High Point Medicaid dental services reach $2,182,612 in 2024, marking 32.1% increase

In 2024, Medicaid providers in High Point submitted $2,182,612 in claims for services within the Dental Services category, as reported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This figure represents a 32.1% increase from 2023, when claims for similar dental services totaled $1,651,950.

Medicaid, a publicly funded health insurance program administered by the states and backed by both federal and state governments, provides health coverage to low-income individuals, families, seniors, children, and people with disabilities. The program constitutes a significant portion of the U.S. health care system.

Because Medicaid relies on taxpayer dollars, fluctuations in local billing indicate how public health care spending is distributed in different areas.

The “Dental Services” grouping covers a range of Medicaid-billed procedures as defined by service type, using standardized HCPCS and CPT code groupings. To conduct this analysis, each billing code was aligned to a single category through code prefixes and numerical ranges. This approach assisted in grouping related services and avoiding duplicate counts, ensuring accurate comparisons over time.

Medicaid outlays rose for several service groups, but Dental Services ranked sixth in High Point by overall Medicaid payments in 2024.

Statewide, Dental Services held the ninth spot for total Medicaid payments in North Carolina in 2024.

Between 2019 and 2024, Medicaid payments for Dental Services in High Point climbed by $761,967, an increase of 53.6%. Growth accelerated in selected years, with especially notable upticks in 2021 and 2023.

Spending for Dental Services was not uniform throughout the city; instead, most payments were concentrated within a select group of ZIP codes. For 2024, ZIP codes 27262, 27265, and 27268 tallied Medicaid dental payments of $1,014,839, $992,770, and $175,001, respectively. Collectively, these 3 ZIP codes represented 100% of Medicaid Dental Services payments in High Point for the year.

Within this category, Medicaid expenditures were centered on a handful of individual billing codes.

In High Point, Medicaid spending on Dental Services grew 32.1% from 2023 to 2024, outpacing the 7.2% change across all Medicaid claims categories in the city during that time frame.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, federal and state Medicaid expenditures reached about $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, accounting for approximately 18% of national health spending. This was a significant rise from $613.5 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This upturn reflects nearly 40% growth over a few years, primarily fueled by greater enrollment and increased utilization both during and after the pandemic period.

Recent federal budget laws under the Trump administration have introduced major proposals to scale back federal Medicaid funding and restructure the program. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, aims to reduce federal Medicaid expenditures by over $1 trillion over the next decade, and puts forward policies like work requirements and higher cost-sharing, possibly decreasing coverage and funding for certain beneficiaries. As a result, states are expected to bear greater costs and see constraints in federal Medicaid funding growth, although the program will continue supporting tens of millions nationwide.

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.