Tiptonville Medicaid dental spending rises to $1,464 in 2024, up 248.6%

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Tiptonville billed $1,464 for services under the Dental Services category, according to information from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This represented a 248.6% rise compared with 2023, when the total for similar services reached $420.

Medicaid is a government-run health insurance program, funded by both federal and state governments. Serving low-income families and individuals, seniors, children, and those with disabilities, Medicaid constitutes a major portion of the nation’s health care system.

Since Medicaid is funded by taxpayers, shifting local billing provides insight into how community health care resources are distributed.

The term “Dental Services” encompasses a set of Medicaid-billed procedures defined by care type, using established HCPCS and CPT code groupings. In this report, each billing code was categorized under a single service group using a standardized code prefix and number range approach to facilitate pattern analysis and prevent double counting, supporting reliable annual comparisons.

While various Medicaid service categories saw increases, Dental Services was fifth in Tiptonville for overall Medicaid payments in 2024.

Statewide in Tennessee, Dental Services held the No. 12 spot for Medicaid payments in 2024.

Over the five years prior to 2024, Medicaid spending for Dental Services in Tiptonville increased by $1,464, or 0%. At times during this period, the pace of spending growth picked up, particularly with significant annual gains noted in 2023 and 2022.

Dental Services spending was distributed throughout Tiptonville, but payments mostly came from a small number of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 38079 accounted for $1,464, representing 100% of all Medicaid Dental Services payments within Tiptonville that year.

Payments within this category were largely concentrated among a few specific billing codes.

Comparatively, Dental Services Medicaid payments in Tiptonville climbed 248.6% between 2024 and 2023, while Medicaid claims for all services in the city grew by 9.2% during the same period.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined state and federal Medicaid expenditures reached approximately $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, or around 18% of overall U.S. health expenditures—a steep increase from $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

This growth represents a roughly 40% increase over several years, mainly attributed to increased enrollment and greater service use during and after the pandemic.

Recent federal budget measures from the Trump administration included major plans to scale down federal Medicaid funding and change how the program works. Provisions in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed in 2025, are expected to reduce federal Medicaid spending by over $1 trillion over the next decade, as well as introduce work requirements and higher cost-sharing, which could decrease coverage and available funding for some Medicaid recipients. These updates are poised to transfer more financial responsibility to state governments and restrict federal Medicaid growth, despite the program’s continued coverage of tens of millions nationwide.

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.