Provider Network Creation

An HMO (health maintenance organization) plan offers health care with low co-pays and usually no deductibles or coinsurance. To receive this low-cost health care, you have to stay within your HMO network. From this network, you must choose a primary-care physician (PCP) who helps coordinate your care using other providers in the network. If you receive health care from providers outside the network, the plan doesn't cover the cost. The basic rule is to stay in the network, and both you and your provider are expected to adhere to it.

Jack Hollingsworth/Photodisc/Getty Images In an HMO, your primary-care physician coordinates your care with other providers in the network.

While you do have less freedom to pick your providers in an HMO plan, your health care fees are often lower than those in other managed-care plans. This is because HMOs offer providers a large pool of potential customers who cannot go outside the network to receive care. This means that HMO providers can afford to give a larger discount.

PPO (preferred provider organization) networks are created in the same way. However, a PPO plan also offers you the option to visit providers outside the network. The rule for patients and doctors alike is to try and stay within the network, but this rule can be broken if you or your doctor feels that your best care will be found outside the network. The downside is that if you choose to go outside the provider network, your expenses (like co-pays, deductible and coinsurance) will probably be higher than if you stayed inside the network. In fact, depending on your plan, a deductible and coinsurance payment may be waived if you use providers in the network. For example, if you see a provider in the network for a routine physical, your plan could pay 100 percent of the bill even before your deductible is met, which means you are responsible for only a co-pay. But if you see a provider outside of the network for the same routine physical, your plan may only cover 80 percent of the bill, and that's after you have met your deductible.

For more information about provider networks, check out the links on the next page.

Picking a Provider from a Network Sorting through the long list of providers in your plan's directory can be a daunting task. Most of us with managed-care plans want to pick an in-network provider. But how do you pick the right provider for you?­ Ask trusted friends, family and other health care providers for recommendations, then check the directory. Find doctors who are convenient to your location and whose office hours work for your family. Be sure the doctor is affiliated with hospitals that are close by and are also included in your provider directory. Check the doctor's credentials in a professional directory like the American Medical Association's DoctorFinder. Ask about the doctor's philosophy and be sure it coincides with yours. For example, does he or she focus on preventive medicine like routine checkups and immunizations?