Health Insurance Networks – Explained

Health insurance networks are groups of doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers that have agreed to provide services to members of a particular health insurance plan. There are “in-network” providers as well as “out-of-network” providers. In-Network Providers have negotiated agreements with the insurance company to offer services at a certain rate.
Out-of-Network Providers have not established agreements with the insurance company and may not offer the same cost savings. Members were receiving the lowest cost of care when seeing in-network providers vs out-of-network providers.

In Iowa, there are 3 main types of insurance that use these networks, HMO, POS and PPO.