The MEMPHIS Plan
Affordable Health Care for Small Businesses
The MEMPHIS Plan offers comprehensive health care for you and your employees at a price you can afford so they can stay healthy and live productive lives.
What services are covered?
- Preventative health
- Sick care
- Subspeciality care
- Limited access to dental services (click for additional resources)
- Optometry
- Limited hospital services
What is the cost?
As low as:
- $10 per month for employers
- $40 per month for employees
- $5 co-pay per visit
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To qualify, individuals must
- Be uninsured
- Work at least 20 hours a week
- Be located in Tennessee
- Earn less than 200% of the federal poverty level (As of February 2023, an individual can make no more than $30,120 for a household family size of 1. Employees with higher incomes may still qualify depending on family size.)
To qualify, businesses must
- Be Located in Tennessee.
- Have no more than 200 eligible employees.
- Not drop current insurance coverage to offer the MEMPHIS Plan or allow employees currently covered by insurance to drop their coverage. Employers may offer the MEMPHIS Plan to employees who are unable to afford the insurance provided through the employer or do not qualify.
The MEMPHIS Plan office will assign you (and your dependents, if applicable) to one primary care physician and a hospital system in case of emergency. There will be a $5 co-pay for each visit, in addition to your personal $50/month (at least $10/month paid by your employer).
In the case of needing to see a specialist, make an appointment with your primary care physician who will refer you to specialist services covered under the MEMPHIS Plan.
Go to your assigned hospital found on the back of your enrollment card. Your visit will be $5. Please note ambulance rides are not covered under the MEMPHIS Plan.
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MEMPHIS Plan for Employees FAQ
MEMPHIS Plan for Employees FAQ
Refer to your enrollment packet and call your assigned doctor to set up an appointment in order to become an established patient.
- Preventive Health Services. Routine health exams, screenings, immunizations
- Sick Care. Visits to your doctor when you are sick, ER access, same day walk-in clinic access
- Subspecialty Services. If you have seen your doctor and they have referred you to a subspecialist, the referral must be completed through the MEMPHIS Plan office. When possible, subspecialty care will be provided for a $5 co-pay.
- Dental Services. Limited access to dental services at the Church Health Dental Clinic (click for additional resources).
- Optometry Services. Access to our optometry clinic is available. Fees are billed on a sliding scale.
Check your enrollment packet for information on your assigned doctor’s office and hospital. If you do not currently have the sheet with this information, you should call 901-272-PLAN to request it.
If there is a problem with your current doctor, changing is possible, but it may take some time to find an opening. Call 901-272-PLAN if this applies to you.
- In the case of an emergency, you should find the information that was mailed to you with your MEMPHIS Plan card. Next to the information about doctor you should visit, you will find the hospital to which you have been assigned to go to in an emergency.
- If you do not have a life-threatening emergency, then you should go to the Church Health Walk-In Clinic, 1350 Concourse Ave. Access the clinic by entering through the Claybrook entrance at Crosstown Concourse (across from NexAir). To be seen at the clinic, you must arrive at or before 7:00 a.m., Monday—Friday.
We do not provide this information, but we will work to find a doctor that is close to your home or work.
Make an appointment with your doctor and get a referral. If you require urgent care, please visit the emergency room at your assigned hospital or the Church Health walk-in clinic at 1350 Concourse Ave., which takes patients on a first come basis starting at 7am Monday-Friday.
No, as it is covered under TennCare. If you become pregnant while on the Plan, the Plan will be terminated for the duration of the pregnancy. One of our representatives will assist you with enrolling in TennCare in order for you to obtain health care coverage during your pregnancy. You and your child can come back on the MEMPHIS Plan once the baby is born.
If your application is complete and turned in with all necessary documents before the last day of the month, allow one processing enrollment month. The following month, your Plan is effective.
For example: if you complete your application on May 6, your enrollment processing month will be June. Your Plan becomes effective July 1.
Free or low-cost prescriptions are available at Good Shepherd Pharmacy, Madison Pharmacy, the Methodist Outpatient Pharmacy, and the Church Health Prescription Program. Click here for complete information.
Enrollment Forms:
After speaking with one of our enrollment specialists, please download and fill out the necessary PDF forms below. The forms can be mailed to the MEMPHIS Plan at 1350 Concourse Ave., Suite 142, Memphis, 38104 or scanned and emailed to memphisplan@churchhealth.org.
Español Forms:
Employee Information
For those who qualify, the MEMPHIS Plan offices will assign you (and your dependents, if applicable) to one primary care physician who you will see you for a $5 co-pay every time. In addition, you will be assigned to a specific hospital in the case of an emergency, and if you go to the one properly assigned, it will also be only a $5 co-pay.
