The following was written by fellow TTG reader, Juliet. Juliet has experience with both the customer side of Sedera medical cost-sharing as well as an employer of theirs. She offers an insightful post on her time with this medical cost-sharing plan.
My journey with healthcare cost sharing began back in 2008. This is when I became very reactive to the health insurance industry. I had moved to Boulder, CO and started working for a high-end dental practice. We required our patients to pay for their services in cash. If they had insurance, we would file it for them and the patient would receive the reimbursement. We were considered “out of network”. A title that comes with several challenges.
I remember services such as oral cancer screenings and perio therapy being extremely difficult, if not impossible to get covered. It didn’t make sense that insurance companies would not cover things that would actually “help” our patients. In many cases, these preventative services assured their diagnoses wouldn’t get worse. Even back then insurance companies were in between the doctor and the patient and definitely did not have the patients’ best interests in mind.
This infuriated me. As a person who believes things should be fair and equal in all aspects of life, I asked myself, “How can these insurance companies pretend to have your back when in reality their actions showed something entirely different?” Thus began my long journey of disbelief and shock at the US health insurance market.
It continued when we moved back to Austin, TX where I became the office manager of a well-known, local food company. I was responsible for facilitating our health insurance enrollment. For two years I sat silent while I watched our premiums significantly rise. We would jump from one plan to another searching for less expensive options for our team. Our premiums kept going up while our coverage kept going down. Higher deductibles and out of pocket maximums meant any type of treatment or procedure was not obtainable for most of our employees. Some team members couldn’t even afford to be on the plan in the first place.
By 2016 I’d had enough. We found and signed on for a plan that claimed to allow three doctors office visits, outside of the wellness visits, that were 100% covered. This could be an appointment with a general physician or a specialist. That year I went to the dermatologist and was shocked to receive a bill stating that I owed 100% of the visit’s cost.
Over the years I’d become familiar with insurance jargon and I knew I could figure this out if I put my mind to it. Not to mention, I come from a long line of people who get sh%t done, so I called United Healthcare right away. After being placed on hold and transferred from this rep to the next I explained my case and OH! They now see in my plan that I do have 3 visits per year that are to be covered 100%. They would resubmit the claim back through and it would be processed correctly. I was skeptical, but assuming positive intent I let this one slide as an honest mistake.
I saw a doctor two more times during that calendar year which should have been processed as one of these three covered visits. Neither of the visits was processed correctly. On my last call to United Healthcare I gave careful feedback to the representative about my experience. She stated that she sees claims processed incorrectly very frequently. I couldn’t believe it! I could feel rage build up inside me and my “unfair flag” started waving high in the air.
I understood my insurance plan, which let’s be honest, few people do, so I knew to call in when I knew something should be covered that wasn’t. But how many people don’t remember their plan or get their bills in the mail and just assume the claim was processed correctly and their procedure wasn’t covered? I see now that insurance companies count on our ignorance. They bank on the fact that a large percentage of people are going to conveniently forget about the coverage they have.
Fairness. How are these billion dollar insurance companies allowed to break the fairness rule and why do we keep giving them our money? I didn’t want to anymore. I was out. 2017 rolled around and we saw 15-21% increases in price on our team members’ re-enrollment plans. I started doing the math and in 3-4 years, the premiums were going to be the entire paycheck of some of our team. How were they going to get the care they need? We were all feeling the unsustainable squeeze of rising costs. I took it upon myself to look outside the box that year.
I started by asking my peers about their insurance. One of my close friends told me about a Direct Primary Care (DPC) system that she was a part of. She loved the doctor and the services he provided. Membership was simple. She paid a monthly fee and in return she could see the doctor as much as she needed with no wait. She could also text, send photos or even video chat. This was a game changer for a busy stay-at-home mom with a young child and new baby. She raved about the quality of care that the doctor provided her family.
Discovering medical cost-sharing
So I sought out this doctor. My employer’s intention was to have our team healthy and working, right? What if we could join this doctor’s plan as a company? Were group rates available? Well, let’s just say this doctor lived up to his reputation. He called me back and we spoke in depth about healthcare costs, his DPC option, other groups he works with, and some other options he recommended that I should explore. He specifically mentioned Sedera medical cost sharing. I had never heard of medical cost sharing before, but was very curious to learn more. The next step was to reach out to Sedera and find out what it was all about.
Read about Matthew's experience with researching and finding healthcare coverage for he and his family.
