While shopping around for a health share, you may have seen some different seals, awards, or accreditation on different company websites. For example, you may have seen one or more of these on the bottom of a health share’s website:

But what do these stamps mean? Should you only look at health shares that have a third-party stamp on their site?

Accreditation

Currently, two organizations are advertising that they are an “accredited” Health Care Sharing Ministry. Both Samaritan Ministries and Medi-Share have the Healthcare Sharing Accreditation Board (HCSAB) seal displayed on their websites. The HCSAB is a new organization that was formed in an attempt to further legitimize the health share industry. According to the HCSAB website, they are “an independent panel dedicated to developing and encouraging the highest standards among healthcare sharing organizations.” The newly-formed accreditation board has been endorsed by the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries (AHCSM) who hopes that the potential for independent certification will help protect health share members and improve (or set) industry standards.

However much potential an official health share accreditation board offers, the HCSAB is quite young, and has only placed its stamp on two health shares thus far. It is worth noting that the two companies who have been accredited are both widely recognized as pillars of the health share community—and they are both members of the AHCSM.

Other awards and certifications

Besides the HCSAB, there are some other awards and certifications you may see on a health share’s website. For example, multiple companies have the seal of the AHCSM on their site, showing that they belong to the alliance (only seven major health share companies can claim this). 

Other companies have been awarded a GuideStar Gold Transparency award by Candid (a nonprofit that focuses on making reliable information readily available—in particular, information about how other nonprofits collect and disperse funds). 

To earn a GuideStar Gold Transparency award, a company also has to meet the requirements for the bronze and silver levels. You can read more about what is required to earn these seals here. Significantly, nonprofits may not buy these seals. There is no application fee, only a list of information a company must submit to be considered. Additionally, the awards are given per year, so a company who earned a seal one year, may not currently meet GuideStar’s higher level qualifications. Liberty HealthShare and OneShare Health have been awarded the Gold Transparency award (2022).

Lastly, a company named Demotech, who primarily deals with the financial stability of insurers, recently decided to offer a Faith-based Sharing Review™. The goal of their review is to consider a ministry’s “core qualifications, transparency of operations, ministry motivation, financial accountability, and protection of members” with the intention of evaluating their overall ability to continue to serve their members. Only one company so far has received a score, and a rather high one. Christian Healthcare Ministries (CHM) was given a 95 out of 100. This is no surprise since CHM has been continuously serving members since the 1980s.

What to look for

Since there is yet to be one general set of standards for success and reliability as a HCSM, we recommend that you look for more than just the latest award on a ministry’s website. There are some tried-and-true ways to figure out if the health share you’re interested in is worth looking in to further. 

  • Good member reviews
  • Transparent member guidelines
    • Include membership types, pricing, founding date, and clear outlines on sharing for things like pre-existing conditions
  • A readily available financial health report.

Can a health share be accredited?

Yes. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are the right company for you. Awards, certifications, and alliance affiliation can be a good sign, but you’ll need to dig a lot deeper to discover whether a health share will adequately meet your needs.