In the case of needing to see a specialist, one should make an appointment with their assigned primary care physician and that physician will make the appropriate referral, which will insure that the specialist’s services are also covered under the MEMPHIS Plan. You will find the assigned doctors and hospitals on the letter of enrollment that the MEMPHIS Plan offices will send you, along with your MEMPHIS Plan “card” that comes when you sign up for the Plan.
Criteria for Employees
- Make no more than 200 percent of the poverty level. As of February 2021, an individual can make no more than $27,180 for a household family size of 1. (Employees with higher incomes may still qualify depending on family size).
- Work at least 20 hours a week.
- Work in the state of Tennessee.
Criteria for Self-Employed People
- Live in Tennessee.
- Be currently uninsured (no private or governmental insurance coverage).
- Make no more than 200 percent of the federal poverty level based on family size and income as shown on their federal tax return.
Employer Information
For employers, particularly small business owners and those who are self employed, the MEMPHIS Plan provides affordable access to health care and is a great option for both you and your employees.
By signing up to offer the MEMPHIS Plan, you can offer your currently uninsured, hardworking employees access to a primary care physician, a place to go in case of a medical emergency, and numerous wide-ranging specialists for only $10 a month (and $40/month for the employee, with the cost rising with additional dependents).
Employee Qualifications
To qualify, employees must work more than 20 hours a week, meet the income requirement (less than 200 percent of the poverty level), and your business must employ less than 200 eligible participants, be located in the state of Tennessee, and they must not already be covered by any government or private insurance healthcare plan.
Employer Qualifications
- Be Located in Tennessee.
- Have no more than 200 eligible employees.
- Employers may not drop current insurance coverage to offer the MEMPHIS Plan or allow employees currently covered by insurance to drop their coverage. Employers may offer the MEMPHIS Plan to employees who are unable to afford the insurance provided through the employer or do not qualify.
For Doctors—A Way to Give Back
Volunteering through Church Health’s MEMPHIS Plan allows you to make a meaningful impact on the community without having to leave your office or interrupt your everyday schedule.
As a MEMPHIS Plan provider, you will have patients assigned 10—100 to you, similar to an insurance panel. These patients will come to your office to be seen, within your normal patient schedule. You can choose how many patients you wish to have assigned to you. Currently, there are doctors volunteering to care for a range of 10—100 MEMPHIS Plan patients.
On average, a MEMPHIS Plan patient sees their doctor two or three times a year. Their lab work and diagnostic testing is all covered by the MEMPHIS Plan, ordered directly from your office. Specialty referrals are handled by our MEMPHIS Plan office at your request.
I’m ready to serve!
MEMPHIS Plan for Doctors FAQ
You do not have to do anything but write the prescription and sign off on the generic version if applicable. It is up to the patients to get the medicine that has been prescribed, and we give them several affordable ways to do so, but it is not the doctor’s responsibility.
Diagnostic testing is not scheduled by the MEMPHIS Plan office. Testing may be scheduled by your office and set up at the hospital they are assigned to.
You should call 901-272-PLAN to discuss with a MEMPHIS Plan representative.
Please fax this Specialist Referral Form to Church Health Referrals Team.
Yes. If the patient-doctor relationship is not satisfactory, they can be moved off of your case. Just call the MEMPHIS Plan office and we will reassign the participant.
Yes; for information of other doctors who have served on the Plan, call the MEMPHIS Plan offices and we will gladly provide reference information.
The MEMPHIS Plan uses the following labs: LabCorp, Midsouth Pathology Group, AEL, and Quest Diagnostics. If you choose to use LabCorp, please provide them with the MEMPHIS Plan account number: 41118905.
For all other labs, please indicate on the requisition form that they are a MEMPHIS Plan participant.
The MEMPHIS Plan has agreements with Methodist University Hospital and Baptist Memphis. Patients are assigned to one of these two hospitals to use for emergency room visits. Should your patient require hospitalization, please send them to the hospital ED that they are assigned to. Patients receiving surgeries through subspecialty volunteers will be navigated to receive that service through the Church Health referrals staff based on the hospital credentials of the volunteers and eligibility requirements of the patient.
Call 901-272-PLAN and ask for your monthly patient list. We would be happy to send it again.
You should call our office and verify that they are not on your list. Every once in a while, a patient may be assigned to a doctor but the doctor’s patient list may not be updated. If you call and verify and they truly are not on your list, they should call our offices and see whose case they actually are on.
