Methodology
Every figure on this site is one of two things: sourced from a named dataset or piece of reporting, or modeled by us from stated inputs. This page says which is which.
If a number here cannot be traced to a source or a method, it is a bug. Point it out and it gets corrected or removed.
Published by someone else. We report the number and link to it.
| Figure | What it covers | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Cost barriers to care | Share of adults delaying or skipping care, rationing prescriptions, and worrying about medical bills. | National Health Interview Survey via the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, 2024 data; KFF Health Tracking Poll, January 2026. |
| Medical crowdfunding outcomes | Goal-completion and zero-donation rates across 437,596 US medical fundraisers, 2016 to 2020. | Kenworthy and Igra, American Journal of Public Health, 2022. |
| Health care debt | Share of US adults carrying debt from medical or dental bills. | KFF Health Care Debt Survey, 2022. |
| Individual cases | Denials, reversals, dates, and dollar figures in the case write-ups. | Named reporting from KFF Health News, NBC News, ABC7, Scripps News, and USA Today. Every case links to its original article. |
| Fundraiser totals | Amount raised and goal for each open campaign, refreshed hourly. | Read directly from the public fundraiser page the organizer published. |
| Commercial prices versus Medicare | State-level ratios of commercial allowed amounts to Medicare rates. | RAND Hospital Price Transparency Study methodology. |
Computed by us from stated inputs. Useful for comparison between options. Not a quote, not a bill, and not clinical advice.
Cash, commercial, Medicare, and chargemaster figures on the pricing pages are computed from published input costs, wage indices, and state price ratios. They are reference estimates for comparison, not quotes from a specific hospital.
The denial pathway tables are a composite built from documented industry patterns. They illustrate mechanism and scale. They are not any single insurer's denial log.
Per-country treatment and prevention descriptions are composed from health-system archetypes and disease pathways. They describe how a system typically approaches a condition. They are not clinical guidelines and must not be used for treatment decisions.
US figures are anchored to OpenSecrets. Other countries are estimated from thinner disclosure regimes. These describe legal lobbying spend, not proven corruption.
Cases come from fundraisers people posted themselves or interviews they gave to reporters. We do not search private records, and we do not add medical detail beyond what the person chose to share.
Each case links to the original reporting and, where the fundraiser is still open, to the fundraiser itself. Donations go to the family directly. We do not collect them.
If you are featured here and want your case removed or corrected, it will be done on request.
The pricing methodology for individual procedures is documented on the evidence pages, where each input is listed with its source.