Solidarity President and Co-Founder Chris Faddis joins The BS Show to discuss several pressing issues including the rise of facility fees in medical billing, the spread of West Nile virus, the dangers of Lyme disease, and the closure of 30 Planned Parenthood facilities, offering insight into today’s healthcare challenges and solutions. Listen to the interview or read the full transcript below.
Bob Sansevere (00:00):
We are joined by Christopher Faddis, co-founder and president of the nonprofit Healthcare Sharing Ministry Solidarity HealthShare, which is an ethical, affordable alternative to traditional health insurance and is faithful to the moral teachings of the Catholic Church. Chris, I talked the other day, and I’m talking to you now about this West Nile virus. 20 people, at least 20 people have come down with it in Minnesota. Two have died, and I didn’t know anything about it until I was talking to a friend who was at, my daughter does high school rodeo, and he knew a woman 52 years old, who was one of the two who died in Minnesota. And is it widespread where it’s in every state? Do you have West Nile virus in Arizona where you live?
Chris Faddis (00:41):
Yeah, I haven’t heard a lot about it in Arizona. In fact, I don’t think there’s been a lot. We do have it here. In fact, I have a neighbor who, sorry. We do have it here. We’ve had it here in the past when it’s happened. A neighbor that actually survived one of the worst cases of West Nile many years ago now. But she still has somewhat of issues because of it, but living a good life. But yeah, so we haven’t seen a ton of it here. But again, those things, sometimes they kind of ebb and flow through the country in a way. I don’t fully understand it.
Bob Sansevere (01:12):
Well, and I think my wife had Lyme disease and she caught it early. We had a friend who had it, it was like 18 years. She was misdiagnosed a number of times.
Chris Faddis (01:20):
Yeah, yeah.
Bob Sansevere (01:20):
And then finally they got it right. My wife, though, we are fairly convinced that she has rheumatoid arthritis, it’s a result. Her autoimmune system is weakened by Lyme disease. And I was fortunate in that I started to see the circle form. Hers had already formed. It looks like a little target, and I got on doxycycline or whatever the doctor put me on very, very quickly, and it did make a difference. And the reason I’m even mentioning this for people out there, I mean, check your body everywhere for so that it doesn’t-
Chris Faddis (01:53):
Right, especially in that environment.
Bob Sansevere (01:55):
Yeah.
Chris Faddis (01:55):
Yeah. It can happen so quickly and so fast. I mean, I was just recently going to get a dog that I was getting from somebody in Massachusetts and he took me for a little bird hunt. And so we were out in the field for maybe two hours and I had pants on. I flew home to Phoenix with the dog, did everything late that night. I’m changing. And I had two ticks on my leg, and luckily they hadn’t fully embedded yet, so they were just kind of attached, and I was able to get ’em off easily and no bullseye form, nothing. Checked it with our doctor, all that stuff. But it’s crazy to me, living in the desert, we’re not walking through grass as often as wild to me how quickly those things can happen and how easily they can happen.
Bob Sansevere (02:40):
You know what though? I’ll tell you what though, Chris, if you could see the ticks, there’s a good chance it’s not a deer tick. And Lyme disease is a problem. It’s the ones you can see. They are years and years ago, 20 plus years ago, my wife and I, we lived near a park. We went trail riding. I came back and I pulled 15 ticks between my clothes and my skin. I will not go trail. We have wonderful trails on our property. I will not go until the first frost and pretty much most of these ticks or animals either hibernate or die off because it’s the one beastly little thing. I can’t stand that. And of course, now I’m very West Nile virus conscious mosquitoes. I mean, I’ve been hit by ’em a number of times this summer. Fortunately not the West Nile variety, but you got to load up on people say, oh, don’t use Deet. I’m using whatever is going to keep ’em away. Deet’s the best thing.
Chris Faddis (03:32):
Yeah, there’s some good natural ones. But the other thing that’s also just making sure you have good pest control around the house for it. We’ve found some different treatments for our house, and it does make a difference. In fact, I know it makes a difference because as soon as I’m late on adding stuff to the traps that I have, we start getting bit again within a day. It’s like you got to get on top, but it’s –
Bob Sansevere (03:54):
A public service announcement as far as I’m concerned, for people to be aware.
Chris Faddis (03:58):
Yeah, exactly.
Bob Sansevere (03:58):
By the way, west Nile virus is in Minnesota anyway. These bugs or these mosquitoes are worse in August and September, so be aware early September, you got 28 more days to get through. Now, I want to ask you about, there’s doctor’s offices and I got to look, I don’t think mine is, but they’re now hitting you with a facilities fee. And this is ridiculous. It’s like, I’m not renting a room from you, I’m just walking in and having an appointment. Now, there’s some notes that Solidarity sent in New Hampshire, a resident was charged an additional $1,000 fee for an appointment with a urologist in Ohio. A man was billed $645 extra for an ear, nose and throat specialist. This is outrageous. How do they get away with it? And I mean, what does Solidarity do if you see that fee? Do you refuse to pay it?
Chris Faddis (04:52):
We just delete it. Yeah. This is part of the practice known as upcoding, and it’s coming in more and more, partially because so many of these clinics, I would venture to guess that all of these stories that are out there that most of these places, and I haven’t studied this in our own, our own billing, but my guess is that it’s all hospital owned clinics that are doing it, and hospitals are used to getting facility fees for their surgical centers and the like. And yeah, it’s another way to up the charge to charge people more than what the visit’s worth and to give another reason. Like, oh, well, that’s just the cost of running the facility. And it’s like you and I go out to dinner and we have a nice meal, and then they say, okay, but that booth you sat in was a premium booth, so you have to pay a thousand dollars for the booth on top of your hundred dollars steak or whatever.
