What is a Ghost Network?

You finally decide to get the help you need.

Maybe it’s a therapist after a car accident rattled more than your car, or a specialist for an injury that isn’t healing on its own. You pull up your insurance company’s provider directory. There are dozens of options — more than enough, it seems. You pick a few names and start making calls.

The first number is disconnected.

The second doctor retired two years ago.

The third is only seeing existing patients.

The fourth never calls back.

This isn’t bad luck. It has a name: ghost network.

What is a ghost network?

A ghost network is a provider directory published by a health insurance company that lists doctors, therapists, or other medical professionals who are not actually available to patients — at least not in the way the directory implies.

These listings may be outdated, inaccurate, or outright false. A provider might be listed as in-network when they no longer accept that insurance. Their address or phone number may be wrong. They may have retired, moved, or stopped taking new patients years ago.

The term comes from the idea that these providers are essentially, well, ghosts. They appear to exist in your network, but when you try to reach them, there’s nothing there.

Ghost networks aren’t a fringe problem. A 2023 study published in JAMA found inconsistencies in 81 percent of physician directory entries across five major insurers, such as wrong addresses, incorrect specialties, or outdated contact information.

Why do ghost networks exist?

The cynical answer is that ghost networks exist because larger networks look better on paper. 

When an insurance company lists hundreds of in-network providers, it attracts more members during open enrollment. 

More members means more premiums. 

And if many of those providers aren’t actually accessible, the insurer ends up paying out fewer claims.

There’s also a less sinister problem: insurance companies and providers often point fingers at each other over who is responsible for keeping directories accurate. Insurers say providers must alert them when their information changes. Providers say it’s nearly impossible to get themselves removed from a network once they’re listed.

The result is directories that can go years without meaningful updates — while patients pay monthly premiums assuming those networks are real.

Real-world examples of ghost networks

Ghost networks have been documented repeatedly in investigations and lawsuits.

According to an NBC News report, the state attorney general’s office in New York called nearly 400 mental health providers listed as in-network by a major state health plan and found that 86 percent were ghost entries. For EmblemHealth, the largest health plan available to New York City government workers at the time, the share was 82 percent. 

One plaintiff in a related class action lawsuit, Val Calderon, was a New York City special education teacher who tried to find a mental health provider through EmblemHealth after suffering a miscarriage and experiencing suicidal thoughts. She spent hours searching and made more than a dozen calls. Nearly every provider she found was either out of network or not accepting new patients.

Calderon eventually paid $160 per week out of pocket for therapy.

EmblemHealth later agreed to pay $2.5 million in penalties to the state of New York and committed to compensating members who were forced to pay out of network.

Cases like this are playing out across the country. At least seven class action lawsuits related to inaccurate provider listings have been filed in just the last two years.

What recourse do patients have?

If you’ve paid out-of-pocket, delayed care, or suffered harm because of a ghost network, you may have legal options. Here’s what they look like:

Ghost networks and insurance bad faith

Ghost networks don’t just cause frustration — in legal terms, they can constitute insurance bad faith.

Bad faith occurs when an insurer fails to uphold its obligations to policyholders — not just by denying a claim, but by misrepresenting what coverage actually provides. When an insurer publishes a directory it knows (or should know) to be inaccurate, and patients are harmed as a result, that can cross the line from negligence into bad faith.

In personal injury contexts, this matters for two reasons.

First, if you were injured and struggled to access in-network care because of a ghost network — delaying treatment or racking up unexpected out-of-pocket costs — those costs may be recoverable as part of your broader claim.

Second, if an insurer is handling your personal injury settlement and acting in bad faith more broadly (dragging out claims, denying reasonable requests, misrepresenting your benefits), a ghost network may be one piece of a larger pattern worth documenting.

Bad faith insurance claims can allow you to recover more than just your out-of-pocket losses. In some states, you may be entitled to damages beyond the original policy value.

A ghost network is a broken promise from your insurance company. You pay premiums every month in exchange for access to care. When that access turns out to be imaginary, you have every right to push back.