprehensve oral evaluation | $629,837 | 284 |
| D0230 | Intraoral periapical ea add | $420,357 | 474 |
| D0210 | Intraor comprehensive series | $253,122 | 220 |
| D0274 | Bitewings four images | $139,931 | 226 |
| D0350 | Oral/facial photo images | $105,081 | 182 |
| D0330 | Panoramic image | $90,913 | 65 |
| D0220 | Intraoral periapical first | $87,233 | 232 |
| D0272 | Dental bitewings two images | $81,640 | 161 |
| D0603 | Caries risk assess high risk | $76,870 | 154 |
| D0145 | Oral evaluation, pt < 3yrs | $73,135 | 49 |
| D0340 | 2d cephalometric image | $23,037 | 19 |
| D0140 | Limit oral eval problm focus | $15,911 | 31 |
| D0601 | Caries risk assess low risk | $4,185 | 11 |
| D0602 | Caries risk assess mod risk | $675 | 16 |
| D0190 | Screening of a patient | $0 | 7 |
| D0270 | Dental bitewing single image | $0 | 1 |
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.