What Does Network Mean In Health Insurance? 
Networks in health insurance plans refer to a list of providers -LRB- doctors , hospitals , labs , etc , -RRB- that have agreed to accept the terms of payment that apply to a particular health insurance plan . Health insurance carriers leverage their membership and use incentives to drive traffic to network participants . In exchange , network providers accept the fee structure , agree not to balance bill more than the approved amount , and can expect prompt payment . Networks come in different flavors . The more common ones are PPO -LRB- preferred provider organization -RRB- , HMO -LRB- health maintenance organization and POS -LRB- point of service -RRB- . 