Here’s another beautiful story of why Samaritan Ministries rocks my socks.

A few weeks ago I shared the home birth story of our third daughter, but today I’m going to explain the details of how 100% of our costs were shared by members of Samaritan Ministries.

I’ll also go into detail about what it’s like to be a member, starting with the monthly SHARE (which is comparable to a “premium” in insurance terminology,) to submitting a NEED (similar to a “claim”,) and what it’s like to go through the maternity process with Samaritan Ministries.

What is a Christian Healthcare Sharing Ministry? If you’re still not sure what I’m talking about, you’ll definitely want to read THIS first before reading any further.

Before I give you a brief summary of how Samaritan works, I wanted to let you know that you may also want to check out my post on the Top 3 Christian Healthcare Sharing Ministries (scroll down to Samaritan Ministries and feel free to read about the other ministries as well.) You can also read about how we received “coverage” (through members’ shares) last year for a non-maternity claim with Samaritan Ministries HERE.

Some Quick Basics About Samaritan Ministries: 

I tell everyone I know about Samaritan Ministries, especially my more natural-minded friends since Samaritan will reimburse for alternative doctors and treatments along with conventional medical care. I treated my cancer naturally 7 years ago, so this need for non-conventional medical care coverage was what actually led me to begin research on Alternatives to Obamacare and led me down this path. I wanted health care coverage that would actually reimburse for the type of care I used! This kind of treatment (natural/ non-toxic) and home births aren’t covered by insurance (unless in rare occasions licensed by your state,) so when I came across Samaritan Ministries, I was skeptical and then pleasantly enlightened.

How to Become a Samaritan Ministries Member:

1. First off, at the heart of Samaritan Ministries is a strong faith in God and a commitment to prayer for others in the ministry. In order to become a member of Samaritan, you do have to sign a statement of Christian faith and they ask that you attend church regularly. You also have to get the signature of a pastor, priest or an accountable church leader in order to become a sharing member and for each NEED you submit. If you or your family are members of Samaritan Ministries or any other Christian sharing ministry, you are exempt from the Obamacare tax penalty (1st amendment rights- YEAH!)

2. Next, you will drop $200 for your new membership fee once when you first sign up. You will also send your first “SHARE” to Samaritan Ministries headquarters. Every year and with sign up, you will pay your first month’s share to Samaritan to pay for administrative costs. The next 11 months of the year you will send your share to an assigned member in need, along with a note or card or whatever you want to send to encourage them. Depending on the size and age of your family members, you will pay anywhere from $140 for a young single person to $405 for families of two adults plus 1 or more children. Check HERE for current share amounts. We pay the $405 amount.

Here’s a quick picture of what we get in the mail each month. The family we sent our share to this month had an infant daughter born prematurely.

Also included in the monthly Newsletter is a letter about the current state of the ministry and a small actual Newsletter with tips on natural health, money saving health care tips, and political reporting (which I admit I don’t always agree with 100% but still love the heart of the ministry.) A hugely important part of the monthly Newsletter packet is the prayer request list which I am not including a picture of since it includes a lot of personal info.

3. The only additional amount you may need to pay after that is if you want “coverage” over $250,000 annually per person, per medical event. This is an optional program called Save to Share and you will just put away a fixed amount each year just in case you are asked to share with someone else also enrolled in “Save to Share” whose medical expenses has gone over the standard limit of $250,000. You can see those amounts at the bottom of this link.

4. That’s it unless you have a medical need of course. Below I’ll walk you through the process of filing a need, specifically a home birth maternity need.

This is how the entire Needs Sharing process worked for our Home Birth…

Last summer I found out I was pregnant and began receiving prenatal care under a home birth midwife at 8 weeks along. I then notified Samaritan Ministries and they sent me a new NEED packet similar to this one….

During that same phone call the Samaritan employee prayed for me, the baby, and our family. And of course my pregnancy hormones got me all crying on the phone to a stranger.

My next step was to pay my midwife a down payment of $200 and asked for a detailed, itemized receipt. I added this to my NEED list of medical bills/payments.

At 8 weeks pregnant I received an ultrasound ($180) to confirm a healthy pregnancy. Not all women will do this, especially women preferring a completely hands-off, natural birth, but I had a missed miscarriage a few years ago and needed the confirmation of a viable pregnancy. I added this to my NEED medical bill list and made sure to get an itemized, detailed receipt from the ultrasound technician.

During this time, we continued to get our monthly Samaritan Ministries Newsletter and sent our assigned SHARE to the person we would be “paying” for and praying for that month.

