Methodology · current September 2026
How these directories are built, and where the numbers come from.
EmbedCare publishes 12 vendor directories and a set of operator benchmarks. Every one of them carries its own disclosure box, because a rule you have to leave the page to find is a rule nobody reads. This page states the standing rules once, so that a row quoted somewhere else can be traced back to how it was made.
The short version: nothing is ranked, no vendor pays to appear, inclusion implies no relationship with EmbedCare in either direction, every fact is labeled by where it came from, and every page carries the date it was checked. We are an interested party in most of these categories and say so on each page.
How is a directory row actually built?
From the vendor's own public pages first, quoted in their framing rather than ours, plus the primary-source record where one exists: regulator lists, filings, accreditation registries, and company announcements. Where a fact comes from a vendor's marketing, it is labeled as the vendor's claim, not as established fact. Where it comes from a regulator, it is dated and stated neutrally — a warning letter or a lawsuit is an event, not a verdict.
Nothing is ranked.There is no score, no “best” ordering, and no editorial first place, because the honest version of that ranking would depend on facts about your business that a directory cannot know. Several vendors in these categories publish listicles ranking themselves first; where that is relevant to reading their claims, the directory says so in their row.
No vendor pays to appear. There is no paid placement, no sponsored row, and no affiliate arrangement behind inclusion or ordering. Inclusion implies no relationship with EmbedCare in either direction, and neither does exclusion.
What does the verification date mean?
Every directory carries a date at the top. It means the vendor claims on that page were checked against the vendor's own live pages on that date, by a person reading them. It does not mean the vendor has not changed since, and vendor pages change on their own schedules — pricing and coverage claims especially. The date is there so you can judge how stale a row might be, which is why it is a date and not the word “current.”
When a claim common in third-party roundups fails that check, the correction goes in the row rather than being quietly dropped, because the wrong version is the one already circulating.
What does a blank cell mean?
It means the claim was not on the pages we could reach on the verification date. It does not mean the vendor lacks the capability, does not offer the service, or would decline the business. Plenty of real capabilities are simply not published, and a directory that treats silence as a negative finding will libel the quiet vendors and flatter the loud ones. If a blank cell is wrong, the fix is one email and we will date the correction.
Where do the benchmark numbers come from?
Named publishers, with dates, or they do not appear. Rigorous public benchmarks barely exist for cash-pay direct-to-consumer telehealth, so the reference curves we do carry come from insured populations and are labeled that way: use the shape, not the level. Where the category has no honest number, the page says so and refuses to invent one, which is why some obvious-looking cells are empty.
Worked financial models are labeled as illustrative arithmetic, not projections. They exist to show which variables move the outcome, and the inputs are yours to replace. Any figure attributed to us that has no publisher beside it did not come from us. The KPI reference defines every metric so that a number you compute is comparable to a number we quote.
What is our conflict of interest?
Real, and specific to each page. EmbedCare operates a white-label telehealth platform, so in several of these categories we either compete with the vendors listed or sell something adjacent to what they sell. Each directory names its own version of that conflict at the top rather than gesturing at neutrality we do not have. Read these as an interested party's carefully sourced notes and verify anything decision-critical against the vendor directly.
The directories are also not our supply list. We do not disclose our own vendor relationships in them, in either direction, so you cannot read a partnership into a row's presence or its absence.
How do I get something corrected?
Email anthony@embedcare.com with the page and the claim. Corrections from the vendor being described are welcome and are the fastest way to fix a blank cell; we will check the claim against your published pages and date the change. If you would rather not appear at all, say so and we will remove the row.