Health Sharing: Revolutionizing Your Healthcare Approach
Have you ever wished for guidance and effectively growing your business and managing your finances? Or wonder what it takes to succeed as a female entrepreneur in finance? Then this is the podcast for you. Welcome to Women of Law, where generational wisdom meets ambition. I'm Ali Romo, your millennial host.
Allie:And I'm Hawley-Woods Gray, your gen x host.
Allie:Using our combined backgrounds in insurance and financial services, we will share what we've learned to give you the tools you need to grow your business.
Allie:Join us, and together, we will help you discover practical strategies for financial leverage, business growth, and securing your future.
Hawley:Hey, Wealth warriors. Are you ready to redefine wealth and master your money mindset? Welcome to Women of Wealth. I'm your Gen x host, Hollywood's Gray.
Allie:And I'm your millennial host, Ali Ramos. This episode, we're discussing health sharing, what it is, and how it's different from the traditional health insurance.
Hawley:Well, let's meet our guest, Ginny Bartlett Elbert. Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got here.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:Awesome. Well, thank you so much for having me here today, everybody. It's a pleasure to meet you all. My name is Ginny Bartlett Elbert. I am a mom of 5.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:I'm an entrepreneur, and I'm a published author and a health care advocate, and I found myself here today ready to share with you all the differences between traditional insurance and health care sharing.
Hawley:Awesome. So let's start there. What are some of the differences, and and what how do you explain it to people when you are meeting with some of your clients?
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:Yeah. That's a really great question, and I love that question because health care sharing is an opportunity for people to have an alternative to the high cost of health insurance. So health insurance is based off of a household's income. So your monthly premium is always based off of the dollars that come into your household. And in traditional health care sharing, that's not a thing.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:Right? So health care sharing is based off of the oldest person in the household. And some of the major differences is that we have whole house deductibles with health care sharing. And in traditional insurance, there's deductibles per family member. Our max out of pocket and our whole house deductibles are, on average, 30 to 70% less than what you would pay in a traditional insurance company.
Allie:So when you're talking about health sharing, what is the sharing piece? What are what are we sharing?
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:We're sharing and paying each other's medical bills. So health care sharing has been around for around 40 years here in the US. Not everybody can participate originally, but about 5 years ago, the law stepped in. Government changed the rules and allowed health care sharing to become available to anybody who was interested. So ethic based companies formulate it.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:And so what that means is is, literally, you pay your monthly premium, and that money goes into your share account, and it's pulled together with everybody's money. And so if an eligible medical bill comes in, we have patented technology, different than traditional health care sharing, with Impact Health Sharing here that actually reprises bills and matches you with members, and those bills get paid directly to the provider.
Hawley:Well, it's actually pretty cool because I also am a client of Jenny's, and, and, like, every now and then, I'll be in my back office, and it'll you know? I mean, traditional health sharing really came through, like, religious or Christian organizations, just FYI, even, like, Mormon organizations that Mormon churches that would get together and help share the cost of everyone's bill. But it is kinda cool because it's like you're sharing for Steve. I don't know. Steve's a random guy.
Hawley:However, you know, this is what's going on, and let's give Steve some encouragement and some prayers. Click here to send him a little note or something like that. So very different. I did I never got that when I was with Kaiser or any of the other major medical plans that I've been a part of over the years, so I think it's really encouraging that there's some different principles and values out there. Now we talked a little bit about the potential cost savings, but what is there anything else in the cost savings that's compared to, traditional health insurance that might be a little bit different?
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:Absolutely. There there are many things that are different. So, with Impact Health Sharing, which is what we're talking about specifically here today, we have several, programs that are available for families to save. The very first one that I would really love to touch base on rolled out on October 1st, and it's a holistic approach to health care. A lot of people these days, families, individuals, and, medical providers are seeking alternative ways to keep ourselves healthy.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:Right? And so if you have a family deductible or what we call a PRA here, which stands for primary responsibility amount, let's just say it's 25100 for your whole household. Any thing that you're paying outside of traditional health care, so things like essential oils. Like, I personally have subscriptions to vitamins and gym memberships, IV drip bags. I mean, you name it.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:Anything that you're doing to keep yourself healthy, you get to apply a $100 a month towards your health care costs so that it helps your family to pay down your household deductible simply by taking those monies and applying them to your health care deductible. So your family's deductible out out of pocket is reduced by you being responsible and taking care of your health. That is the the major difference. You do not get that in traditional insurance.
Hawley:So if somebody's already a member, can they go ahead and get that benefit added if they came on board before October 1st?
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:It's open to all impact members.
