netWell Healthshare
Health Care Cost Sharing Plans to Fit Your Lifestyle
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By Wiley Long III, President – HSA for America
Reviewed by Leslie Jablonski – Fact checked by Mike Montes – Updated 2/17/2023
netWell Healthshare is consistently one of our most popular, best-selling healthshare plans we offer. Currently over 25,000 members.
With reasonable, affordable member contribution amounts, unlimited 24-hour access to MDs via telemedicine, and three compelling membership tiers, we rank netWell as our top all-around performer when it comes to delivering both protection and value to health sharing members and their families.
netWell Healthshare Pros:
- High $2 million lifetime cost sharing limit (in Elite + plan)
- Innovative drug access program with hundreds of drugs available free
- Excellent maternity benefits
- Catastrophic “Advantage” membership tier dovetails well with direct primary care strategy
- Solid comprehensive option
- Great track record paying qualified sharing requests
- Can be used at any provider you choose
netWell Healthshare Cons:
- No HSA-qualifying High Deductible Health Plan available (for an HSA-qualifying plan that uses the cost-saving health sharing approach, consider the MPB Secure plan.)
- Two-year restrictions on sharing of bills arising from treatment of pre-existing conditions.
What is health care cost sharing (Healthshare)?
Today, health sharing plans are available for more people than ever before. They’re giving Americans the opportunity to ditch their overpriced and over-complicated insurance plans for something better.
Healthshare plans are not a great match for everybody. Many plans include a waiting period for pre-existing conditions, as well as other restrictions that insurance plans don’t have. Your Personal Benefits Manager can help you decide if health sharing is a good choice for you.
About netWell Healthshare
netWell is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) Christian health care sharing ministry (HCSM), headquartered in Norcross, Georgia. Currently, netWell has more than 25,000 members and is growing fast.
Unlike some other health sharing ministries, netWell Healthshare does not impose a requirement to attend services regularly, nor to profess a specific faith or set of faiths. As such, netWell is a popular choice for healthshare customers who want a more non-denominational or secular approach to health sharing.
A portion of all netWell’s proceeds goes to the Tim Tebow Foundation.
Note: Like other health sharing ministry organizations, netWell is not an insurance company. Instead, as a Christian health sharing ministry, netWell facilitates the voluntary sharing of eligible health expenses among like-minded members.
netWell Healthshare’s Statement of Belief
All netWell members must affirm their statement of belief, which reads as follows:
- “We believe in the God of the Bible and the Power of Prayer.
- We believe it is our Duty to Love and Accept one another.
Philippians 4:6, NIV: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
John 13:34, NIV: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
- We believe it is our obligation to God and our fellow members to Live a healthy lifestyle which avoids habits and behaviors that are harmful to the body.
- We believe it is our ethical and moral responsibility to Carry each other’s Burdens.
1 Corinthians 10:31, NIV: “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
Galatians 6:2, NIV: “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”
netWell Healthshare Membership Options
netWell Healthshare has two membership tiers: Advantage and Elite+.
netWell Healthshare Advantage:
Catastrophic-only
Advantage is the most budget-friendly of the two plans, and is for the individual or family that wants to protect themselves from the major expenses, but are ok with paying for the more routine doctor visits out-of-pocket.
Sharable costs under the Advantage membership tier include hospitalization costs, emergency room visits, surgery (in-patient or outpatient), and lab costs. This plan does not share for primary care visits or specialist visits.
Read more details in the netWell Advantage brochure
netWell Healthshare Elite+:
A Robust, Comprehensive Health Sharing Solution
Elite+ is the most comprehensive and the most popular of the netWell membership options. It features full-spectrum cost-sharing from primary to catastrophic hospitalizations and surgeries.
The Elite+ tier also has a souped-up annual cost sharing limit of $1 million, and a lifetime cost sharing limit of $2 million. All subject to an annual member contribution amount of $2,500, $5,000, or $10,000.
Eligible costs you incur each year above this amount are generally 100% shareable.
Additionally, the Elite + membership tier comes with a large suite of discount services, including dental, vision and LASIK, diabetic supplies, gym memberships, and lots more.
Read more details in the netWell Elite+ brochure.
Standard Waiting Period
There is a standard waiting period of 90 days for all conditions that are not life-threatening or life-changing. If you are transitioning from another plan, you may want to consider keeping that plan in place for 90 days after joining netWell, so you don’t have any gaps in your protection.
How Much Does netWell cost?
As a health sharing ministry organization, netWell normally costs members just a fraction of what they would pay using an unsubsidized traditional medical insurance policy.
