New Hampshire sees 13% rise in Medicaid Dental Services payments for 2024

Across New Hampshire, Medicaid payments for services designated under the Dental Services category reached $5,726,423 in 2024, data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database show. This amount is a 13% rise over 2023, when providers billed $5,067,174 for similar services.

Medicaid operates as a state-administered public health insurance initiative, receiving funds from both federal and state agencies. It provides coverage for people with low income, families, older adults, children, and people with disabilities, and is a key component of the U.S. health system.

Taxpayer funding for Medicaid means fluctuations in local payment figures help indicate how communities allocate health care dollars.

The “Dental Services” designation includes a set of Medicaid services organized by care type, using standardized HCPCS and CPT coding systems. In compiling this analysis, each code was assigned to a specific service group based on established prefixes and number ranges, which helped avoid double counting and enabled accurate year-to-year comparisons.

In some cases, categories encompass several types of related services. This grouping means a category may represent a range of care types typically billed together in Medicaid, such as office appointments, diagnostic work, or various procedures.

Examining the five years prior to 2024 shows that Medicaid payments for Dental Services in New Hampshire increased by $2,580,758—or 82%. Certain periods saw particularly robust annual gains, with notable increases in both 2021 and 2023.

Medicaid payments for Dental Services appeared throughout the state, though a significant share concentrated in a handful of ZIP codes. Top payment areas in 2024 included ZIP Code 03249 at $736,360 (12.9%), ZIP Code 03431 at $695,197 (12.1%), and ZIP Code 03038 at $671,242 (11.7%).

Together, these top three ZIP codes made up 36.7% of all Medicaid Dental Services payments in New Hampshire during 2024.

Statewide, Medicaid payments for all claim categories climbed 3.1% from 2023 to 2024.

Dental Services was among the top eight service payment categories in the state by value in 2024, as paid through Medicaid, even as several services experienced overall increases.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined state and federal Medicaid expenditures approached $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, representing about 18% of total U.S. health spending. This is up significantly from roughly $613.5 billion in 2019, ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This change translates to roughly 40% growth in just a few years, fueled in large part by expanding enrollment and greater benefit usage in and after the pandemic years.

Recent federal budget actions under the Trump administration included major proposals intended to reduce federal Medicaid outlays and alter the program’s structure. As an example, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is expected to decrease federal Medicaid funding by upwards of $1 trillion over the decade ahead, while also creating policies such as work mandates and increased cost-sharing, which may reduce enrollment and funding options for certain participants. As a result, states could be responsible for larger shares of Medicaid costs, placing limits on federal support as the program continues to assist many Americans nationwide.

Data in this article are sourced from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. The underlying source data can be found here.