Meanwhile, 34 states received failing grades from the Catalyst for Payment Reform report released Tuesday morning.
Maine and New Hampshire were the only two states to earn an 'A' grade from the Catalyst for Payment Reform (CPR) report card on healthcare price transparency released Tuesday morning.
CPR and the Source on Healthcare Price and Competition, at the University of California Hastings College of Law, analyzed which states had advanced or implemented legislation promoting price transparency for healthcare consumers.
Following Maine and New Hampshire were four states with a 'B' grade: Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, and Massachusetts.
Five states earned a 'C' grade: Florida, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, and Virginia; followed by another five states with a 'D' grade: Arkansas, California, Utah, Vermont, and Washington.
Related: States Lean on Legislation to Drive Competition, Lower Costs
Meanwhile, 34 states received failing grades from the report, though CPR noted that "many states have made progress" since the last report card released in 2017.
"Price transparency can do more than facilitate consumer shopping," Suzanne Delbanco, PhD, executive director of CPR, said in a statement. "Exposing the variation in prices among health care providers promotes competition, which can also benefit consumers, their employers and other health care purchasers. In our next Report Card, we plan to expand our grading criteria to examine additional policies such as laws governing surprise and balance billing, incentives encouraging consumers to shop, and other ways that state-mandated all payer claims databases can be used."
Related: Price Transparency Is Coming. How Will You Prepare?
Among the 'high scorers' on the report card, Colorado, Connecticut, and Massachusetts improved their scores compared to 2017.
The analysis attributed this to Colorado's improved consumer-facing website, Connecticut's passage of legislation mandating the creation of a consumer-facing website, and Massachusetts' reimplementation of a consumer-facing website.
Related: Almost 66% of Consumers Would Struggle to Pay Deductible if They Contracted COVID-19
Jack O'Brien is the Content Team Lead and Finance Editor at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.