Health Care Sharing Ministries Leave Consumers with Unpaid Medical Claims

By JoAnn Volk, Justin Giovannelli, and Christina L. Goe

This yr, a number of states have superior laws aimed toward “health care sharing ministries” (HCSMs), an association wherein members observe a standard set of non secular or moral beliefs and make month-to-month funds to assist pay the qualifying medical bills of different members. HCSMs typically declare to supply well being protection similar to insurance coverage, however lack the patron protections and profit requirements that apply to complete well being plans and are beneath no obligation to pay members’ claims. Because of how HCSMs are marketed, customers could have problem figuring out the numerous limitations of those preparations and threat getting caught with unpaid payments. Until just lately, states didn’t have entry to knowledge on HCSMs’ enrollment, operations, and funds, however a few states have begun to fill these gaps; final yr, Colorado grew to become the primary state to require complete knowledge from all HCSMs enrolling Colorado residents.

Colorado just lately printed its first stories on HCSMs promoting memberships in Colorado. In a submit for the Commonwealth Fund’s To the Point weblog, CHIR’s JoAnn Volk and Justin Giovannelli, together with legal professional and well being coverage advisor Christina L. Goe, check out knowledge from Colorado’s first HCSM report. The authors discover that HCSMs working in Colorado had higher than anticipated nationwide enrollment, and these preparations proceed to go away members with unpaid claims. You can learn extra about insights from the state report within the full weblog submit right here.