by Laura Conaway

Health Care Bluebook describes itself as a guide to the going rate for specific health care services in various parts of the country. Insurance companies have been complaining about big, arbitrary-seeming bills from medical providers.

With Health Care Bluebook, just type in the service you're looking for and your ZIP code, and the "private and independently owned resource" spits out a price. Consumerist took it for a spin:

I tried "nasal endoscopy," a procedure that my New York doctor recently billed about $400 for. According to the Blue Book, the standard cost for this in my area is $386. So my doctor's price is about right. If my doctor charged $800, however, I could print out the estimate on the Blue Book site and use it to haggle with my doctor.

I'm interested in the results you folks get. What's an appendectomy going for in your neighborhood?