Well being Care Sharing Ministries Go away Shoppers with Unpaid Medical Claims

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

This yr, a number of states have advanced laws geared toward “well being care sharing ministries” (HCSMs), an association wherein members comply with a typical 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 akin to insurance coverage, however lack the consumer protections and benefit standards that apply to complete well being plans and are below no obligation to pay members’ claims. Due to how HCSMs are marketed, shoppers could have problem figuring out the numerous limitations of those preparations and risk getting stuck with unpaid bills. Till lately, states did not have access to data on HCSMs’ enrollment, operations, and finances, however a few states have begun to fill these gaps; final yr, Colorado turned the primary state to require complete knowledge from all HCSMs enrolling Colorado residents.

Colorado lately printed its first reports on HCSMs promoting memberships in Colorado. In a post for the Commonwealth Fund’s To the Level weblog, CHIR’s JoAnn Volk and Justin Giovannelli, together with lawyer 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 possibly can learn extra about insights from the state report within the full weblog put up here.