LuxSci

Creating Secure Web Forms: What You Need to Know

person filling out a secure web form on a laptop

Creating secure web forms starts with creating a secure website. This process is more complex than creating web pages and adding an SSL Certificate. A certificate is a solid first step, but it only goes so far as to protect whatever sensitive data necessitates security in the first place.

Naive attempts at security can ultimately make the data less secure and more likely to be compromised by creating an appetizing target for the unscrupulous.

So, what do you do beyond hiring a developer with significant security expertise? Start with this article. Its purpose is to shed light on many of the most significant factors in creating secure web forms and how to address them. At a minimum, reading this article will help you intelligently discuss website security with the developers you hire.

person filling out a secure web form on a laptop

What Is Involved In Creating Secure Web Forms?

If you want to add a secure web form to your website, first, you must understand how to securely configure the website. Website security is a serious and complex topic; this article only discusses the high points. Check out some of our other articles and eBooks for more detailed information on website security.

Here are some of the critical issues that need to be considered:

  1. SSL – Is the website and form secured to transmit data from the end user safely? Is your website form page protected with SSL to prevent tampering with its contents?
  2. Web page content – Is the HTML content sent to the end-user protected from Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) issues, and does it avoid loading objects insecurely or from third parties?
  3. Script Security – Are the scripts or programs that process the submitted data written with security in mind? Do they have any vulnerabilities?
  4. Infrastructure – Is the website hosting provider trusted and known for good security? Are you on a shared server when you should be on a dedicated one?
  5. Data Flows – What do you do with the data once submitted? Is that data secured?
  6. Tracking – Do you track events such as data access and submission?
  7. Archival and Backup – Are there processes to make backups and permanent archives of important data?

SSL – Web Security Starts Here

SSL certificates are required for creating a secure website and form. The SSL certificate allows:

  1. The encryption of data sent to and from your web server and users to prevent eavesdropping or tampering.
  2. Your users trust that they are connecting to your website securely.

An SSL certificates on a properly configured web server encrypts your website data as it flows to and from your end users.

To get an SSL certificate, you can order one directly from a third party, or your web hosting provider will handle it for you. In either case, the web host will need to install the certificate on the server where the website is hosted, and then you will need to make changes to your site to take full advantage of the secure channel you have added.

SSL and Encryption

The most significant reason people use SSL is to encrypt the data transmitted from their website and the end-user. When an end-user visits a page protected by SSL, their web browser communicates over a secure channel with the web server so that all data transmitted is sent over this encrypted channel. This helps prevent eavesdropping and man-in-the-middle attacks on the data (more on these below).

Without SSL encryption, there is little or no protection of the data.

SSL and Trust

The most overlooked and misunderstood aspect of SSL is the establishment of trust. That is, enabling your end-users to trust and feel confident that they are connecting to your website. What else could they be connecting to, you may ask?

  1. Someone with access to the network between the end-user and website could be trying to intercept and read all the web traffic or altering your website pages themselves (e.g., changing your forms to submit the data to them instead of you). This is called a man-in-the-middle attack. Even with SSL security, a man-in-the-middle can present the end-user with an SSL Certificate for your domain name that looks legitimate, like a forged ID card.
  2. The user could be visiting another website that is pretending to be yours. This phishing website could collect information from your users for malicious purposes. Unless your users identify this site as illegitimate, they could be duped into revealing personal information. How could they end up at a phishing website like this? This can happen by clicking on a link emailed to them or by visiting a misspelled version of your URL. No site is immune from such attacks, but you can work to mitigate them.

SSL Certificates and Cybersecurity

As mentioned above, SSL certificates are not the sole website and form security solution, but they can help! To understand how it’s worth looking at how certificates are awarded. SSL certificates are signed by a third-party authority, the “Certificate Authority.” This can be:

  1. You, if you sign your certificates.
  2. A respected third-party issuing:
    1. A cheap or free certificate validating only your domain.
    2. A more expensive “Extended Validation” certificate which also validates your organization.

If you sign your own certificates, your website will generate warnings when anyone visits it. Users can choose to dismiss them, but more commonly, they will be more likely to navigate away from the website. For this reason, self-signed certificates are never recommended for a public website. Self-signed certificates provide no inherent trust that they are legitimate (anyone can generate one and pose as your site). They look amateurish and are annoying to the end user. Self-signed certificates should only be used in internal or test environments.

When ordering a certificate from a trusted third-party authority, there are various types that you can order. The cheapest ones are called domain-validated certificates. These work by emailing your domain administrator a validation link. Once verified, the certificate is awarded. These domain-validated certificates are acceptable and provide excellent security; however, as no humans are directly involved in the validation process, it may be easier for an attacker to get an illegitimate certificate by gaining control of the admin’s inbox or via other methods.

You can also order Extended Validation certificates. They cost more because real people validate the organization and your domain ownership. They make phone calls and ensure that everything looks right. If you have one of these certificates, your browser’s address bar turns green (or displays a lock symbol) when visitors come there to indicate that this site is trusted. If you want to maximize trust and make it easy for your end-users to identify your site as legitimate, you should use an Extended Validation certificate. These cost more but are well worth it in terms of security and trust. If EV certificates are outside your budget, you should still use an SSL certificate from some trusted third party.

Securing Web Forms with SSL

Once your website has an SSL certificate installed by a web host, your web pages can be accessed with addresses that start with “https://” instead of just “http://.” The “s” in “https” means “secure.” Note:

  1. When connected to a web page using a secure address like “https://yourdomain.com,” the web browser will show a lock icon to inform you that the connection is secure.
  2. Web pages that end in “.shtml” are not necessarily secure. The “s” means “server” (i.e., server-parsed page) and not “secure.” So, for example, “http://yourdomain.com/index.shtml” is not a secure page, but “https://yourdomain.com/index.html” is a secure page.
  3. With SSL enabled, you can access the same page securely and insecurely in many default web server configurations. Both “http://yourdomain.com/form.html” and “https://yourdomain.com/form.html” work and show the form — the only difference is the use of SSL or not.