Hawley:It is open. Doctor. Absolutely. Pay separate for, right, out of my HSA account?
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:Absolutely. Awesome.
Hawley:Go ahead, Ali.
Allie:Yeah. I think more people are going that holistic route. I mean, I know myself. I've definitely gone through different types of testing, and Holly has as well. And so I think that's an important piece for people to get on board and really may have access or encourage people to start using other methods because the general public is seeing the value of it.
Allie:So it's really cool to see organizations see that value as well. Jenny, I'm interested to hear how health sharing handles, everything from, from, like, small doctor visits to major medical expenses like surgeries and hospitalizations. Can you talk about I guess, first start with the the easier just, doctor visits maybe, and then we'll we can go into major medical expenses.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:Absolutely. So, really, there's not much difference. Right? This is comprehensive medical, and so it covers anything from a Band Aid to something as major as cancer. K?
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:So as a cancer survivor, to me, that was super important, right, to to join a health care sharing community and know that I'd be taken care of should something happen again. So if you have an appointment, like annual visits so with Impact Health Sharing, you get one free annual visit per family member on the plan. So there's no co pay and there's no out of pocket to your family for that annual wellness visit. You can get a baseline of your health and up to a $150 in lab work that is covered by the community. Now in addition to that, Impact recently rolled out a concierge service.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:So when you are ready to make that appointment, you can provide Impact with the doctor's name, the hospital phone number. They will call and make the appointment for you and pay for that visit in advance. So there's no question as to whether it's accepted or not accepted. We do have an open network here. Now to answer your question, Ali, about major events.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:Right? So you can walk into any emergency room, urgent care. You don't have to go, oh my gosh. Are they in network or out of network? You can go wherever you would like to go.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:So if you have an emergency situation, you can walk in with your Impact Health Sharing card. We have an EDI payer ID on the back of the card classified as commercial insurance, the same as all the big carriers. They can call the phone number on the back and get you admitted right away. Now if you have some, major illness, like all of a sudden you're diagnosed with cancer or you need to have a major surgery, they just call the phone number on the back and you become preeligible for those services.
Allie:Well, I used to be a person, who used Impact. And so what you what you're talking about is really interesting to me because my my issue with Impact and sorry I'm gonna play devil's advocate a little bit, but I'm sure you're gonna I mean, you've already had now a rebuttal to it. My biggest issue was when I went to go see my primary and have my physical, I paid out of pocket upfront and then Impact reimbursed me. And the reimbursement process took forever because my doctor's, billing department couldn't get the right forms to Impact. And so it was like a 6 month process to be reimbursed $300.
Allie:And so also thinking about family planning and things like that, it made us nervous of just, okay, what if we have to pay an upfront cost for that kind of thing? Like, what does that look like down the road? And so Impact at the time didn't have a concierge to to prebook appointments or to prepay for those kinds of appointments. So that's a huge change that they've made since I've left, as well as the the holistic piece was added recently. And so we we recently left in June, I believe.
Allie:So that's I'm glad to hear that they're evolving as needs evolve as well because I know that was something that that frustrated us. And so then even thinking about major medical expenses, we're like, man, it was so difficult to get money back for $300. What would it look like to get money back, in case of an emergency something happened?
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:I appreciate where you're coming from, and I I really respect that you're willing and open to share that with me for sure. You're not alone out there. So the good news is Impact is new, and we're crusaders out at the forefront changing the way people get health care. The bad news is we're new. Right?
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:And so there are growing pains such as what you've experienced. The great news is is it's people like you, Ali, who've advocated that have allowed for these changes to come about. Impact really listens to their members and takes your feedback from those types of situations and has done lots of things to correct that. You know, it's been 4 years since Impact started, and so relatively new. But just so you know, the the health of a the health and viability of a health care sharing company is usually around 3 months of reserves.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:Right? But Impact has almost 12 months of reserves. And so rest assured people's bills will get paid. Rest assured, they listen to people like yourself and have now rolled out the concierge, but wait. There's more.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:Dental and vision just rolled out
Hawley:Yeah. I saw that.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:Last month as well. So there's no additional cost to have access to dental providers that are pre vetted, vision providers that are pre vetted. And here's the other thing. Recently, Impact put in place a group of people that have been hired to literally reach out. That's their only job is to reach out to networks, to providers, and get them contracted, if you will, with them so that things are in place so that you don't have to experience what you experience.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:There is a a stigma, if you will, out in the world about health care sharing. Oh, they don't pay their bills or they run out of money and things like that, and we're having to combat that. Right? Because Impact's not is a not for profit model. They're not about taking your money.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:They wanna make sure that you get the care that you deserve, and so they listen to the members, like I said, and roll out these amazing programs to make things easier and, to work with providers to understand that we're different than a traditional health care sharing company.