Individual contribution amounts per month range from $144 to $269 per month, depending on the membership tier you select.
Get a quote for your situation here:
In contrast, the average unsubsidized monthly premium for a “silver plan” for a Marketplace family plan under the Affordable Care Act is approaching $1500.
Currently, netWell is offering a two-year rate lock-in: netWell will not increase your monthly contribution for two years. That’s a significant benefit in today’s inflationary environment, with health care costs going up an average of 10 percent in just a year.
How Does netWell Determine Costs?
At netWell, your monthly sharing amount is based on the following factors:
- The age of the oldest active member in your family
- The number of members in the membership
- The membership option or tier you select
- Your member commitment portion (MCP)
- Your state of residence
Pre-existing conditions
Pre-existing conditions are an important factor in the decision to use a health sharing plan. Unlike traditional health insurance policies, which must take applicants during open enrollment periods regardless of pre-existing conditions, health sharing ministry organizations can legally discriminate.
This is tremendously effective in keeping health sharing affordable compared to health insurance. But it also means that healthsharing isn’t suitable for some people with significant pre-existing conditions.
netWell accepts new members with some pre-existing conditions, but imposes at least a 24-month waiting period on cost sharing for treatment of or conditions arising from pre-existing conditions.
This is less stringent than some other healthshare organizations. For example, OneShare has a similar 24-month waiting period. But for cancer it’s five years.
For this reason, netWell and health sharing work best for people who are in generally good health, without serious pre-existing conditions.
A brief discussion of common pre-existing conditions follows:
Cancer Waiting Periods
Under the Elite+ and Advantage membership tiers, netWell will facilitate the sharing of bills related to cancer treatment – but only if the cancer diagnosis was received after 90s from joining the health sharing plan.
As long as that criteria is met, and you’ve met your annual member commitment portion for the year, cancer treatment costs are shareable up to the following limits:
- 1ST year: $250,000
- 2ND year: $500,000
- 3RD year and beyond: yearly maximum sharing limit
Pregnancy as a Pre-Existing Condition
Pregnancy at the time of application is a disqualifying condition. However, netWell offers some of the most robust maternity and childbirth benefits in health sharing. See the “Maternity Benefits” section below.
In some cases, more serious conditions may have a 4-year waiting period before treatment costs become eligible for cost sharing. And some conditions have a lifetime exclusion on sharing the cost of hospitalizations or surgeries. However, the costs of office visits to help manage and treat these pre-existing conditions are generally shareable.
Other Pre-existing conditions
Adoptions
A 24-month waiting period applies to adoptions.
Organ transplants
A 24-month waiting period applies before costs relating to organ transplants are sharable.
Preventative Care
Preventative care costs are sharable under the Elite+ plan. However, since the Advantage Plan is designed to be a comprehensive plan only, preventative care costs are not included for Advantage tier members.
However, many people we work with choose to address this gap in coverage by using a direct primary care plan, or DPC plan.
When you enroll in a DPC plan, you are essentially “subscribing” to a primary care doctor’s office. More information is available on our DPC Patient’s Guide page.
Provider Networks
Unlike many traditional health insurance plans (e.g., HMOs and PPOs), netWell does not restrict members to using narrow care networks for non-emergency care.
You also don’t have to worry about not being able to find a network provider if you travel out of town.
With netWell, you can use your health sharing benefits at any provider in the United States.
Just present your membership card to the provider and present yourself as a self-paying cash patient.
That said, netWell does negotiate preferred pricing with some providers. netWell uses the PHCS/Multiplan network, one of the largest medical care providers in the country. You can obtain significant discounts by using a netWell Network provider.
Chiropractic Care
Members of the netWell Elite+ plan can share costs for up to six chiropractor visits per year, once the annual member commitment portion has been met.
Unlike most other health sharing plans, netWell’s program doesn’t impose a waiting period for seeking chiropractic.
In fact, some health sharing plans don’t regard chiropractic treatment costs as a shareable medical expense at all.
Maternity Benefits
netWell’s strong set of benefits to pregnant women and new mothers is one of their most attractive features. netWell is tremendously popular among young couples and those planning families in the near-to-intermediate term.
Under netWell’s Elite+ membership tier, pregnancy and delivery costs for normal and C-section deliveries are fully sharable up to $15,000.
There’s no member commitment portion for these costs. netWell’s sharing community provides help with the first dollar.
If there are life-threatening complications, your costs are sharable up to $100,000.
Limitations: A 6-month waiting period prior to conception applies for maternity benefits. That is, for pregnancy and delivery costs to be shareable, you must have your membership in place for at least six months prior to conception.
