Insurers arguethe discounted or free services will save them in the long-run byboosting patient health and catching medical issues before theybecome more serious and more costly. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Insurers are increasingly providing the medical services thatthey cover. They are encouraging members to seek health care atclinics, surgery centers and pharmacies that they own.

Most major insurance companies are offering health plans thatare built around their own providers. Offering anarrow network plan that only covers an insurer's own providers isone way to offer low-price plans.

Aetna, which last year was purchased by CVS, now offers many of itsmembers free visits to CVS clinics. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texasrecently began opening its own clinics and unveiled a new healthplan that allows members to visit them for free.

Related: Tension between providers and payers persists,hampering care

UnitedHealthCare offers a narrow network plan where patients receive allof their primary care services from clinics owned by the company'ssubsidiary, Optum. The company says that plan costs about 20percent less than typical plans.

Insurers argue the discounted or free services will save them inthe long-run by boosting patient health and catching medical issuesbefore they become more serious and more costly.

Other medical providers are of course less than thrilled at theprospect of increased competition. Perhaps more worrisome thaninsurers setting up their own clinics is them buying up establishedpractices. Those practices include doctors who may havetraditionally referred patients to other specialists or hospitalsbut may now be directed by their corporate parent company to sendthem elsewhere.

At this point, however, no insurers are yet close to owning allof the medical services that its members need.

"Health plans want to exert pressure on provider systems, butthey don't have a product without providers in it, so they'removing carefully," Sam Glick, a health care consultant from OliverWyman, tells the Wall Street Journal.

While the trend towards narrow networks is undeniable for bothindividual and employer plans, so far it looks like employers aremore hesitant to embrace plans that only cover certain servicesthrough a provider owned by the insurer. Individuals shopping forplans on the Obamacare marketplace are more prone to pick thecheapest plan available.

Read more:

• Insurers entering physician practice buyingfrenzy
• UnitedHealth buying up doctors to defend againstcompetition
• Employers increasingly cutting insurers out ofhealth system contracts