Luke was the first person I spoke with from Sedera. He gave me a quick rundown of how it all works. Medical cost sharing is a group of people who come together to share each others’ medical costs when they become unaffordable. Originally ministry based, this successful model has been around for over thirty years with a proven track record. Sedera broke the mold when they took out the faith-based component. They don’t require customers to sign a statement of faith to become a member, they believe everyone should be able to benefit from this approach. After our call, Luke ended up coming out to our office to share more about how this actually works. He sold me on this example:
This is the CEO of Sedera’s real-life story. His family had a high-deductible insurance plan. His middle son was plagued by ear infections which required him to receive multiple prescriptions, in-office injections, a specialist visit and finally, a surgery to place ear tubes. With the regular insurance model, he was responsible for paying all the costs totaling $2525 because he still hadn’t reached his son’s $5000 deductible. With Sedera, he would have been required to pay $500 of the costs. Sedera has what they call an Initial Unshareable Amount (IUA); this is the amount a member is required to pay before sharing begins on their need. A “need” is one or more medical expenses caused by a SINGLE event. Luke went on to describe that these visits happened in the Autumn and we all know what happens in the new year: our deductibles are reset. Happy New Year y’all!! Well his poor son’s ear tubes fell out and they had to have the surgery all over again after their deductible had been reset. This meant the family was now out over $5000 for the same “need”. If they would have been with Sedera during this time the total they would have paid is $500, as this was still considered the same need.
Medical cost sharing in real life
Sedera views medical costs in three tiers. The first tier is services which are covered by a MEC (minimum essential coverage) plan. This plan fulfills your individual mandate to become ACA compliant. All of your preventative services are covered by this plan such as your wellness visits, annuals, vaccinations, mammogram and colonoscopy. The second tier is your small-to-medium visits like sinus infections, UTI’s, sick visits, etc. Anything under the amount of your IUA. Some MEC’s allow you to have a HSA which you and your employer can contribute pre-tax dollars into to pay for medical services. These funds are ideal to pay for these medium medical costs. The third tier is the large needs such as delivering a baby, a cancer diagnosis, or surgery. That is where Sedera comes in. Once you meet your IUA, the costs are shared with the other members in the community. Sedera offers various IUAs that members may select from based on their household needs. The higher the IUA the lower the monthly cost.
Back at my local food company, the team was intrigued by this affordable option. We were seeing savings in between 30-50% from our medical insurance quotes. We decided to bring this in as an option for our renewal. Since I was the office manager and had an above average understanding of insurance, I became the Sedera educator for our team. Always communicating when it was the proper time to use Sedera for a medical cost or to use one of the built in services that comes with a Sedera membership such as Teledoc or 2nd MD.
When I finally had to use medical cost sharing
The true test came when one of us ended up having a need to be shared with the community and guess who that person was…me! I had been in communication with Sedera as I became pregnant with our second son that year. We were planning to deliver at a local birth center here in Austin. They required me to pay in full prior to delivery, so I had to share a need with the community. My needs processor was so compassionate and connecting. She always used my name instead of an ID number like I had so often been reduced to over the years with big insurance companies. She asked for the birth center’s client agreement including costs for Sedera to review. After sending it over she responded that this particular type of cost wasn’t eligible for bill negotiation so the entire cost was shared with the community the next week. My IUA was deducted from the invoice total and I received a check in the mail within 2 weeks which I deposited and then paid the birth center. It was that easy. I just paid my IUA for the birth of my baby. I really couldn’t believe it.
When my birth plan became more complex, my experience with Sedera only improved. Despite the best-of-laid plans, I ended up having our baby by emergency cesarean-section. It was a traumatic experience and we are lucky our son is here with us today. Our visit to the hospital resulted in a 10 day stay in the NICU. I emailed Bridget, my needs processor while in the hospital and she was again, so compassionate and connecting stating first that she was glad we were all ok. I was asked to start sending the invoices to her as they came in the mail and they were going to be negotiated down by the Karis Group who is a patient advocacy group and also Sedera’s parent company. Since I had already paid my IUA and this was the same need, all of my costs such as hospital, surgery, anesthesiologist, medications, doctor fees, etc. were shared with the community. My son’s own need was started and we were responsible for paying his IUA before his costs were shared with the community.
Bills came in over the next two months and I shared them with Bridget. She would share them with the Karis Group. They were negotiated down and then the costs were shared with the community and I would receive a check and then I would pay the provider. It took some pro-action on my part to stay organized throughout the process, but I was happy to do this. I was a contributing part of this community and my costs were being paid for by the contributions of others. Additionally, since my delivery didn’t happen at the birth center I received a reimbursement from them which I then forwarded back to Sedera to be available for other needs. It was all a communal effort and I was so happy to do my part.