So, let’s say that you have a web form located at “http://yourdomain.com/form.html.” You have an SSL certificate, and your web host has installed it. Next, you want to:

  1. Make sure people connect securely to the form page.
  2. Make sure that no one can connect to the form page insecurely.

These two goals might sound the same, but they are not.

Enforce Secure Connections to Form Pages

Since regular website pages may be insecure, you need to ensure that the links to the secure form page are absolute links starting with the prefix “https://.” This will ensure that anyone clicking these links will be taken to the form page on a secure connection.

The best solution is to use an HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security), which tells browsers that they should always use the secure version of your website. If you choose to have both the insecure (http) and secure (https) versions of your site running at the same time (not recommended), then you need to be careful with linking so that sensitive pages are secured:

Wrong Links: Relative links are not recommended because, if the user is on an insecure page, relative links will always take them to insecure versions of the destination page. So relative links like the following should be avoided:

Fill out my form!

Correct Links: Absolute links will ensure a secure connection by specifying that SSL must be used via the link prefix “https://.”

For example: <a href=”https://yourdomain.com/form.html”>Fill out my form!

Be sure that all links to all secure pages of the site use this secure format with the “https://” prefix.

Side Note: These days, it is recommended that you use SSL for all website pages, not just ones that process sensitive information. This is good for user trust, security, and privacy. It is also good for Search Engine Optimization (as Google will reward you for securing your site). If you set up your site so all pages are always secure, relative links are safe.

Ensure No One Can Connect to Form Pages Insecurely

Using the above suggestions, all the links on your website will take users to the secure version of the form. However, most web hosts leave the insecure version of the form there, and users can still access it if they enter the insecure address directly (or if links are directed to the insecure page). As a next step, you should ensure that accessing the form page via an insecure connection is impossible.

There are several different ways that this can be done. Some of these include:

Separate space for SSL pages: If your web host has this feature, you can configure the website to store web pages for secure (SSL) connections in a different directory from those for insecure pages. If this feature is enabled, the form page is placed in the secure directory and no copies are in the insecure directory. Thus, any insecure requests for these pages would result in a “page not found” error. You could then implement server-side redirection rules where if someone requests the insecure page, they are automatically redirected to the secure version (this can be done using .htaccess files and the “Redirect” directive). If you did this, secure and insecure requests for the page would take the user to the secure version with no errors, warnings, or issues for the end user.

Scripted pages: If the form page is generated by a server-side script (i.e., PHP, Perl, Python, or JAVA), then the script itself can determine if the request is secure or not (e.g., by looking at the server environment variables). For secure requests, it can render the form as usual. The user receives an error for insecure requests or is redirected to the proper secure location. 

Securing all pages: (Recommended) The site can be configured to automatically redirect all requests for insecure pages to the respective secure page. All pages will be secure, and any accidental/incorrect requests for the insecure pages will still get people to the right place. Security is greatly improved if you have set this up.

If my form is posted to a secure form processing script, why does it need to be secured?

This question is usually asked when a third-party manages the form processing. Is securing the form itself with SSL needed?

The answer is based on the following facts:

  1. The data sent from end-users to the server will be secure and encrypted during transmission. This is critical for creating secure websites and forms that require HIPAA compliance.
  2. Non-technical end-users will only know if their data is securely submitted once it is done. Many end-users will refrain from submitting sensitive data to an insecure form on your site.
  3. End-users cannot know if they are viewing your website or a phishing site or if eavesdropping and modification are happening. Many users will not trust the connection and will not want to submit their data through your site if it appears insecure.
  4. If your form page is insecure, it is straightforward for any malicious party to perform a man-in-the-middle attack to eavesdrop on connections, modify your form in transit to change what is collected and where the data is sent, and set up phishing sites. Your end-users can’t tell if this is going on.

If you do not secure your web form with SSL, it is vulnerable to attack. If nothing is going on, you can rely on transmission security. However, that minimal level of security is not recommended for production websites or anywhere that compliance is required.

Other Aspects of Creating Secure Web Forms

Proper use of SSL for encryption and trust is only part of creating secure website forms. You must be concerned with many other aspects to protect your users, your application, and your company’s reputation. These include (but are not limited to):

1. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS). Suppose you include dynamic content on your web pages (i.e., information submitted by other users or content submitted via form fields), and that content is not cleaned of JavaScript and HTML. In that case, bad actors could make arbitrary content appear on your website, capture user data, or worse. All data displayed should be clear of undesirable content (script tags, special characters, HTML, and other things). This is one of the most significant security issues with dynamic web pages across the internet.

2. Secure Server-Side Programming: The scripts and programs that accept and process the data from online forms must be created with security in mind. They must validate all submitted data as needed without making assumptions about its format and content. The scripts must not provide avenues for attacks like SQL Injection. Scripts must not use submitted content as actual filenames or URLs for remote loading content. They should log any strange errors or problems for later analysis. They should provide a mechanism for blocking undesirable actions or users from using the scripts.

3. Validation: Validation of all input data is part of the above two points. However, it is so essential that we will repeat it and go over some of the fundamental points:

  • If you validate submitted content, always perform your validation on the server side. Even if you use JavaScript to validate the data on the client side, you should always re-validate it on the server side. Why? Because people can get around JavaScript and submit arbitrary content directly to your scripts. The scripts should be prepared to handle that.
  • Always de-taint submitted data. What does that mean? It means never trust submitted data and take pains to ensure that the submitted data matches what you expect. For example, if you have a select list that sends your script a number as the value, do not assume you are getting a number. Instead, check that it is a numeric value or convert whatever is submitted into a number.
  • Remove disallowed content from the text submitted by users. Remove or block special characters, embedded codes, and other things that should not be there.
  • Ensure the submitted data is manageable enough to be used.
  • Do not assume anything — program defensively.

