What Is UCR In Health Insurance? 
UCR is short for `` Usual , Customary , and Reasonable , '' meaning your health insurance company will only pay what they consider to be a usual , customary , and reasonable charge for any covered expenses you incur . If your doctor is in your insurance company 's network , then they have agreed to accept this UCR as payment in full . However , it 's not uncommon for a doctor to refuse to accept health insurance , or to participate in any HMO or PPO network . In such a case , if you doctor charges more than the amount your insurance company considers to be UCR , you are responsible for the rest of the bill . Worse yet , any amounts you pay above UCR will not count towards your deductible or your out pof pocket spending limit . If you ever find yourself in such a situation , I suggest working with a medical bill negotiation service . Most of these services cost nothing if they do not save you any money , and only charge a small percentage of any amount they are able to help reduce your bills -LRB- typically 30 % of the savings -RRB- . 