Throughout this stressful birth experience, Sedera was there for me 100%. I completely see first-hand how this model works and I never want to give health insurance my hard earned dollars again. I became such an advocate for Sedera that I ended up switching careers and now work for them! Spreading the word on medical cost sharing and helping others see there is a better option truly inspires me. I encourage any employer groups who are struggling to provide their employees with an affordable option that will help them in times of emergency to reach out to Sedera. It was a huge game changer in my life and I believe it could be in yours as well.
Have you ever had experience with cost-sharing insurance or Sedera?
Read about Matthew's journey with medical cost-sharing:
Part 1: What is Medical Cost Sharing Healthcare Insurance and Is it a Good Alternative?
Part 2: Comparing Medical Cost Sharing Plans and Which One I Chose
Part 3: Knowns and Unknowns in Medical Cost Sharing (Medi-Share Review)
And, how he and his wife save on their cell phone bills each month.
Sedera Health
13 Comments
Trying to make a go of your own business is almost ludicrous now days. 2 adults and 2 kids standard health insurance is, I kid you not, about 12-15K per year then 5-8K individual deductible or total family deductible of 22K PER YEAR. So you are on the hook for 17k to almost 40K EACH YEAR before the insurance company will be liable for a single dime of coverage. Who can afford 17k-40k each year for medical coverage? As far as I am concerned socialize the whole system and increase my taxes by 10% medicare for all and I am still saving money, hell increase my taxes by 20% and ITS STILL CHEAPER!! They only people with decent insurance are huge corporations and government employees. Our health care system is collapsing.
I got skin cancer my first year with Sedera. Turns out they don’t cover you the first year you are paying them. Their reps lied to me about this bc i double checked with them. Maybe it was ignorance, but shame on them for misleading me.
I am extremely unhappy with my Sedera Member Service.
It brings a lot of stress and headache trying to get everything figured out.
I recommend you pay a little extra for traditional insurance because this is not worth the stress.
They are extremely slow on reimbursement.
I would definitely not recommend this to the older community.
I hope you don’t experience the number of troubles I have.
In this article, the term ‘health share’ is sometimes followed by the word ‘insurance’. As I understand it, health sharing is not insurance, and shouldn’t be disguised as such. If I’m incorrect, Sedera should stand behind every claim, no matter how expensive. Is this the case? Do they guarantee payment on claims for ‘covered services’, especially a catastrophic event, such as cancer or a stroke, heart attack, etc…?
Can I get Juliet’s contact information ?
Hi Olga, We don’t supply our team’s personal contact information to outside parties. You can reach us through our contact form at:
https://www.threethriftyguys.com/contact/
Do these medical sharing plans have dental coverage as well?
Leslie Nicole – Not that we’re aware of, unfortunately. For dental plans, I recommend a dental savings plan that lets you save income tax-free and hold onto funds that you don’t spend so you can use them later.
Hi there Steve, thanks for commenting! I’d love to friendly share some more information for you to consider.
First before you read, please take off your insurance hat and set it on the table. Health insurance has trained us all so well to believe it’s the only viable option to have access to healthcare. That’s not the case anymore. Medical cost sharing has a proven track record of over 30 years. Starting first with the ministry based organizations back in the 80’s, they have continued to grow. In 2010 there were around 100k members industry wide and have since grown to over 1 million members industry wide today. To my knowledge none of these organizations have gone under for going bankrupt and not being able to pay their members’ invoices. All have some type of excess needs fund in place for the times the monthly shares don’t cover the needs for the month.
Please keep in mind that medical cost sharing doesn’t offer “benefits”, so they can’t offer “poorer” benefits over insurance. You are a self pay patient when you belong to a medical cost sharing organization. Self pay patients are eligible for significant savings, most far surpass any price based on an insurance relationship. Sedera on average saves 45% in total billed services they receive from their members.
You mention, healthcare costs what it costs. That’s simply not true today. Transparency is not something that exists in today’s health insurance market. If you call 5 surrounding hospitals looking for a price for a hernia surgery with your BCBS insurance I guarantee it will be nearly impossible to get a price over the phone. If you are able to get a price or two it will vary greatly in cost. How does your insurance have your back if they are not negotiating the best care and price for you? There are free market surgery centers popping up across the country that post their surgery costs online for all to see in defiance of this very situation. Unlike insurance companies, medical cost sharing organizations don’t profit from not paying their members’ invoices.
https://surgerycenterok.com/
Aaron already commented on how Sedera handles pre-existing conditions. I will add that if well controlled the following conditions do not have sharing restrictions; non-insulin diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and sleep apnea. Sedera does not limit what they will pay on an invoice, there is no cap on a need. Since you are part of a community you are required to commit to no use of illegal narcotics and to not drive while intoxicated. If you do get in a wreck and your blood alcohol limit is over the legal limit than your need would not be eligible for sharing in the community. Furthermore, if you are breaking the law while injured those bills would not be eligible. So you are correct if you aren’t wearing your seatbelt and are injured in an accident, those bills would not be shared. On the flipside, your child not wearing a bike helmet is not against the law, so your child’s bills would be shareable in this instance. It’s all about doing your part and making responsible choices. You’re part of a community that has agreed to pay your medical costs so we’re all looking out for one another’s best interests.
