Tagged: Christian Values

As a member of a healthcare sharing ministry, please keep the below information in mind when filing your taxes this year.

As we enter the New Year, we are reflecting on the improvements we made together in spite of the challenges we faced together.

Every year we review and assess our Sharing Guidelines to ensure we are helping our community to conserve our shared resources and make necessary changes to meet the needs of our member community. This year, Liberty HealthShare has determined that the following guideline changes (please see our Sharing Guidelines for the full version) will help our members steward their health and enjoy the option of healthsharing.

Every month we share a story about one of the many great people that we have here at Liberty HealthShare. For the month of January, we are excited to introduce you to Danielle H., who has works in our Provider Relations Department as a Member Facilitator. She enjoys working with our members and finds it very rewarding to be able to listen to their stories and offer encouragement.

Like many others, you may be considering setting new goals for 2021. While new goals at the beginning of the year can motivate you, you can also easily lose momentum if the goals you set don’t continue to motivate you past February. Here are a few ideas for setting goals in the New Year.

If you will soon meet or have already met the requirements for Medicare, it is important to know how Medicare enrollment works with your Liberty HealthShare membership. Here’s how healthsharing at Liberty HealthShare works for Medicare members.

There will always be times of great uncertainty in our lives and in the world. While it may not look like it, God knows what's going on and He knows how to help and sustain us through these great moments.

ShareBox is your most valuable tool as a member and we are always looking for ways to improve the member experience. We will be making some improvements to ShareBox in the coming weeks and these updates will affect two areas within the Medical Expense tab in ShareBox.

For the month of December, we are excited to introduce Da'Maris, who was happy to share about himself and his journey at Liberty HealthShare. Da’Maris has supported our ministry by assisting our members, their providers and his coworkers with a positive outlook and a servant’s heart.

An encounter and response is a part of the Christmas miracle. The birth of Christ is our focus but there are many other parts to the Christmas story that shouldn’t be missed.

ShareBox is our members most important membership tool and where you will submit your eligible medical expenses and receive important information related to your Liberty membership and healthsharing community. Let's take a look inside ShareBox.

If your goal is to eat healthier and lose weight, you don’t have to give up your favorite foods this Thanksgiving. These healthy recipe ideas can help you enjoy a healthier holiday.

We are filled with thanksgiving and gratitude for our health, freedom and the gift of today, while our thoughts and prayers are with others.

Protecting the health of you and your family during this time is very important and if you or a family member needs testing, including COVID-19 testing, we are here to help offer you cost-saving resources.

Every day, our Liberty HealthShare team works together to serve our members. This month, we are featuring Veronica, who serves in our Quality Control department. She enjoys serving our members and she serves her home community through ministry. Read more about Veronica on our blog.

The month of November reminds us that it's in serving others that we are truly blessed. Here's how we can be intentional and serve others this holiday season.

We talked with our Prenotifcation team and they told us how they help our sharing community and how they assist you in coordinating your healthcare.

A membership year and a program period are both related to your Liberty HealthShare membership, yet they are different from one another. Here's what you need to know about each one and where you can find them.

Every day, our Liberty HealthShare team works together to serve our members. This month, we would like to introduce you to Joe, a member of our Case Management team. We hope you enjoy learning more about Joe and his journey with Liberty HealthShare.

The more frequently you communicate with your healthcare team, the more confident you will become in answering questions about your healthsharing membership at Liberty HealthShare. Use these tips when talking with your doctor.

No matter what is happening in our lives and around the world, Jesus has the ability to reach down to where we are and lift us up.

In October, Liberty HealthShare launched a new sharing program, Liberty Select. Some of our members asked if they can switch their sharing program to a lower AUA program. We answered these questions here.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and Liberty HealthShare wants to help spread awareness of this disease. So this month, we are sharing useful information on breast health and what you can do to be proactive with your health.

As we are officialy in fall, it's time to think about how you can make small, healthy changes in your lifestyle to protect your health this winter.

When you schedule a wellness visit or screening, it's important to know the difference between wellness and diagnostic services and how they are coded, depending on your circumstance.

Liberty HealthShare is launching a new sharing program, Liberty Select. This new program offers lower monthly share amounts, along with a higher annual unshared amount (AUA) for each sharing level within the new program. We answered your questions about Liberty's new program in this FAQ.

Stay in tune and touch with your spiritual life. Be an open book before God.

A part of being a good healthsharing member is being a good steward of your health. Make sure to keep an eye on your cholesterol by receiving routine healthcare and prioritizing your health journey.

Love someone today that you didn’t plan on loving. At a minimum pray for them and if possible show them a kindness they aren’t expecting. You will be blessed.

Open up your bible or bible app and make sure you are adding God’s truth into your daily life.

