When Laura Davie's doctor suggested she go to the hospital next door for her first mammogram last year, she went online instead.

Though she ultimately chose the facility her physician recommended, Davie used New Hampshire's HealthCost Web site to compare how much her insurer would pay various hospitals for the procedure.

"I was surprised by the spread, and I was surprised by cost, and I was surprised by how much less the hospital in Massachusetts was compared to the hospitals in my area of New Hampshire," said Davie, who lives in Barrington and works at the University of New Hampshire. "I found it very user friendly and very easy to see the differences."

As employers continue to shift costs to workers through high-deductible health plans, consumers are starting to shop around. Even though Davie's relatively low deductible meant she would pay the same amount anywhere, she wanted to choose the least costly option to send a message to her employer and insurer.

"I really want to see what's going to cost my insurance company less because I'd like eventually to have those savings trickle down to me," she said. "Even though I had a small out-of-pocket expense ... the percent I've had to pay has gone up. It's still very reasonable, but I'm still aware that if I don't shop better, then that's just going to continue to increase over time."

The national health care overhaul legislation passed by the House and Senate would require hospitals to list their standard charges for services, but those prices don't reflect the agreements insurance companies make with hospitals and doctors about what they will pay. New Hampshire's Web site and a similar one in Maine are the only two in the nation that are based on insurance claims paid for procedures on patients in those states.

In the Senate bill, the provision requiring disclosure of hospital charges is listed under a section titled "bringing down the cost of health care coverage," but it's not clear whether making costs more transparent will help achieve that goal. In New Hampshire, studies by the Center for Studying Health System Change and the state insurance department found that the price variation across providers hasn't lessened since the Web site went live in 2007.

New Hampshire Insurance Department health policy analyst Leslie Ludtke said the state never promised costs would drop _ it simply believed consumers had a right to as much information as possible.

"We never made any claims about transparency being the key to bending the cost curve," she said.