You are very lucky that 16k per year doesn’t break your bank, but the vast majority of people aren’t in your boat. You have it all backwards when you say medical cost sharing “makes routine medical costs more affordable but it can leave you exposed if you have a really serious health event.” Routine/preventative care would be provided by the base layer MEC plan. And it’s the big medical costs where medical costs sharing actually becomes effective for you and your family. Any need over your IUA is fully shared with the community. And one final way we help limit our members’ out of pocket exposure is we cap how many IUAs an individual or family has per membership year. If you have a really horrible year as an individual where you have 3 car wrecks all incurring their own medical costs; the fourth accident would not require you to pay an IUA before it becomes shareable, it would become shareable on dollar one. We limit it to 5 needs per family per membership year. We are all working together to help keep the out of pocket costs down.
It’s not your status quo option, however for times like these where insurance rates continue to rise 15-50% per year, many of us need a better solution.
I read Juliet’s article and thought I had finally found the answer for our little company. But, like Juliet, I read the fine print!
This is probably great for younger folks like her, but I don’t know ANYONE over 40 who doesn’t have a pre-existing condition-& lots of kids do, too. Sedera won’t pay on any pre-existing condition for THREE YEARS. All of my employees are over 40, all have had what can be considered pre-existing conditions.
Our insurance guy, who told us about Sendera yesterday, failed to mention this.
Sadly, this won’t work for us-or millions of others.
Good points Julia – You may want to check into Medi-Sharetoo. Best.
I agree about finding a better solution, however, I just got the run around from a case with Sedera. What I am frustrated with is the agent I received who is not customer service friendly just basically blew me off. My case of going to emergency was a necessity. I had a chronic condition in the past but the condition was reversed and this is way before Sedera became involved.
They don’t help like you claim. I got a 25 % discount on a bill way over $1500. Whoopie. I paid $285 per month for the entire year into this cost sharing plan and I just paid double. I paid over $3,000 for the entire bill which Sedera did not help with. I know it’s not an insurance company but here is the thing. You sure know how to collect the money and say anything to potential customers just to take their money. Not any better than a health insurance company. Medicaid expansion was really good. No hassles and having to deal with unfriendly reps.
The problem with Sedera is that they feel that people have to be perfect. I still got a surprise. A $2,000 bill that was due within 5 days. Now with all the other bills to pay, how does one expect others to pay that fast??? Sorry but certain people are going to get sick since they are going to be surrounded by sick people on a job. I guess it’s a crime to get sick at all but not a crime to try to entice people to buy your service only to make empty promises.
Oh and Sedera does not cover alternative medicine which does by the way work. They will use any excuse not to have to provide your needs.
I do not have a dog in the fight since I have more than enough resources to pay for conventional health insurance. If I couldn’t afford my $16K annual premiums with Blue Cross then I might be tempted to try something like Sedera. The problem is I’m a math guy as an engineer and the fact is that the math does not support health sharing as a sustainable business model. Health care costs what it costs and while slight discounts can result from negotiating it still costs what it costs so in the long run health sharing can only offer lower costs by offering lower benefits, it is just math. And the benefits from regular insurance, as you pointed out, are not anything special so choosing even poorer benefits doesn’t appeal to me.
The way they reduce benefits is by screening out most pre-existing conditions, limiting the amount they will pay per claim and by having per event deductibles so that each new illness has to repay the deductible again. They also expose you to risks like refusing to cover your child’s bicycle accident if he wasn’t wearing a helmet or car injury if he wasn’t wearing a seat belt meaning you never know if your kids are really covered or not. It is surely better than nothing but it is not a robust substitute for insurance unless you have no kids and no chance of an expensive claim in the future.
For me insurance is to save me from health care costs that I can’t afford without wrecking my finances, conventional insurance does that even if it is expensive. Health care sharing does not do that, it makes routine medical costs more affordable but it can leave you exposed if you have a really serious health event in the family.