4. Preserving State with Hidden Form Fields or Cookies: If your program remembers information from one page to another by saving the data in hidden form fields, then your program must also ensure that the content of those fields was not tampered with. One good way to do this is to make a hash of all the data, together with a secret value, and include that hash in the form data. Then, when the form is submitted, you can recompute the hash and compare it with what passed from the form. If they match, you are okay; if they do not, the data has been tampered with. No one can break this scheme without knowing your secret value or breaking your hashing algorithm. This method can also be used to validate data saved in cookies. You can go further and use time stamps to prevent replay attacks.

5. Third-Party Applications: If you install programs from third parties on your website, you must ensure there are no known security issues with these programs, and you must be sure to update these programs as soon as new versions are released. If you let your website languish with an older, vulnerable version of a program, it will become a target for hackers as they constantly search the internet for such websites. Your site will likely be hacked in these cases, possibly causing loss of business, deactivation of your website, and tarnishing your website’s reputation. Using a third-party application is easy, but you need to select a good one that places the burden of keeping it updated on you. An exception is using a third-party application hosted by the third party itself. In these cases, the third party ensures that the program is continuously updated with anything needed to address any security issues. The burden is on them and not you. If you choose a good, respectable vendor, you should have no problems.

All these things, and more, are critical to developing a secure web application.

Securing the Form Data After Submission

Ensuring that users’ data is transmitted securely to your web server is critical, as is ensuring that your application is secure and will not be hacked. To secure sensitive data, you must understand what happens to that data after your program receives it. Many people forget that transmitting the data from the web server may require just as much preparation as receiving it from their users in the first place.

In the following subsections, we will look at three different ways of saving and retrieving your users’ data. In each case, we will explain what is needed to secure the data in your systems.

Send Form Data via Email 

The most common action data processing scripts do is email the submitted data to the website owner’s email address. The website owner knows when there are new submissions by checking their email and can access the data immediately. Most people running websites check their email reasonably often, which integrates well with their business operations.

However, the standard ways of sending emails are entirely insecure. So, how can you use email while ensuring the data is secure and viewable only by the intended recipient?

  1. Have your website script encrypt the data.
  2. Send this encrypted data (or a link to download the encrypted data) to the intended viewers via regular email.

As the form data is encrypted within the email message, most insecurities inherent in email are obviated. You can also use secure third-party services to have your form data emailed to you securely without programming anything yourself.

Save the Submission in a Database

Many website owners like to save the submitted form data in a database (even if it is also emailed to someone). Why?

  1. The data is saved online and potentially accessible from anywhere.
  2. If the emailed copies of the data are lost, the copies in the database are still there.
  3. The database can be accessed through a web browser with a suitable user interface.
  4. The data is typically backed up and can be restored.

If storage in an online database is for you, then you need to:

  1. Use encryption, like SSL or PGP, to ensure the data is securely stored in the database. Why? The contents of database tables are not encrypted or secure in general. Storing unencrypted data makes it available to anyone with access to the database or its backups.
  2. Provide a user interface that allows you to access the database data. It must be secure, have robust access controls, and provide a means for decrypting the data.

The database option requires much work to make a secure and usable solution. For this reason, most small organizations do not end up using secure database storage for important form data.

Save the Data in Files

The file storage option is the “quick and dirty” alternative to secure database storage. Essentially, your program will:

  1. Make a file containing the form data.
  2. Encrypt that file using PGP or SSL.
  3. Save that encrypted file in a directory on the web server that is not accessible from the website. Another option is to save it in an online file-sharing service.

Then, the website owners can log in to the web server using Secure FTP and download these files as needed. They can be decrypted locally when the data must be accessed. Other simpler data access mechanisms are available if the files are saved in an online file share.

This solution is secure and provides an excellent backup to securely emailed data.

Other Technical Tips for Creating Secure Website Forms

There are many other considerations in developing and maintaining a secure website and forms. It would be impossible to cover or even list them all. However, here are some more interesting and valuable tips.

Use Secure Cookies

If your secure site uses cookies for anything, set the “secure” cookie and the “httpOnly” flags. This will ensure that these cookies are never sent insecurely over the internet when the visitor arrives at any insecure pages of your website (they are not sent at all to insecure pages) and thus helps preserve the security of the contents of these secure cookies.

Prevent Form Spam

Form spam occurs when automated programs find your web forms and try to send spam through them. Form spam can result in hundreds or thousands of useless form posts daily. Once you start getting form spam, stopping it is a priority. There are two primary ways to help prevent spam:

  1. CAPTCHA – This method requires end-users to read text embedded in an image and type that text successfully into a form field. The back-end program then validates this. Since most spam programs cannot read text embedded in images, it will successfully block almost all automated forms spam. However, CAPTCHA requires the users to perform one more step, which can be annoying.
  2. JavaScript and Cookies – Most automated form spam programs do not process JavaScript or use cookies. If your web form requires JavaScript to submit the form successfully, bots cannot do this, and most form spam will be blocked. This method is less reliable than CAPTCHA but does not require any extra work from the end-user. Note that if you wish to use the JavaScript method, you must be sure that arbitrary submissions to the default action URL of your forms will never succeed—only submissions made after the execution of your custom JavaScript should succeed.

Minimize the Need for Trust

A good rule of thumb is to minimize the need to trust third parties and trust only the trustworthy.

  1. If you do not trust your internal IT staff, do not host your web application on your servers or give them access to the server used.
  2. If you do not trust the third-party hosting your website, encrypt the form data as soon as possible. This helps ensure that the data is not saved anywhere in plain text and is not backed up in plain text, thus minimizing your exposure to unauthorized people. Further, ensure that the private keys and passwords needed to decrypt the data are not stored on the web host’s servers.
  3. Ensure that only authorized staff can access the submitted form data. Ideally, it should always be encrypted, and only authorized people should be able to decrypt it.

