HOW WE HEALTH-CARE NOW

The whooooolllllle landscape has changed. Finally— finally-here is your everything guide to all the new services you keep hearing about, and how to game the system to get the care you need.

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THE GOOD NEWS: When something hurts, you have more options than ever before.

THE BAD NEWS: You have more options than ever before, and they all cost different amounts of money, and no one tells you about half of them, and some are covered and some aren't, and some are bad and some are good, and sometimes you receive a giant bill but sometimes you don't, and some options are new and high-tech but it's hard to know if that's good (in some cases!) or bad (in other cases), and nothing about any of this-the way we get better, get cured, get covered, get reimbursed, or get an appointment in the first place-is how it used to be. Tragically, the level of frustration has boiled over to where some insurance CEOs are under mortal threat. And after the confusion of the past, say, 10 years, the next 4 years are sure to bring even more. Any questions? Yes, we thought so.

Help, I Need A Doctor...

It seems harder than ever to find a PCP. What's the best way, and what should be my criteria?

▸▸ In this age of urgent-care facilities, concierge medicine, ERs, and telehealth, some people wonder if they even need a PCP. You do! And finding one remains oddly similar to finding an auto mechanic or house painter: Ask around. "Ask someone you trust for a referral to someone they trust," says Kisha Davis, MD, MPH, a family physician and the health officer for Montgomery County, Maryland. Ask multiple people and gather multiple names-because some doctors won't accept your insurance (not the end of the world; see "Why Do So Many Doctors No Longer Take Insurance?" on page 90) or take on new patients.