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Say you’re about to go in for a health-care procedure — elective surgery, or something like that — and you want to know how much it’ll cost you. It won’t be easy to figure out, but a new generation of Web sites can help you ballpark it. A quick guide is below; for more on how to use these sites, see my most recent WSJ column.

Independent sites

Examples: Healthcare Blue Book; change:healthcare; Vimo; New Choice Health; OutofPocket (directs user to various pricing sites)

Pros: Generally free, often easy to navigate and national in scope, with a variety of different approaches.

Cons: Reliability of the pricing numbers not always clear; some don’t have data for specific doctors or hospitals

State sites

Examples: New Hampshire; Maine; Oregon; Massachusetts

Pros: Some, such as Maine and New Hampshire’s, draw on insurance claims databases for reliable price data from multiple health plans.

Cons: Few states have such databases now, though the numbers are growing. Among those setting them up are Utah, Vermont and Tennessee.

Health-care provider sites

Examples: PriceDoc (includes multiple providers); Dr. James Knight; Surgery Center of Oklahoma; Park Nicollet Health Services; Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center; Alegent Health; Spectrum Health

Pros: The best actually can give consumers a realistic sense of what they might pay, and let them follow up by phone or in-person.

Cons: Some only provide list charges, the “sticker prices” that are higher than what insurers typically pay. Also, partly because prices vary significantly by geography, provider pricing is hard to generalize.

Insurance company sites

Examples (passwords required): Aetna; Anthem; Cigna; Humana; UnitedHealth

Pros: Reliable, often provider-specific pricing information; sometimes able to figure a consumer’s out-of-pocket costs

Cons: Typically only open to the insurer’s customers; sometimes leave out certain health-care providers and generally only provide price ranges.

Medicare sites

American Medical Association’s calculator for Medicare doctor payments; federal government’s Medicare payment rates

Pros: Reliable and helpful as a baseline

Cons: Not easy to navigate or understand for consumers

Photo: iStockphoto

See more here: 
23 Web Sites to Help You Figure Out Health Care Prices