Saving money can be difficult, yet it's possible be a wise steward of your money while at college. Here are a few tips shared by our college intern, Celeste.

Liberty HealthShare has a new feature in Sharebox that allows members to share prayer requests with our Pastor Care Team and other members.

By choosing a faith-based, community solution to the problem of skyrocketing healthcare costs and becoming active participants in their care, healthcare sharing ministry members are keeping more of their hard-earned money and helping return sanity to the American healthcare system at large.

The National Religious Broadcasters' Proclaim 19 Conference offers a great opportunity for our ministry staff to meet and interact with other personnel from various ministries throughout the nation and to share the good news about healthcare sharing with a large audience of attendees.

Liberty HealthShare will host its inaugural Life at Liberty 5k & Fun Run on Saturday, April 6. All proceeds will go to benefit the Hope House 4 Women (HH4W), a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that provides sober living homes for women in Liberty’s hometown of Canton, Ohio.

When members join Liberty HealthShare, we understand they must undergo a "paradigm shift" in their engagement with the healthcare system, especially if they have previously used a third-party payer. That's why many of our blog posts are educational in nature - we know it takes some repetition and explanation in order for our members to understand and embrace the healthcare sharing mentality. We often get emails from members who simply want to say "thank you" to our staff and membership community for the part we have played in their health journey. It's always encouraging to us when we hear from happy members, but it's particularly rewarding when a member has obviously taken the time to understand and live out the stewardship values we hold dear.

Last Friday, January 19th, members of the Liberty HealthShare communications staff participated in the 45th annual March for Life, held in Washington, D.C. Starting at 1 p.m., we walked up Constitution Avenue with hundreds of thousands of other pro-life individuals to demonstrate our love and support for both pre-born babies and their mothers. The March culminated on the steps of the Supreme Court, the same building where abortion on demand was legalized in 1973. Ever since then, the March for Life has been held on or around the anniversary of Roe v. Wade to demonstrate that for those who believe life begins at conception, this issue is far from settled.

January 19th is the 45th annual March for Life, held in Washington, D.C. The March is held every year on or around the anniversary of the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion on demand. What started in 1974 as a small, peaceful demonstration meant to mark this somber anniversary has grown to become the largest pro-life event in the world. On Friday, thousands of pro-lifers from all over the United States will gather on the National Mall for a concert and rally.

As part of a new occasional book review series here on the blog, we recently published a review of Dr. Bob Cutillo's book, Pursuing Health in an Anxious Age. Dr. Cutillo was kind enough to speak with us about how his experiences as a Christian and a medical provider led him to write this book.

As part of a new occasional book review series here on the blog, today we are reviewing Pursuing Health in an Anxious Age (Crossway), by Bob Cutillo, M.D. We live in an age of unprecedented medical advancement, with broad access to interventions ranging from the preventative to the elective. We have much to be thankful for as prognoses improve and lifespans continue to increase. Certain preventions can bring peace of mind to those who otherwise face a genetic predisposition to disease. Pain can be managed and even, in some cases, eliminated. However, a Biblical perspective on the topics of health, pain, disease, and death is in some ways set against that of our culture.

A string of hurricanes and wildfires devastated large areas across the nation this summer. Wildfires in California continue to leave destruction in their wake. Thousands of Liberty HealthShare member families live within the declared disaster areas, with many facing a daunting recovery process as they consider how best to move forward. As members of a Christian community, we are compelled to step up.

It’s hard to believe Christmas is only two weeks away. It seems like every year, the holiday sneaks up on us, and if we’re not careful, parties, shopping, and church commitments (to name a few) can conspire to steal our joy.

The great American holiday, otherwise known as Thanksgiving, is this Thursday. Whether you celebrate with turkey and all the fixings or you’re more of a ham family, whether you spend your day serving at a local charity or watching the parade and football, we hope you enjoy a day full of reminiscing over old memories and the creation of new ones. As you look around the table, don’t forget to take this opportunity to recall the many things you have to be thankful for.

From time to time, Liberty sends representatives to conferences and events where we feel it will be worthwhile to share our mission with attendees. To that end, our team attended LifeWay's ETCH Family Ministry Conference in Nashville this past month.

At Liberty HealthShare, we view misunderstandings as opportunities for education. For instance, some potential members don't understand the healthcare sharing mentality. Rather than seeing this purely as an obstacle to membership, we choose to see it as an opportunity for education about our unique, member-centered approach to paying for healthcare. When we hear from members who truly understand healthcare sharing and want to see others learn more, we get excited. We can explain it all day long from our perspective, but the reality is members who share their experiences are exponentially more effective at educating others. A great example of this is Brittany K. from Michigan, who along with her family joined Liberty HealthShare early last year.