I continued to see my midwife each month and then received another ultrasound and anatomy scan ($120) at 20 weeks to find out the gender of our baby (3rd girl- YEAH!) and added the amount and receipt to my NEED medical bill list.

At 24 weeks my midwife needed blood work drawn. Since she’s a home birth midwife  I had to go to a LabCorp and it was only $50 out of pocket. I added this receipt to my NEED medical bill list.

At 28 weeks my gestational diabetes test and a few others were run through my midwife’s office. I also owed another payment for my midwife’s services at this point ($500.) I also had to purchase my birthing supplies for a homebirth such as a pool liner, fresh garden hose, rubber gloves, syringes, stitching supplies, etc. ($170) Since this was part of the home birth experience, it would all be eligible for sharing with SM members, and therefore “covered.”

I also began to have horrible lower back discomfort during this time and found out the baby was breech. For both reasons I began to see a chiropractor who specialized in the Webster Technique, a gentle way to adjust women’s backs and position the pelvis optimally for natural childbirth. Each visit was $35 and I went 12 times until I delivered. All was approved for sharing with members and was fully reimbursed. (Chiropractic is shareable up to 20 visits when it is needed for pain management but not for maintenance or prevention-type care.)

I continued to see my midwife monthly until 36 weeks when I began seeing her weekly. At 36 weeks I also owed her the remaining balance for my home birth. After payment I got an itemized receipt for the remaining amount, $2,200 (I paid almost $3,000 total for my midwife’s complete services.) I added all of that to my NEED medical bill list and decided it was time to send my receipts and checklist in for sharing with other members (after I made copies of everything.)*

*It’s important to note that at any point in the maternity NEED process, you can go ahead and start sending your NEED packet and receipts in to Samaritan Ministries to begin to be shared with other members. We chose to wait until closer to the birth to submit all of our maternity receipts at once and then submitted the receipts for our newborn’s care after the birth, so we actually had checks coming for several months.

The Need Approval Process:

Our daughter was born February 28th, and just a few weeks after we sent our NEED packet in we received a list of what was approved for sharing and what fees weren’t along with WHEN they would be shared. The two ultrasounds were postponed for sharing at first because they needed additional proof from the ultrasound office since my receipts did not show enough detail. They were later approved and shared in May.

A few days after that we received an organized checklist with the names of the families and people whose SHARES were assigned to us for the next month. (Sorry, the big yellow post-its are my low tech way of maintaining member privacy.)

Now for the AMAZINGLY beautiful part….

We only had to wait about 5 weeks from her birth to begin to receive checks from other members sending their “SHARE” to us. A few days after the Newsletter was sent to members, we began getting mail from members. Their cards and kind words and prayers that accompanied their checks brought me to tears. I saved them and am laying them out just to take this picture (and I’m re-reading the sweet messages from everyone!)

Within just 6 weeks we received all of the checks needed to fund our home birth and newborn care 100%.

For any remaining expenses (mainly chiropractic,) I requested a “NEED Update” form online, printed it out, and filled out the list for the remaining NEED costs and included the receipts and sent it in after our daughter’s delivery. Samaritan Ministries also shared all of the newborn care, PKU, hearing test, etc, AND her tongue-tie frenectomy procedure without us having to pay a $300 personal responsibility (similar to a “deductible” in the insurance world.) They just included it in the maternity NEED which was of course so wonderful. <3

A few other details to note…

***Home Birth deliveries are “covered” (shareable) 100% without any personal responsibility amount while hospital births require you to pay a $300 personal responsibility before sharing begins. However, for those having hospital births- any “discounts” or “reductions” given by the hospital because you paid in advance and they didn’t have to file insurance are taken off of your personal responsibility! You could essentially end up not having to pay a personal responsibility if you can ask for reductions for paying in advance! It’s also important to note that if there is a month where proration occurs (as in there are more NEED amounts filed than SHARES available,) home births will not be subject to prorations (as in no matter what, they will pay 100% of your bills, where as any other NEEDS will be possibly prorated and you may not get the whole thing paid for THAT MONTH. The ministry tries to share the remaining prorated amount over the next few months however…)

***It’s also important to mention that many of these steps can be completed online with the Samaritan Ministries membership portal.

If you found this post helpful and choose to become a Samaritan Ministries member, feel free to let them know Cortney Campbell of AntiCancerMom.com let you know about her fantastic experience and referred you.

The post My Home Birth Experience with Samaritan Ministries and Review of Samaritan Ministries- Alternative to Health Insurance appeared first on Anti-Cancer Mom.