Zion HealthShare, explained
Zion HealthShare is a nonprofit, membership-based cost sharing community with 78,000+ active members. Members contribute monthly, and when one of them has an eligible medical need, the community shares the cost. In 2025, Zion facilitated more than $91 million in shared medical expenses. It is not insurance, and it is not a Sprinkle Health product — this page is our plain-language summary of how it works, written for our members.
How it works
You pick the amount you pay first when a medical need arises — the Initial Unshareable Amount, or IUA. Zion currently offers $1,250, $2,500, or $5,000. A lower amount you pay first usually means a higher monthly contribution.
Your monthly contribution is what keeps you in the community and funds the sharing. Contributions are made with after-tax dollars and are not tax deductible.
When a medical need comes up, you file a sharing request through the member portal. Zion checks that the expense is eligible for sharing before anything moves forward.
Once you’ve paid your IUA, eligible expenses are shared across the community. You can pay the provider and submit receipts for reimbursement, or Zion can help coordinate payment at the time of service.
What gets shared
Zion is built for the bills that hurt — the hospital stay, the surgery, the cancer diagnosis. It is not a menu of day-to-day benefits, and Zion states it does not publish annual or lifetime sharing maximums. The full list of what qualifies lives in Zion’s Member Guidelines, which you should read before joining.
You may use any licensed provider in the United States or Puerto Rico — there is no Zion network to stay inside. Emergency or urgent care received outside the United States or Puerto Rico may be shareable, subject to the Member Guidelines.
Worth knowing first
A household is never responsible for more than three Initial Unshareable Amounts in any rolling 12-month period. That is the main ceiling on what you can owe in a year.
Zion looks at the 24 months before you join: anything examined, diagnosed, treated, medicated, or symptomatic in that window can be a pre-membership condition and may need to phase in before it is shareable. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes are treated as exceptions as long as none of them caused a hospitalization in the 12 months before joining.
Health insurance, workers’ compensation, or auto liability coverage must be disclosed and is treated as the primary payer. Zion shares what is still unpaid after those claims are processed. Leaving coverage out can make a request ineligible.
Tobacco users can join with an extra $50 each month. After 12 consecutive tobacco-free months, the surcharge comes off with documentation from a licensed provider.
Two ways to join
The membership for a person or a household. You choose how the household is covered — just you, you and a spouse, you and your children, or the whole family — and your contribution is set by your age range and the IUA you pick.
The membership for employers and organizations. Cost sharing is the foundation; extra services are added on by whoever wants them, so it flexes to the size and appetite of your team.
Zion sets and changes its own contribution amounts, and they depend on your age range, household type, and the IUA you select — so no price is quoted here. Direct members can see current amounts on Zion’s secure enrollment site; employers can discuss options and pricing with Sprinkle Health.
With your Sprinkle membership
The two fit together because they cover different problems. Your Sprinkle Health membership is for everyday access: unlimited telehealth or a personal primary care doctor, care day or night, and up to 80–90% off prescriptions, labs, and medical imaging for everyone in your household. Zion HealthShare is for the medical event you didn’t budget for. Many members keep both — one for the care they use weekly, one for the cost that would otherwise arrive all at once.
Zion HealthShare is an independent nonprofit organization. It is not affiliated with Sprinkle Health beyond our referral partnership, and Sprinkle Health does not administer memberships, decide eligibility, or pay sharing requests — those questions go to Zion. Medical cost sharing is not health insurance, is not guaranteed payment of medical bills, is not regulated as insurance, and is not ACA-compliant. Zion HealthShare cannot operate in the state of Washington, and a referral commission is not paid on registrations from residents of Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, or Montana. Sprinkle Health may earn a commission when someone joins through our link, which is why we’d rather you read this page and the Member Guidelines before deciding. All medical services through Sprinkle Health are provided by independent licensed providers.