Tagged: Pre-Existing Conditions

As empowered, educated healthcare consumers, our members often ask questions to better understand how our healthsharing process works and what it means to be a good healthsharing member. In this post we answer why we require diagnosis codes with expense submission.

If you or one of your family members has a pre-existing condition, it is important to understand what this means as a Liberty HealthShare member and how it effects your shareable medical expenses.

We believe that combating health care costs begins with caring for personal health. This value is at the core of our healthsharing model, as we encourage our members to take on responsibility for healthful choices before there are ever medical bills to share. To this end, we offer the HealthTrac Program to incoming members with pre-existing conditions like Type 2 diabetes, obesity, or smoking, that can be alleviated by healthy lifestyle changes. Members are paired with a personal health coach who helps them create and work towards achievable fitness and diet goals until they graduate from the program as fully integrated members of Liberty HealthShare. One of our members, Carla, reached out to us with her experience in the HealthTrac program since joining Liberty, and it is our pleasure to share her story.

In the Health & Wellness Department, we are asked, “What is considered a pre-existing condition?” several times a day by both members and providers. The review and management of pre-existing conditions make up a large part of our work, so one of my goals is ensuring that our members have a good understanding of how we address these particular circumstances.

At Liberty HealthShare, we frequently hear members as well as health care professionals referring to Liberty as insurance. It is important for our members to remember that Liberty is a cost-sharing ministry, not an insurance company. Because we are a healthcare sharing ministry, we are free from insurance! We are free to choose our physician, choose our hospital, and choose our pharmacy. We are in charge of our own healthcare. As members of Liberty HealthShare, we must take the role of stewards who strive to minimize cost for all of our members. One of the ways in which we accomplish this is through our handling of pre-existing conditions.

Our Health and Wellness Department is here to serve members when they become ill or suffer an injury. They also counsel potential members when a pre-existing and/or lifestyle-related condition is a concern. Finally, they work with our HealthTrac members, following progress and confirming graduation.

Robert K. of New Jersey was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 16. It was a worrisome diagnosis for an athletic young man, and at the time, diabetes was more difficult to track and treat. Lifestyle changes were needed and Robert rose to the occasion, saying, “It was never difficult for me to manage the inconvenience of having diabetes. I would not accept complications arising from my disease."

Liberty HealthShare members are a health-conscious group who believe our bodies are temples to be stewarded and cared for. Watch Executive Director Dale Bellis explain some of the ways in which Liberty encourages greater health for our members.

HealthShare Radio host John Daly and Executive Director Dale Bellis give a quick explanation of pre-existing conditions as they are handled by Liberty HealthShare.