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Health Share Members, 2026

Getting an MRI on a Health Share (CHM, Medi-Share, Sedera, Samaritan and Others)

If you hold a scan order and a health share membership, here is the one idea that simplifies everything: you are a cash-pay buyer. Most ministries have members self-pay imaging at the best price they can find and then submit the bill for sharing. That means every cash-price tactic on this site applies to you directly, and finding the low price is not just thrift, it is how the model is designed to work.

The member's advantage: insured patients are locked to negotiated rates; you are not. A freestanding-centre cash MRI routinely books for $265 to $700, while hospital list prices run to five figures. The lower you book, the less you owe before sharing and the further community funds go.

What a health share is, and what it is not

A health care sharing ministry is a membership community, usually faith-based, whose members contribute monthly and voluntarily share each other's eligible medical bills. It is explicitly not insurance, and the ministries themselves are required to say so. Sedera's FAQ states it “is not an insurance company nor is it insurance”. Medi-Share's eligibility page states “Medi-Share is not insurance and is not regulated as insurance”. Christian Healthcare Ministries' own legal notices page carries the state-mandated wording: the organisation “is not an insurance company, and neither its Guidelines nor plan of operation is an insurance policy”, sharing is “totally voluntary because no other participant will be compelled by law to contribute toward your medical bills”, and “you are always personally responsible for the payment of your own medical bills”. All three statements retrieved 3 August 2026.

That caveat is load-bearing, not small print. No government programme guarantees sharing, no state insurance regulator backs it, and some of the state notices on CHM's page go as far as warning that members who join instead of purchasing health insurance “will be considered uninsured”. None of this means the model fails to work for imaging; hundreds of thousands of members use it. It means you should treat the MRI as a purchase you are responsible for, then treat sharing as the community mechanism it is.

How imaging works as a member, per the ministries' own material

Each ministry publishes its own process. What follows is what their published pages actually say, retrieved 3 August 2026; your membership documents control, so verify against the current guidelines for your programme before booking.

Christian Healthcare Ministries (CHM)

Bill first, share after

CHM's FAQ recommends not paying upfront at the time of treatment: members should “ask medical providers to bill them directly and set up a payment plan as needed until CHM completes the sharing process”. Bills must be submitted within six months of the date of service, and most eligible bills are shared in 60 to 75 days. Standard sharing is limited to $125,000 per illness, with an add-on (CHM Plus) for amounts above that. Pre-existing conditions: most become eligible after one year without signs, symptoms or treatment; cancer requires five years symptom-free.

Medi-Share (Christian Care Ministry)

Imaging listed as eligible

Medi-Share's published eligibility material lists “Labs, Imaging, and Diagnostic Testing”, including “blood work, X-rays, MRIs, CT scans, and other labs when ordered by a physician for an eligible for sharing condition”, as eligible for sharing. It also carries the disclaimer that Medi-Share “is not insurance and is not regulated as insurance”. Medi-Share publishes full programme guidelines as a member document covering household-portion mechanics and pre-notification rules; we could not machine-read that PDF, so for those specifics consult the current guidelines in your member centre rather than any summary, including this one.

Sedera

Explicit cash-pay model

Sedera is the most explicit about the cash-pay structure. Its community FAQ describes members telling providers they are cash-pay patients at the time of service, receiving bills directly, then submitting a Need with copies of bills and proof of payments toward their Initial Unshareable Amount (IUA). When an eligible expense exceeds the IUA, the balance for that Need is shareable, so the member's exposure per Need is effectively the IUA they selected. Pre-existing conditions carry a 36-month look-back: shareable only once the 36 months before joining passed without signs, symptoms, treatment or medication for the condition.

Samaritan Ministries and others

Check your own guidelines

Samaritan Ministries publishes its own membership guidelines; its site blocked our retrieval, so we make no claims about its imaging process here. The same goes for Zion Health, OneShare and the other ministries: the pattern across the sector is member-as-payer with voluntary sharing, but the mechanics (pre-notification, unshareable amounts, per-illness limits) are set by each ministry's current guidelines. Read yours before you book.

