Santa Clarita providers billed Medicaid for $350,724 in dental services in 2024, according to publicly available data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This amount rose 16.9% from $299,987 reported for these services during 2023.
Medicaid, a state-administered health insurance program funded by both federal and state governments, covers eligible low-income adults and children, seniors, and people with disabilities. It is a central component of the U.S. health care system in terms of size and scope.
Taxpayers fund Medicaid through government budgets, so changes in local billing reflect how public health dollars are allocated across services in the region.
The Dental Services category represents an array of Medicaid-billed procedures, with assignments based on standardized HCPCS and CPT codes. For this data analysis, billing codes were matched to individual service categories by using uniform code prefixes and ranges, which helps group similar services while avoiding double counting and maintaining accurate rankings year to year.
Dental Services placed sixth among Medicaid service categories in Santa Clarita by total payments in 2024, following increases across several segments.
Statewide, Dental Services stood as the 11th-ranked Medicaid category for overall payments in California in 2024.
In the five years prior to 2024, Medicaid payments in Santa Clarita assigned to Dental Services grew by $170,600, representing a 94.7% increase. Spending grew particularly strongly in certain years, including 2023 and 2022.
While claims for Dental Services came from across the city, most Medicaid billing was focused in a few ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 91321 led with $148,371, 91387 followed with $140,093, and 91350 tallied $39,897. Combined, the top three ZIP codes represented 93.6% of all Medicaid payments for Dental Services in Santa Clarita for the year.
Just a limited set of billing codes accounted for the majority of Medicaid spending in the Dental Services category locally.
Between 2024 and 2023, Dental Services Medicaid payments in Santa Clarita climbed by 16.9%, while all local Medicaid payment categories saw an overall rise of 11.3% during the same period.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, national Medicaid spending from federal and state sources totaled about $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, reflecting about 18% of all U.S. health spending. This was a major increase from the estimated $613.5 billion spent in 2019, before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The nationwide spending shift amounts to a roughly 40% jump in several years, primarily as a result of increased enrollment and greater service use throughout and following the pandemic.
Recent congressional budget measures enacted under the Trump administration have proposed large-scale reductions in federal Medicaid financing and restructured elements of the program. For example, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” finalized in 2025, is set to reduce federal Medicaid payments by over $1 trillion over 10 years and institute new measures like work requirements and greater cost-sharing, measures that may impact some beneficiaries’ coverage and state funding. As a result, states will likely face increased financial responsibility, constraining federal Medicaid growth even as millions continue to depend on the program.
| Year | Total Medicaid Payments | % Change From Previous Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $180,123 | -16.2% |
| 2021 | $201,668 | 12% |
| 2022 | $234,160 | 16.1% |
| 2023 | $299,987 | 28.1% |
| 2024 | $350,724 | 16.9% |
| Rank | Category | Medicaid Payments | Share of City Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies | $8,112,177 | 62.4% |
| 2 | Medicine Services and Procedures | $1,687,583 | 13% |
| 3 | Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment | $1,243,915 | 9.6% |
| 4 | Evaluation and Management | $624,108 | 4.8% |
| 5 | Anesthesia | $490,024 | 3.8% |
| 6 | Dental Services | $350,724 | 2.7% |
| 7 | Radiology Procedures | $217,993 | 1.7% |
| 8 | Procedures / Professional Services | $96,250 | 0.7% |
| 9 | Drugs Administered Other than Oral Method | $65,292 | 0.5% |
| 10 | Surgery | $53,912 | 0.4% |
| 11 | Temporary National Codes (Non-Medicare) | $40,731 | 0.3% |
| 12 | Medical And Surgical Supplies | $7,374 | 0.1% |
| 13 | Vision Services | $6,309 | <0.1% |
| 14 | Temporary Codes | $2,940 | <0.1% |
| 15 | Pathology and Laboratory Procedures | $2,908 | <0.1% |
| HCPCS Code | Description | Medicaid Payments | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| D0150 | Comprehensve oral evaluation | $115,696 | 65 |
| D0120 | Periodic oral evaluation | $96,112 | 51 |
| D0210 | Intraor comprehensive series | $42,678 | 41 |
| D0230 | Intraoral periapical ea add | $36,644 | 85 |
| D0274 | Bitewings four images | $21,858 | 48 |
| D0350 | Oral/facial photo images | $21,292 | 24 |
| D0220 | Intraoral periapical first | $4,755 | 23 |
| D0272 | Dental bitewings two images | $4,534 | 18 |
| D0330 | Panoramic image | $2,276 | 6 |
| D0603 | Caries risk assess high risk | $1,971 | 7 |
| D0140 | Limit oral eval problm focus | $1,505 | 3 |
| D0340 | 2d cephalometric image | $1,400 | 2 |
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.