Knew Health Reviews

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Knew Health stands out from most health shares in two big ways: it’s a for-profit company, and it puts a lot of weight on everyday wellness care. In this review, I’ll walk through how Knew Health works, the IUA, what it costs, pre-existing conditions, maternity, wellness benefits, and the limitations I found when I read the member guidelines.

By the end, you’ll know whether Knew Health is worth researching further for you and your family. If you’d rather start with your own numbers, you can get a Knew Health quote here and read along.

What Is Knew Health?

Knew Health is a medical cost sharing community, also called a health share. Members make monthly contributions, and those funds are used to share in eligible medical bills among the members.

Unlike most health shares, Knew Health is a for-profit company. Knew Health confirmed this to me directly, and their guidelines describe Knew Health as a Delaware corporation that provides the framework and administration for the membership. In other words, the company runs the operation while members participate in the cost sharing program.

Financial transparency

Nonprofit health shares have to disclose their financial information, so I asked Knew Health how much of each monthly contribution goes toward medical expenses versus administration. They told me they’re working toward that level of transparency, but they don’t currently have financial statements available for members to review.

Knew Health did tell me their community has shared in all eligible medical expenses for its members. Without financial statements, though, you can’t check those numbers yourself or see how the money is allocated. For some people that won’t matter much. For others, it’s an important question to ask before joining.

Who Can Join Knew Health?

According to the member guidelines, there are two basic requirements: you agree to the Knew Health principles of membership, and you make your monthly contributions.

You don’t have to belong to a particular religion. Knew Health welcomes members of all faiths. You do agree to specific principles, including not using illegal drugs, not taking prescription medications without a prescription, and avoiding certain activities considered harmful to the body. There are also requirements around excessive alcohol use.

Read these principles carefully, because they aren’t just suggestions. If Knew Health finds a violation:

1. Sharing can be put on hold.
2. You have 30 days to provide documentation showing you’re in compliance.
3. If that doesn’t satisfy Knew Health, your membership can be revoked, and your previous contributions are not returned.

Age and state restrictions

You must be under 65 to join. Knew Health isn’t currently accepting new members in California, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, or Washington. These restrictions can change, so check Knew Health’s current availability before enrolling.

How the Knew Health IUA Works

The IUA, or initial unsharable amount, is what you pay on a medical need before eligible expenses can be shared. It affects both your monthly contribution and what you pay when you actually need care.

Knew Health offers three IUA options: $1,000, $2,500, and $5,000.

Example: You choose the $2,500 IUA and have a $20,000 eligible medical bill. You pay the first $2,500, and the remaining eligible amount can be shared by the Knew Health community.

A few details matter beyond the IUA amount itself:

• One IUA per need. Once you’ve met the IUA for a need, you don’t pay it again for that same need unless you’ve been symptom-free for 12 months.
• Three IUAs max per year. The most you’d pay is three IUAs per membership year.
• IUA waived after that. After three IUAs, new eligible needs over $500 have the IUA waived for the rest of the membership year.

That annual cap is especially helpful for families who have several medical events in the same year.

How Much Does Knew Health Cost?

Your monthly contribution depends on your household type, the age of the oldest member, the IUA you choose, and tobacco use. The IUA alone can make a significant difference, as these examples show:

Household	$5,000 IUA	$1,000 IUA
Single, age 18–39	$178.50/mo	$279/mo
Married with 2–3 kids, everyone under 40	$555/mo	$875/mo
Married, no kids, in your 50s	$450/mo	$688.50/mo

These are examples only, and your actual contribution may differ. When comparing health shares, compare your real quote, not just the advertised starting price. You can see your exact Knew Health price here.

One thing worth noting: Knew Health says it hasn’t raised its monthly contribution rates in over 8 years.

Sharing Limits: Read Past the Headline

Knew Health says there are no sharing limits per membership or per lifetime of membership. But the member guidelines limit hospital stays, including ICU care, to $250,000 per need.

One of the most important questions to ask about any health share is whether it will be there when you need it most, during a major medical event. With Knew Health, that $250,000 per-need hospital limit deserves a very close look.

