When its members speak, Liberty HealthShare listens. Prayer requests, member surveys, and direct feedback drive program development at Liberty HealthShare, where Chief Executive Officer Dorsey Morrow leads a healthcare-sharing ministry focused on giving members control over their medical costs while maintaining a collaborative spirit. The organization’s dental program emerged directly from member suggestions.
“That’s actually one of the things that I really enjoy hearing from our members is, ‘Hey, have you thought about doing this?’” Morrow points out.
“Every six months, we survey our members and ask them what their emerging needs are, and one of them was the dental program which we launched,” says Timothy Bryan, vice president of marketing and communications, during a recent interview.
Maintaining a solid connection with its members is a perpetual part of the Liberty HealthShare process.
“You can expect from us a lot of communication,” Morrow shares. “The first year, you’re probably going to be inundated with emails and communications and videos. And even more importantly, we want to hold your hand as you get oriented and you come into this world.”
Faith-Based Foundation
The roughly 165-member team at Liberty HealthShare incorporates prayer into their daily operations. “We have a list distributed internally every Friday of prayer requests from our members,” Morrow explains. “It’s one of those times during the day you just stop, you read through it, and then we pray over it.”
This spiritual element attracted Morrow to his role. He recalls previous positions where prayer was discouraged. “I had a meeting with the board of directors, and they told me unequivocally at a prior organization, ‘You can’t pray on company time. You can’t pray on company property.’”
When Morrow landed at Liberty HealthShare, he admits he was delighted by the nonprofit organization’s prayer policy.
“[At Liberty HealthShare], it was encouraged, and that was really exciting to me,” Morrow exclaims. “I’ve grown up in the church since I was little, and so it was a very important part of who I am and continues to be to this day.”
Financial Structure
Liberty HealthShare operates differently from traditional insurance companies. “We serve more as a facilitator on behalf of our members. We don’t have reserves, we don’t have unallocated contributions left over each month,” Morrow expresses. The organization studies current and historical sharing patterns to forecast trends and maintain stable contribution amounts.
Multiple vendors help negotiate with medical providers on behalf of members. “We have to be very intentional in how we set contributions. And so, we study not only our current sharing patterns every month, but we also look at the historical patterns.”
Transparency and Trust
The organization posts its financial information publicly. “Anything and everything you want to know about Liberty, you can go to our website,” Morrow informs. “You’ll see we are an open book. You can find our [Form] 990. You can find our guidelines. You can find our audit report. You know who our board of directors are.” Form 990 is a tax document that nonprofit organizations must file with the IRS each year.
Transparency is key, according to Morrow.
“If you have questions about anything related to your participation with Liberty, all you’ve got to do is just shoot us an email or give us a call,” Morrow reveals. “We honestly and sincerely want to cater to our members and help them.”
A Compassionate Approach
The organization recently helped a member who transitioned to Medicare but misunderstood how the programs worked together. “She ended up incurring quite a bit of medical expense that she was responsible for,” Morrow reflects. “We worked with her, repriced the bills, and actually shared into those bills, got her set up on the proper program and held her hand on: ‘This is how it needs to work moving forward.'”
Morrow believes Americans need to take more responsibility for their healthcare decisions. “Taking responsibility for our own healthcare” represents a significant opportunity for positive change, he articulates. “America basically has turned financing healthcare and taking responsibility for their healthcare on autopilot.”
He encourages members to ask questions about their care: “Doc, why are you doing that? Why do we need to do this? What’s that going to cost? Is there something else that might be better suited?”
Liberty HealthShare maintains six different sharing programs to accommodate various needs.
“There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to healthcare,” Morrow adds. “We understand that. It’s why we work hard to support our members and do all of that hand-holding no matter what program they choose to participate [in], whether it’s the low-cost catastrophic program or it’s the all-encompassing program at the other end.”
Being present for its members, especially during their most trying times, is something that Liberty HealthShare prides itself on.
“We are there for our members and understand that they have different situations, different circumstances than the other family, and so we want to be there for them to help fill in that gap,” Morrow says.
The organization earned a three-star rating from Charity Navigator and reports an 88% approval rating. According to Morrow, these metrics reflect their commitment to transparency and member service.
“We are thrilled to receive this recognition from Charity Navigator,” Morrow stated in a press release. “It demonstrates the confidence our members and healthcare providers can place in Liberty HealthShare and our medical cost-sharing programs.”
Michael Thatcher, president and CEO of Charity Navigator, said he was “delighted to provide Liberty HealthShare with third-party accreditation that validates their operational excellence” and “eager to see the good work that Liberty HealthShare is able to accomplish in the years ahead.”
Speaks from heart, always too passionate and driven by emotions. Spins the words with kindness & sharpness, intriguing your ever-inscrutable minds.
