YOUR NEXT MASSAGE CouLD BE COVERED by your health insurance. A new plan called “consumer-directed insurance,” offered by several insurers, pays for both conventional and alternative treatments. It covers 100 percent of annual checkups and some preventive procedures like mammograms. It also calls for employers to put money, usually $500 to $2,000, into accounts for each employee to use for whatever therapies they choose, including alternative therapies. When employees deplete their accounts, they pay for health care out-of-pocket until they satisfy a deductible (usually about $500). Then a more comprehensive plan, covering all medical expenses but not alternative treatments, goes into effect.

Consumer-directed plans aren’t for everyone, says Mike Thompson, a New York City-based principal at the business consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. If choosing your doctors and therapies isn’t important to you, your traditional plan has no deductible, or you have a chronic illness, you may be better off not switching.