Pre-Existing Conditions

Knew Health defines a pre-existing condition as something that was symptomatic, suspected, diagnosed, or treated during the 24 months before your membership started.

High blood pressure, high cholesterol, and type 1 or type 2 diabetes are not considered pre-existing as long as you haven’t been hospitalized for that condition in the previous 12 months and you control it through lifestyle changes or medication.

There are still limitations:

• Diabetic medications and supplies aren’t shared, which is pretty standard across health shares.
• Long-term maintenance medications you were already taking when you joined aren’t shared.

The phase-in schedule

• Year 1: No sharing for pre-existing conditions. It works as a waiting period.
• Year 2: $25,000 maximum per need.
• Year 3: $50,000 maximum per need
• Year 4: $125,000 maximum per need.
• After year 4: Pre-existing conditions remain limited to $125,000 in a rolling 12-month period.

If you’re joining Knew Health because you already have a condition you expect the health share to help with, look closely at your specific condition and what this phase-in would mean for you.

Knew Health Maternity

If you’re planning to have a baby, Knew Health has very specific maternity rules, and timing matters.

Timing requirements

• The pregnancy must begin after 90 days of active membership.
• Your estimated delivery date must be after your first 12 months of membership.

You can’t join after finding out you’re pregnant and expect that pregnancy to be shared. It would be considered pre-existing.

The maternity IUA

Maternity has its own IUA, no matter which regular IUA you chose:

Delivery type	Maternity IUA
Vaginal birth or emergency C-section	$5,000
Elective C-section	$7,500 (and sharing for the delivery may be limited to 80%)
Miscarriage	Your regular IUA applies

What’s included

The maternity need can include prenatal care, delivery, postnatal care, and complications for the mother. Listed services include up to three ultrasounds, hospital births, birthing centers, home births, midwives, multiple births, chiropractic care, and pelvic floor therapy. Postpartum depression care can be shared up to $3,500 per pregnancy.

What’s not included

Genetic testing (including NIPT), doulas, 3D or 4D ultrasounds, breast pumps, lactation consultants, massage therapy, placenta encapsulation, and circumcision aren’t sharable. There’s also a rule about prepaid global maternity fees if you switch providers by choice, so understand it before making that decision.

Newborn care and the NICU

You need to add your baby to your membership within 30 days of birth. Routine newborn care can be included in the maternity need, but newborn complications are a separate need for the baby with their own IUA. That’s common among health shares.

NICU care and complications from premature birth are shared up to $250,000 per need or 12 months, whichever comes first.

To put that in perspective: my son spent 145 days in the NICU, and we were told it cost about $10,000 a day. We would have reached that $250,000 limit within the first month. Even if negotiated self-pay rates brought that cost down substantially, a stay that long could still go well beyond the limit.

If maternity is one of your reasons for considering Knew Health, read the entire maternity section of the guidelines, and be cautious about that $250,000 limit.

What Makes Knew Health Different: Wellness Benefits

The wellness side is where Knew Health really separates itself. It puts a lot of emphasis on everyday health care, and these preventive services don’t require you to meet your IUA first or wait out a waiting period:

• Annual wellness visits, well-woman visits, and well-child visits
• Mammograms and colonoscopies
• STD screenings, birth control, and immunizations

You also get:

• Vexia diagnostics: some testing at no cost, and other testing at discounted rates.
• General blood work: up to $80 per member per year.
• $200 self-care credit: per membership, not per person. It can go toward chiropractic care, acupuncture, massage therapy, counseling, gym memberships, supplements, and additional lab work.
• 24/7 telehealth and health coaching.
• Recovery allowance: after an illness or injury, up to $7,500 per need for physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, chiropractic care, and hyperbaric therapy.

10% discount with direct primary care

If you use direct primary care (DPC), Knew Health offers a 10% discount on your monthly contribution when you pair your membership with a qualifying DPC membership. To qualify:

• At least half of your household must be active with the DPC provider.
• The provider must clearly operate as a direct primary care practice, and the membership must include routine primary care.
• You’ll provide proof of your DPC membership every 12 months.

