A growing number of insurers and state agencies are offering online tools that allow consumers to evaluate health care costs, The Wall Street Journal reports. Aetna started the trend last year with a pilot project that is now expanding. A number of major insurers including Cigna, UnitedHealth and Humana have followed suit, offering tools that allow consumers to compare costs for common procedures at hospitals and physician practices.

Early adopters are finding that the usefulness of the services varies. The newspaper interviews one intrepid healthcare shopper who chose the hospital where he would have knee replacement surgery by selecting the cheapest available option using Humana's Web-based system. The bad news? When his bill arrived, it was $3,000 higher than he'd expected, making his operation a little less of a bargain than he'd imagined.

- see this article [1] from The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)