Also, both the husband and wife must be members in the same plan. No maternity costs are shareable unless both the husband and wife are netWell plan members.
Mental Health
netWell provides much better than average sharing benefits for mental health care compared to other health sharing plans.
There are three paths to mental health treatment under netWell’s health sharing plans:
Telecounseling
netWell members enjoy free telephone visits with qualified masters’ level mental health counselors and therapists for urgent, emergency, and crisis situations. These counselors are available 24 hours a day, 7-days a week, at no additional cost to the netWell member.
eHome Counseling
netWell will share up to $40 of the $130 visit fee for up to 8 sessions per family, using the excellent eHome Counseling Services.
This program includes access to the Mooditude App which provides personalized, mental health help right to your phone.
The service helps members get personalized, daily interactive behavioral health assistance with exercises, media, videos to help members manage things like PTSD symptoms, addiction cravings, anxiety, depression, and much more.
In addition to the programs listed above, netWell’s Elite + program also lets you choose your own therapist.
netWell will share up to 40 percent of the costs of seeing a therapist, up to 8 visits, and up to $40 per visit.
You aren’t limited to a few in-network providers who take insurance. netWell lets you select any provider in the country.
Pharmacy and Prescription Drugs
netWell is a leader among health sharing organizations when it comes to providing assistance to members with the high cost of prescription drugs.
netWell’s pharmaceutical arm, netWellRx, is the nation’s first “free pharmacy.” This new and revolutionary approach provides members with FREE access to more than 600 commonly-prescribed generic drugs, including both acute medications (to meet immediate clinical needs) and maintenance medications (to manage chronic health conditions).
Free same-day pickup for acute care medications is available at thousands of pharmacies nationwide, including CVS, Walmart, Walgreens, and Target. You can get up to 21 days’ supply of any of 600 acutely-needed and commonly-prescribed generic medications at more than 64,000 brick-and-mortar pharmacy locations nationwide.
The netWellRx Healthshare Comprehensive Diabetes Program
Diabetic subscribers to the netWellRx enjoy full access to the netWellRx Comprehensive Diabetes Program at no additional charge.
This program includes the following at no additional charge:
- A premium bilingual voice-response glucometer
- A 1-month supply of blood glucose test strips
- A bottle of glucometer control solution
- A lancing device and supply of lancets
- Auto-refills every three months
- Zero-cost access to selected diabetes medications, including free shipping
Additionally, diabetic netWell subscribers enjoy access to specially discounted prices on insulin (Novolin N, R, or 70/30) at a low, low cost of $19.88 per vial, through a partnership with Walmart.
How much does netWellRx cost?
A netWellRx subscription costs only $19.95 for an individual, or $29.95/mo, which covers everyone living at the same address.
Who should consider subscribing to netWellRx?
netWellRx may be a great solution for any family that spends more than the monthly subscription cost in generic medications, or for any families that has one or more diabetics in the household.
Individuals and families who use generic prescription drugs can save substantially versus using a traditional pharmacy – especially the uninsured or those with high deductibles that aren’t normally met.
It’s also a great companion for health sharing plans or traditional medical plans that exclude prescription drug coverage, such as Medicare supplement insurance (Medigap) plans, as well as people who use direct primary care (DPC) plans.
Smokers
netWell Is one of a handful of health sharing options that accepts smokers, though tobacco users must contribute an additional $40 per month compared to other non-smoking members in the same plan.
While the $40 per month additional contribution is higher than some other organizations, smokers qualify for the full $1 million lifetime limit on health sharing benefits.
In contrast, other health share companies, including our runner-up for the Best Healthshare Option for Smokers category, limit their sharing to $50,000 for tobacco users age 50 and older.
For Further Reading: The Best Health Share Plans for Smokers
Availability
netWell is available in every state except Massachusetts, Maryland, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington.
Save Money Now
netWell is also offering very competitive pricing in most markets, rendering perhaps the best value, dollar for dollar, in the health sharing market.
For members in good health who don’t have significant preexisting conditions, netWell Healthshare and the health sharing approach in general is much more affordable than an unsubsidized silver plan on the Affordable Care Act Marketplace.
Our clients consistently find they can realize significant savings by declaring independence from Big Insurance, ditching their bloated and overstuffed, inefficient traditional policies, and reduce the role of government meddling in their lives by enrolling in health sharing plans like netWell.
Especially if they combine health sharing with other supplementary plans like direct primary care or netWellRx.
The Bottom Line
Ready to sign up for coverage with netWell healthshare?
