Lake Worth sees $323,288 in Medicaid payments for dental services in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Lake Worth submitted billing totaling $323,288 for services within the Dental Services category, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending data shows. This represented an 8.5% rise from the previous year, when providers billed $297,925 for similar dental care.

Medicaid is a public insurance program operated by each state and funded by both state and federal governments. It provides coverage for low-income families and individuals, seniors, children, and people with disabilities, and forms a large part of the national health care system.

As Medicaid spending is taxpayer-funded, trends in local billing help illustrate how public health resources are distributed throughout the community.

The “Dental Services” group consists of Medicaid-billed procedures organized by care type, based on standardized HCPCS and CPT coding. For this analysis, each code was assigned exclusively to one service category through set prefixes and number ranges, enabling the grouping of similar treatments while preventing duplication and maintaining historical ranking consistency.

Dentistry led all Medicaid service categories in Lake Worth by total payments for 2024.

Statewide, Dental Services ranked as the seventh-largest Medicaid spending category in Texas in 2024.

Between 2019 and 2024, Medicaid payments for Dental Services in Lake Worth rose by $292,259, equivalent to a 941.9% increase. Growth accelerated in several periods, with significant yearly increases in 2021 and 2022.

While dental-related Medicaid expenditures were distributed across Lake Worth, most payments were concentrated in just a few ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 76135 accounted for $323,288 in Medicaid dental payments, representing 100% of all such payments reported in the city for the year.

Payment levels within the Dental Services category were tightly focused on a limited set of billing codes.

Comparing 2024 to 2023, Medicaid payments for Dental Services in Lake Worth increased by 8.5%. This was below the 16.3% growth seen across all Medicaid claim categories locally for the same period.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data shows combined federal and state Medicaid spending reached approximately $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, about 18% of all U.S. health care expenditures. This was a significant rise from $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This change reflects roughly 40% growth over a few years, attributed primarily to higher enrollment and utilization during and after the pandemic.

Federal budget acts during the Trump administration have proposed major reductions in Medicaid funding and changes to the program’s structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is expected to reduce federal Medicaid contributions by over $1 trillion over 10 years, creating new requirements such as work provisions and higher cost-sharing, measures projected to limit coverage and funding for some enrollees. These changes are designed to shift greater Medicaid financing responsibility to states and moderate the program’s federal growth trajectory while it continues supporting tens of millions of Americans.

Note: HCPCS codes are provided for context within this category. Category totals and rankings in this report use consistent groupings rather than by individual code.

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. Access the data here.