Brownsville medical providers reported $65,500 in Medicaid billing for Dental Services in 2024, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This represents a 10.9% bump from 2023, when $59,049 in claims were filed for the same services.
Medicaid, a state-administered health insurance program jointly funded by federal and state sources, assists low-income individuals and families, seniors, children, and those with disabilities, making it one of the largest components of the U.S. health system.
As Medicaid spending relies on taxpayer funding, shifts in local billing reflect how public health resources are distributed within a community.
The “Dental Services” category includes a set of Medicaid procedures grouped by care type, relying on standardized HCPCS and CPT code frameworks. Each code in this review was placed within a single service group using consistent code prefixes and number ranges, ensuring related services are tallied together and rankings remain accurate over time.
While Medicaid costs increased in several service areas, Dental Services ranked fourth for total Medicaid disbursements in Brownsville in 2024.
Statewide, Dental Services fell 12th for overall Medicaid payments in Tennessee in 2024.
Between 2019 and 2024, Medicaid spending linked to Dental Services in Brownsville climbed by $21,626, representing a 49.3% increase. Spending saw faster growth at certain times, with notable jumps in 2021 and 2023.
Despite citywide use, Medicaid dental payments were mainly concentrated in a few ZIP codes. The 38012 ZIP code recorded $65,499 in 2024, accounting for 100% of all local Medicaid Dental Services payments for the year.
Dental Services Medicaid payments were also concentrated in a small selection of billing codes.
Dental Services in Brownsville saw a 10.9% increase from 2023 to 2024, compared with a 19.9% rate across all Medicaid categories in the city during that period.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, federal and state Medicaid outlays reached approximately $871.7 billion in fiscal 2023, or about 18% of total U.S. health expenditures, a sharp uptick from $613.5 billion in 2019, ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This growth of about 40% over several years was fueled mainly by enrollments rising and more people using Medicaid during and after the pandemic.
Recent federal budget measures under the Trump administration included significant proposals to decrease federal Medicaid funding and restructure the program. For instance, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is expected to trim more than $1 trillion from federal Medicaid spending over 10 years, bringing changes like work requirements and higher cost-sharing that could reduce funding and coverage for some groups. These reforms are anticipated to put greater financial responsibility on states and slow federal Medicaid funding growth, even as the program continues to assist millions nationwide.
| Year | Total Medicaid Payments | % Change From Previous Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $43,873 | -22.7% |
| 2021 | $49,275 | 12.3% |
| 2022 | $52,638 | 6.8% |
| 2023 | $59,048 | 12.2% |
| 2024 | $65,499 | 10.9% |
| Rank | Category | Medicaid Payments | Share of City Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Evaluation and Management | $653,640 | 61.9% |
| 2 | Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies | $189,136 | 17.9% |
| 3 | Pathology and Laboratory Procedures | $79,545 | 7.5% |
| 4 | Dental Services | $65,499 | 6.2% |
| 5 | Medicine Services and Procedures | $57,565 | 5.5% |
| 6 | Radiology Procedures | $6,502 | 0.6% |
| 7 | Surgery | $1,989 | 0.2% |
| 8 | Drugs Administered Other than Oral Method | $1,608 | 0.2% |
| 9 | Vision Services | $419 | <0.1% |
| 10 | Procedures / Professional Services | $0 | <0.1% |
| HCPCS Code | Description | Medicaid Payments | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| D0120 | Periodic oral evaluation | $29,329 | 22 |
| D0274 | Bitewings four images | $13,221 | 17 |
| D0150 | Comprehensve oral evaluation | $9,975 | 12 |
| D0330 | Panoramic image | $7,164 | 9 |
| D0272 | Dental bitewings two images | $4,941 | 11 |
| D0190 | Screening of a patient | $396 | 2 |
| D0140 | Limit oral eval problm focus | $317 | 1 |
| D0220 | Intraoral periapical first | $153 | 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.
