In 2024, providers in La Mirada billed $1,079,883 to Medicaid for Dental Services, data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database shows. This reflected an 11.8% rise compared with 2023, when claims reached $965,652 for these services.
Medicaid is a state-operated public health insurance program jointly funded by federal and state governments. It covers seniors, children, low-income individuals and families, and people with disabilities, making it a core part of the nation’s health care system.
Because Medicaid is funded by taxpayers, local billing shifts illustrate how public health care resources are distributed within a community.
The “Dental Services” category includes Medicaid services grouped by type of care, based on unified HCPCS and CPT coding. For this analysis, billing codes were assigned to a single service category using consistent prefixes and ranges, allowing accurate reviews over time and minimizing double counting.
Dental Services led all Medicaid payment categories in La Mirada in 2024.
Across California, Dental Services ranked 11th statewide by total Medicaid payments that year.
Between 2019 and 2024, Medicaid payments connected to Dental Services in La Mirada rose $645,365, or 148.5%. Some years saw more rapid increases, especially in 2021 and 2022.
While Dental Services spending was distributed throughout La Mirada, payments were most concentrated in a small number of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 90638 recorded $1,079,883 in Medicaid payments for Dental Services. Altogether, the leading ZIP code made up 100% of the city’s Medicaid payments for the service category in 2024.
Medicaid payments in Dental Services also focused on a few main billing codes.
For a broader context, Medicaid payments for Dental Services in La Mirada grew by 11.8% between 2024 and 2023, while payments across all Medicaid service categories in the city rose by 18.5% over the same period.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, joint federal and state Medicaid spending reached about $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, representing roughly 18% of total U.S. health expenditures—a notable increase from approximately $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
This marks an increase of about 40% in just a few years, driven mostly by higher enrollment and utilization during and after the pandemic.
Recent major federal budget laws under the Trump administration have included high-profile proposals to scale back Medicaid funding at the federal level and restructure the system. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” passed in 2025, is projected to cut more than $1 trillion from federal Medicaid spending over the next 10 years, introducing new work requirements and higher cost-sharing that could lessen coverage and funding for some Americans. These adjustments are expected to move more costs to state governments and slow future federal Medicaid growth, even as the program continues to reach tens of millions.
| Year | Total Medicaid Payments | % Change From Previous Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $434,518 | 12.5% |
| 2021 | $632,585 | 45.6% |
| 2022 | $856,096 | 35.3% |
| 2023 | $965,652 | 12.8% |
| 2024 | $1,079,883 | 11.8% |
| Rank | Category | Medicaid Payments | Share of City Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dental Services | $1,079,883 | 73.3% |
| 2 | Procedures / Professional Services | $122,885 | 8.3% |
| 3 | Temporary Codes | $90,763 | 6.2% |
| 4 | Medicine Services and Procedures | $83,671 | 5.7% |
| 5 | Evaluation and Management | $49,401 | 3.4% |
| 6 | Anesthesia | $44,686 | 3% |
| 7 | Vision Services | $2,131 | 0.1% |
| 8 | Pathology and Laboratory Procedures | $677 | <0.1% |
| HCPCS Code | Description | Medicaid Payments | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| D0120 | Periodic oral evaluation | $401,269 | 40 |
| D0150 | Comprehensve oral evaluation | $323,319 | 83 |
| D0230 | Intraoral periapical ea add | $103,274 | 80 |
| D0330 | Panoramic image | $43,315 | 53 |
| D0272 | Dental bitewings two images | $38,328 | 14 |
| D0145 | Oral evaluation, pt < 3yrs | $37,507 | 12 |
| D0603 | Caries risk assess high risk | $33,225 | 22 |
| D0210 | Intraor comprehensive series | $32,744 | 21 |
| D0274 | Bitewings four images | $30,052 | 34 |
| D0220 | Intraoral periapical first | $16,125 | 35 |
| D0350 | Oral/facial photo images | $8,841 | 17 |
| D0140 | Limit oral eval problm focus | $8,785 | 14 |
| D0602 | Caries risk assess mod risk | $1,845 | 4 |
| D0270 | Dental bitewing single image | $1,250 | 12 |
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.