Insurance Accepted at Cedars-Sinai: Medicare, Medi-Cal, TRICARE

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center accepts a broad range of insurance accepted at the hospital, including most employer-sponsored PPO plans, Original Medicare, a defined list of Medicare Advantage plans, and limited Medi-Cal coverage through specific arrangements. Whether your particular plan is in-network depends on the contract between your insurer and the hospital, and those contracts change often. To confirm, call Cedars-Sinai’s insurance line at 1-800-CEDARS-1, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time.¹

How to Verify Your Coverage

Insurer provider directories are a reasonable starting point and nothing more. Contracts shift mid-year, and a listing showing Cedars-Sinai as in-network today may not reflect a recent termination. The reverse happens too: the hospital may have joined a network that hasn’t been updated online.

Use a two-call check. First, call Cedars-Sinai at 1-800-CEDARS-1 and give the representative your insurance ID number, group number, and the specific service you need.¹ Second, call the member services number on the back of your insurance card and ask the same question. If both confirm in-network status, ask your insurer for a reference number and keep it. That reference becomes your documentation if a billing dispute arises later.

Even when the hospital itself is in-network, individual doctors who treat you there may not be. A surgeon, anesthesiologist, or radiologist working at Cedars-Sinai can bill under a separate contract. Federal surprise billing rules limit your exposure in many of these situations, but confirming both the facility and the treating physician avoids problems in the first place.

Medicare at Cedars-Sinai

Cedars-Sinai participates in Original Medicare, so anyone enrolled in Part A and Part B can receive care there. You still owe the usual deductibles and coinsurance. Because Medigap policies work alongside Original Medicare rather than replacing it, any hospital that accepts Original Medicare also accepts Medigap, and Cedars-Sinai confirms this on its Medicare page.²

The two most common Medigap policies today are Plan G and Plan N. Plan G covers nearly all out-of-pocket costs under Original Medicare, including Part B excess charges. Plan N has lower premiums but leaves you responsible for Part B excess charges and charges small copays for some office and emergency room visits.³ At a high-cost facility, the difference matters.

Medicare Advantage Plans

Medicare Advantage (Part C) plans use provider networks, so Cedars-Sinai is only available if your specific plan has a contract with the hospital. For 2026, Cedars-Sinai participates in Medicare Advantage plans from these insurers:²

Alignment Health Plan — Alignment Health Advantage PPO
Anthem Blue Cross of California — several CareMore HMO-POS plans, including Medicare Advantage, Chronic Care, Kidney Care, and Lung Care options, plus the Full Dual Advantage Aligned HMO D-SNP
UnitedHealthcare — four AARP Medicare Advantage HMO POS plans
SCAN Health Plan — SCAN Affirm, Classic, Connections, Inspired, MyChoice, and Prime (all HMO)

If your Medicare Advantage plan isn’t on this list, Cedars-Sinai is likely out-of-network for you. HMO plans generally require a referral from your primary care physician before you see a specialist. Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage is a separate benefit, so check your plan’s drug formulary independently.⁴

Medi-Cal at Cedars-Sinai

Cedars-Sinai’s Medi-Cal acceptance is narrow. The hospital is in-network only for Molina Medi-Cal members age 21 and older who are enrolled with a primary care physician overseeing care through the internal medicine residency program, and as of the most recent update Cedars-Sinai is not accepting new Medi-Cal members under this arrangement.⁵

Cedars-Sinai also contracts with two Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) plans: Brandman Centers for Senior Care and InnovAGE.⁵ Outside these specific programs, most Medi-Cal managed care plans do not include Cedars-Sinai in their networks. If you have Medi-Cal and need care at Cedars-Sinai, contact your managed care plan about a single-case agreement or out-of-network authorization for services not available through your plan’s network.

Employer-Sponsored and Marketplace Plans

Most patients at Cedars-Sinai have coverage through an employer. Large national insurers such as Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, and UnitedHealthcare commonly include Cedars-Sinai in their employer-sponsored PPO networks. “Same insurance company” does not mean “same network,” though. A Cigna PPO through one employer might include Cedars-Sinai while a Cigna HMO through another employer does not.

PPO plans offer the most flexibility because they cover out-of-network care at reduced rates rather than excluding it. HMO plans typically lock you into a defined network and require referrals. Exclusive Provider Organization (EPO) plans sit between: no referrals, but zero coverage outside the network. Your Summary of Benefits and Coverage document, which every plan must provide, spells out network restrictions, copays, deductibles, and out-of-pocket limits.⁶

The same pattern holds for individual coverage purchased through Covered California, the federal marketplace, or directly from an insurer. PPO products are most likely to include Cedars-Sinai; HMO and EPO products from smaller regional insurers often exclude it. Many individual plans also require prior authorization for hospital admissions, surgeries, imaging, and expensive medications. If you skip authorization, the insurer can deny the claim entirely, leaving you with the full bill. Always call before scheduling a non-emergency procedure to confirm both network status and authorization.