In last month's post, I shared my main motivation for pursuing health: love for my grandchildren. What keeps me on track and making healthy choices is the desire to be in their lives for a long time. Not only do I want to be around, but I also want to be able to keep up with them and actively participate in all the important events that will define their lives over the years to come. In the motivation post, I detailed a long list of excuses which, from time to time, we are all guilty of making where our health and fitness are concerned. Life is stressful, busy, and tiring. Work, friends, family, and our other commitments play tug-of-war with our time and energy. Sometimes the only thing that helps us achieve success is an incentive...some sort of carrot we can chase on our way to better health (better carrots than cake!). So I asked our members, "What motivates you?" Or said a different way, "What is your driving force?"

From time to time, we hear from a member who experienced an emergency medical cost just days or weeks after joining Liberty HealthShare. Dealing with a large expense like an emergency room visit can be nerve-wracking, especially if you are new to the concept of healthcare sharing. CindyAnn S., a Liberty HealthShare member in Florida, found herself in this position when her son broke his arm just 9 days into their membership. Here is her story:

Last month, we sent an e-mail to our membership in celebration of the fact that Liberty HealthShare had just achieved a milestone. In mid-December, our membership surpassed 100,000 people. It’s hard to believe that since then, we’ve added over 10,000 more individuals to our community!

Throughout the course of your enrollment and membership in Liberty HealthShare, you have likely noticed that we use terminology that is specific to our organization and work. There are several reasons we choose to communicate in the way we do.

In this short video, Liberty HealthShare Executive Director Dale Bellis re-establishes our mission and commitment looking ahead.

Members of healthcare sharing ministries are a unique breed. We are determined to protect our individual liberties, and yet we have committed ourselves to sharing with this community. These two behaviors may seem incongruous to some, but we believe they go hand in hand. For many of us, it is our individual freedom that compels us to share with others as they share with us. We want others to remain free as well. Participating in elections is one of the main ways we preserve and protect our unalienable rights.

When costs became her number one concern, Karen found Liberty HealthShare. Whatever your reason for joining Liberty HealthShare; whether it’s our community of like-minded people, the freedom that comes with directing and managing your own healthcare, or the financial responsibility you can exercise as a member, we are glad you are here. It is our goal that you experience all these benefits and more through your membership. Just recently, Karen O. from Florida shared her impressions with us:

On September 17th, 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia signed the United States Constitution, adopting it as the supreme law of this land. In recognition of its historic signing, we observe Constitution Day each year. Even today, 229 years later, this unique document remains the standard by which all other laws are measured. In fact, the Constitution is so extraordinary that other nations have used it as a template for their own governmental structures!

This past week, Liberty HealthShare Executive Director Dale Bellis attended a pastors' training event hosted by Pastor Jim Garlow, author of Well Versed: Biblical Answers to Today's Tough Issues. This brand new book does a fantastic job of explaining how we as Americans might best respond to the pressures, policies, and events that impact our lives each day - all in light of the Bible.

At Liberty HealthShare, our mission of facilitating the sharing of members’ medical expenses is serious business. When we are serving a member who has experienced an illness or accident requiring ongoing medical care, we want to be a safe place in the storm. For this reason, our team members encourage one another to remember that a member in distress is a person in need; a person our ministry exists to serve. It makes us proud to get feedback that lets us know our team is serving members well.

Last month, Liberty HealthShare sent representatives to Cleveland and Philadelphia to meet with those attending the Republican and Democrat National Conventions. Since healthcare is a particularly hot topic this election cycle, we wanted to make sure candidates and their campaigns are aware of our unique status. We are always paying attention to possible policy changes, both at the national and the state level, and we are always advocating for FREEDOM!

A Member (and Employee) Testimonial Hi. I'm Christen Varley, Public Affairs Specialist for Liberty HealthShare. When people ask me what it is I do every day, I tell them I'm the luckiest person working here. I spend most of my days talking to people all over our country about healthcare sharing with Liberty HealthShare! I get to speak with clergy, lay people, business owners, journalists, potential members, activists, attorneys, policy analysts, and sometimes even elected officials. I explain what healthcare sharing is, how it came into being, and how Liberty Health Share is helping people all over the country pay for medical costs in a community that cares about maintaining good health and pitching in to help others in times of need. My favorite part of any conversation, though, is telling them why I chose healthcare sharing for my own family.

While attending a national convention, the Liberty HealthShare team was approached by a member. With a determined look on his face, the man had broken through the crowd standing in front of the booth and pulled something out of his back pocket. In front of everyone in attendance there, in a voice that broke through the clamor of a convention floor, he held his Liberty HealthShare member card up and said, "You all saved my life."