If you’re thinking about making the switch to low-cost health sharing, give us a call. Our team at HSA for America is composed of some of the best experts in the business, here to give you the one-on-one service you need to find the perfect plan.
Call 800-913-0172 and we’ll connect you with your own Personal Benefits Manager. You can also click below to run a free quote and sign up online for a netWell Healthshare plan.
netWell Healthshare Reviews Section
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We love netWell!
My husband and I were planning to have a baby. Some places give you problems with maternity sharing. But with netWell they only had a six-month waiting period. Sooooo… we waited six months!
Nine months and five days after that, I had to have a C-section. We sent the bill to netWell, expecting we’d have to pay thousands of dollars. But netWell covered the whole thing! There’s no member contribution on natural childbirth or C-sections up to $15,000.
netWell covered me for my cancer
I joined netWell and five months later found a lump in my breast. It turned out to be cancer, and I had to have radiation. I was afraid it was too soon to do healthsharing but when I called netWell they told me the cancer waiting period was only 90 days! I wound up having a mastectomy later which probably saved my life. I had to pay the first $5,000 but they picked up all the rest of the hospital and doctor bills above that. $95 thousand so far!
Plus, I could pick my own doctor. My old health insurance plan wouldn’t let me do that. I love netWell. They came through for me.
The disadvantage is you really have to have your paperwork organized when you send bills for sharing.
I like the catastrophic plan!
netWell is one of the few options out there that offers a true catastrophic plan, which was what I want. I can handle $10,000 in medical bills. I can’t handle $100,000 in medical bills. Too many insurance companies lard up their policies with stuff I don’t need just so they can jack up their premiums. I just want catastrophic with a low monthly premium. Which is what I got. I combined it with a direct primary care plan, which takes care of the day-to-day primary care stuff. And I’m saving thousands of dollars every year. It only takes a couple of years before that adds up to my $10,000 risk, and I’ll have that sitting in the bank! I don’t know why everybody doesn’t do this!
The Elite plan has everything… still cheaper than insurance
Go with the elite plan if you want great healthcare. Don’t give any more money to the government or the insurance companies. This is still the cheaper option.
Nope
Not a good health share bad service and they won’t even pay all of your bills you have to pay some of it yourself.
Here for the maternity care
Our advisor said that netWell would be a good fit because we were trying to start a family. The elite plan has all that included, plus primary care and preventive benefits stuff. It’s been more expensive that the sedera plan that we use to have, but we feel a lot more protected.
$35 doctor visits
My last healthshare plan didn’t cover doctor visits at all. They’re not unlimited with netWell, but you only have to pay $35. So far the Advantage level program is working really well for me and the fam.
The Elite plan is a great deal
I’m in the ‘elite’ plan. You get multiple doctor visits, unlimited telemedicine, preventive screening stuff, and a lot more as well.
I’m switching back to Medishare
Doesn’t seem as good as my Medishare plan was. netWell is maybe 50 bucks cheaper per month but it just doesn’t feel the same after the last two years.
Easy to sign up … Don’t need to go to church every week
I used to be enrolled in a different Christian healthshare, but it was through our church and I felt bad because we weren’t going that much. netWell is based in the bible which is something I want for my family. But it’s more relaxed than other programs.
Great healthcare protection for only a few hundred
I’ve never heard of netWell before … seems like there are more healthshare companies out there than there used to be. Anyway, they’ve been on point so far. I had a quick trip to the E.R. two months ago and the cost-sharing came through without issue.
They’re pretty good with prescriptions
The website is really clean and easy to use. That’s important to me. They let me use their online prescription look-up thingy before I signed up, and that let me know how much I’d be paying for my current prescriptions. Pretty cool.
It’s really easy once the account is setup
Our family just used our Elite program for the first time. It was really easy … we knew what our Member Portion was so we had that ready to go. Then the rest of the costs were shared by other members, pretty much automatically through our healthshare account. Surprisingly stress-free.
Good so far
My friends convinced me to switch to healthcare sharing and decided that netWell was as good as any. I’m definitely paying less than I used to per month, that’s for sure. I just haven’t had to use the sharing yet because I’ve been healthy. Will update in a few months!
The Elite plus is well worth it
I used to be enrolled in the Catastrophic option, which was good, because it was so cheap. I recently upgraded to the Elite plus program, which adds in some regular doctor visits. I also get a ton of discounts on dental and vision. It’s not even that much more expensive than the other options.
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- The age of the oldest active member in your family
- The number of members in the membership
- The membership option or tier you select
- Your member commitment portion (MCP)
- Your state of residence
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