Guidelines for Sharing in Classic/Basic

A.  All of the responsibilities of Samaritan members and the requirements for submitting needs as set forth in the “Membership” and “Needs” Guidelines (Sections I-XIV) apply similarly to participants except when the Save to Share Guidelines specifically provide otherwise.

B.  Only needs eligible for sharing in the “Membership” and “Needs” Guidelines will be qualified to be shared in Save to Share. Also, for needs from a condition that occurred while an SMI member , but before participating in Save to Share, to be shareable, the condition must meet the same type of symptom and treatment free/time elapse, etc. requirements while a Save to Share member, as are found in Section VII “Pre-Existing Conditions” and Section IX.C “Maternity Needs for Those With Ineligible Due Dates” (e.g. for the pregnancy of a member joining Save to Share fewer than 300 days before the estimated due date, the child’s postnatal expenses when related directly to a genetic disorder or hereditary disease—unless otherwise referenced in Section VIII.A.11—would not be shareable under Save to Share).

It is also necessary to again qualify for the pre-existing exceptions of Section VII, for a condition which developed while a person participated in Save to Share, if the person later dropped out of Save to Share and then rejoined.

C.  Save to Share needs will only be shared in months when there is a qualified need to share.

D.  New SMI members who join Save to Share at the same time will not be asked to share in Save to Share needs until they begin sharing with regular needs.

E.  When a member participating in Save to Share has a shareable need that is more than $250,000, the amount of that need exceeding $250,000 will be eligible for sharing with other Save to Share participants. It will only be the amount of the need over $250,000 that is shared even though the ministry may not have shared all of the first $250,000 of the need due to proration or the initial unshareable or co-share amount.

Large needs frequently are the result of the reality that most health care providers charge patients without insurance substantially more than insured patients. Therefore, Save to Share needs are not shared until satisfactory negotiations with providers toward reductions in bills have occurred.

F.  In order to have a Save to Share need shared, a participant must have the appropriate amount set aside, must have given to all Save to Share needs that have been assigned to him, must be current in sharing with all other SMI needs assigned to him, and must be a member in good standing of SMI. A participant who does not send his share after two notices may be removed from participation and, once removed, will not be eligible for reinstatement.

G.  Needs that qualify for sharing will be divided among participating households’ set-aside funds. To expand further, a qualified need exceeding $250,000 will continue to be shared by memberships in Save to Share. Participating memberships send a portion of their set-aside funds as part of their monthly share required for the Save to Share needs.

H.  If the amount of one need qualifying for sharing in Save to Share exceeds half of the total funds on any particular month, only half of these funds will be assigned for sharing. If at any time there are multiple Save to Share needs in process, and the order in which they are shared could affect the maximum amount shared for a particular need, then the need given priority for calculating the shareable amount will be the need for which the properly completed form (and all required documentation) first arrived.

I.  Giving to Save to Share needs is done through the monthly newsletter mailing or eShare notification. The shareable amount of the need is determined and then divided among all Save to Share memberships. The correct Save to Share amount is then added to the regular share amount for each of these Save to Share households.

The Save to Share gifts are added to the total amount of share money available, and then enough of this larger amount is assigned to selected Save to Share memberships to be given to the Save to Share need(s). The other Save to Share memberships are directed to send their entire amounts (including the Save to Share amount) to regular needs. In this way, the memberships with Save to Share needs receive the amount they should receive, but instead of being inundated with a large number of small gifts coming from every Save to Share member, they receive a more manageable number of larger gifts.