In Gardena, Medicaid providers submitted $844,586 in claims under the Dental Services category in 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This amount reflects a 9.9% rise from the $768,539 billed in 2023 for the same types of services.
Medicaid serves as a state-run, federally and state-funded public health insurance program. The program provides coverage for low-income individuals, families, seniors, children, and people with disabilities and remains a major component of the U.S. health care system. Further details on funding for Medicaid can be found here.
As Medicaid funds come from taxpayers, variations in local billing help indicate how health care spending is allocated in a given area.
The Dental Services category comprises Medicaid-billed care identified by service definitions, sorted through consistent HCPCS and CPT code prefixes and numeric ranges. For this analysis, each billing code was mapped to one service category to prevent double counting and to ensure accurate comparisons and rankings over time.
Spending rose in several Medicaid service areas, though Dental Services finished ninth among all categories for total Medicaid payments in Gardena in 2024.
Across California, the Dental Services category ranked 11th by Medicaid payment volume for the same year.
Between the five years and 2024, Medicaid funds paid for Dental Services in Gardena went up by $425,763, or 101.7%. There were sizable increases during certain periods, including significant jumps in 2022 and 2021.
Within Gardena, Medicaid spending for Dental Services showed concentration by ZIP code. For 2024, 90247 saw $711,017 in payments, while 90249 received $119,640 and 90248 accounted for $13,928. These three ZIP codes represented 100% of all Medicaid payments for Dental Services in Gardena that year.
Payments within this category were also heavily focused among particular individual billing codes.
In context, Gardena’s Medicaid Dental Services spending grew 9.9% from 2023 to 2024, compared with a 1.8% overall change across all Medicaid claim types in the city in the same period.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, total state and federal Medicaid spending rose to about $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, making up approximately 18% of national health outlays. This reflects a sharp increase from $613.5 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
That rise amounts to growth of nearly 40% within a few years, a trend likely driven by expanded enrollment and more frequent use of services during and following the pandemic.
Recent federal budget laws during the Trump administration included major moves to cut federal Medicaid support and change program rules. For instance, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” passed in 2025, is forecasted to trim over $1 trillion from federal Medicaid spending during the next decade. It features new work requirements and greater cost-sharing responsibilities—measures expected to reduce coverage and payments for some recipients, increase financial commitments for states, and restrain the pace of federal Medicaid funding as the program continues to cover million of Americans.
| Year | Total Medicaid Payments | % Change From Previous Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $418,823 | -20.7% |
| 2021 | $559,793 | 33.7% |
| 2022 | $755,221 | 34.9% |
| 2023 | $768,539 | 1.8% |
| 2024 | $844,585 | 9.9% |
| Rank | Category | Medicaid Payments | Share of City Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Evaluation and Management | $21,621,167 | 28.2% |
| 2 | Medicine Services and Procedures | $21,266,781 | 27.7% |
| 3 | Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment | $16,362,143 | 21.3% |
| 4 | Procedures / Professional Services | $5,384,505 | 7% |
| 5 | Temporary National Codes (Non-Medicare) | $5,054,208 | 6.6% |
| 6 | Anesthesia | $2,115,936 | 2.8% |
| 7 | National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies | $1,323,243 | 1.7% |
| 8 | Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies | $1,256,471 | 1.6% |
| 9 | Dental Services | $844,585 | 1.1% |
| 10 | Surgery | $574,614 | 0.7% |
| 11 | Radiology Procedures | $482,537 | 0.6% |
| 12 | Pathology and Laboratory Procedures | $187,377 | 0.2% |
| 13 | Chemotherapy Drugs | $63,761 | 0.1% |
| 14 | Vision Services | $46,992 | 0.1% |
| 15 | Drugs Administered Other than Oral Method | $34,081 | <0.1% |
| 16 | Durable Medical Equipment | $14,176 | <0.1% |
| 17 | Medical And Surgical Supplies | $7,083 | <0.1% |
| 18 | Prosthetic Procedures | $1,157 | <0.1% |
| 19 | Temporary Codes | $825 | <0.1% |
| HCPCS Code | Description | Medicaid Payments | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| D0150 | Comprehensve oral evaluation | $272,649 | 82 |
| D0120 | Periodic oral evaluation | $248,350 | 123 |
| D0210 | Intraor comprehensive series | $146,995 | 62 |
| D0230 | Intraoral periapical ea add | $86,694 | 131 |
| D0274 | Bitewings four images | $35,208 | 75 |
| D0350 | Oral/facial photo images | $17,086 | 32 |
| D0272 | Dental bitewings two images | $15,734 | 51 |
| D0330 | Panoramic image | $8,760 | 17 |
| D0603 | Caries risk assess high risk | $6,600 | 21 |
| D0220 | Intraoral periapical first | $3,516 | 18 |
| D0140 | Limit oral eval problm focus | $2,730 | 6 |
| D0601 | Caries risk assess low risk | $195 | 1 |
| D0270 | Dental bitewing single image | $65 | 1 |
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.
