Terminology | Cowboy Christian Resources

Balance Billing

Billing & Pricing

When a provider bills a patient for the difference between their charge and what was already paid. Transparent cash and bundled prices are designed to prevent it.

Bundled Pricing

Billing & Pricing

A single upfront price that covers everything for an episode of care, such as a surgery, including the facility, surgeon, and anesthesia. No surprise line-item bills afterward.

Cash Pay / Self-Pay

Billing & Pricing

Paying a provider directly at the time of care, usually at a transparent price, instead of billing insurance. Cost sharing members often pay cash and then submit a sharing request.

Direct Primary Care

Care Models

A care model where a patient pays a flat monthly fee directly to a primary care practice for most everyday care, with no insurance billing in between. Often paired with cost sharing for larger needs.

Eligible for Sharing

Cost Sharing

A medical cost that meets the sharing guidelines and can be shared among members. There is no promise to pay.

Event Minimum

Cost Sharing

The part of a health event's eligible costs that a member handles themselves before sharing begins. It applies once to each health event, and the amount depends on the member's plan.

Free-Market Medicine

Care Models

Care delivered by providers who publish real, upfront prices and compete on quality and value, rather than billing through opaque insurance networks.

Health Cost Sharing

Cost Sharing

A model where members commit to share one another's eligible medical costs, member to member. It is not insurance. Sharing is voluntary, and no payment is guaranteed.

Membership Fee

Membership

The fee that supports operating the Cowboy Christian platform and network. It is billed alongside the monthly share but is tracked separately from the amount a member commits to sharing.

See also: Monthly Share

Monthly Share

Membership

The amount you are asked to deposit each month after your first two paid months, toward sharing other members' eligible medical costs, set by your plan, age and household size. In each of your first two paid months, you pay Cowboy Christian an amount equal to it, which goes to our administration and is not used for sharing. Each deposit is your choice. What you deposit is recorded to your household and used only for sharing members' approved needs, never for Cowboy Christian's fees. Your monthly share is separate from the platform membership fee.

Not Insurance

Cost Sharing

Cowboy Christian is a health cost sharing platform, not an insurance company. There is no policy, no promise to pay, and no state guaranty fund behind it. Members agree to share one another's eligible medical costs as a community.

Prior Medical Condition

Cost Sharing

A health condition a member had before joining. Having one does not keep anyone from joining. The Sharing Guidelines describe a 36-month look-back that applies to certain categories of conditions and procedures.

Reference-Based Pricing

Billing & Pricing

Setting a fair payment for a service based on a public benchmark, often a multiple of the Medicare rate, instead of a hospital's inflated list price.

Safe Harbor

Legal & Regulatory

A state law under which a sharing or mutual aid arrangement that meets the law's conditions is not regulated as insurance. Each law sets its own conditions, and those conditions decide which organizations it reaches. Most states with a safe harbor rate as more friendly on the State Guide.

Sharing Community

Cost Sharing

The members who share one another's eligible medical costs, member to member. At Cowboy Christian the community is built around shared Christian faith and values.

Sharing Guidelines

Legal & Regulatory

The written rules that describe who may join, what is eligible for sharing, and how sharing is administered. Members agree to the guidelines at sign-up.

Sharing Request

Cost Sharing

A member's submitted request to have an eligible medical cost shared by the community. Cowboy Christian reviews the request against the sharing guidelines before it is shared.

Statement of Beliefs

Membership

Cowboy Christian's statement of what we believe and what we ask of our community. Members confirm they have read it when they join. It is not a condition of membership.