Stony Brook Medicaid dental payments reach $623,654 in 2024, up 61%

In 2024, Stony Brook Medicaid providers billed $623,654 for services categorized under Dental Services, as shown in data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This represents an increase of 60.6% over the 2023 total, when $388,397 in claims were filed for Dental Services.

Medicaid is a states-administered public health insurance program, funded by both federal and state governments. The program provides coverage for low-income individuals and families, seniors, children and people with disabilities, making it one of the nation’s largest healthcare programs.

Since Medicaid is funded by taxpayers, shifting billing patterns locally can reveal trends in how public health expenditures are allocated in a specific area.

The “Dental Services” billing group includes Medicaid-reimbursed treatments identified by the care type, using standardized HCPCS and CPT group codes. For this report, each billing code was associated with just one service category based on code ranges and prefixes, ensuring grouped services could be tracked over time without duplication and maintaining accurate year-to-year comparisons.

Dental Services was the seventh-largest category for Medicaid spending in Stony Brook in 2024, reflecting a rise also seen across multiple other categories.

Across New York, Dental Services ranked 11th in total Medicaid payments statewide for 2024.

Medicaid payments associated with Dental Services in Stony Brook increased by $59,422, or 8.7%, over the five-year period leading up to 2024. Some years saw steeper growth, including significant annual increases in both 2023 and 2020.

Though claims for Dental Services spanned throughout Stony Brook, the payments largely went to a limited number of ZIP codes. ZIP code 11794 accounted for $587,964 and ZIP code 11790 made up $35,689, together comprising 100% of all Medicaid dental service payments in the city in 2024.

Within Dental Services, Medicaid payments were also heavily concentrated among relatively few individual billing codes.

From 2023 to 2024, Medicaid dental payments in Stony Brook jumped 60.6%; in comparison, all Medicaid claim categories across the city saw a 23.3% increase over the same timeframe.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined federal and state Medicaid expenditures totaled approximately $871.7 billion for fiscal 2023, making up about 18% of national health spending. That’s a major rise from about $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic shifted millions onto Medicaid rolls.

This nearly 40% rise in spending in just a few years is primarily linked to higher enrollment and utilization through and after the pandemic.

Major federal budget changes enacted during the Trump administration have included moves to reduce federal Medicaid funding and change program structure. For example, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” adopted in 2025, is projected to take over $1 trillion from federal Medicaid spending in the decade ahead, while adding cost-sharing and work requirements likely to reduce coverage and funding for some participants. These changes are set to transfer more costs to states and slow the federal growth rate as Medicaid continues to aid tens of millions.

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.