These are just a few obvious points. As you evaluate your web application and data flow, ask yourself, “Who can access the raw data and how?” at each stage. Are there stages where you are trusting people who should not be trusted?

Forced use of strong encryption in SSL

The strength of encryption used by SSL is a function of both the user’s web browser and the server. Even if your web server supports excellent encryption, like AES256, the user’s browser may choose a weaker level of encryption. Older versions of Internet Explorer are notable for choosing weaker encryption in the interest of speed.

You can modify your web server configuration so that only levels of encryption you approve can be used to access your site.

Use Two-Factor Authentication

Two-factor authentication is standard on very secure sites now. You require a password and something else (a code or token) to validate their identity. With both, the user can log in. Avoid using only SMS texting as the second factor, which is no longer considered secure.

Get Started Creating Secure Web Forms

Outsourcing your form hosting and processing can be the fastest and most cost-effective way to get started. LuxSci’s Secure Form was designed for security and compliance. Contact us today to learn more about protecting sensitive information online.

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healthcare marketing

How Automated Workflows Boost Engagement for Healthcare Marketing Campaigns

Due to the fact that it’s simple, instantaneous, cost-effective, and nearly universally adopted, email is an essential part of all healthcare marketing engagement strategies. However, consistent, personalized email engagement – particularly at scale – can be challenging. 

 

Fortunately, Automated Workflows offer a solution, allowing healthcare companies to deliver the right messages to the appropriate individuals at the right time, based on their individual engagement with emails.. 

 

In this post, we’ll explore the concept of Automated Workflows, the considerable benefits they offer healthcare companies, and the variety of ways they can be used to increase engagement and result in greater satisfaction and better healthcare outcomes for your patients and customers.

What Are Automated Workflows?

An Automated Workflow is a sequence of actions, known as’ Steps’ in LuxSci Secure Marketing, that a Contact (i.e., a patient or customer) moves through over time, based on a series of pre-defined rules or triggers. 

 

Each Step is programmed to automatically perform a specific function, such as sending an email or updating a Contact, when certain conditions are in place. These conditions could include: 

  • A Contact opening a message.
  • A Contact clicking through on a link.
  • A specified amount of time having elapsed.. 
  • A data update via an API call

By evaluating conditions to initiate the appropriate Step, Automated Workflows facilitate more timely, consistent, and personalized communication with Contacts (patients and customers ). As a result, healthcare companies can effectively harness Automated Workflows to develop dynamic, personalized email engagement journeys that adapt according to your patients and customers’ needs and prior interactions.

What Are the Benefits of Automated Workflows?

Let’s look at the various advantages that Luxsci Automated Workflows offer. 

Reduced Administrative Workload

Arguably, the most significant benefit of Automated Workflows is the extent to which they lower the administrative burden of email engagement campaigns for healthcare organizations. 

 

First and foremost, Automated Workflows eliminate the need for an employee to manually send your Contacts messages. As well as the manual effort, it removes a great deal of thought from the process – as someone isn’t required to remember to send an email. 

 

By the same token, this reduces the scope for human error, preventing the possibility of an employee neglecting to send an important message, sending it to the wrong person, or worse, accidentally exposing patient data, i.e., electronic protected health information (ePHI). 

 

The effort that Automated Workflows reduce is typically repetitive work that staff are glad to be free of, giving them additional time to focus on tasks that provide greater value and better contribute to better patient care and/or the customer experience. 

Enhanced Scalability

The time saved by employing Automated Workflows increases with the size of your Contact List and the scale of your engagement campaigns. In fact, enterprise-scale campaigns, with volumes of hundreds of thousands to millions of emails, are only feasible through the use of automation. 

 

Similarly, Automated Workflows enable healthcare organizations to run differing, personalized email campaigns aimed at unique patient or customer segments.  As well as automatically sending each message at the appropriate time, they provide tracking capabilities to determine the outcome of each message. 

Increased Consistency in Communication

Because Automated Workflows remediate the risk of emails going unsent, they facilitate more timely and consistent communications with patients and customers. This makes healthcare providers, payers, and suppliers appear more reliable and consistent, building trust and greater levels of satisfaction from Contacts. More importantly, recipients are better able to track what’s happening with their healthcare and assume a more proactive role overall healthcare journey..

 

Finally, creating an Automated Workflow requires healthcare organizations to carefully consider how they communicate with different Contact segments. Namely, the likely journey, or communication path, different types of Contacts take, i.e., information they need to know at a particular stage in their healthcare journey, the optimal order in which information needs to be presented, etc. This allows healthcare companies to become more in-tune with their patients’ and customers’ needs, enabling them to craft more valuable email communications that boost engagement. 

Personalized Healthcare Engagement 

Perhaps the most significant benefit of Automated Workflows is that they enable adaptive, personalized engagement for healthcare marketing and communications campiagns. Instead of manually tracking where each Contact is in a given engagement sequence, or worse, merely having to guess, you know precisely where they are. Consequently, you’re acutely aware of their needs and the exact nature of the emails you need to send them next. 

 

This, in turn, enables more effective Contact nurturing, i.e, strengthening your organization’s connection with each individual. When at its most effective, this may allow you to anticipate your Contacts’ needs, enabling you to send them communications, such screening or testing recommendations, educational materials, or product and service suggestions, that support their healthcare journey and enhance their quality of care.

Automated Workflow Use Cases

Automated Workflows are a powerful tool for increasing healthcare marketing and communications engagement because they can be applied to a wide range of use cases. Let’s take a look at some of the most common and impactful ways email automation can be used by healthcare companies. 

