When physician Leslie Ramirez launched Leslie's List, an online database of local health care prices, she knew it would help people learn what kind of options existed for drugs and testing.

But she didn't know it would become such an important reference for an increasing number of Chicagoans whose benefits have been cut or eliminated as a result of the economy.

"I was sick of seeing patients who were suffering basically because they couldn’t afford tests that I prescribed or medications," she says.

The idea to start the site came when Ramirez's mother said she would forego a mammogram because she had lost her insurance.

"It was clear that she didn’t understand there were options," Ramirez says.

So she pooled some money together and started Leslie'sList.org in February. To date, the site has had more than 21,000 visitors.

Ramirez describes the site as a survival guide for people who may be struggling with fewer benefits. The dipping economy has, to Ramirez's chagrin, been a boon for the site.

"I wish it wasn't such a useful tool right now, but it is," she says.

Ramirez, who works at a clinic in Lake View, and a team of three make regular calls to pharmacies and clinics across the city, updating the Web site to include a range of prices, showing patients where they can go to save on medical treatment.

For instance, 180 milligrams of the antihistamine drug commonly known as Allegra is sold for as little as $35 at Costco and as much as $70 at Walgreens. A mammogram at Our Lady of Resurrection Medical Center in Albany Park costs $65, according to the Web site. The site lists a mammogram at Northwestern Memorial Hospital as more than $400.

Ramirez says her team simply calls and asks for the price. But, she says, customers should not solely rely on her site.

"Before you run out to wherever because you saw a good price on Leslie’s List, you should call that place," she says. "Call and confirm."

Puneet Poddar’s physician told him about Leslie’s List, and Poddar wishes the site existed years ago. When he logged on for the first time about a week ago, the range of prices were eye-opening, he says.

 “I thought, ‘My God, I’ve been making the wrong decision to go this guy,’” he says of his previous pharmacist. Poddar says he saved $20 on one prescription by using information from Leslie's List.

The site, Poddar says, provides information he would never be able to cull.

“I know that I had the need for this information, but I wasn’t really having time to call 10 people and find out who’s cheaper. Now I know it,” he says.

The site's social mission is indicative of a change in the way businesses work, says Patrick J. Murphy, an assistant professor of management at DePaul University's Kellstadt School of Business.

"What's happening now, and what's reflected in this venture," he says, "[Is that] to do something good, to add social value to help people, is not mutually exclusive from running a good business that makes money."

Businesses can be good citizens, while providing services in demand, he says.

Murphy says the significance of Leslie's List will be felt by businesses already existing in the marketplace.

"It really changes the rules for the players that are already on the field. They make their business partially on the fact that they're the only game in town," he says.

But with the consumers' new ability to see the vast set of options available,  power now lies with people, rather than businesses.

"Something like that can allow somebody with very little means to protect themselves from being exploited," Murphy says.

Ramirez says she relies on a network of social workers and colleagues to spread the word about the site. She is using the Web to build interest, including Twitter. The site also has a community message board, where vistors can ask questions and give answers about various medical topics.