One way is to use an insurance company's health-care network, or to use health maintenance organizations.

State Health Commissioner Len Fishman said that the arrangement between the two health-care networks was needed to prevent Children's Hospital from closing.

Governors fear that in such areas there will not be enough patients to sustain health-care networks if the elderly are excluded.

In many parts of the country, health-care networks have been common for years.

The health-care networks pay doctors less than they usually charge for an office visit, service or procedure.

United Technologies had tried to create its own health-care network by contracting directly with doctors.

Insurers dislike the proposal because they expect to form and operate many of the new health-care networks and they would be defendants in many malpractice lawsuits.

Or, worse for the consumer, large Catholic hospitals might take the lead in building a health-care network in a community and leave certain services unavailable for miles around.

Humana, which operates 84 hospitals and managed-care plans with 1.2 million members, calls itself a health-care network.

It calls for letting the system's three hospitals join health-care networks and negotiate with union staff members.