The cash-buyer playbook, applied to your scan order

Because you settle the bill first, everything this site documents about cash prices is your toolkit, and a lower booked price means less out of pocket before sharing and, for percentage-free models like Sedera's IUA, often nothing beyond your unshareable amount at all.

  1. Book freestanding, not hospital

    The single biggest lever. Freestanding imaging centres routinely book cash MRI in the $265 to $700 range through published-rate programmes and transparent platforms, while hospital list prices for the identical scan run from four to five figures. Our MRI cost without insurance guide has the sourced numbers and the phone scripts.

  2. Ask for the self-pay rate in exactly those words

    Say you are paying out of pocket and ask for the cash-pay or self-pay rate for your specific scan (body part, with or without contrast). Unlisted self-pay rates 30 to 60 percent below the first quote are common. Get the all-in figure: confirm the radiologist's reading fee is included.

  3. Keep the itemised bill and follow your ministry's submission process

    Sharing runs on paperwork. Request the itemised bill at booking, check whether your ministry requires pre-notification for scheduled imaging, and submit within your ministry's window (CHM's is six months from the date of service).

  4. Work the full checklist before you book

    Price-comparison tools, referral routes if you need an imaging order, and negotiation steps are all in how to save on an MRI. If money is the constraint rather than the process, the wider set of routes is in how to pay for an MRI.

  5. Texas members: use the Texas pages

    Several ministries have deep Texas membership, and Texas is where we have the most published cash prices, city by city. Start at the Texas MRI cost hub.

The honest limits

Four things deserve stating plainly before you rely on sharing for an MRI bill:

  • Pre-existing conditions are the biggest exclusion. If the MRI is ordered for a condition that predates your membership, CHM's published waiting periods (one year symptom-free, five for cancer) and Sedera's 36-month look-back are the kind of rules that decide whether the bill is shareable at all.
  • Sharing is not guaranteed. The ministries' own notices say membership creates no legal obligation on anyone to pay your bill. In practice established ministries share eligible bills routinely, but the legal position is exactly what the disclaimers say.
  • Per-ministry rules vary and change. Eligible conditions, unshareable amounts, per-illness limits and pre-notification requirements all differ by ministry and by programme tier within a ministry. This page describes published material as of August 2026; your current guidelines control.
  • You are considered uninsured. For hospital paperwork purposes that is usually to your advantage (self-pay rates, and at nonprofit hospitals, financial assistance screening), but it also means no out-of-pocket maximum and no regulator to appeal to.

If the sharing decision goes against you, you still hold a cash-priced bill rather than a chargemaster one, which is the position every uninsured cash buyer starts from. The fallback routes, hospital financial assistance included, are in our uninsured and low-income options guide.

Sources used on this page

MRI on a Health Share, FAQ

Health shares do not 'cover' anything in the insurance sense; they share eligible bills after the fact, per each ministry's own guidelines, and sharing is voluntary rather than guaranteed. That said, physician-ordered imaging for a shareable condition is commonly within scope: Medi-Share's own eligibility page lists 'Labs, Imaging, and Diagnostic Testing', including MRIs and CT scans, as eligible for sharing 'when ordered by a physician for an eligible for sharing condition' (retrieved August 2026). Whether your specific MRI is shareable depends on your ministry's guidelines, the condition behind the order, and pre-existing-condition rules.

Cost information only, not medical, legal or membership advice.

This page summarises the ministries' own published material for cost-planning purposes. Sharing eligibility decisions rest with each ministry under its current guidelines; health care sharing ministries are not insurance.

Related guides

MRI Cost Without Insurance

Cash-pay rates, phone scripts, and negotiation.

How to Save on MRI

The full 8-step cost-cutting checklist.

How to Pay for an MRI

Every payment route, compared.

Texas MRI Cost Hub

City-by-city published cash prices.

Uninsured & Low-Income Options

Charity care, FQHCs, and discounted routes.

US MRI Cost Guide

Full US MRI cost reference.

Updated 2026-06-11