A patient opens her state’s provider directory and starts calling. The first number rings. The second is disconnected. The third no longer takes her plan. Five calls in, she gives up.

Ghost networks are the reality of American healthcare — and when patients call providers listed in public directories, less than half of those calls end in an appointment.

But the providers are there. The appointments are there. A nationwide secret shopper study of 1,000 providers shows what’s actually broken — and what it would take to fix it.