  • New Product Announcements: keeping patients and customers in the loop on your company’s latest offerings, as well as improvements to existing products and services that are likely to be of interest, based on their data and past actions.
  • Personalized recommendations: suggesting products or services based on the recipient’s past purchases or engagement history.
  • Re-Engagement Campaigns: Automated Workflows can also be used to reconnect with Contacts with whom engagement has waned or was never completely established, sending them personalized messages to encourage specific actions or reignite interest.
  • New Member Onboarding: welcoming new patients or customers  with a structured series of emails that introduces your services, provides technical assistance (where applicable), details subsequent steps, and explains how to get the most value from your products or services. 
  • Appointment Reminers and Follow-Ups: sending reminders, care instructions, medication adherence advice, or details on how to book subsequent appointments, for instance, after a patient visit. 
  • Patient Education Campaigns: taking patients through a structured curriculum on managing their medical condition or required  lifestyle changes to improve their health..
  • Preventative Care Communications: proactively sending reminders for screenings, check-ups, vaccinations, etc., based on PHI such as a patient’s age, gender, health condition or lifestyle risk factors.
  • Milestone Communications: sending personalized messages to acknowledge birthdays, enrollment anniversaries, and other pertinent dates. These can also be combined with preventative care communications, to send recommendations or other advice, based on the contact’s age, for instance.  
  • Feedback Collection: acquiring patient and customer feedback by sending follow-up surveys a set amount of time after a visit, procedure, purchase, etc. 

How Automated Workflows Work in LuxSci Secure Marketing

To round off this post, let’s take a deeper look at how Automated Workflows work within LuxSci’s Secure Marketing solution. LuxSci’s Automated Workflows enhance your organization’s HIPAA compliant healthcare marketing and email campaigns by giving you complete control of:

 

  • When each email is sent
  • Which Contacts receive particular communications according to their behavior, needs, and other PHI-based attributes
  • Which engagement path or branch a Contact takes based on their email actions

Here’s a look at LuxSci’s Automated Workflows key capabilities in greater detail. 

Smart Event-Based Branching and Conditions

You can branch Workflows to trigger targeted messaging based on a Contact’s attributes or certain engagement events, resulting in more relevant and effective healthcare journeys  with more desirable outcomes.

  • User actions:
    • Mailing list sign-ups
    • Form completion
    • Downloading a resource.
  • Time-based triggers:
    • A set period after a visit or procedure 
    • A defined period of inactivity or lack of contact
    • Milestones, e.g., birthdays, anniversaries. 
  • Behavioral triggers:
    • Email opens
    • Clicking on links
    • Visiting particular pages on a site or 
    • A lack of engagement with previous emails.
  • Transactional triggers:
    • Purchasing a product or service
    • Signing up for an event
    • Order confirmations or shipping updates after a purchase.
  • API-triggered events
    • Lab results or similar correspondence becoming available
    • Changes to data in EHR systems, CDP platforms, or CRM systems.. 

Automated Segment Management 

Automated Workflows can be used to dynamically add Contacts to segments based on demographics, past behavior, purchase history, and similar events. This enables more precise targeting and email personalization as they progress through specific Steps in each Workflow. 

Navigation Across Steps

Automated Workflows are also capable of navigating Contacts across different Steps or completely different Workflows depending on engagement outcomes and updates to a Contact’s PHI. Better still, if a Step has already been visited, LuxSci Secure Marketing automatically prevents repetition and infinite loops.

Automate Your Healthcare Marketing and Engagement Efforts

LuxSci Secure Marketing is a HIPAA compliant healthcare marketing solution especially designed for the stringent security and regulatory requirements of the healthcare industry. Our solution enables healthcare organizations to confidently communicate with patients and customers at scale without risking compliance violations, driving increased engagement and boosting the ROI of their marketing campaigns in the process. 

 

The latest version of LuxSci’s Secure Marketing solution with Automated Workflow functionality streamlines your company’s outreach efforts, saving considerable time, reducing human effort, and facilitating intelligent Contact management. 

What’s more, LuxSci’s reporting capabilities empower you to carefully track the results of your healthcare engagement campaigns, gaining insights at every step, including:

  • Which Contacts received particular messages
  • Who engaged with email communication, and how
  • Precise points where drop-offs in engagement occur
  • The engagement achieved with each Step in the Workflow

To learn more about LuxSci’s Secure Marketing solution and how Automated Workflows boost engagement for your healthcare marketing and communications campaigns, contact us today.

 

Healthcare marketing plan

How To Create a Healthcare Marketing Plan?

A healthcare marketing plan establishes strategic promotional activities, target audience identification, budget allocation, and compliance protocols to attract new patients while adhering to HIPAA privacy regulations and state advertising laws. Medical practices develop these documents to guide their promotional efforts across digital platforms, traditional media, and community outreach programs, ensuring all patient acquisition activities comply with healthcare privacy requirements and professional advertising standards.

Medical practices compete intensely for patient attention in saturated healthcare markets. Developing promotional strategies without proper planning leads to wasted resources, compliance violations, and missed opportunities to connect with patients who need specific medical services.

Target Audience in Healthcare Marketing Plan Development

Patient demographic research identifies age groups, geographic locations, insurance coverage types, and medical conditions that align with practice specialties and service offerings. Healthcare organizations analyze existing patient data to understand referral patterns, appointment scheduling preferences, and communication channel effectiveness for different population segments.

Competitor analysis reveals promotional strategies used by similar practices, pricing structures for comparable services, and market gaps that create opportunities for differentiation. This research helps practices position their services uniquely while avoiding oversaturated promotional approaches that fail to generate meaningful patient engagement.

Budget Allocation

Financial planning allocates resources across promotional channels based on expected return on investment, patient acquisition costs, and practice revenue goals. Digital advertising usually receives 40-60% of promotional budgets due to measurable results and targeted audience capabilities, while traditional media and community events receive smaller allocations.

Compliance costs including legal reviews, authorization management, and privacy training must be factored into promotional budgets to ensure all activities meet regulatory requirements. Practices that underestimate compliance expenses often discover their promotional activities violate privacy laws or professional advertising standards.

