Polson Medicaid providers billed $41,958 for Dental Services in 2024, data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database shows. This represents a 25.5% rise compared with 2023, when claims for the same service category totaled $33,444.
Medicaid, operated by states and financed through both federal and state funds, provides coverage for low-income people, seniors, children, and individuals with disabilities, making it a core element of the nation’s health care structure.
Since Medicaid relies on taxpayer funding, shifts in local billing patterns reveal trends in public health care expense allocation at the community level.
The “Dental Services” category represents a set of Medicaid-billed procedures defined by care type and based on groupings of standardized HCPCS and CPT codes. For this report, codes were allocated to specific service groups with consistent prefixes and numerical ranges, ensuring related services are grouped, double counting is avoided, and accurate rankings are maintained over time.
While Medicaid spending went up in various service groups, Dental Services ranked as the fourth highest Medicaid payment category in Polson in 2024.
Statewide in Montana, the Dental Services category was sixth for total Medicaid payments in 2024.
During the five years preceding 2024, Dental Services-related Medicaid spending in Polson rose by $31,240, or 42.7%. Some years saw accelerated growth, notably in 2020 and 2021 with considerable year-over-year increases.
Although Medicaid spending for Dental Services was present across the city, a small number of ZIP codes received the majority of payments. The highest payments in 2024—$41,957—were recorded in ZIP code 59860, making up 100% of such Medicaid payments in Polson for the year.
Additionally, Medicaid payments for Dental Services were highly concentrated within a select group of billing codes.
By comparison, the 25.5% increase in Polson’s Medicaid Dental Services between 2024 and 2023 outpaced the 13.4% overall increase in Medicaid payments across all claim categories in the city over the same period.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, total state and federal Medicaid expenditures were approximately $871.7 billion in fiscal 2023, accounting for around 18% of all national health care spending, a sharp rise from $613.5 billion in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.
This increase of about 40% over a few years was driven mainly by greater enrollment and increased use during and after the pandemic period.
Recent federal budget measures during the Trump administration included major efforts to reduce federal Medicaid spending and alter the program. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is projected to decrease federal Medicaid expenditures by over $1 trillion over the next decade and implements work requirements, higher cost-sharing, and other steps that could lessen coverage and funding for certain recipients. These policies are expected to increase state costs and constrain federal Medicaid growth even as the program continues to cover tens of millions of Americans.
| Year | Total Medicaid Payments | % Change From Previous Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $73,198 | 9.8% |
| 2021 | $77,759 | 6.2% |
| 2022 | $42,480 | -45.4% |
| 2023 | $33,444 | -21.3% |
| 2024 | $41,957 | 25.5% |
| Rank | Category | Medicaid Payments | Share of City Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Medicine Services and Procedures | $280,665 | 38.5% |
| 2 | Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies | $223,645 | 30.7% |
| 3 | Evaluation and Management | $137,877 | 18.9% |
| 4 | Dental Services | $41,957 | 5.8% |
| 5 | Pathology and Laboratory Procedures | $26,032 | 3.6% |
| 6 | Radiology Procedures | $14,699 | 2% |
| 7 | Drugs Administered Other than Oral Method | $1,864 | 0.3% |
| 8 | Medical And Surgical Supplies | $1,308 | 0.2% |
| 9 | Surgery | $497 | 0.1% |
| 10 | Temporary Codes | $251 | <0.1% |
| 11 | Procedures / Professional Services | $247 | <0.1% |
| HCPCS Code | Description | Medicaid Payments | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| D0120 | Periodic oral evaluation | $19,224 | 15 |
| D0274 | Bitewings four images | $10,580 | 15 |
| D0140 | Limit oral eval problm focus | $5,040 | 10 |
| D0150 | Comprehensve oral evaluation | $3,720 | 6 |
| D0272 | Dental bitewings two images | $2,196 | 6 |
| D0330 | Panoramic image | $708 | 1 |
| D0220 | Intraoral periapical first | $485 | 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.