This is one of the reasons I like looking at DPC and health sharing together. DPC covers your everyday care and your relationship with your physician, while the health share handles larger eligible medical needs. They’re two pieces of your health care working together.

If the wellness benefits are a big draw for your family, you can compare Knew Health’s plans and pricing here.

Holistic and Integrative Care

Knew Health supports some alternative approaches, but not everything a functional medicine doctor or holistic provider recommends is automatically sharable. To have an alternative treatment considered:

• You’ll need a detailed treatment plan.
• You’ll need evidence from peer-reviewed research explaining why the treatment is being used instead of conventional care.
• Approval is only for one month at a time.
• If you pay for treatment before getting approval, those expenses may not be shared.

Some treatments aren’t sharable at all, including IV infusions, peptides, ozone, chronic Lyme and mold therapies, and PRP or stem cell therapies.

If holistic or functional medicine is a main reason you’re looking at Knew Health, don’t assume “holistic health share” means everything holistic is included. Check first.

Using Knew Health When You Need Care

With Knew Health, you’re a self-pay patient. There are no provider networks, so you can see the licensed provider you choose, and you don’t need a referral.

1. Tell your doctor or hospital you’re a self-pay patient.
2. Pay your IUA directly to the provider.
3. Submit your itemized bills and proof of payment through the member portal.
4. Knew Health reviews the bills, and their care team negotiates when possible.

Knew Health reports an average reduction of 46% through negotiations. They say eligible reimbursements typically go out within 1 to 2 weeks once they have all the required documentation. For maternity, they say they can often prepay delivery charges up to 2 weeks before the baby is born.

Your role in the process

With a health share, you can’t just hand everything over and forget about it. The guidelines encourage members to ask for self-pay discounts, prompt-pay discounts, and financial assistance, and to negotiate bills and set up payment plans. If Knew Health decides you didn’t make a good-faith effort to get a reasonable price, sharing can be limited to what they consider the usual and customary price for your area.

Two deadlines to remember:

• Bills must be submitted within 6 months of the date of service.
• Non-emergency surgeries require approval ahead of time.

What If There Isn’t Enough Money to Share Every Bill?

This is an important question for any health share. Knew Health’s guidelines say they keep excess funds for this situation. If the bills submitted in a month exceed the contributions received, eligible bills can be shared at a reduced percentage. For example, if only 80% of the needed funds are available, eligible bills could be shared at 80%.

When I asked Knew Health about this, they told me:

• The unpaid portion would roll over and be paid first the following month.
• If this happens in 3 months within a 6-month period, the board meets to decide whether monthly contributions should increase.
• It hasn’t happened in a single month so far.

The possibility is still in the member guidelines, which is exactly why I keep telling people to read them. That said, I appreciate that Knew Health has a plan in place just in case.

The Bottom Line on Knew Health

Knew Health’s biggest strength is its wellness side: preventive care with no IUA or waiting period, the self-care credit, the recovery allowance, and the DPC discount. The trade-offs to weigh carefully are the for-profit structure without published financial statements, the $250,000 per-need hospital and NICU limits, and the pre-existing condition phase-in.

If Knew Health sounds like it might be a good fit, I’d do two things:

1. Read the member guidelines yourself.
2. Get an actual Knew Health quote for your household so you’re not guessing at what you’d pay.

That’s my affiliate link, so if you decide to enroll, it doesn’t cost you a penny extra, but it does help me keep making detailed reviews like this one 🙂

Write your own Knew Health Review!

Are you a current or former member of Knew Health? If you have any experience with Knew Health, please write a review! 

Reading other people’s Health Share experiences is a huge when trying to make a decision about which Health Share to join.

In fact, over 90% of people will read online reviews before they buy a product or service! Please consider writing a Knew Health review!

Health shares are not insurance and do not offer insurance coverage. Membership in a health share does not guarantee the payment or reimbursement of medical expenses. Each organization operates under its own membership guidelines, which determine what expenses may be eligible for sharing. This publication is for informational purposes only and is not provided by an insurance company. For state-specific notices and full program details, please visit the respective health share’s official website.