Source and dates
Keep the original source, its stated effective or update date when supplied, and our collection date distinct. An unknown source date stays unknown. Preserve dated observations rather than silently replacing price history.
Our evidence standards
A useful price comes with its context.
Our labwork, DEXA and peptide tools compare evidence about prices. A listing is not a confirmed appointment, endorsement or guarantee of the final bill.
Follow the evidence.
Price and inclusions
Separate the advertised service price from required collection, clinician, shipping and facility fees. Label introductory offers, memberships, bundles and eligibility conditions. Unknown fees are not zero.
Evidence strength
Published prices, phone quotes, written confirmations and modeled estimates are different evidence types. Source review does not mean we completed checkout or verified availability with the provider.
Compare the same service.
- Labwork: distinguish retail offers, hospital cash charges, provider acquisition quotes, reimbursement and processing-cost models. Match specimen, assay method, panel contents and purchasing terms; a billing code alone is insufficient.
- DEXA: separate body composition from diagnostic bone-density services, individual scans from packages, and operator evidence from directory leads.
- Peptides: distinguish molecule, formulation, route, amount, channel and included care. A price per milligram does not establish equivalence, safety or verified seller margin.
Read the denominator.
Samples describe the records we have, not the whole market. Show the count and range definition with each benchmark. Do not mix hospital prices into retail averages, count a panel once per marker, or average state medians to produce a national figure.
The hospital lab explorer uses SelfPayRates’ lowest eligible outpatient price per hospital and billing code. National ranges are P10–P90; state ranges are minimum–maximum. Local summaries below three hospitals are withheld. Facility counts can include correlated prices from the same health system.
Retail medians use the latest dated observation for each seller and test family, then that seller’s lowest observed offer on that date. Counts show both source offers and distinct sellers; these are selected offers, not a representative market survey.
Contribute evidence. Keep rankings independent.
Our lab quote and peptide pricing forms let contributors supply prices and terms for review. Contributions are not automatically verified facts. Buying a service from us does not buy a higher position in a price comparison.
Before sharing evidence, remove patient identifiers and unrelated sensitive information. Read the privacy policy and contribution terms for how submissions are handled. The hospital benchmark quote calculator runs locally in your browser.
Attribution and coverage
Hospital laboratory aggregates are adapted from SelfPayRates under CC BY 4.0. Our October 12, 2026 source snapshot contains 145 national and 7,535 state/territory aggregates. It does not contain every individual hospital price. We preserve source values and add filtering, sparse-sample suppression and code cross-references.
These standards guide new imports and updates; they do not certify that every historical record already has complete dates, fees or verification. Missing fields and unresolved matches stay visible.