KVIG Informative

Utah won federal approval in September to pay for traditional Native healing through Medicaid. Nevada has the same idea on its list of planned waivers, and Tribal health leaders are asking where it stands.

On Sept. 25, 2026, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services approved a new Utah program called the Traditional Healing Demonstration. It lets Utah draw federal Medicaid money for traditional health care practices delivered through Indian Health Service facilities, Tribal facilities and urban Native health programs to eligible Medicaid members. The program runs from Oct. 1, 2026, through Sept. 30, 2031.

Utah’s approval came through Section 1115 of the Social Security Act. That section lets the federal health secretary approve state pilot programs that test approaches standard Medicaid rules would not allow. States apply, negotiate terms with CMS and then report on results for the life of the program.

How the benefit started CMS approved the first four such programs on Oct. 16, 2024, in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Oregon. The agency said it was the first time Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program had covered traditional Native health care practices. Under those approvals, the practitioners must be employed by or contracted with an Indian Health Service, Tribal or urban Native health facility.

Tribes pushed for this for years. The National Indian Health Board notes that Arizona first asked federal regulators to cover traditional healing in 2015. Arizona’s Medicaid agency says payment for traditional healing at Tribally run and Indian Health Service facilities took effect Oct. 1, 2025. New Mexico announced in March 2026 that its Medicaid program now covers traditional healing for Native members. Minnesota submitted its own application on Aug. 14, 2026.

Who pays Federal law already sets the federal share of Medicaid at 100% for services that Native enrollees receive through Indian Health Service and Tribal facilities. The 2024 approvals applied that same full federal match to traditional healing for Native patients at those facilities. For eligible patients there, the state pays nothing toward the benefit.

The Center for Health Care Strategies, a nonprofit policy research group, lists talking circles, sweat lodges and smudging among the practices commonly offered in Native communities. It also notes that clinics will need systems to meet Medicaid billing and documentation requirements before they can claim payment for these services.

Where Nevada stands In a Feb. 2, 2026, memo to the Legislature’s Joint Interim Standing Committee on Health and Human Services, Nevada Health Authority Director Stacie Weeks listed six Section 1115 waiver projects the state is pursuing. Traditional healing is one of them, described as allowing Medicaid payment for traditional health care practices to support Tribal governments. Its status was listed as pending development.

The same memo explains why that matters for timing. It says a Section 1115 waiver often takes four to five years from concept to full use, with Tribal consultation typically falling in the second year and federal approval in the fourth.

Tribal health leaders are pressing for progress. At the Oct. 1, 2026, meeting of Nevada’s Tribal Health Authority Council, Dr. Art Martinez, a commissioner of the Nevada Department of Native American Affairs, asked for an update on the traditional healing waiver. Nahayvee Flores-Rosiles of the Nevada Health Authority said she would report back after an Oct. 14 Tribal consultation. The council meets next on Nov. 19, and its agendas and summaries are posted on the department’s website. Utah’s program, now running across the state line, gives Nevada a working model to measure itself against.