It’s been almost two years since we moved from Christian Healthcare Ministries to Zion Health, so I thought now would be a good time to update the world on our experience.
I want to start out by saying I LOVED CHM, and I often wish we were still with them. However, with their increased cost (which I heard are increasing even more), as well as their change to their faith statement (and me never really getting a clear-cut answer on if I can join as a Latter-day Saint), it was necessary to switch. There are few health shares, though, that can compare to CHM, so if you are considering it and can afford the cost/are eligible…go with them.
With that said, Zion Health is a decent alternative, and for the most part, things have gone fine. I have had some issues, which I’ll share, that I think others need to be aware of so you can advocate best for your care.
So if you are looking to see if Zion Health is a good health share for you, keep reading. I’m ready to share everything!
The Good
Fast Payment
It is very fast to get payments processed with Zion. This was a very pleasant change from CHM, where it would take 90-120 days. I think the longest it has taken Zion was a week, maybe two.
Easy to Submit Documents
Zion has done a good job of making their online portal easy to navigate and upload documents. With that said, there are a few times I am 99.99% positive I submitted a bill that actually never got uploaded, which is frustrating.
Affordable
All things considered,
DPC Option
We go to a doctor that uses a Direct Primary Care model, which works really well with using a health share. One of the features that drew me toward Zion was that they have a DPC plan. Because we use a DPC, we pay $450 a month for our family of five. You don’t get all the perks of a traditional membership (such as included vaccinations), but it’s worked well for us and saved money in the long run.
Includes alternative care, preventative, etc.
I like that Zion allows for certain alternative care options, preventative car (such as mammograms and colonoscopies after a certain age), as well as childhood vaccinations.
No Specific Faith Requirement
This is definitely the biggest selling point for Zion – they are not associated with any specific faith. We haven’t been allowed to join certain health shares out there because we are Latter-day Saints, and I can’t truthfully agree with their faith statement.
Zion welcomes members of all faiths and have reasonable “principles of membership“. After looking at various health shares for Latter-day Saints, Zion made the most sense (and they are not associated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at all).
The Downsides
Customer Service
Okay, in full disclosure, most of my customer service experiences have been fine. However, about eight months in, I had an absolutely horrible experience with someone over there when I was trying to get my son’s medical bills submitted after he had to be hospitalized during a heat stroke/seizure incident in North Carolina.
It was already a really emotionally charged event, and we had issues with the hospital billing someone else’s insurance (that’s a whole other story!). The woman who I was corresponding with there was very rude and condescending and refused to even get on the phone with me.
I’ll admit that I was not the nicest either, but it was just a very unfortunate event. There was someone else I talked to after this happened, and she was much more understanding and helpful. But even after I sent a full write-up, I never heard anything back.
Inconsistent Information/Service
The issues I had with customer support stemmed from getting inconsistent information and service. When I originally signed up, the membership guidelines said that if you were able to negotiate a discount with your healthcare provider, it may be applied toward your IUA for the event. I had confirmed this via email before signing up as well.
When I had a hysteroscopy, I was able to get a discount, and they provided me a discount outward to my IUA, no problem. Well, with my son’s seizure, we got a pretty big discount, but they lady I was talking with said this is absolutely not their policy, and she was very rude and accusatory.
It turns out that they. had changed their guidelines and removed any reference of this, which felt shady to me, especially since it was something I had specifically asked about when I signed up. I feel like they should have honored since it was part of the guidelines when I signed up.
IUA
The IUA seems a bit high, especially since it’s applicable to three events (after three, it is no longer used before you can start submitting bills).
However, it is pretty similar to a high-deductible healthcare plan, so it isn’t entirely unreasonable. I do wish they’d provide you with a discount if you got a sizeable discount, though.
My Experience
Since signing up for Zion, we have used it four times times:
- Hysteroscopy was needed due to abdominal pain and abnormal ultrasound finding
- My son had a seizure while we were traveling in another state, which resulted in an ambulance bill, ER visit, and overnight stay.
- I found out I was pregnant in early October only to lose the pregnancy due to miscarriage
- My doctor recommended a colonoscopy after I was having consistent lower abdominal pain for a year
I feel like I’ve had a variety of experiences that have exposed me to how Zion works – and the good and the bad (which I mentioned above).
Overall, I am happy with our decision to be with Zion as of right now.
I’ll talk about each one individually.
Hysteroscopy
I have various health issues, including endometriosis. After having some continued issues that couldn’t be directly attributed to endometriosis and discovering that I had a thickened uterine lining, my doctor recommended an in-office hysteroscopy.
Everything went very smoothly. Because I have Endometriosis, they could have easily dismissed the isuses as a pre-exisiting condition and refused to pay, however, they acknowledged that not all pelvic pain is associated with Endometriosis.
They gave me a discount on my IUA for getting a larger discount from my office, and it went smoothly. We discovered that I had some tissue that needed to be removed through the procedure, which was good to find out.
Seizure
I’ve already shared this above, but this was a very frustrating experience, and it almost caused me to leave Zion because of how difficult everything was. It took months to finally get everything squared away, though some of that was due to the hospital billing someone else’s insurance.
Miscarriage
I was so excited to be pregnant back in October of 2022, and I immediately told Zion I was pregnant so I could get the ball rolling. They were very excited for me and the process seemed simple. I loved CHM’s pregnancy program, and while Zion’s isnt quite as awesome, it seemed to be fair.
Unfortunately, I ended up miscarrying. I told Zion, and they were so kind and even sent me a bouquet of flowers. It definitely healed some of my angry feelings toward them from the other experience.
Colonoscopy
A colonoscopy is usually considered preventative care, but I had to get one for diagnostic purposes. The process was very simple, and we had all the bills paid for in a reasonable amount of time.
All in all, Zion has turned out to be the best option for our family and our current situation. I am always looking at different options, but we are at the point where they will pay for more pre-existing condition related issues, and it is affordable, so I don’t think we will leave any time soon.
I would love to hear about your experience though! If you have any questions or comments, be sure to share them below! If you have found my post helpful in helping you decide to sign up for Zion, we’d love for you to join through our referral link!
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