Plentywood Medicaid spending on dental care jumps to $1,605 in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Plentywood submitted $1,605 in billing for Dental Services, data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database shows. That total reflects a 53.7% rise from 2023, when $1,044 in claims were filed under this service category.

Medicaid operates as a joint state and federal public health insurance initiative for low-income individuals, seniors, children, and persons with disabilities, making it a core element of the U.S. health care system. Funding is provided by both state and federal governments.

Since Medicaid is taxpayer-funded, variation in community billing highlights how public healthcare resources are distributed locally.

The “Dental Services” group represents a collection of Medicaid-supported procedures, grouped according to service type using standardized HCPCS and CPT coding. Each code was categorized with unique prefixes and number ranges to keep analysis standardized and avoid duplicates while maintaining accurate rankings over time.

While overall Medicaid spending increased for a variety of categories, Dental Services placed fourth for Plentywood in terms of total Medicaid payments in 2024.

Statewide, Dental Services represented the sixth highest payment category for Medicaid in Montana in 2024.

During the five-year span ending in 2024, Dental Services-related Medicaid payments in Plentywood advanced by $222, or 12.1%. This rate of spending grew at accelerated rates during select years, with significant increases noted in 2022 and 2022.

Despite distribution citywide, Dental Services payments were heavily concentrated within specific ZIP codes. In 2024, the highest Medicaid Dental Services payments in Plentywood came from ZIP code 59254 at $1,604. All spending in this category for the city that year was reported in just one ZIP code.

Within the Dental Services category, a limited set of billing codes accounted for the bulk of Medicaid payments.

Over the 2024 to 2023 period, Dental Services-related Medicaid payments climbed 53.7% in Plentywood, compared with a 47.5% change among all Medicaid billing categories during the same timeframe in the city.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined state and federal Medicaid spending totaled an estimated $871.7 billion in fiscal 2023, comprising about 18% of all U.S. health expenditures. This is a substantial increase from $613.5 billion in 2019—prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The shift shows a nearly 40% surge within several years, largely stemming from greater enrollment and rising use of services during and after the pandemic.

Recent federal budget measures introduced under the Trump administration have included proposals to substantially decrease federal Medicaid funding and structural changes to the program. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which became law in 2025, aims to reduce federal Medicaid outlays by more than $1 trillion over the coming decade. It brings in new requirements such as work-proof mandates and bigger patient out-of-pocket costs, potentially lowering coverage and funds available to some recipients. Additional costs could shift to states as federal support growth slows, even while the program continues to cover tens of millions.

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.