California's Medicaid program is paying unlicensed Native American "Traditional Healers" a standardized rate of $826 per day to treat drug and alcohol addiction with spiritual ceremonies, herbal remedies, and drum-and-dance therapy, all on the federal taxpayer's dime, thanks to an approval the Biden administration quietly granted in October 2024.
The healers need no medical license. No certification. No level-of-care documentation. And the state has no data showing whether any of it works.
That is the picture that emerges from a Washington Free Beacon investigation published June 5, drawing on federal Medicaid approval documents, California billing manuals, and state program records. Since the Biden Department of Health and Human Services signed off on the arrangement, 21 Indian Health Care Providers across California have enrolled. One facility, the Santa Ynez Tribal Health Clinic, was approved in March for a $2.1 million contract to deliver "traditional health care" services with federal funds.
A senior White House official did not mince words about the arrangement.
"We're talking about taxpayer-funded drum circles. Someone in the Biden administration said, 'That sounds like a good idea.' It's disgusting. These were the experts running around telling everyone how much smarter they are. And they're using taxpayer dollars for drum circles."
Under the program, the California Department of Health Care Services reimburses "Traditional Healers" and "Natural Helpers" for a menu of services that includes spiritual ceremonies, rituals, herbal remedies, and musical drum and dancing therapy. The state's billing manual sets the daily rate at $826. When those services go to Medicaid members who are American Indian or Alaskan Native, the rate is "reimbursed at 100% federal match", meaning federal taxpayers cover the entire bill.
That $826 daily rate exceeds many published day rates the state pays certified medical practitioners for mental health and drug addiction services, according to the Free Beacon's review of California's Medi-Cal behavioral health fee schedules.
The state does not require these practitioners to hold any license or certification. California's own FAQ document defines a "traditional healer" as someone recognized by a Native American tribe as a "spiritual leader" with "theories, beliefs, and experiences" that have been "handed down through the generations and which can be established through the collective knowledge of the elders of that Indian community." A department spokesperson told the Free Beacon that the healers' qualifications are "culturally defined and cannot be replicated through state licensing structures."
The state also carved out a special billing exemption. Traditional healers can submit Medicaid reimbursement claims without a level-of-care modifier, the standard coding tool that tells the system what severity of condition a provider treated and what intensity of service was delivered. The spokesperson defended the exemption:
"Not requiring level of care modifiers for these services recognizes the unique and culturally specific nature of THCP and supports their delivery in a manner consistent with Tribal sovereignty."
In plain English: the state stripped out the basic documentation guardrails that every licensed addiction counselor, psychiatrist, and social worker must follow when billing Medicaid.
Perhaps the most striking detail is what California does not have: any data showing whether these traditional healing services have helped a single patient overcome addiction. The department spokesperson acknowledged the gap and said the state will contract with an external evaluator to assess the program's health outcomes sometime before June 30, 2028.
So the state approved the spending first and plans to check whether it accomplished anything up to four years later.
The available research is not encouraging. Studies reviewed by the National Institutes of Health found that a significant portion of participants in a Native American Drum Circle intervention reported drinking more alcohol than usual after taking part. Another NIH-reviewed study found that Native American Sweat Lodge Ceremonies used to treat alcoholics were mostly ineffective.
None of that stopped the Biden HHS from granting the approval or California from building the reimbursement infrastructure around it.
The traditional-healer Medicaid program does not exist in a vacuum. California under Gov. Gavin Newsom has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars on programs promoting "indigenous knowledge" since he took office in 2019. The Free Beacon notes that the Pentagon separately awarded $500,000 in 2024 to research how "indigenous knowledge" could improve understanding of arctic coastal systems, a sign that the trend extends beyond Sacramento.
But California remains the epicenter. United Indian Health Services announced in April that it was the first Indian health care provider to successfully receive reimbursement under the traditional healing program, treating the milestone as a point of pride. The state described its tribal consultation process as "robust and sustained."
What the state has not described is how it plans to prevent fraud in a program that requires no license, no certification, no level-of-care documentation, and no outcome measurement.
The traditional-healer program now sits inside a much larger fight over California Medicaid spending. Vice President J.D. Vance, who heads the Trump administration's Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, announced last month that the federal government froze $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursements to California. Vance said the freeze was in part because California is not taking fraud seriously.
The task force has identified billions of dollars' worth of federal government contracts awarded to potentially fraudulent businesses, many in the medical sector. Whether the traditional-healer program falls within the scope of that review remains unclear. But the program's structure, unlicensed providers, no outcome data, no standard billing documentation, and a daily rate that tops what licensed practitioners receive, is precisely the kind of arrangement that invites scrutiny.
Newsom, widely described as a likely 2028 Democratic presidential contender, has not publicly addressed the traditional-healer reimbursement program. The state's plan to hire an outside evaluator before June 30, 2028, conveniently pushes any reckoning past the next presidential election cycle.
Key questions remain unanswered. How much total Medicaid funding has California paid out under the program since October 2024? How many patients have received services? How many reimbursement claims have been submitted or paid? What specific services have been billed under the $826 daily rate? The Free Beacon's reporting surfaces the program's structure and its lack of safeguards, but the full financial exposure is still unknown.
What is known: the Biden administration created a pipeline for federal Medicaid dollars to flow to unlicensed spiritual practitioners at premium rates, with no evidence requirement and no fraud guardrails. California built the billing infrastructure, enrolled 21 providers, approved a $2.1 million contract, and started cutting checks, all before anyone checked whether the treatments help addicts get sober.
The state's own research sources suggest some of these interventions may make substance abuse worse.
Addiction is a crisis that demands serious treatment, accountable providers, and honest measurement. Paying $826 a day for ceremonies that skip every standard the medical system requires of everyone else is not compassion. It is a policy that treats taxpayer money as an offering, and addicts as an afterthought.
