The whole method, in the order it happens

1. Build the record

Charge as billed, cadence with its own basis, supply period kept separate, membership as a number or a blank, required fees bucketed as confirmed, unresolved or optional, and a source plus check date on every figure.

Before any of that, the rate itself: the charge the provider bills, on the plan it is actually sold on. An introductory offer and a free first month are never used. A term rate or a 'from' price is used only where it is the only rate the provider publishes, and the record then names the term or qualifier instead of presenting it as unconditional. Where a provider prices several formulations differently, each gets its own record, because a cheap single-medicine path is not the price of a combined plan.

2. Derive the monthly figure

Fixed-days: amount × 365.25 ÷ 12 ÷ days. Calendar month: amount. Annual: amount ÷ 12. The known-charge figure adds a separate membership and any annual fee divided by twelve. The all-in figure also adds priced required fees, and is withheld entirely if one required fee has no amount.

3. Score the program

The index runs from 75 to 100, and 75 is less a score than a prerequisite. A program only enters the set once its pricing page could be read, a charge recorded, a source named and a check date stamped, so every listed program holds the same 75 starting position and the remaining 25 points do all the separating. Price level, 7: the lowest all-in monthly equivalent, full marks at or below $75, nothing at or above $400, linear between. Nothing at all applies where the all-in figure is withheld, so a program cannot gain by leaving a cost unpriced. Price completeness, 8: the share of its offers that carry an all-in figure, and the heaviest single weight, because a published all-in figure for every offer sold is the thing this guide measures. Required fees priced, 4: the share of its offers where no required fee is left without an amount. Terms on record, 4: two for stating that there is no minimum term, one for stated cancellation terms, one for a membership stated as a number. A stated lock-in therefore earns nothing: naming a 12-month condition is not the same as publishing a price, and a longer commitment is not a transparency virtue for the buyer. Transparency, 2: one for stating whether the charge varies by dose, one for recording where the program ships. Nothing clinical enters it.

• 95 to 100: Full price disclosure
• 90 to 94.9: Broad price disclosure
• 85 to 89.9: Partial price disclosure
• 80 to 84.9: Narrow price disclosure
• 75 to 79.9: Baseline disclosure only

4. Rank once

Sorted by score, then by monthly equivalent, then by name. Filters on the ranked page run after the ranking and never re-rank. Every other list on the site is alphabetical, and the page says so.