PEORIA MAGAZINE October 2023

Anthony Hopp is the vice president and chief purpose officer at Samaritan Ministries in Peoria

Samaritan Ministries employee Brittany Kirkpatrick

‘BEARING OUR BURDENS,’ MEDICAL AND SPIRITUAL Though Volk has misgivings about HCSMs on the whole, she offers no particular criticism of Samaritan. In fact, one of her biggest peeves — insurance brokers who sell HCSM memberships, thus implying an equivalence of HCSMs with insurance — does not apply to Samaritan: The organization does not allow its plan to be sold by insurance agents. Samaritan’s Hopp said his employer does not use hard-sell techniques to drive membership. Most of its advertising is by word of mouth, aside from a modicum of ads placed in Christian publications. Meantime, amid state criticisms of some HCSMs, some of those concerns may be legitimate, he acknowledged. “What complicates this is some of the bad actors,” said Hopp, who expresses a belief that overall, HCSMs fill a real need, one that goes beyond health care. “A medical need is a disruption in your life,” Hopp said. “There is an emotional and spiritual need.” That is why Samaritan, in directing members where to send their monthly checks, often will provide information about the recipient. Though privacy is honored, many recipients want at least some of their medical information shared with other members, to allow prayers on their behalf. That is what happened in 1998 for the Hopp household. Checks came with cards and notes of encouragement.

states. That’s smart, said JoAnn Volk, a researcher with Georgetown Universi ty’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms. She believes many HCSM members don’t know what they’re getting into. “There’s no promise to pay, but there’s all these (positive) testimonies,” Volk said. “(They say,) ‘It’s not insurance.’ I’m not sure if people understand what that means.” In North Dakota, the attorney general’s office settled a suit against HCSM Jericho Share after alleging the HCSM falsely equated its services with insurance. Colorado and other states have expressed concern that insurance brokers have received bigger fees from HCSMs than insurers for bringing in new customers. And Trinity, an HCSM administered by the company Aliera, recently went bankrupt, prompting 14 states to take action to try to shut down Aliera. Perhaps most problematic, according to Volk, is a lack of oversight of HCSMs. With laws essentially allowing the or ganizations to operate outside insur ance-industry regulations, there is no way for Volk or other researchers to comprehensively analyze any HCSM for performance or value. There is an industry trade organi zation, the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries, that can vouch for an HCSM. But there is no outside audit involved, Volk said. “I think we’re seeing a great desire for oversight by states,” she said. “But it’s still nowhere near what’s done with insurance.”

“They prayed for us,” Hopp said. “They cited scripture. There was this com munity that came together during that part of our lives.” That sort of response and support also buoyed the household of Alexandra Hoerr earlier this year. The 29-year-old stay-at-home mom lives near Kickapoo with husband Brett, 30, who works for his family’s small machine shop. The latter enrolls all of its employees with Samaritan. Hoerr has been pleased with the Sa maritan plan. Her household’s biggest medical expenses related to her third child, which she delivered in March. Of $24,000 in total bills related to the pregnancy, the couple paid $400. As typically urged by Samaritan, Hoerr asked providers for cash-pay discounts, which can lop off anywhere from 20% to 50% of bills. To cover the pregnancy costs, checks from members began to arrive about a month after each bill. With the checks came cards and messages with spiri tual exhortations. “It does mean something that people are praying … and the body of Christ is with us,” she said. “They’re bearing our burdens in a way that’s more than just financial.”

Phil Luciano is a senior writer/columnist for Peoria Magazine and content contributor to public television station WTVP. He can be reached at phil.luciano@wtvp.org

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