Memberships / Catastrophic
Catastrophic Membership
For surgery, the ER, and the things nobody plans for. Backed by Zion HealthShare medical cost sharing.
What's included
Accidents and the ER
Car wrecks, sports injuries, emergency room visits.
Car wrecks, bad falls, the ER at two in the morning. What happens next.
Surgery and ICU
Inpatient and outpatient surgery, intensive care.
Planned or not, inpatient or outpatient, including intensive care.
Serious conditions
Cancer treatment, cardiac procedures, stroke, autoimmune and neurological needs.
Cancer, cardiac procedures, stroke, autoimmune and neurological needs.
Transport and transplants
Medical transport for eligible needs, organ transplants.
Ambulance, air ambulance and organ transplants.
Imaging and labs
When tied to an eligible medical need.
Diagnostic work tied to an eligible need, which is different from routine annual labs.
Preventive sharing
Included automatically with every membership.
How sharing works
Zion HealthShare is a non-profit medical cost sharing community. Members contribute monthly, and those contributions go toward each other's eligible medical needs. You choose an Initial Unshareable Amount, the portion you pay toward a given need before sharing begins.
1 · Something happens
A surgery, an ER visit, a diagnosis. You get care where you choose. There are no network restrictions.
2 · You submit the need
CoreMed and Zion handle the paperwork with the provider. You pay your IUA.
3 · Members share the rest
Eligible costs beyond your IUA are shared by the membership community.
How sharing actually works, in detail →
Zion HealthShare is not an insurance company. Neither this publication nor membership in Zion HealthShare are offered by an insurance company. Visit zionhealthshare.org to view your state-specific notice. State-specific notices.
In more detail
What each part of the membership actually means in practice.
Accidents and the ER
There are no network restrictions. In an emergency you go to the closest hospital, exactly as you would otherwise. Nobody needs to approve it first and no one is checking whether the hospital is on a list.
Get treated. Sort out the paperwork afterward.
Surgery and hospital stays
Tell CoreMed before it is scheduled. That gives time to confirm eligibility, work out the numbers with the facility and tell you what your share will be. Going in knowing the figure is the whole difference between this and a hospital bill.
You choose the surgeon and the facility. There is no network to stay inside.
Serious conditions
Cancer treatment including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Cardiac procedures. Stroke and its rehabilitation. Autoimmune and neurological conditions requiring ongoing treatment.
These are the needs that turn into six-figure numbers, and they are the reason this part of the membership exists.
Medical transport and transplants
Distance is the reason. An air ambulance out of a rural county can run tens of thousands of dollars, and it is one of the most common causes of a genuinely ruinous medical bill in this state.
Medical transport for an eligible need is eligible for sharing.
Imaging and labs for a medical need
There are two different things here and people mix them up.
Routine annual labs and a same-week X-ray are part of a Primary or Comprehensive membership. They happen because your doctor is keeping an eye on you.
How your price is worked out
There is no price list, because there is no single price. Three things move the number, and the calculator shows you yours in about a minute.
Age
Monthly amounts step up by age band. Your household's number is built from the ages of the people on it.
Household
Individual, Individual + Spouse, Individual + Kids, Individual + Spouse + Kids. Children are priced per child rather than as a flat family rate.
Your IUA
$1,250, $2,500 or $5,000 per medical need. A higher IUA lowers your monthly amount because you carry more of a large event yourself. How the IUA works →
Before you join
Conditions you already have
Anything treated or medicated in the 24 months before you join phases in over your first years of membership under Zion's guidelines. Your CoreMed primary care is not affected by this. Read the rule →
What is not shared
Zion's guidelines set out what is not eligible. Worth five minutes before you join rather than after. See the list →
Questions
What is an IUA?
The Initial Unshareable Amount is what you pay toward a single medical need before sharing begins. You choose the level when you join. Once you've paid it for one need, further eligible expenses for that same need remain eligible for sharing.
Who actually pays when I have a large medical need?
Zion HealthShare is a non-profit community where members contribute toward each other's eligible medical needs. You pay your IUA, the community shares the rest according to its published guidelines, and those guidelines are what determine eligibility.
What about a condition I already have?
Conditions treated or medicated in the 24 months before you join phase in over your first years of membership under Zion's guidelines. Your CoreMed Primary care is not affected.
Does it work outside Montana?
Eligible sharing applies anywhere in the U.S., with emergency sharing while travelling abroad. There are no network restrictions.
Zion HealthShare is not an insurance company. Neither this publication nor membership in Zion HealthShare are offered by an insurance company. Visit zionhealthshare.org to view your state-specific notice.
Zion HealthShare is an independent nonprofit organisation and a separate entity from CoreMed Healthcare. CoreMed memberships are an insurance alternative. Zion HealthShare is not ACA compliant, does not qualify as a taxable benefit or for Section 125 pre-tax treatment, and does not guarantee payment of any medical bills.