Hawley:Well, it's so interesting because, I've been listening to this book called Good Energy by Casey Means, and, you know, a lot of the medical information out there is very, and she's a she's a graduate from start Stanford Medical. Okay? So she's she's doesn't she had a lot of experience, and she knows what she's talking about. Right? But some of the stuff that she talks about in that book is that, you know, doctors in their own right, like, that do surgery and stuff like that, during their residency program, they are not getting the best nutrition because the cafeteria food at hospitals isn't high nutrition.
Hawley:The they don't get much sleep. So, you know, it's like these emergency rooms that we do go into, we wanna make sure that, you know, we can have this preventative stuff available that it sounds like now impact is having available so we don't have to encounter these situations where it is an emergency. So, you know, I know another another question that people have about health sharing since, you know, in the past, it was tied to ministries and, and principles that guide those ministries. But it sounds like with that law changing a few years ago, 5 years ago, that that's not the case anymore. You don't have to be part of a ministry to join a health sharing plan now.
Hawley:Is that correct?
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:You don't have to be a part of a religious belief. Right. So we're ethic based at with Impact Health Sharing, and so we accept all religions, all faith, all all creeds, and things like that. Now it is founded and based in a love thy neighbor approach, which really, you know, begins in Christianity, you know, and love thy neighbor, do unto others as you'd have done unto you. And we want our members to be responsible members of the community because, you know, if you're irresponsible, the community doesn't wanna pay for those types of things.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:Right? And so, you know, when when you think about what's covered, what's not covered, it it really comes down to there are guidelines that every member is afforded a copy of, that shows you what is eligible for the community to share in and what's not eligible for the community to share it, And so I agree with you, though. Not all doctors are created equal, you know, and just to, you know, coming from my own space, you know, I was one of those people, just going back to a little bit about who I am. 10 years ago, I was a person that was on a hope and pray plan, you know, hoping nothing would happen and praying that it never did. And I was relatively healthy, found myself with a stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis and no health care.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:Why? You know, the Affordable Care Act came out, wasn't always affordable for everybody. Not everybody got a subsidy. You know? I I'm blessed to those that did, but health care sharing really grew at that moment to become available to people such as myself.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:You know? And had I known about it back then, you know, I would have definitely joined. You know? Going from $900 a month to 2.88 a month is a big difference.
Hawley:Yeah.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:You know? I could afford 288.
Allie:That's huge. And so has that so having your cancer diagnosis in the past, did that affect how much impact costs for you and your family?
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:Absolutely not. So it's not based off of any previous existing conditions or anything. It's literally based off the oldest person in the household. So I'm on an individual plan. I pay 2.88 a month, and I'm 52 years old, just so you know.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:So there's about a 10 year span before a premium goes up. So it's not like your premium's going up every year. Like, this year, open enrollment starts today, November 1st. Right?
Hawley:Mhmm.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:And a lot of people are out shopping and looking and seeing what they can do to get health care, and they're sticker shock. You know? And some of those people that used to qualify for a subsidy no longer qualify for a subsidy, and they're they're looking at what's available to them. And so, yeah, I mean, it's it's broken, for lack of better words.
Allie:You wanna talk about sticker shock? We went from my husband and I were paying 4.40 a month, had impact. And then, when he started working at his new job, I just went on as a spouse, and I cost, like, $900 a month.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:That's the other thing. Not all employers offer plans for members of their family. A lot of times, they'll cover their employee and not the members of their family, and so members of the family can come join Impact and the employee can have theirs subsidized by their employer. You know? I personally wouldn't want traditional insurance anymore.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:I've seen what's been happening out there, and I would much rather pay somebody's medical bill and help them and their family than to lie in a CEO's pocket who's in a cubicle somewhere denying or approving my claim because I've had that happen too with the company I like to call the Blues.
Hawley:Yeah. I mean, I think it's really powerful too, especially, for business owners, with female business owners, maybe single moms, whatever the case might be, to really understand your health options. Because, like, for me and we're gonna have more, guests on these topics coming up in this second season that we're in right now. But for me, what makes the most sense is for me to do the health sharing plan, to have a health savings account, and then I also have another account, an HMA account, which is a health matching account. And so, you know, I take the money that I don't spend on my health insurance and I put it into my tax deferred account, which is my health savings plan, and then I put another portion into my health matching plan.
