In 2024, Parkersburg Medicaid providers billed $253,375 for Dental Services, data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database shows. This amount was up by 24% compared to 2023, when the city’s providers filed $204,298 in claims for similar services.
Medicaid is a state-run public insurance program, funded through contributions from federal and state governments. The program extends coverage for individuals and families with low incomes, seniors, children, and people with disabilities, positioning it among the largest sectors in U.S. health care.
Because taxpayer dollars support Medicaid payments, differences in community billing trends reflect allocation of public health care funds at the local level.
The “Dental Services” designation covers a range of Medicaid-billed procedures, determined by the type of care and according to standardized HCPCS and CPT code groupings. In compiling this analysis, billing codes were mapped to a single service category using identified code prefixes and numbers, which enabled category-level analysis without duplicating codes or misranking spending over time.
Despite increases across several Medicaid categories, Dental Services ranked 12th in Parkersburg in 2024 for overall Medicaid payments.
Statewide, the Dental Services group was the 13th largest category by Medicaid payments in West Virginia for the year.
Over the five years prior to 2024, Medicaid reimbursement for Dental Services in Parkersburg grew by $16,354, or 6.9%. The pace of growth picked up at certain times, notably with substantial annual rises in both 2020 and 2022.
Citywide payments for Dental Services were distributed, but most funds were concentrated in a handful of ZIP codes. During 2024, ZIP code 26101 led with $233,663, followed by 26104 at $10,755, and 26105 at $8,956. Collectively, these top 3 areas represented 100% of Dental Services Medicaid payments recorded in Parkersburg for the year.
Payments within Dental Services were also focused across a small subset of individual service codes.
For additional context, Dental Services Medicaid payments in Parkersburg climbed 24% between 2023 and 2024, compared with a 16.3% increase spanning all Medicaid claim types in the area.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined federal and state spending through Medicaid totaled approximately $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, which represented about 18% of overall U.S. health expenditures. That figure rose significantly from around $613.5 billion in 2019, before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The four-year change represents roughly a 40% increase, mainly attributed to higher enrollment and greater use of health services during and following the pandemic.
Recent federal budget measures enacted under the Trump administration have included several proposed reductions to the federal Medicaid budget and adjustments to the program’s structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” passed in 2025, is expected to reduce federal Medicaid spending by more than $1 trillion over the coming decade and implements new policies such as work requirements and more cost-sharing responsibilities, which could limit coverage and funding for certain groups. These policies are anticipated to transfer more costs to states and limit growth in federal assistance for Medicaid, even as overall enrollment and need remain significant.
| Year | Total Medicaid Payments | % Change From Previous Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $237,020 | 133.1% |
| 2021 | $162,835 | -31.3% |
| 2022 | $250,014 | 53.5% |
| 2023 | $204,297 | -18.3% |
| 2024 | $253,375 | 24% |
| Rank | Category | Medicaid Payments | Share of City Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment | $26,486,908 | 38.6% |
| 2 | Temporary National Codes (Non-Medicare) | $17,136,484 | 25% |
| 3 | Evaluation and Management | $10,874,855 | 15.8% |
| 4 | National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies | $4,162,148 | 6.1% |
| 5 | Medicine Services and Procedures | $2,621,158 | 3.8% |
| 6 | Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies | $2,038,355 | 3% |
| 7 | Procedures / Professional Services | $1,746,252 | 2.5% |
| 8 | Pathology and Laboratory Procedures | $1,139,693 | 1.7% |
| 9 | Radiology Procedures | $674,547 | 1% |
| 10 | Surgery | $509,244 | 0.7% |
| 11 | Medical And Surgical Supplies | $370,762 | 0.5% |
| 12 | Dental Services | $253,375 | 0.4% |
| 13 | Durable Medical Equipment | $172,454 | 0.3% |
| 14 | Vision Services | $141,382 | 0.2% |
| 15 | Temporary Codes | $137,049 | 0.2% |
| 16 | Anesthesia | $111,827 | 0.2% |
| 17 | Drugs Administered Other than Oral Method | $23,328 | <0.1% |
| 18 | Administrative, Miscellaneous and Investigational | $11,621 | <0.1% |
| 19 | Coronavirus Diagnostic Panel | $11,251 | <0.1% |
| 20 | Durable medical equipment (DME) Medicare administrative contractors (MACs) | $972 | <0.1% |
| 21 | Outpatient PPS | $84 | <0.1% |
| HCPCS Code | Description | Medicaid Payments | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| D0120 | Periodic oral evaluation | $55,581 | 44 |
| D0330 | Panoramic image | $53,245 | 33 |
| D0140 | Limit oral eval problm focus | $36,868 | 41 |
| D0274 | Bitewings four images | $36,250 | 31 |
| D0220 | Intraoral periapical first | $19,761 | 28 |
| D0150 | Comprehensve oral evaluation | $19,180 | 20 |
| D0272 | Dental bitewings two images | $16,303 | 17 |
| D0230 | Intraoral periapical ea add | $16,183 | 23 |
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.
