Angie's List announced on Wednesday a partnership that will allow its members to access Healthcare Blue Book, a free pricing tool that aids consumers and companies in determining and negotiating fair healthcare prices.

Officials say the service is designed to help patients shop around for the best price before they even agree to treatment and incur those bills.

"So many of us overpay for healthcare for two reasons: medical billing is too complicated to figure out and we're so used to not having any control over price, that we don't even ask about it," said Angie Hicks, founder of Angie's List, a national provider of consumer reviews on local doctors, dentists and service companies. "But you can save hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars with just a little bit of effort and still get high quality care."   

According to respondents of a nationwide online poll in July a majority of the Angie's List members (85 percent) said healthcare providers should publish their prices, and 61 percent said they would shop around if they knew the prices area providers charged. Only 25 percent of respondents said they ask about pricing before agreeing to treatment.

"The Healthcare Blue Book takes the mystery out of healthcare pricing," said Jeffrey Rice, founder of the Healthcare Blue Book. "To get fair prices, patients must look up the accepted, average local prices and then make sure their provider agrees to that price before they get care."

He says consumers can sometimes successfully negotiate prices down once they've been billed. But he cautions that "it is often too late to get a fair price if you try to negotiate after you already received the care at an overpriced provider."

Angie's List members can now access, for free, Healthcare Blue Book's local pricing information on visits ranging from ordinary doctor consults to surgeries. Blue Book will also walk consumers through the negotiation process, and explain what is required to get a fair price.

While Hicks and Rice say the new tool is simple, they realize that consumers may have a difficult time adjusting to this new way of looking at healthcare.  In a May 2010 nationwide member poll, Angie's List found that 57 percent of respondents have never negotiated a medical bill. Nearly 25 percent of them didn't even know they had that option.

Hicks and Rice predict this will change once consumers realize how big the price discrepancies can be.

Healthcare Blue Book, a private and independently owned resource based in Nashville, Tenn., says its blue book fair price is a cash price for a service or product that is paid at the time of treatment. The payment amount is one that many high quality providers accept from insurance companies as payment in full. It is calculated from billing and medical payment data, and is usually the average fee that providers in the area accept as payment from an insurance company for a particular service.

Here are some examples of its "fair prices":

• In Washington, D.C., prices for an MRI of a right knee without contrast at five imaging centers ranged from $400 to $1504. The Healthcare Blue Book fair price: $912.
• An MRI of the abdomen at three Atlanta imaging labs with and without contrast ranged from $1,190 to $2,543, if payment was cash. The Healthcare Blue Book fair price: $836.
• Cost for an MRI of the lumbar spine with contrast ranged from $500 to $2,661 among eight Chicago hospitals and imaging centers. The Healthcare Blue Book fair price: $522.