According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database, Medicaid providers in South Burlington billed $893,193 for Dental Services in 2024. This figure was up 37% from $652,066 billed for the same services in 2023.
Medicaid is a public health insurance system jointly run by states and funded by both federal and state governments. The program serves low-income people and families, seniors, children, and individuals with disabilities, making it a major component of health care in the United States.
With Medicaid payments sourced from taxpayers, variations in local billing levels reflect how communities utilize and allocate public health funds.
The “Dental Services” group encompasses various types of Medicaid-billed dental care, identified by standardized HCPCS and CPT codes. For this report, each billing code was mapped to a service category using defined code prefixes and numeric groupings; this approach ensured related services could be tracked together, eliminated double counting, and maintained consistent rankings across years.
While overall Medicaid spending grew in several service groups, Dental Services was the second-largest category by 2024 Medicaid payment totals in South Burlington.
Statewide in Vermont, Dental Services ranked seventh among all Medicaid categories by total payments in 2024.
Medicaid payments in South Burlington for Dental Services climbed by $512,828, or 134.8%, in the five years up to 2024. Significant growth was especially notable in 2023 and 2021.
Although spending spanned the city, payments for dental services were primarily concentrated in a small number of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 05403 was the location with the highest Medicaid dental payments, totaling $893,193. As a result, the top 1 ZIP code represented 100% of South Burlington’s Medicaid dental spending that year.
Within Dental Services, most Medicaid payments were attributed to a select set of billing codes.
Comparatively, Medicaid payments for Dental Services rose 37% between 2023 and 2024 in South Burlington, which outpaced the 23.7% overall change for all Medicaid claim categories in the city over the same period.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined federal and state Medicaid expenditures were about $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, representing roughly 18% of total U.S. health spending, up from around $613.5 billion in 2019 before the COVID-19 crisis.
This change suggests growth of about 40% within a few years, driven largely by more people enrolling and greater service use during and after the pandemic.
Recent federal budget measures from the Trump administration included major plans to reduce federal Medicaid funding and change how the program operates. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” passed in 2025, is expected to trim over $1 trillion from federal Medicaid funds in the next ten years and introduces policy changes such as work requirements and increased cost-sharing, which could cut coverage and funding for certain groups. These measures are likely to shift more costs to states and limit future federal Medicaid growth, as the program continues to cover tens of millions in the U.S.
| Year | Total Medicaid Payments | % Change From Previous Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $380,364 | -4.7% |
| 2021 | $471,233 | 23.9% |
| 2022 | $475,701 | 0.9% |
| 2023 | $652,066 | 37.1% |
| 2024 | $893,193 | 37% |
| Rank | Category | Medicaid Payments | Share of City Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment | $4,489,695 | 48.5% |
| 2 | Dental Services | $893,193 | 9.6% |
| 3 | Temporary National Codes (Non-Medicare) | $664,879 | 7.2% |
| 4 | Evaluation and Management | $607,168 | 6.6% |
| 5 | Medicine Services and Procedures | $583,950 | 6.3% |
| 6 | Medical And Surgical Supplies | $558,512 | 6% |
| 7 | Durable Medical Equipment | $522,668 | 5.6% |
| 8 | Orthotic Procedures and services | $482,603 | 5.2% |
| 9 | Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies | $222,800 | 2.4% |
| 10 | Durable medical equipment (DME) Medicare administrative contractors (MACs) | $64,731 | 0.7% |
| 11 | Drugs Administered Other than Oral Method | $64,666 | 0.7% |
| 12 | Radiology Procedures | $46,011 | 0.5% |
| 13 | Surgery | $41,097 | 0.4% |
| 14 | National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies | $13,545 | 0.1% |
| 15 | Pathology and Laboratory Procedures | $3,795 | <0.1% |
| 16 | Procedures / Professional Services | $0 | <0.1% |
| HCPCS Code | Description | Medicaid Payments | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| D0120 | Periodic oral evaluation | $328,397 | 145 |
| D0272 | Dental bitewings two images | $114,704 | 102 |
| D0150 | Comprehensve oral evaluation | $90,600 | 52 |
| D0330 | Panoramic image | $77,250 | 47 |
| D0140 | Limit oral eval problm focus | $53,495 | 58 |
| D0470 | Diagnostic casts | $51,542 | 34 |
| D0274 | Bitewings four images | $42,721 | 53 |
| D0220 | Intraoral periapical first | $37,105 | 38 |
| D0340 | 2d cephalometric image | $36,627 | 26 |
| D0230 | Intraoral periapical ea add | $31,364 | 24 |
| D0350 | Oral/facial photo images | $15,748 | 25 |
| D0210 | Intraor comprehensive series | $12,581 | 6 |
| D0145 | Oral evaluation, pt < 3yrs | $1,054 | 1 |
| D0601 | Caries risk assess low risk | $0 | 1 |
| D0602 | Caries risk assess mod risk | $0 | 4 |
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.
