Takoma Park Medicaid dental service claims reach $1.9 million in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Takoma Park claimed $1,947,259 for Dental Services, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This was a 2.5% increase over 2023, when $1,899,901 was billed for this service type.

Medicaid, the public health insurance program managed by states and funded by both federal and state governments, provides coverage to low-income groups including families, seniors, children and people with disabilities, and is one of the largest health care payers in the country.

Because taxpayer dollars support Medicaid payments, fluctuations in local claims activity help indicate how public health care resources are used in a given area.

The “Dental Services” category includes a selection of Medicaid-billed services determined by the specific nature of care delivered, organized using consistent HCPCS and CPT code patterns. Each billing code in this analysis was categorized per established code prefixes and ranges to group related services and prevent duplication while maintaining comparison accuracy across years.

While various Medicaid payment categories in Takoma Park saw increases, Dental Services finished fourth by total Medicaid payments for 2024.

Statewide in Maryland, Dental Services ranked seventh for Medicaid payments during 2024.

From 2019 to 2024, Takoma Park’s Medicaid payments for Dental Services grew by $1,090,374 or 127.2%. The rate of growth quickened at times during that span, especially in 2021 and 2023.

Dental Services spending occurred across the city but centered within a few ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 20912 alone represented $1,947,259 in Medicaid Dental Service payments, accounting for all Medicaid spending in that category for Takoma Park in that year.

Payments within the Dental Services classification were also highly concentrated among only a handful of billing codes.

Between 2023 and 2024, Medicaid Dental Service payments in Takoma Park rose 2.5%, compared with a 15% increase in Medicaid payments overall, across all claim categories in the city during that time frame.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reports that federal and state Medicaid spending totaled about $871.7 billion in fiscal 2023, which comprised around 18% of the nation’s total health expenditures, up substantially from approximately $613.5 billion in 2019 preceding COVID-19.

This equates to spending growth of close to 40% over several years, fueled primarily by greater program enrollment and increased use during and after the pandemic.

Recent federal budget laws from the Trump administration brought proposals to decrease federal Medicaid funding and restructure its design. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” passed in 2025, is expected to reduce federal Medicaid funding by more than $1 trillion over the coming decade and bring forward new measures such as employment requirements and higher cost-sharing, which may restrict coverage and funding for some participants. These changes are projected to shift additional financial responsibility to the states and constrain the future federal share for Medicaid even as enrollment continues to cover 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.