Digital Strategy to Drive Modern Patient Acquisition

Website optimization, search engine marketing, and social media presence are the core of contemporary promotional efforts outlined in every healthcare marketing plan. Practices invest in professional website design, patient portal integration, and mobile-responsive layouts to capture patients researching medical services online.

Content creation including blog posts, educational videos, and patient resources helps establish expertise while providing valuable information to potential patients. However, all content must avoid using patient information without authorization and cannot make unsubstantiated medical claims that violate advertising regulations.

Compliance Integration Protects Promotional Activities

HIPAA authorization procedures, business associate agreements with promotional vendors, and state advertising law compliance must be woven throughout every aspect of promotional planning. Healthcare marketing plan development includes legal review processes, privacy impact assessments, and staff training protocols to prevent violations.

Documentation requirements for promotional activities include consent forms, vendor contracts, and approval workflows that demonstrate compliance with healthcare privacy laws. Practices without proper documentation face significant penalties when regulatory investigations uncover promotional activities that violate patient privacy protections.

Community Outreach Builds Local Patient Relationships

Health fairs, educational seminars, and community partnerships create opportunities for practices to connect with potential patients through face-to-face interactions. These activities require planning to ensure patient privacy protection while maximizing promotional impact through relationship building and trust development.

Referral programs with other healthcare providers, local businesses, and community organizations can generate new patient leads when structured appropriately. Any financial incentives for referrals must comply with healthcare fraud and abuse laws to avoid legal complications.

Performance Measurement Guides Strategy Optimization

Patient acquisition metrics, appointment conversion rates, and promotional channel effectiveness data help practices evaluate their promotional success and adjust strategies accordingly. Healthcare marketing plan implementation includes tracking systems for website traffic, phone inquiries, and new patient appointments generated by different promotional activities.

Return on investment calculations compare promotional spending with revenue generated from new patients to determine which activities provide the best financial results. Practices use this data to reallocate budgets toward high-performing promotional channels while eliminating ineffective strategies.

Implementation Timeline

Monthly promotional calendars coordinate campaign launches, content publication schedules, and community event participation to maximize promotional impact while avoiding resource conflicts. Healthcare marketing plan execution requires detailed project management to ensure all activities launch on schedule and within budget constraints. Seasonal considerations including flu shot campaigns, wellness check promotions, and holiday health messaging opportunities require advance planning to capitalize on increased patient interest during specific time periods. Practices that plan these campaigns well in advance may achieve better results than those that react to opportunities without preparation.

HIPAA Marketing Rule

What Does the HIPAA Marketing Rule Require?

The HIPAA marketing rule prohibits healthcare organizations from using protected health information for promotional communications without written patient authorization, defining promotional activities as communications that encourage patients to purchase products or services with financial benefit to the sender. Organizations can send treatment-related communications, appointment reminders, and health plan benefit descriptions without authorization, but any communication promoting third-party products, paid services, or revenue-generating activities requires explicit patient consent through properly executed authorization forms.

Healthcare providers regularly find themselves struggling with acceptable patient education and prohibited promotional activities. A simple newsletter about diabetes management becomes problematic when it includes advertisements for glucose monitors or pharmaceutical products that generate revenue for the practice.

The HIPAA Marketing Rule Authorization Framework

Patient authorization documents must contain sixteen specific elements including detailed descriptions of information to be disclosed, identification of recipients, expiration dates, and explanations of revocation rights. These forms cannot be combined with other consent documents and must use plain language that patients can easily understand. Healthcare organizations face penalties when authorization forms lack required elements or contain overly broad permission language.

Patients retain the right to revoke authorization at any time, forcing organizations to immediately cease all promotional activities involving that individual’s information. Organizations cannot condition treatment, payment, enrollment, or benefits eligibility on patients providing authorization for promotional purposes, creating clear separation between healthcare services and commercial activities.

Treatment Communications Bypass Marketing Restrictions

Healthcare organizations can discuss treatment alternatives, medication options, and care coordination services without obtaining separate authorization because these communications serve legitimate healthcare purposes rather than commercial interests. Appointment scheduling, test result notifications, and prescription refill reminders fall under treatment or healthcare operations exemptions from marketing regulations.

Face-to-face communications between providers and patients about treatment options is unrestricted, even when providers receive financial benefits from recommended treatments or services. Written materials distributed during these encounters may trigger authorization requirements if they promote specific products or services beyond the immediate treatment relationship.

Financial Incentive Distinctions Shape HIPAA Marketing Rule Compliance

Communications become subject to the HIPAA marketing rule when healthcare organizations receive financial remuneration from third parties for promoting their products or services. Pharmaceutical company payments for promoting medications, medical device manufacturer incentives, or referral fees from specialty services transform otherwise acceptable communications into restricted promotional activities.

Organizations must examine their financial relationships carefully to determine when communications cross from permissible healthcare operations into restricted promotional territory. Even nominal payments or gifts from third parties can trigger marketing authorization requirements for communications that mention or promote those parties’ products or services.

Business Associate Relationships Complicate Marketing Activities

Vendors creating promotional materials, managing patient outreach campaigns, or analyzing treatment data for commercial purposes need business associate agreements before accessing PHI. These relationships are difficult if the promotional vendors also provide healthcare services or when healthcare organizations share revenue from marketing activities with their business partners.

Organizations must negotiate appropriate contractual protections and ensure vendors understand their obligations under the HIPAA marketing rule before beginning any collaborative promotional activities. Liability for vendor violations remains with the covered entity, making careful partner selection and monitoring essential for maintaining compliance.

Digital Platforms & Modern Marketing Compliance Challenges

Social media advertising, email campaigns, and online retargeting involve sharing patient information with technology platforms that lack appropriate privacy protections. Healthcare organizations cannot upload patient contact lists, demographic details, or treatment information to advertising platforms without proper authorization and business associate agreements covering those platforms.

