Wellness incentives, such as premium discounts for employees who meet certain health parameters, annual checkups, or participation in workplace step challenges, are common practices among employers and health insurance companies. With this being so common, many prospective members approaching medical cost sharing may wonder whether HealthShares have incorporated similar wellness incentives. A thorough dive into the subject reveals that HealthShares generally do not offer such wellness programs.
Membership commitment and wellness
HealthShares represent an alternative to insurance that allows like-minded people to share medical costs within a membership community. Unlike health insurance, HealthShare communities establish specific community rules, outlining membership eligibility and guidelines for community involvement. Commonly found in these guidelines are statements of belief or principles, such as the commitment to healthy habits, an ethical responsibility to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and other behavior that promotes good health and helps keep medical costs low. Agreeing to these principles forms a prerequisite for membership, which perhaps eliminates the need to further incentivize healthy habits; healthy living is essentially a condition for membership.
Despite this general trend, some exceptions are beginning to emerge. Medi-Share offers a health incentive program to its members, providing a potential discount on their monthly share payment for meeting certain health parameters. This is currently a unique offering among HealthShares.
Other wellness programs
Some HealthShares have attempted to encourage good health through other programs. For example, a new member with certain pre-existing conditions may be eligible to participate in special programs that encourage lifestyle changes, aiming to eventually qualify them for full membership. Programs like Solidarity’s Solidarity Well provide coaching on lifestyle changes that may improve members’ health conditions. While some members may voluntarily enroll in the program, others may be required to enroll.
Medi-Share also has a program like this. If a new member’s application reveals elevated risk factors or chronic conditions that could be improved with lifestyle changes, they will be enrolled as a Health Partner. Being a Health Partner means that they are in both the HealthShare and Health Partnership program, which provides access to a health coach, meal planning, fitness challenges, and more—for an extra $99 per month. The extra fee and program continue until they reach goals set by their health coach.
Discontinued wellness programs
However, some HealthShares have discontinued similar programs, such as Liberty’s HealthTrac program and United Refuah’s WellCheck programs. Though such programs are designed to help individuals improve their health, managing the demand for personal coaching services might present a challenge for some companies. Furthermore, each HealthShare has guidelines for how costs related to pre-existing conditions may or may not be shared, and though a member with a pre-existing condition may be accepted into a HealthShare and accompanying coaching program, there is no guarantee that they will share any costs related to said condition.
Healthy living is fundamental to health sharing
Membership in most HealthShares involves committing to healthy habits. Religious HealthShares tend to focus on the sanctity of life and the doctrinal importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Secular HealthShares generally advocate for good personal health which leads to improved health of the group and care for the community, both physically and financially. In general, HealthShares do not incentivize behaviors that are fundamentally expected of their members.
