Health Care Sharing Ministry

  1. Law
  2. Georgia Code
  3. Insurance
  4. General Provisions
  5. Health Care Sharing Ministry

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  1. As used in this Code section, the term "health care sharing ministry" means a faith based, nonprofit organization that is tax exempt under the Internal Revenue Code which:
    1. Limits its participants to those who are of a similar faith;
    2. Acts as a facilitator among participants who have financial or medical needs and matches those participants with other participants with the present ability to assist those with financial or medical needs in accordance with criteria established by the health care sharing ministry;
    3. Provides for the financial or medical needs of a participant through contributions from one participant to another;
    4. Provides amounts that participants may contribute with no assumption of risk or promise to pay among the participants and no assumption of risk or promise to pay by the health care sharing ministry to the participants;
    5. Provides a written monthly statement to all participants that lists the total dollar amount of qualified needs submitted to the health care sharing ministry, as well as the amount actually published or assigned to participants for their contribution; and
    6. Provides a written disclaimer on or accompanying all applications and guideline materials distributed by or on behalf of the organization that reads, in substance: "Notice: The organization facilitating the sharing of medical expenses is not an insurance company, and neither its guidelines nor plan of operation is an insurance policy. Whether anyone chooses to assist you with your medical bills will be totally voluntary because no other participant will be compelled by law to contribute toward your medical bills. As such, participation in the organization or a subscription to any of its documents should never be considered to be insurance. Regardless of whether you receive any payment for medical expenses or whether this organization continues to operate, you are always personally responsible for the payment of your own medical bills."
  2. A health care sharing ministry which has entered into a health care cost-sharing arrangement with its participants shall not be considered an insurance company, health maintenance organization, or health benefit plan of any class, kind, or character and shall not be subject to any laws respecting insurance companies, health maintenance organizations, or health benefit plans of any class, kind, or character in this state or subject to regulation under such laws, including, but not limited to, the provisions of this title, and shall not be subject to the jurisdiction of the Commissioner of Insurance.

(Code 1981, §33-1-20, enacted by Ga. L. 2011, p. 350, § 1/HB 248; Ga. L. 2020, p. 493, § 33/SB 429.)

The 2020 amendment, effective July 29, 2020, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, revised punctuation in subsections (a) and (b).

Code Commission notes.

- Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 2011, Code Section 33-1-19, as enacted by Ga. L. 2011, p. 350, § 1/HB 248, was redesignated as Code Section 33-1-20 and Code Section 33-1-20, as enacted by Ga. L. 2011, p. 350, § 1/HB 248, was redesignated as Code Section 33-1-21.

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Ministry entitled to interlocutory injunction to prevent loss of status.

- Interlocutory injunction was proper against a for-profit health care insurance company that had allegedly pirated a non-profit health care sharing ministry's customers and funds after termination of the parties' licensing contract; the ministry's loss of status as an Affordable Care Act, 42 U.S.C. § 18021 et seq., approved ministry would constitute irreparable harm. Aliera Healthcare, Inc. v. Anabaptist Healthshare, 355 Ga. App. 381, 844 S.E.2d 268 (2020).


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