Utah Medicaid spending on dental services increases 7.5% in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid payments classified under the Dental Services category reached $9,174,625 in Utah, based on data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. That total reflects a 7.5% rise from 2023, when providers submitted $8,532,629 in claims.

Comparisons to previous years throughout this report reference the most recent prior year with available data.

Medicaid is a public insurance program operated by states and supported by both federal and state governments. The program covers low-income populations, including families, seniors, children, and people with disabilities, and it remains one of the largest segments of the U.S. health care system.

As Medicaid payments draw from public funds, shifts in local claim amounts can highlight patterns in how community health resources are distributed.

The “Dental Services” category encompasses services billed to Medicaid that are defined by their care type, with groupings based on standardized HCPCS and CPT codes. For this study, each billing code is categorized by a single service type using established code prefixes and numeric ranges, enabling reporters to analyze related services together without duplicate counting or misranking over different periods.

Certain categories, where relevant, may cover several underlying services. In these situations, the category reflects forms of care that are often grouped together for Medicaid billing, including visits, diagnostic services, or therapies.

Across the five years leading up to 2024, Utah Medicaid payments for the Dental Services category grew by $3,612,349, or 64.9%. The data also recorded substantial year-over-year spending increases during 2021 and 2022.

Although statewide services received Medicaid funding, payments were typically concentrated within only a few ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP Code 84302 led the state, accounting for $3,568,931 (38.9% of statewide total), followed by ZIP Code 84534 at $1,013,202 (11% of total), and ZIP Code 84084 at $847,402 (9.2% of total).

The top three ZIP codes together comprised 59.2% of all Medicaid payments in Utah tied to Dental Services for the year.

Comparatively, Medicaid payments spanning all claim types statewide grew 1.4% from 2023 to 2024.

Overall Medicaid spending rose across several service groups, with the Dental Services category ranking among the state’s top nine individual service categories in 2024 by total payments.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services report that joint federal and state spending on Medicaid reached about $871.7 billion in fiscal 2023, making up about 18% of overall national health expenses, a significant increase from around $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This represents approximately 40% growth over several years, attributed mainly to enrollment growth and increased usage related to the pandemic.

Major federal budget measures enacted during the Trump administration included initiatives to curb federal Medicaid spending and change how the program operates. Notably, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which became law in 2025, is forecasted to cut over $1 trillion from federal Medicaid funding through the next decade and applies new work requirements and cost-sharing, potentially reducing Medicaid access and resources for certain groups. These policies aim to shift additional fiscal burden to states while potentially limiting further federal expansion, though the program continues to serve millions of Americans.

Content for this report was gathered from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. Source data can be found here.