Hawley:So then when there is something that Impact may not cover up front, I can pay out of those one of those two plans, and then I can get reimbursed when I get reimbursed. And so I think that it's just really important. So what are some of the advice you would give to women, business owners, that are looking at some different strategies on how to save money in this area, how they can make it work for them, and, also, like, is there any type of business plans available? Like, maybe they have a small business. They have 3 or 4 employees.
Hawley:They're not, necessarily, by law required to have health insurance yet with that number of people, but maybe they wanna offer something like this. What what do you have available for that?
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:That's also a really great question, and the good news is is there's no minimum participation here. So for small businesses, I am a small business. Right? We have less than 10 employees here. We were paying $500 a month for each employee the company was, and now they're not.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:They don't need to. Right? And so, whether one person participates in the company or all of them, it does not matter. So business owners can have their own private portal where their employees can sign up for health care sharing with Impact, and it's one monthly payment. They can set it up with their payroll company where things are deducted out of their paycheck the same way it would be if you had a traditional sense of the of an insurance, and so no no minimum participation.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:So I have a small, client who has a juice bar, and she has one full time employee that she offers health care to. The other employees are under the age of 26 still on their parents' policies. Right? And so, she offers impact to the one employee, and she subsidizes it. So she pays for part of it, and then the rest of it comes out of the employee's paycheck.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:It's deposited into that main account, and every month, Impact withdraws the payment, and she stays covered. So that can happen with any business owner.
Hawley:I like that because, you know, these days, a lot of companies, like Ally was just mentioning with her husband's company, that the spouse in this situation, it would be a much lower cost for them to be on a plan like that. Right? So I I just think that it's really good, especially for business owners, you know, moms, to to know. I mean, you know, we have all this insurance on our kids, and I have a boy. And out of your 5, I don't know how many of them are boys.
Hawley:However, like, 3 boys. Right? It's like, you don't wanna go to the emergency room with your kids, but guess what? Boys sometimes end up there. I have a niece that has 3 boys, and I swear within a month's time, each one of them has been to the ER for something.
Hawley:You know? Fell down, something happened, you know, this or that. So, you know, you just wanna make sure that you have those, things covered. And it sounds like, you know, with Impact Health Sharing that that would be those types of things would be covered. Ali, what what's what's your next question?
Allie:I have a question about the businesses since, you know, a lot of business owners do listen to our podcast. So do the the businesses have the option of well, I guess this is a 2 part question. So the cost of the employee, is it cover can it also cover the employee's family? Would it be would it still be based off of the high or the oldest person in that person's household? That's, I guess, part part 1.
Allie:So go ahead and answer that, and then
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:I Absolutely. Absolutely. Impact is for the people for sure. So it is still based off the oldest person in the household, and, yes, the family members can be covered. And so it would just be a payroll deduction and or an individual plan if they if the employer didn't wanna have a portal, but they just wanted to say, here, you can have health care sharing.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:They can connect it to somebody that can help them get signed up. Absolutely.
Allie:Okay. And then the second part to that would be to clarify, the business can choose the amount that they subsidize or not subsidized. Correct? It could be any. It could be, like, a 25, 50%.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:Yeah. Cool. Absolutely.
Hawley:And for, while we're talking on this topic, what about the tax implications? You know, like, if you don't have health insurance now, you get taxed. So this plan does meet that requirement. Right? So
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:Absolutely.
Hawley:You don't have to pay any penalties because you have the coverage through this plan.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:So there's mandated states across the United States. California, where I live, happens to be one where it's mandatory that you have health care of some shape or form. Health care sharing members are exempt from the mandate regardless of what state you live in. So in California, we have a simple tax form that you file and you check box c and check here, and you say that you're a member of a health care sharing organization and you're exempt from the mandate and any sort of tax penalty.
Hawley:Great. And then another question that I had was the process. So you said you mentioned that some things, you know, are gonna be possibly out of pocket, and then how you submit those to get them reimbursed, what what's the turnaround times? I know that you guys have been working really hard to get that process to be a lot quicker. So when you're submitting the claim and getting reimbursed, what is that process like?
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:So currently, right now, because we do have an open network, you might encounter situations where your provider says, we don't work with health care sharing. You have to be a cash out of pay pocket customer. They'll give you a cash pay discount. And then in the back of the Impact portal, there is a provider form that you can fill out, submit, attach your receipt. Now there's a couple of forms that are needed for them to know those billing codes.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:You can upload a super bill. You can upload a IBU 40 form or whatever this number is called. It's all in the guidelines there. Essentially, they need to know the CPT codes, and that gets into a lot of semantics and stuff. But doctors and hospitals and insurance companies have all this internal language, of these different codes, and so Impact just looks at those codes, and they look at those codes based off of the Medicare posted rates.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:And so they will negotiate on your behalf, to reduce those bills ahead of time. And if you've overpaid, they actually will issue you a refund.