Bob Sansevere (05:38):
Are there places doing that? It wouldn’t shock me. The one,
Chris Faddis (05:41):
No, I’ve never heard of it. I’ve never heard of it happening, but that’s what it would be like. So yeah, it’s a strange thing. I don’t understand why. We just simply delete it. We just take that part of the bill out, and of course, some of them will try to fight it, but most of them, they know it’s unjust. And at the end of the day, a lot of what you see happening in these bills is they’re just trying to see what they can get by an insurance company and a claims examiner misses it. They get the money, so it’s a little bonus, and they’ve somehow justified that that’s ethical in their minds. But obviously you and I know that’s completely not. Yeah.
Bob Sansevere (06:17):
It is. Now, I don’t know about doctors, so I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they do it, but you see more and more in restaurants, the extra 4% or so fee for a credit card. Now, here’s my problem with that. When people open a restaurant and they set their fees, they built that 4% that they pay to or to credit card companies into their pricing.
Chris Faddis (06:40):
That’s what you’re supposed to do.
Bob Sansevere (06:41):
You build it in, but they double it. Now. They’re double dipping. And that’s what I think. I’m sure that some doctor’s offices or hospitals are doing that too. If you pay with a credit card, they’re charging a fee. And it’s just, to me, it’s absolutely outrageous and so wrong. It’s one of my big pet peeves to the point of-
Chris Faddis (06:57):
That, yeah, I think, again, these facility fees, this is another piece of the whole price transparency issue. We’ve got to get a control of these things and make sure that we’re not overpaying. Yeah, a doctor’s visit should cost you a hundred to 175 bucks depending on the type of doctor, and then you get another bill on top of it. That makes no sense.
Bob Sansevere (07:14):
Tell me what doctor you can go to for a hundred to 175 bucks. That’s not in Minnesota, can’t. The other thing. There have been over 30 Planned Parenthood facilities have announced closures in 2025. Is this all related to the passing of Donald Trump’s one big, beautiful bill and because they’re not going to be getting taxpayer dollars anymore for the next year for at least a year.
Chris Faddis (07:40):
Yes. It’s that it’s also, there’s limitations now on the Medicaid dollars. They can access several things that are affecting that. And so yeah, I think of it as a good thing. Of course, I wanted to see all of them gone, but one of the biggest things is, I mean, they closed their largest facility in Houston, Texas, and that was a big deal. That was their big headquarters, their shining star, and that’s now closed, and that was a big sign that things are changing now. We also know that the abortion pill is becoming the primary way people commit abortion, so maybe that’s part of the reason as well. But I definitely think some of these bills and some of these other actions from Medicaid, Medicare are also helping.
Bob Sansevere (08:22):
Well, I don’t know. I know Planned Parenthood does abortions. What else do they do? Do they do anything with mothers, with children, or is it mostly-?
Chris Faddis (08:31):
No, they really don’t. They say they do, and of course on their books they’ll show they do, but pretty much what they do is they’ll write a referral. So if someone needs birth control, they can give them a certain amount and then they write ’em a referral to an OB. If they are a pregnant and want to continue, they refer them to a doctor. It is all referral based. There’s this whole kind of shell game they like to play to make it look like they are doing all these other things, but ultimately, their primary business is the abortion and everything else. Almost everything else is a referral out to other folks. They also, of course, now do, I think they’re also doing a lot of the gender affirming medicines as well, so the gender therapy care and those kind of things. So that’s another part of their new model.
Bob Sansevere (09:12):
Well, and the thing that, there’s a lot of stuff I’m naive about, and one of them, there’s a morning after pill. Is there an incidence? I mean, the number of abortions has got to have gone down, or it should, because if you have the option of, if you’re not taking birth control, you’re not practicing what’s called safe sex, then why not just take the morning after pill so you don’t even have to basically get pregnant and go through an abortion? I don’t understand.
Chris Faddis (09:39):
Yeah. I mean, I think the morning after pill, and most people would consider it, it basically is a form of an abortion pill because you’re actually-
Bob Sansevere (09:46):
But it’s the day after-
Chris Faddis (09:47):
– doing the same thing. Yeah, there’s no heart beating. It’s not implanted. But yeah, that kind of thing. Right. So that’s part of it for sure. They’re doing a lot of that. And then also the abortion pill is a big part of it as well. The thing is that the thing people will talk about Planned Parenthood is like, oh, well now there’s no women’s healthcare. I mean, there are so many places and clinics and doctor’s offices that you can go to for women’s healthcare. The other thing is, I don’t know of a state that does not have Medicaid for women who are pregnant. And if you’re pregnant and you don’t have insurance, you can get on the state Medicaid program. That’s an availability for many people. And there’s also options for women who need other types of healthcare, even if they’re not pregnant. So there’s a lot of things out there. We work with many, many OBs around the country that are serving people who are uninsured or the like. And again, I do not think we need the Planned Parenthood giant in order to solve women’s healthcare problems.
Bob Sansevere (10:44):
Well, there’s going to be 30 less of ’em. All right, Chris, thank you so much. Solidarity Health share solidarityhealthshare.org. Chris is the president and co-founder. It’s a great alternative to traditional healthcare. Take a quick break. The BS Show’ll be right back.
