Methodology 2026.1
How we score programs
Every score on this site comes from the same seven dimensions with the same weights. Weights published 2026-08-27 as methodology 2026.1. Cycle 2026.2 is a review vintage, not a weight change: new scores keep the version they were reviewed under, and previously published 2026.1 scores stay as they were.
Health sharing is not insurance. Programs are not legally required to pay medical expenses and do not have to provide Affordable Care Act protections. NAIC consumer guidance.
Health Sharing Report has a commercial relationship with MPB Health. We may be compensated when a reader requests an MPB quote. That relationship does not change editorial scores. How we make money.
The weights
| Dimension | Weight |
|---|---|
| Sharing scope and material limitations | 20 |
| Cost and member responsibility | 20 |
| Transparency and guideline clarity | 20 |
| Member support and advocacy | 15 |
| Provider access and included services | 10 |
| Administration and operating history | 10 |
| Evidence freshness and completeness | 5 |
| Total | 100 |
Evidence rules
A fact enters the comparison catalog only with a source we can point a reader to: the program’s own current guideline document, its published pricing or fee schedule, a regulator filing, or a state statute. Each fact carries an effective date and the date we last verified it.
Where a program does not publish something, we record that it is unpublished rather than estimating. An unpublished fact costs a program points on the transparency and evidence dimensions — it never becomes a guess presented as a number.
Re-review cadence
Programs are re-reviewed at least quarterly, and immediately when a program publishes a guideline revision or a pricing change we can source. A score whose evidence has gone stale loses points on evidence freshness until it is re-verified.
What belongs in the directory
There is no official complete list of health-care sharing ministries. HHS historically certified more than a hundred names for the old individual-mandate exemption; most are closed church plans or inactive. This site does not pretend to catalog them.
A program enters the directory when at least one of these is true:
- It is nationally marketed to households shopping a share.
- CMS has named it among the large ministries that meet the federal HCSM definition.
- It is a white-label or bundle of a program we already track — then it is an alias, not a second score.
- It folded or drew enforcement and a reader would still search for the name — then it is an archive row, not a rank.
A directory row can exist without a score. Cycle 2026.2 scored nationally marketed independents from their current public guidelines, using the same 2026.1 weights. Christian Mutual Med-Aid remains unscored because the full guideline booklet is not published as a readable public PDF. Absence of a number is not a rank of zero.
Featured placement is not a score
MPB Health is our featured commercial partner. That relationship buys placement and a labeled recommendation. It does not buy a dimension score, a category award, or a rank position. Competitors win categories on this site, and where a competitor outscores the featured partner we say so on the page rather than reordering the list.
The people who set scores do not negotiate the commercial relationship. If that ever stops being true, this page changes first.
What the score cannot tell you
- Scores use publicly available guidelines, regulator notices, and program-published materials. We do not audit internal reserves or unpublished exception logs.
- Monthly share amounts change with household, age, IUA, and program version. We do not treat a single dollar figure as a quote.
- Member-support scores do not use fabricated reviews. They reflect documented channels and known public constraints.
- featured_position is a commercial placement. It is stored separately from editorial_score and never rewrites weights.
- The directory includes nationally marketed programs, CMS-named ministries, aliases of programs we already track, and a closed-program archive. It is not a census of every HHS-certified HCSM.
- A missing score means the current guideline has not been reviewed under this methodology, or is not published as a readable public document. It is not a rank of zero.
- Cycle 2026.2 used the same 2026.1 weights. It scored additional independents from their current public guidelines. It did not re-open the six 2026.1 scores.
Corrections
If a fact here is wrong, we want to fix it in public. See the corrections policy.