Hawley:Oh, amazing. Can't wait for that. It's I mean, this has been a very interesting experience because, my family and I, we've been on health sharing for a long time. We were with another company before, and we didn't have in the beginning, we had a great experience, and it then as that company grew, I don't think they were as proactive, and maybe Impact learned some lessons from that company or whatnot. But, I mean, I have had a much better experience this round.
Hawley:I think we've been on, Impact now for I think it's been a little over a year. Yeah. Would that be right, Jenny? Yep.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:A little
Hawley:over a year. Over a year. So, so, yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited about the wellness program that they're putting in place. The only last question that I have before we get to the lightning round is what type of unexpected medical expenses, such as accidents or chronic illness, would impact cover?
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:All of them. So it's catastrophic coverage. You know? Everything's going to be eligible, and it's all subject to your PRA. You know, you have to meet that deductible, and it is subject to your co share, which is a 90 10 co share.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:So traditional insurance is 80 20 and 70 30 out of network. We don't have a network. It's all 90 10. So 90% of any of those bills that come in are covered by the community, 10% to you and your family up to a maximum of $5,000. But once that is met, all bills subsequently that come in after that are covered at a 100% cost if they're eligible for sharing.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:Now when I say eligible for sharing, you have to look through the guidelines when you said some things are covered, some things aren't covered. It is broad, but it is subject to PRA and deductible. And so and a catastrophic thing is gonna be covered. Right? No one's saying, no.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:You can't do that. A major car accident is gonna be covered. They're not gonna say, no. You can't have that. Now in a car accident, if there's negligence or something like that you were drinking and driving, then, of course, you were irresponsible.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:That doesn't go to the community to share.
Hawley:Right. Right. Yeah. Absolutely. Kylie, any other questions before we hit the lightning round?
Allie:Nope. I I think we've covered everything, and I'm ready for a lightning round. Alright. Kick us off. Alright, Jenny.
Allie:So we've got some, some questions for you. And as it suggests, it's a lightning round. So a couple, like, words or shortened answers, for each of these questions. So the first one is cash or credit? Cash.
Allie:Alright. Real estate or stocks?
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:Real estate.
Allie:If you want a $1,000,000 today, what would be the first thing you do with the money?
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:Pay off my revolving credit.
Allie:What is a fun impulse buy you've had recently?
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:A travel trailer that I'm remodeling.
Allie:Oh, it sounds like my kinda impulse buy.
Hawley:No kidding,
Allie:Ali. What's a money saving tip that you swear by?
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:Look at home.
Allie:She's my kinda girl.
Hawley:Oh, well, look. I'm just sitting back here going, okay. Next.
Allie:What's your biggest financial fear?
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:I would say not having enough money to provide myself with sustenance.
Allie:And last but not least, what is your biggest financial goal for the next year?
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:$10,000 passive income every single month into my family's bank account.
Hawley:Nice. I love that. I love that. Well, I really appreciate all the nuggets that you dropped today, Jenny. Thank you so much for being a part of our show.
Hawley:Again, we have so many great episodes coming up this season. We are gonna talk about some of these other alternative strategies that you can use in order to make your life easier and better as far as your health goes, as far as your wealth goes, and as far as retirement and all those other things go. We will be here every Wednesday for the next, I don't know, 15, 16 weeks until you get tired of us for season 2. So thanks again for joining us. Ali, any last words?
Allie:Thank you, Jenny. And then where can people find you if they have more questions about health sharing or, impact?
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:On my email or my phone number?
Hawley:Give us your phone number then.
Allie:Well, we'll put it in the do you wanna put it in the description of the podcast?
Hawley:We'll do that too, and we'll have her say it real quick before we before we sign off.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:Okay. So area code 951-452-4143. Feel free to reach out anytime.
Allie:Awesome. So we'll so you've got her number now. Call her if you have any questions, and then we'll also put her email in the description of the podcast.
Hawley:Great day, everyone.
Ginny Bartlett-Elbert:Thank you.
Allie:Thank you for joining us on this week's episode.
Hawley:We'd love to hear from you, so make sure to follow and tag us
Allie:on Facebook and Instagram at Women of Wealth podcast.
Allie:Your support means the world to us. Until next time, remember, your financial future is in your hands.
Allie:Stay informed, stay inspired, and embrace your wealth. See you on the next episode.
