The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, whose member organizations cover about one in three Americans, for the first time on Wednesday released prices that its insurers are charged by health-care providers. The group's report cover prices for knee and hip replacement surgeries, which are among the fastest growing procedures in the country.

The report, which analyzed three years of BCBSA companies' claims data in 64 markets, found that the average price for a knee replacement surgery is $31,124. But that price, which doesn't reflect what the patient actually pays, can vary greatly within the same city. In Dallas, for example, a knee surgery will run anywhere between $16,772 and $61,585 depending on the hospital. That's a 267 percent price variation, the largest within any of the markets that BCBSA analyzed.

The analysis reinforces that in health care, cost doesn't bear much relation to quality, said BCBSA chief strategy offier Maureen Sullivan. And with consumers generally bearing more of the cost of health insurance these days -- in the forms of higher deductibles and co-pays -- people are also becoming more price-conscious.

Consumers could be surprised by the savings if they shopped around more, though reliable information could be difficult to obtain. Prices varied by at least 100 percent in 11 other markets, according to the claims data.