Website analytics, social media pixels, and advertising tracking technologies may inadvertently capture and transmit PHI to third-party platforms without appropriate protections. Organizations need controls to prevent accidental information sharing while still enabling effective digital marketing activities within compliance boundaries.

Enforcement Penalties Reflect Serious Violation Consequences

Recent Office for Civil Rights enforcement actions have resulted in multi-million dollar settlements for organizations that used patient information in marketing materials without authorization or shared PHI with advertising vendors without appropriate agreements. These cases highlight increasing federal scrutiny of healthcare promotional activities and willingness to impose substantial financial penalties.

Violations may stem from seemingly innocent activities like patient newsletters, social media posts, or website testimonials that inadvertently disclosed PHI without proper authorization. Organizations discover that good intentions cannot shield them from penalties when their marketing activities violate patient privacy protections under the HIPAA marketing rule.

Compliance Programs Minimize Violation Risks

Healthcare organizations benefit from establishing clear review processes for all promotional materials and patient communications before distribution. Designated privacy personnel can evaluate whether proposed communications require authorization, involve business associate relationships, or create other compliance risks under marketing regulations.

Staff training helps employees recognize the difference between permissible healthcare communications and restricted marketing activities. Education updates keep pace with new promotional channels, emerging technology platforms, and evolving interpretations of the rule’s requirements within changing healthcare and advertising landscapes.

explanation of benefits

Why Healthcare Insurers Should Send Explanation of Benefits Statements Via Email

Explanation of Benefits statements or EOBs are mission-critical communications for health insurers because they ensure transparency, help detect billing errors or fraud, and most importantly, keep patients informed about their benefits and related payments.

 

However, the most conventional method of sending out EoBs, traditional mail, has several drawbacks that can prevent important information about healthcare coverage from reaching the intended recipient. This can leave policyholders in the dark about their healthcare coverage, which can lead to confusion and dissatisfaction with their insurance provider when they receive an unexpected medical bill. This can also drive up inbound calls into your claims department or contact center.

 

Because Explanation of Benefits statements contain the protected health information (PHI) of policyholders, insurers are bound by HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) regulations to ensure their secure delivery. Consequently, the risks inherent to sending paper EoB statements in the mail not only have security implications but also potential consequences for non-compliance.

 

With all this in mind, this post discusses why healthcare insurers should send EoBs to their policyholders via secure email instead of traditional mail. We detail the various benefits of making the switch to electronic EoBs, which include enhanced security, better adherence to compliance regulations, and the opportunity to save millions of dollars per month.

 

Protecting Patient Privacy

The primary reason that insurance companies should shift to email EoBs as opposed to traditional mail is that it’s far more secure. Sending an EoB via email drastically decreases the risk of protected health information (PHI) getting into the wrong hands. When sent in paper form by mail, an EoB could be:

 

  • Lost, stolen or damaged in transit
  • Delivered to the wrong address
  • Not properly deposited in a letter or mailbox, then stolen
  • Intercepted within the intended address by another individual who lives at or has access to the residence. 

As detailed later in this post, email also allows for various controls and processes, which mitigate the risks of unsuccessful message delivery.

 

Most importantly, secure email provides data encryption, which safeguards the sensitive patient data within EoBs during transmission and when stored by rendering it unreadable to malicious actors who might intercept it. Physical mail, in contrast, offers no such protection, as someone who intercepts a paper EoB form can simply open it and freely read its contents.

 

Finally, secure email delivery platforms feature identity verification and access controls that enable healthcare insurers to restrict access to PHI to authorized personnel, limiting its exposure. They also provide auditing capabilities to track access to patient data, and quickly identify the source of security breaches.

HIPAA Compliance Benefits

Because sending an Explanation of Benefits statement via email is more secure, and better protects any patient data contained within them, this also reduces the risk of HIPAA compliance violations.

 

First and foremost, HIPAA regulations mandate that communications containing PHI, such as EoBs, must securely reach the intended recipient. By eliminating the risk of physical interception or non-delivery, and the compliance violations from a resulting security breach, insurers can better adhere to HIPAA regulations using email for sending EOBs. On a similar note, the security features built into a HIPAA compliant email platform, such as encryption, access controls, and audit logs, help insurers to satisfy the requirements of HIPAA’s Privacy and Security Rules in their compliance efforts.

 

Another considerable benefit of using secure email to send policyholders their EoBs, or, in fact, any communication containing PHI, is that it’s far easier to implement breach notification protocols. Email delivery platforms provide real-time tracking, so companies can pinpoint email message failures quickly and act accordingly. Similarly, intrusion detection systems and other cybersecurity measures that support email systems can enable faster detection and containment of data breaches.

 

In stark contrast, physical mail is far more difficult to track – and even those limited capabilities are reserved for more expensive delivery options. Consequently, security breaches via mail could go unnoticed for days or even weeks. If you’re unaware of a data breach, or have not yet contained or mitigated it, you’re then unable to inform all affected parties, resulting in further HIPAA violations.

Increased Deliverability Rates

By greatly mitigating the security risks presented by physical mail, i.e., the various ways an EoB could fall into the wrong hands, sending an EoB by email increases your ability to get more EOBs into the hands of policyholders, more quickly. At the same time, policyholders can make faster decisions regarding their healthcare.

The ability to track secure email gives you greater control over EOB deliverability, as it allows organizations to determine the cause of delivery failure and can also make subsequent attempts. Additionally, the process of determining the reason for the message delivery failures can also reveal security issues; the same process, however, is very difficult to achieve with traditional mail.

 

Here’s how the typical protocol for resending a secured email goes beyond what you can do with managing traditional mail delivery:

 

  • Determine the cause of non-delivery: verify that the intended recipient information is correct and check for issues like a full email inbox or security misconfigurations. 
  • Don’t automatically resend: to avoid exposing PHI to the wrong person, confirm the intended recipient’s email address through an alternative verified channel, e.g., phone call, secure SMS, etc. 
  • Log the incident: document the delivery failure, steps taken to determine its cause, attempts, etc.
  • Reattempt message delivery: if the investigation deems it safe, attempt message redelivery with the corrected information. 

