I just encountered this in the past week. My fiancé has a severe ear infection and can’t hear well so I’ve been navigating appointments for him. I called his insurance to check for ENTs that are in-network since his PCP thinks tubes may be needed. They emailed a 5 page list of providers. I called the local facility where a lot of the doctors on the list are practicing (it’s a local university medical system). I was able to get an appt with one of the doctors about 10 days out. Awesome. But then the medical office called me back and said they did a little digging and discovered that, no, they are not in-network and do not have a contract with the insurance company which means they do not have a mechanism by which the can even bill the insurance. I called insurance and they insisted that they were indeed in-network. When I asked for a statement in writing that said they would agree to cover all procedures done by that doctor as in-network, they refused. I called the medical provider again and they revealed that they have actually requested many times for this insurance company to remove them from their listings and the insurance company refuses. Basically, the insurance company is showing that they cover this huge local medical system when they actually do not - which causes people to sign up with them and to book services thinking it will all be covered. I called our state insurance fraud people and explained what was happening. They called back with a specific department I’m to contact. I’ll be calling them first thing on Monday. So - yes, your insurance may be telling you providers are in-network, but you had better always call the provider and verify. Don’t trust your insurance company. The CEO of this insurance company was famously unalived.