Our story

Together with my wife and four children, we have been members of Liberty Healthshare since the start of 2017.   We were looking for an option that was Christian and more affordable than health insurance.  We were unsure, but felt at the time Liberty Healthshare was our best option.  

Over the years, we have had to rely on Liberty Healthshare through challenging medical situations, including my thyroid cancer treatment.  While it was often difficult, time-consuming, and stressful to rely on Liberty Healthshare, in the end they would come through for us.  We were always faithful in paying our monthly share amount.

Unfortunately, things changed at Liberty Healthshare, and our family was abandoned in the process.

In July, on my wife's birthday late in the evening when all urgent care facilities were closed, she felt chest and back pains in manners she had never experienced before.  We were out of town.  While we waited as long as possible to see if the symptoms would get better, we made the difficult decision to go to the emergency room in the middle of the night. After tests and consultation, it was fortunately determined that she was able to return to where we were staying and then return home the next day for further treatment. It was later determined that my wife had tricuspid valve regurgitation and mitral valve prolapse, conditions that are relatively common and harmless, but can make the person experience symptoms similar to a heart attack. 

As in the past, we worked between the provider and Liberty Healthshare to ensure the delivery of all appropriate paperwork.  I was originally charged  $6685.69 by the provider.  Liberty Healthshare determined the price that should be paid to the provider was $468.29.  Liberty Healthshare stated that I must also pay $500 for the ER visit since the first $500 of an emergency room visit is not eligible for sharing unless hospital admission occurs within 23 hours of emergency room.  I paid the combination of the $468.29 and the $500.  At this point, knowing that I had met my annual unshared amount (AUA) was met, Liberty Healthshare would share into the remainder of the expense and cover me. 

Unfortunately, this did not occur.  After receiving my payment, the provider sent another bill to me.  The provider went ahead and discounted the remaining bill to $3,043.12.  I submitted the bill to Liberty Healthshare but was informed that Liberty Healthshare would not be sharing into the remainder of my bill.

You see, in May, LHS changed their rules and determined that they would no longer share into what they call "balance bills."  LHS would determine what they considered "fair and reasonable" and then would no longer cover anything beyond that point, regardless if the provider agreed with their assessment.  

I was not aware of this when I took my wife to the ER.  I looked back and found mention about this change in a few email newsletters from LHS earlier this year.  While it was in the email newsletter, it was not the focus.  I do not recall receiving any mail with bold large print informing us that our family would not be covered.  This was a change that was made in the middle of the year without sufficient notice.  This change should have been made six months in advance of your annual renewal (ours is January 1).  Since the entire premise of our coverage with Liberty Healthshare was changed, we should have been given more notice than that.

You see, when you go to Liberty Healthshare's website to consider purchasing a plan, you see the phrase "Up to $1,000,000 (per incident) of fair & reasonable eligible medical expenses are shareable after AUA has been met."  This certainly sounded good to me and gave me comfort knowing that Liberty Healthshare and its members had my back in difficult times.  Sadly, with their change, Liberty Healthshare can drop you in a second by claiming the expenses didn't meet their definition of "fair and reasonable."  Our medical expense was nowhere near $1,000,000, and LHS did not pay a single dime towards my bill.

After I submitted my "balance bill" to Liberty Healthshare and was informed that it could not be covered, I was contacted by a representative from Liberty Healthshare's "Self-Pay Advocates" whose mission was to contact the provider on my behalf and negotiate a resolution.  The Self-Pay Advocate contacted the provider and was informed that there would be no negotiation.  The provider sent Self-Pay Advocate a financial aid application for us to complete that requires us to list our income and the value of every financial asset and account we have.  Now, we have to go to the provider as a charity case and beg for a discount.  Of course, this is after we paid over $12,000 in 2022 in our monthly share amount to Liberty Healthshare and $2,250 in medical expenses to meet our annual unshared amount.  

I have called Liberty Healthshare about this and even asked to speak to a supervisor (the first time I ever did that in my life).  I was told there was nothing Liberty Healthshare could do.

As you can tell, we are frustrated.  We relied on Liberty Healthshare.  We believed Liberty Healthshare had our back.  But they failed our family.  Now, we have to scramble to cover over $3,000 in medical bills we never expected to pay.

Please be aware of how you can be abandoned by Liberty Healthshare before you sign up.