Preferred Provider Organization

A Preferred Provider Organization, or PPO, is an organization that pays for health care on behalf of individuals and groups, but requires individuals to pay more of their own health care costs if they see physicians or visit hospitals that are not in the preferred network, a specific group of physicians and hospitals with which the PPO has negotiated. Under the University of Pennsylvania’s PPO for employees, individuals have to pay $5 to $10 more if they visit doctors in the PPO’s less-preferred network, and substantially more if they visit doctors that are out of network.