{"id":6645,"date":"2022-03-21T10:11:21","date_gmt":"2022-03-21T14:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chirblog.org\/?p=6645"},"modified":"2022-03-21T10:16:13","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T14:16:13","slug":"massachusetts-data-health-care-sharing-ministries-reveal-finances-put-consumers-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/massachusetts-data-health-care-sharing-ministries-reveal-finances-put-consumers-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"Massachusetts Data on Health Care Sharing Ministries Reveal Finances That Put Consumers at Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

By JoAnn Volk, Justin Giovannelli and Christina L. Goe<\/em><\/p>\n

Health coverage products that don\u2019t adhere to the Affordable Care Act\u2019s (ACA) consumer protections continue to be\u00a0marketed widely<\/a>, often as a direct alternative to comprehensive coverage. This trend includes Health Care Sharing Ministries (HCSM), arrangements in which members, pledging to follow a common set of religious or ethical beliefs, make monthly contributions to help pay the qualifying medical expenses of other members. While viewed as an alternative to marketplace plans, they\u00a0don\u2019t follow the same rules\u00a0and typically don\u2019t provide any of the same protections. Despite indications of growing or significant enrollment in HCSMs in some states, there is a dearth of data on their operations and finances. Now a Massachusetts rule governing HCSMs has offered a glimpse behind the curtain.<\/p>\n

In a new post<\/a> for the Commonwealth Fund\u2019s To the Point<\/em> blog, CHIR\u2019s JoAnn Volk and Justin Giovannelli along with Christina Goe dig into data on HCSMs operating in Massachusetts, thanks to a state requirement to regularly report on enrollment, membership fees, and other information about HCSM operations and finances. The data show that only about half of all claims submitted by members were deemed eligible for payment, and members saw as little as 16 percent of their monthly contributions paid out in claims. You can read more about Massachusetts\u2019s reporting requirement and the information it has uncovered here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Health Care Sharing Ministries (HCSM) continue to be\u00a0marketed widely, often as an alternative to the Affordable Care Act\u2019s marketplace plans, even though HCSMs don\u2019t follow the same rules\u00a0and typically don\u2019t provide the same protections. There is a dearth of data on HCSM operations and finances, but a Massachusetts rule has offered a glimpse behind the curtain. In a new post for the Commonwealth Fund, JoAnn Volk, Justin Giovannelli, and Christina Goe dig into new data on HCSMs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,5],"tags":[168,170,307],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6645"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6645"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6651,"href":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6645\/revisions\/6651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}