It was autumn 2009 when Pastor Kip Smith and his wife Lora first learned about the mission work being performed at Cap Haitien in Haiti. They attended a talk in Cleveland, Ohio, where missionaries and volunteers told of the desperate need for medical supplies and healthcare workers in Haiti’s second largest city. While discussions were being held as to what sort of involvement was possible for their small parish, disaster struck.

Andy and Tiffany Clark are a young couple from Canton, Ohio. Like many young people, the Clarks had begun to face financial difficulties due to student loan debt. These difficulties prompted tough decisions as the couple faced choosing between paying healthcare costs or neglecting basic necessities of life such as food and rent. Andy and Tiffany’s faith in God’s provision led them to pray that He would intervene and provide a solution that would meet all of these needs rather than accepting the frightening realities of living without help in case of unexpected medical costs. What happened next was an answer to prayer and a chance for the Liberty HealthShare family to grow.

Have you ever wondered if praying really works? We have all received news of a family member, friend, or acquaintance suffering from an illness or injury. Oftentimes, we are asked to pray for the afflicted person’s healing and comfort. Many of us do so gladly, adding a name to our daily prayers, offering a specific intercession or even going the extra mile and encouraging others to pray as well. Have you ever wondered if praying works?

Representatives of Liberty HealthShare recently had the privilege of participating in the Future Conference at Skyline Church in La Mesa, California. The Future Conference is a gathering of pastors, church leaders, and Christians interested in discussing difficult topics. It is a four-day event that covers more than twenty topics.

The mindset every member should have Becoming a Liberty HealthShare member is a liberating step. You’ve abandoned bureaucratic models of paying for healthcare and embraced freedom. Your status as a self-pay patient sharing medical expenses with others of like mind allows you to access the best medical care available at the lowest cost possible. In addition, you have engaged the most powerful consumer weapon in healthcare: the self-pay patient! You have the twin advantage of a vast community sharing your costs while you watch over your own expenses as an individual patient. After all, it’s your money! And who better to watch over your money than you! This paradigm shift, once embraced, changes everything, keeping costs low and your healthcare options intact!

One of the main qualities that sets Liberty HealthShare apart from traditional methods of paying for healthcare is the fact that we encourage and depend upon our members taking personal responsibility for their own health care. This distinctive feature plays a huge part in reducing costs for members of our Christian healthcare sharing ministry.

An Inspiring Little Boy Thrives In Difficult Circumstances Many of our members are familiar with Aiden Corlew and have contributed to our "Help Save Aiden" Campaign. Recent progress reports have been good, and we want to share the news with you.

Liberty HealthShare's predecessor and parent ministry is a faith-based group that began in 1988 as a group of Christians who shared end-of-life medical and funeral expenses. Since then, the group has expanded to include a wide range of eligible medical expenses, ultimately becoming Liberty HealthShare. We are not health insurance, but rather we make it possible for individuals to share in one another's eligible medical expenses. This is allowable under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and for that reason, it has grown rapidly in recent years.

How personal values can lead to better healthcare economics. by Dale Bellis, Liberty HealthShare Executive Director Recently the New York Times posted an article entitled, "Onward Christian, Healthcare" by Molly Worthen. We are so happy to see that the media is taking notice of healthcare sharing ministries, and we are encouraged by the impact it is having on the American healthcare landscape. I was quoted in the article as saying, "success comes 'when the marketplace is given the opportunity to produce solutions on its own.'" However, given the way in which the quote was presented, it seemed as though I believe the reason we share medical bills together is because of the economic advantage; because it is cheaper. This quote was accurate; however, I would like to add context, because it is important to know the driving force behind what we do.

Could the healthcare sharing mentality change our nation? HealthShare Radio host John Daly asked Executive Director Dale Bellis that question, and his answer might surprise you.

Executive Director Dale Bellis explains how Liberty HealthShare members are able to provide emotional and spiritual encouragement and support to one another through the member ShareBox.

Staff member and sharing member Jonathan White shares his personal story of community care and his perspective on working at Liberty HealthShare.

With the new Affordable Care Act (ACA) now passed into law and in full effect, people are wondering what options they have to pay for their medical costs. One approach that isn’t commonly talked about is healthcare sharing or medical cost sharing. It is acknowledged in the ACA, but many people do not know about it. Of those who have heard of medical cost sharing, many are confused as to what it really is and how it works. Let’s start by saying medical cost sharing it IS NOT insurance, it IS legal, and it has been around for quite some time in faith communities. In fact, it is a biblical approach to paying for unexpected and unaffordable healthcare costs.

Liberty HealthShare brings like-minded individuals together to share in each other’s medical expenses. It’s voluntary, cooperative, and supportive. The primary motivation that makes Liberty HealthShare succeed is compassion - people helping people!