The member manual
Every rule of your plan, in 458 pages.
We give the manual to members, and to our in-network stores, when they ask in writing. Below are the pages members are sent to most often. The rest are kept at the family offices.
Page 1. About this manual
1.1 This manual is your plan, in full. It runs 458 pages, so that nothing is left out.
1.2 Where this manual and your bill disagree, your bill is correct.
Page 4. Your summary
4.1 The law limits the summary of your benefits to four pages. Your summary ends here.
4.2 Your plan continues for another 454 pages.
The real answer
How long can a plan’s summary of benefits be?
Four pages. Health insurers and group health plans must give you a summary of benefits and coverage when you apply, before you enroll or re-enroll, and when your policy is issued (42 U.S.C. § 300gg-15(d)), and the law requires it to be “presented in a uniform format that does not exceed 4 pages in length and does not include print smaller than 12-point font” (42 U.S.C. § 300gg-15(b)(1)).
Page 61. Prices
61.1 Every store in your network has agreed to our price for each of its groceries. The price is written in the store’s agreement with the house.
61.2 The agreement is not in this manual. The price is also published, as the law requires, in a file no member has opened.
Page 133. Referrals
133.1 A referral names a kind of doctor. Finding one who will see the member is the member’s responsibility.
133.2 A doctor in your network refers you only to another doctor in your network. Every doctor in the network has agreed to this in writing.
133.3 A referral that proves wrong is still a referral, and the visit it led to is still a visit.
133.4 A member referred to two doctors at once pays for two visits at once.
Page 212. Appeals
212.1 An appeal must be written by the member.
212.2 An appeal written by anyone else is correspondence. It is filed.
Page 391. Donations
391.1 The sentence that brought you to this page is not true above a certain amount. The amount is not disclosed.
391.2 The family is not in need, and has not been since 1891. It accepts donations as a family in need would, and with the same gratitude.
391.3 Donations go to the family’s investors, who are friends of friends of the family. No donation reaches a member, and no donor becomes an investor, or family.
391.4 The family gives to charity as well. Each year it gives a small part of what it kept from members’ benefits, and keeps the rest. Both are recorded as the family’s generosity.
391.5 The last button on the donate page lets a member name a price, once. The house names its own prices every time, and names them to no one.
Page 458. Changes
458.1 The house may change this manual at any time. A member learns of a change from the next bill.
458.2 There is no page 459. A member who asks for it is referred to page 1.