Reuters Money

If you’ve turned on your TV in the past few months, you’ve likely seen an ad for health insurer Aetna, featuring a lively young man named Joe and his playful dog. The ad explains that Aetna members like Joe can now use the company’s Web site to compare the out-of-pocket costs for medical procedures before they come out of their pockets. “It’s awesome,” Joe says. The ad closes by urging viewers to “get a smarter health plan.”

Well, regardless of which insurance company provides your health benefits, chances are your plan has gotten a lot smarter over the past few months.

Treatment cost calculators such as Aetna’s are now available on the websites of most major insurance plans. And if you have any out-of-pocket burden beyond your monthly premium–such as a health savings account or health reimbursement account with a high deductible–these calculators should become as vital a part of your health routine as getting your annual checkup.

A tour of three major insurers’ treatment cost calculators shows just how much you can save by shopping around for your health care. Aetna, United Healthcare and Cigna are three of the pioneers in this area. And though their calculators differ slightly in look and functionality, they all provide eye-opening data that can help patients find the best-quality care at the most reasonable prices.

Often the cost differences can be shocking. Aetna senior product manager Wayne Gowdy demonstrated that by pretending he needed an MRI of an injured back. With a few clicks on Aetna’s payment estimator, he pulled up a list of MRI providers within a 15-mile radius of his home, then checked off seven to compare.

He discovered that he could get the MRI for about $600 at a local radiology center, vs. $1,200 at a hospital. The estimates are based on historical claims data and tailored to each member’s particular co-payment and deductible. And you can click on each entry to see a detailed breakdown of costs.

Even the expenses for more minor procedures can vary widely among providers. Gowdy searched for a throat culture and discovered a $30 spread amongst doctors near his home. “If I were still in my deductible and I could save $30, I’d do it,” Gowdy says.

United offers similar capabilities through its OptumHealth division. United’s data is based on actual fees for physician services, and zip code averages for everything else.

On Dec. 10, United began rolling out an enhanced cost calculator–available to patients in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Dallas, Milwaukee and Fairfield, Ct.–that uses actual claims data to pull up costs for specialty physicians, radiology, laboratory, and inpatient and outpatient services, as well.

Karl Ulfers, a vice president at Optum, says the rollout has been gradual because some physicians and hospitals are uncomfortable with the amount of transparency the tool provides. “We want to make sure we have buy-in from the provider community,” Ulfers says.

As United expands and improves the cost calculator in 2011, it will also add quality and efficiency data for each provider, Ulfers says. “We’re focused on trying to improve the experience [for patients], rather than having it be just about cost,” he says.

Cigna’s treatment-expense estimator also pulls up cost ranges based on historical claims data, though it fills in any holes in that data with regional averages. Cigna developed its calculator with the help of Thomson Reuters, which also owns Reuters.com.

Similar to its rivals’ cost calculators, Cigna’s tool pulls in real-time data based on the parameters of the individual member’s plan. The company has been working towards making the tool as user-friendly as possible, allowing patients to search by symptom, for example, and simplifying the language used in each line item of an estimated bill.

Still, says Cigna’s product director Marie Jinks, driving traffic to the cost calculator has been a challenge. “The vast majority of patients do not come to our website for cost and quality information,” Jinks says. “A lot of people don’t understand it’s there.”

So if you’re looking for new ways to cut your health care bill, log onto your insurance company’s website and familiarize yourself with its treatment cost calculator. As more cost data comes to light over time, your health plan will continue to get smarter — and so will you.

This article is the first in a two-part series. Next up: Why are some healthcare facilities so much more expensive than others?