Individuals looking for an alternative to the traditional health insurance model can enroll in a new program called “CommunityCare,” offered by the CrossFit Medical Society (CFMS).
- The CommunityCare program has been a work in progress and was recently launched by the CFMS.
Dr. Tom McCoy and Jennifer Pishko, owners of McCoy Medical and founders of the CrossFit Medical Society, gave us the inside scoop on what the new program is all about and how affiliate owners and coaches can get involved.
- “Traditional health insurance for many of us in the community, not to mention the country in general, is a huge pain point from just a general return on investment with what we get,” McCoy tells Morning Chalk Up in an interview.
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What Is the CrossFit Medical Society’s CommunityCare Program?
The new program is a crowd-funded, community-based healthcare platform.
- An individual can enroll in CommunityCare and pay a membership fee, along with a monthly contribution that varies depending on the medical needs of the community for that month. That price will also depend on the age of the individual and their family size.
Note: CommunityCare is currently only open for affiliate owners and coaches. There is a waitlist for all other CrossFit community members who would like to participate in the program.
When there is a medical event, the enrolled individual goes to the hospital, and when instructed to give insurance information, the individual tells the provider they will pay in cash.
When the bill comes back, the individual then sends it to a CommunityCare advocate, who will upload the bill online.
The advocate will then negotiate a cash price with the hospital, which McCoy says is often half, if not a third, of the initial price.
Once that’s negotiated, the price gets sent to the community to be paid out.
- “You don’t do anything with the negotiation, with money, with sending out the request. That all happens behind the scenes, without you having to do anything. The whole point of this is to make it as simple as possible and transparent,” McCoy says.
The purpose of this type of model is to give individuals full transparency for the cost of the medical services they are receiving, Pishko adds.
The member is responsible for the first $500, but that remains unchanged no matter how extensive the medical event may be.
- “You get to be an individual that can advocate for what you need, have a conversation, create a relationship with your doctor, your health practitioner, and have a support team that just helps you pay for the health care needs that you have in real-time,” Pishko says.
The Big Picture
McCoy says the CrossFit Medical Society has built out three initial tiers.
The first was the launch of the CFMS, which gave CrossFit community members access to allied healthcare providers.
The second tier offers biomarker testing, which starts at $199.
The creation of CommunityCare is the third tier as the CFMS looks to reimagine health and wellness for the CrossFit Community.
- “I’ve been doing this for over a decade, and figuring out how to buy health insurance as a small business owner is one of the most frustrating and expensive and aggravating pieces of the pie,” Pishko says.
CommunityCare enlisted the help of CrowdHealth, a crowdfunding platform specifically to help individuals pay for medical expenses. Separately, CommunityCare plans to offer referral bonuses once the program is open to the community.
The overall goal is to keep expenses low for affiliate owners and support the healthcare journey for community members through the entire process, from finding a provider to paying the medical expenses.
- “We know the pain points. We know where the frustrations are with owning an affiliate or coaching and the things that make it happen and paying for health care expenses is a huge one,” McCoy says.
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Featured image: @crossfitmedicalsociety / Instagram
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