Marketplace plans are organized into Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum tiers that determine how costs are split between you and the insurer, with Silver plans offering additional cost-sharing reductions for lower incomes.⁷ Regardless of the tier, the 2026 out-of-pocket maximum is $10,600 for an individual and $21,200 for a family, after which the plan covers 100% of in-network costs for the rest of the year.⁸

Traveling From Out of State

HMO plans are generally limited to the state or county where you enrolled, covering only emergency care outside that area. PPO plans are more accommodating for out-of-state care because they maintain broader national networks, though cost-sharing may be higher for out-of-area providers. If you’re planning a trip to Cedars-Sinai from another state, verify the hospital is in your plan’s network before you travel.

TRICARE and Workers’ Compensation

TRICARE Select and most premium-based plans let you visit any TRICARE-authorized provider without a referral; TRICARE Prime typically requires a referral from your primary care manager for non-emergency care at a civilian facility.⁹ Contact your regional TRICARE contractor to confirm Cedars-Sinai is authorized under your specific plan before scheduling.

If your injury or illness is work-related, California workers’ compensation requires your employer’s insurance to pay for medically necessary treatment, and the claims administrator handles the bills. You generally do not choose your own hospital for the first 30 days unless you predesignated a personal physician before the injury, but your employer’s medical provider network may include Cedars-Sinai for follow-up care.

Emergency Care and Surprise Billing

Federal law guarantees emergency treatment at Cedars-Sinai regardless of your insurance or ability to pay. Under EMTALA, any hospital with an emergency department must provide a medical screening exam to anyone who arrives requesting care and must stabilize an emergency medical condition before discharge or transfer. The hospital cannot delay screening or treatment to ask about insurance or payment.¹⁰ EMTALA ensures you get treated; it does not make the care free. A bill still follows.

The federal No Surprises Act, in effect since January 2022, protects you when out-of-network providers treat you at an in-network facility. If you schedule surgery at Cedars-Sinai, confirm the hospital is in-network, and then the anesthesiologist on the day of your procedure turns out to be out-of-network, your cost-sharing is limited to what you would have paid in-network, and those payments count toward your in-network deductible and out-of-pocket maximum. The law prohibits balance billing for ancillary services like anesthesiology, pathology, radiology, and neonatology provided by out-of-network doctors at in-network hospitals, and providers of those services cannot ask you to waive the protections.¹¹ For emergency services, your insurer must treat out-of-network emergency care as if it were in-network for cost-sharing purposes, whether you chose the emergency room or arrived by ambulance.¹²

If you are uninsured or paying out of pocket, Cedars-Sinai must provide a good faith estimate of expected charges before scheduled services, covering charges from all providers reasonably expected to be involved. If the final bill exceeds the estimate by $400 or more, you have the right to dispute the charges through a federal process.¹³

Financial Assistance and Charity Care

Cedars-Sinai is a nonprofit hospital, which obligates it under federal tax law to maintain a financial assistance policy and inform patients about it before pursuing aggressive collections.¹⁴ Under the hospital’s policy, patients with household income at or below 400% of the federal poverty level qualify for full charity care, and patients with income between 401% and 600% qualify for discounted payment rates on a sliding scale.¹⁵ For a family of four in 2026, 400% of the federal poverty level is roughly $124,800 in annual income, so the thresholds are broader than many people assume.

To apply, contact Patient Financial Services at 323-866-8600. Cedars-Sinai also offers payment plans for patients who don’t qualify for financial assistance but need to spread costs over time.¹⁶ If you’ve already received a large bill and didn’t know about these options, apply anyway. Nonprofit hospitals must accept financial assistance applications for a defined period after care is provided.

Why You May Get More Than One Bill

Hospital billing separates charges into facility fees, which cover the building, equipment, nursing staff, and operations, and professional fees, which cover the physician’s services. These may arrive as one combined bill or as separate bills from different entities. Your plan may cover the facility at one rate and the physician at another, and some plans cover a hospital as in-network for general services while excluding certain specialty departments like transplant or oncology from the same network arrangement. When you call to confirm coverage, ask separately about facility and professional fee coverage for the specific service you need.

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Cedars-Sinai. Insurance
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Cedars-Sinai. Insurance Coverage for Medicare Participants
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Medicare. Compare Medigap Plan Benefits
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Medicare. What’s Medicare Drug Coverage (Part D)?
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Cedars-Sinai. Insurance Coverage for Medi-Cal Participants
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HealthCare.gov. Summary of Benefits and Coverage
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HealthCare.gov. Health Plan Categories: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum
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HealthCare.gov. Out-of-Pocket Maximum/Limit – Glossary
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TRICARE. Getting Care
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 1395dd – Examination and Treatment for Emergency Medical Conditions and Women in Labor
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U.S. Department of Labor. Avoid Surprise Healthcare Expenses: How the No Surprises Act Can Protect You
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Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. No Surprises Act Overview of Key Consumer Protections
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eCFR. 45 CFR 149.610 – Requirements for Provision of Good Faith Estimates of Expected Charges for Uninsured (or Self-Pay) Individuals
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eCFR. 26 CFR 1.501(r)-4 – Financial Assistance Policy and Emergency Medical Care Policy
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Cedars-Sinai. Financial Assistance Policy
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Cedars-Sinai. Patient Financial Assistance Program