for anything other than the ER copay until they get the bill in the mail. Then everybody acts like we should've done our research and checked beforehand if the doctor in the ER was in network before getting my wife potentially life saving treatment. In an ER you can't do that because you have no clue who your doctor is going to be. Most people assume that if the hospital is in their insurance network then the physicians contracted with the hospital ER are as well. It's not only an insurance problem. In the end, it's always the patient who ends up suffering further.