What does in network medical insurance mean?

Your insurance (if an HMO or PPO plan - as most are) has a "network" of doctors/hospitals who have contracted with your insurer as participants in your specific plan. They are "in network" and using them means lower out-of-pocket costs for you.

What you need to do is check out if your family doctor or any other doctor you have treated with are listed in the in-network doctors for your health plan. If not and considered out of network, you will pay more for each visit.

With in-network, the health insurance has a "negotiated contract" and the doctors are only allowed to charge certain amounts and write off the rest of the bill. So say for instance you go to the family doctor and he charges $100, the contract price maybe $75, so that is all they can charge. But if this doctor is out of network, then you will be out of pocket for the entire $100, since they have no contract with this doctor.

Many times if you have several choices to make in insurance plans, most people will verify if their family dr, OB, pediatrician etc is on that plan to decide which plan to take, or otherwise, you may have to change doctors to get the lower rates.

The insurance company has agreements with certain doctors, hospitals, labs, etc... If you uses one that they have an agreement with then you are using providers that are 'in network.' No agreement....out of network. When you're out of network you have no protections on what the doctor can charge.