The honest answer is that it depends on the individual plan rather than the carrier, and it can change during the year. Here is what is actually knowable, and how to settle it for your own plan in about ten minutes.
Where Licking Memorial operates
Licking Memorial serves Newark and Licking County, Ohio, immediately east of the Columbus metro. These are the carriers filing marketplace plans in that market for 2026, taken from the CMS landscape file:
| Market | Carriers filing | Counties with a PPO |
|---|---|---|
| Newark and Licking County, Ohio | 6 | 0 of 4 |
No PPO is sold on the marketplace in any of these counties. Every plan is an HMO, EPO or POS — so if Licking Memorial is not in the network attached to the plan you buy, there is no out-of-network benefit to fall back on. That makes the network question decisive rather than a detail.
What is actually filed near Licking Memorial
Plan supply and price vary county by county, and that variation is the part a price-sorted plan list hides:
| County | Plans filed | PPO | Benchmark Silver, age 40 | Family of 4, per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Licking County | 97 | No | $527.69 | $1,687 |
| Franklin County | 130 | No | $527.69 | $1,687 |
| Knox County | 44 | No | $658.16 | $2,104 |
| Muskingum County | 81 | No | $566.12 | $1,810 |
Every plan filed in these counties for 2026 is a restricted network — HMO, EPO or POS. There is no PPO to fall back on, so if Licking Memorial is outside the network attached to the plan you buy, there is no out-of-network benefit. Which plan you pick decides whether your hospital is covered.
Want cheaper coverage? Want better coverage? Not happy with what you have now? Same next step for all three — tell me your ZIP and the doctors you need covered, and I will check Licking Memorial against every plan filed in your county.
PY2026 CMS filed data. Benchmark Silver is for a 40-year-old; the family figure is a four-person household before any premium tax credit. Your own premium depends on age, household, tobacco use and the credit you qualify for. Verify at enrollment.
“Is it affiliated with a bigger system?”
This is what people actually search, usually assuming the answer settles their coverage. It does not, and that is the more useful thing to know.
Affiliation and network participation are separate questions. Two systems can share a corporate parent and still contract with insurers separately. An independent system can participate in the same networks as its larger neighbours. Ownership tells you who runs the hospital; it tells you nothing reliable about whether your plan covers it. Central Ohio affiliations have also changed repeatedly, so any answer has a shelf life — while the coverage question has to be checked against your specific plan either way.
Columbus prices, a smaller shelf
Licking County sits in the same rating area as Franklin County, so the benchmark premium is identical — but the number of plans is not. Licking has 97 against Franklin’s 130. You pay Columbus prices with fewer options, which bites when you are filtering by network rather than by price, because that filter removes plans fast.
Why nobody can give you a straight list
A carrier is not a network. The same insurer sells a broad-network plan and a narrow one side by side in the same county, and Licking Memorial can be contracted with one and not the other. A page telling you “Licking Memorial accepts Carrier X” is describing one plan on one date, and usually states neither.
Contracts are renegotiated mid-year too. A system and an insurer can part company in March, and patients usually find out from a letter afterwards. That is why the only answer worth having is one dated to when it was checked.
How to settle it for your plan
- Get the exact plan name and network name from your marketplace listing, not just the carrier.
- Search that network in the carrier’s own provider directory, set to the correct plan year.
- Call Licking Memorial billing and read them the plan name. They will tell you whether they are contracted. This is the step that actually decides it.
- Check your individual physicians separately — anaesthesia, radiology and pathology are frequently contracted apart from the hospital.
- Note the date and who confirmed it.
Have me check Licking Memorial against your plans
Put in your ZIP and I will check Licking Memorial against every plan filed in your county, and tell you the date I checked.