Barbara Anthony | Pioneer Institute’s Senior Fellow in Healthcare

About Barbara Anthony

Barbara Anthony is Pioneer Institute’s Senior Fellow in Healthcare. She is also currently a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Business and Government where she is leading study groups and researching and writing about Massachusetts healthcare cost containment efforts. She served as Massachusetts Undersecretary of the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation from 2009 to 2015 where she oversaw five state agencies: Banking, Insurance, Professional Licensure, Telecommunications and Cable, and the Division of Standards. Anthony, with a background in law and economics, is a well-known consumer advocate and a highly respected public interest lawyer and policy maker. Among her accomplishments, Anthony oversaw implementation of the state’s Data Security Law and regulations, kept health insurance rate increases under control, helped implement the state’s 2012 Health Care Cost Containment Law, oversaw efforts to reform the mortgage foreclosure process, initiated a financial literacy project, Project Credit Smarts, in several Massachusetts colleges, and spearheaded a campaign to empower Massachusetts healthcare consumers through price and quality transparency.

Previously, Anthony was Executive Director of Health Law Advocates, the Boston-based non-profit law firm dedicated to health care access; Regional Director of the Northeast Regional Office of the Federal Trade Commission; Chief of the Public Protection Bureau of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office; and Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer for BayBanks, Inc. Anthony began her legal career as a Trial Attorney in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Anthony’s expertise focuses on privacy and data security, financial services, Internet fraud, and health care.

She is a graduate of Suffolk University Law School, where she currently serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law. She holds a graduate degree in economics and a bachelor of science in business administration from Northeastern University. She serves on the boards of the Cambridge Health Alliance Foundation, Cambridge Community Cable Television, the state Treasurer’s Financial Literacy Trust Fund Board and the Advisory Board of the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy at Boston College Law School.

She regularly appears as a media commentator on consumer protection and business regulation issues.

Entries by Barbara Anthony

Healthcare Prices for Common Procedures Are Hard for Consumers to Obtain Survey finds hospitals not prepared to give price information to consumers

February 21, 2016/by Barbara Anthony

This policy brief is the third in a series of reports on healthcare price transparency prepared by Pioneer Institute. Researchers surveyed six major metropolitan areas and spoke with 54 acute care hospitals across those regions: Des Moines, IA, Raleigh-Durham, NC, Orlando, FL, Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX, New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA asking for the price of an MRI of the left knee without contrast. In addition, they explored the existence of federal and state laws that might apply in the states where the hospitals surveyed are located. They also examined the websites of the 54 hospitals for price information. The results of this survey are described in this policy brief.

How To Tell If The Price Is Right: Fostering Transparency in Healthcare Prices for Massachusetts Consumers

October 5, 2015/by Barbara Anthony

Notwithstanding a Massachusetts law requiring the clear, prompt disclosure of price estimates to patients upon request, recent studies by Pioneer of a sample of hospitals, specialist physicians and dentists throughout the state showed that it is still not easy to obtain this information, often requiring some persistence and longer than the two days allowed by law (“Survey: Price Information Difficult to Obtain by Massachusetts Hospitals,” June 24, 2015; “State Healthcare Price Transparency Law Still Not a Reality,” August 12, 2015). The 2012 Massachusetts law requires healthcare providers to give consumers procedure prices within two business days of request (Chapter 224 of the Acts of 2012, “An Act Improving the Quality of Health Care and Reducing Costs Through Increased Transparency, Efficiency […]

Bay State Specialists and Dentists Get Mixed Reviews on Price Transparency

August 12, 2015/by Barbara Anthony

Pioneer surveyed 96 specialists from across Massachusetts, split almost evenly among dentists, dermatologists, ophthalmologists and gastroenterologists. With the exception of dentists and some ophthalmologists, many medical specialists make it very difficult for Massachusetts consumers to reap the benefits of a state law that requires medical price transparency. This survey highlighted some shortcomings in the current law and the need for additional guidance and coordination from government agencies and professional associations. Download Report:

Mass Hospitals Weak on Price Transparency

June 24, 2015/by Barbara Anthony

Pioneer Institute surveyed 22 out of approximately 66 Massachusetts acute care hospitals and 10 free-standing clinics seeking prices for one common procedure – an MRI of the left knee without contrast. While Pioneer was ultimately able to get the information from all 10 clinics and 21 of the 22 hospitals, the process was time consuming, confusing and replete with long rounds of telephone tag.