Benicia Medicaid dental spending rises 13% to $246,895 in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Benicia billed $246,895 for Dental Services, based on figures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This represents a 12.9% uptick from 2023, when claims reached $218,654 for the same services.

Medicaid, a public insurance program managed by states and funded in partnership with the federal government, serves individuals and families with low incomes, in addition to seniors, children, and people with disabilities. It remains among the largest components of the U.S. health system.

Since Medicaid payments are taxpayer funded, local fluctuations in billing indicate how a community allocates its public health care dollars.

The Dental Services category encompasses Medicaid-billed care defined by care type, using standardized HCPCS and CPT code groupings. In this review, each code is assigned to a single category through uniform code prefixes and numerical ranges, so related services are tallied together, avoiding duplication and maintaining consistency in ranking trends.

While spending in several Medicaid categories grew, Dental Services ranked as the second-highest by total payments within Benicia in 2024.

Statewide, Dental Services ranked 11th by total Medicaid payments across all categories in California for 2024.

Between 2020 and 2024, Medicaid payments for Dental Services in Benicia rose by $163,635, or 196.5%. Some periods saw accelerated growth, especially in 2023 and 2021, with substantial year-over-year increases.

Dental Services expenditures in Benicia were focused predominantly in a few ZIP codes. In 2024, the 94510 ZIP code alone totaled $246,895, representing 100% of Dental Services Medicaid payments for Benicia.

Payments within the Dental Services category also showed concentration among a smaller range of individual billing codes.

Notably, Medicaid payments tied to Dental Services in Benicia grew by 12.9% comparing 2024 and 2023, while aggregate Medicaid claim categories in the city saw a 21.8% change in the same interval.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reported combined federal and state Medicaid spending at roughly $871.7 billion for the fiscal year 2023. That accounted for 18% of overall national health care expenditures, up from about $613.5 billion in 2019, which predated the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This represents an increase of around 40% over several years, largely driven by increased enrollment and utilization during and following the pandemic.

Recent federal budget measures during the Trump administration included significant efforts to reduce federal Medicaid funding and alter the program’s structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is anticipated to lower federal Medicaid spending by more than $1 trillion in the next decade, incorporating changes such as work requirements and bigger cost-sharing responsibilities that may impact beneficiary coverage and state funding. These reforms are likely to transfer additional costs to states and restrict the expansion of federal Medicaid support, while the program still assists tens of millions across the country.

Note: HCPCS codes are presented for category context. Totals and rankings here are determined by standardized service groupings, not single billing codes.

The information in this article is sourced from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. Source data is available here.