In the event that subsequent delivery attempts fail, it’s best practice to contact the individual to arrange the most convenient and secure alternative to deliver their EoBs. 

Cost Savings 

Simply put, sending Explanation of Benefits statements via email instead of traditional mail saves health insurers money – potentially lots of it. Processing EOBs from start to finish can cost health insurers one to two dollars or more per EOB. That’s a lot. The biggest opportunity for cost reduction is tied to the money saved on printing and mailing paper EoB statements. Additionally, the cost of administering the delivery of EoB forms, ensuring their delivery, etc., is lowered when it’s done electronically. Not to mention, resending EoBs in the event of their non-delivery is much easier and cheaper via email.

 

In a broader sense, increasing the deliverability and the success rate of sending EoBs helps a larger number of policyholders better understand the details of their insurance coverage, i.e., how it works, which services and procedures it covers, etc. As a result of their policyholders being more informed, insurers won’t spend as much time explaining policy details and cost breakdowns to their members, allowing them to divert the otherwise required resources to other areas of the business.  

Reduced Carbon Footprint

Finally, it’s difficult to highlight the benefits of sending EoBs to policyholders by email without recognizing the positive environmental impact, too. Email EoBs cut down on paper, for both the forms themselves and the envelopes they’re mailed in. Then there’s the matter of the electricity and ink involved in printing them, the emissions produced in their delivery, etc. Opting to send EoBs via email reduces all these factors, which enables healthcare organizations to lower their carbon footprint and, where applicable, meet their sustainability obligations or goals. 

Deliver EoBs More Securely, Reliably, and at Lower Cost with LuxSci

LuxSci’s Secure High Volume Email Solution enables healthcare insurance companies to instantly send Explanation of Benefits statements to policyholders at a massive scale, extending into hundreds of thousands or millions per month.

 

Our HIPAA compliant email delivery platform features:

 

  • Dedicated IPs that isolate critical transactional messages, such as EoBs, from other email traffic, allowing LuxSci customers to reach deliverability rates of 98% or more. 
  • Real-time tracking for determining the delivery status of EoBs, as well as troubleshooting unsuccessful delivery attempts.
  • Flexible encryption through LuxSci’s proprietary SecureLine Technology, which automatically adjusts encryption settings according to the recipient to better ensure the protection of sensitive data.

Contact us today to learn more about how your organization can begin the transition to electronic EoBs.

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HIPAA Marketing Compliance

What are the 5 Stages of Patient Engagement Framework?

The patient engagement framework consists of five progressive stages: inform, consult, involve, collaborate, and empower. This approach helps healthcare organizations build stronger relationships with patients while improving health outcomes. The framework guides providers in developing communication strategies, technological tools, and care processes that move patients from passive recipients of care to active partners in their health management.

Patient Engagement Framework Foundations

The patient engagement framework builds upon healthcare’s evolution toward more patient-centered care models. This structured approach acknowledges that patients have varying levels of activation and readiness to participate in their healthcare decisions. The framework helps organizations assess their current engagement practices and develop strategies for improvement. Healthcare providers use these stages to map communication approaches and technology implementations that support increasing patient participation. Each stage of the patient engagement framework requires different tools, processes, and organizational capabilities. Understanding these elements helps healthcare organizations develop realistic roadmaps for advancing their engagement efforts.

Stage One: Inform

The first stage of the patient engagement framework focuses on providing patients with clear, accessible health information. At this level, communication flows primarily from provider to patient through educational materials, discharge instructions, and basic health literacy resources. Organizations develop content in multiple formats and languages to accommodate diverse patient populations. Digital patient portals typically begin at this stage with features like lab result viewing and appointment scheduling. Healthcare teams establish consistent messaging across departments to avoid confusing or contradicting information. While this stage is the beginning of the patient engagement framework, many organizations struggle to advance past informing patients about their conditions and treatments.

Stage Two: Consult

The consultation stage of the patient engagement framework opens two-way communication channels between providers and patients. Healthcare teams seek patient input about symptoms, preferences, and treatment experiences through surveys, feedback forms, and structured conversations. Providers begin recognizing patients as valuable sources of information about their own health situations. Digital tools expand to include secure messaging and symptom reporting capabilities. Care teams develop protocols for responding to patient communications within appropriate timeframes. The consultation phase of the patient engagement framework begins establishing the base for more collaborative relationships while still maintaining traditional healthcare hierarchies. Organizations generally measure success at this stage through patient satisfaction metrics and communication response rates.

Stage Three: Involve

The third stage of the patient engagement framework actively involves patients in treatment planning and health monitoring. Patients participate in goal-setting discussions and receive tools for tracking health metrics between appointments. Healthcare teams incorporate patient preferences and priorities when developing care plans. Technology platforms introduce self-management tools and educational resources tailored to individual health conditions. Care protocols expand to include regular check-ins and progress evaluations beyond scheduled appointments. The involvement stage of the patient engagement framework marks a significant shift toward recognizing patients as active participants rather than passive recipients.

Stage Four: Collaborate

Collaboration represents the fourth stage in the patient engagement framework, where patients function as true partners in their care team. Health professionals and patients make treatment decisions jointly, weighing clinical evidence alongside patient goals and preferences. Healthcare systems establish patient advisory councils to inform organizational policies and program development. Technology platforms integrate patient-generated health data with clinical systems to create comprehensive health pictures. Team-based care models include patients in case conferences and care planning sessions. The collaborative stage of the patient engagement framework requires organizational culture changes that value patient perspectives alongside clinical expertise. Healthcare systems reaching this stage often demonstrate better care coordination and reduced unnecessary utilization.

Stage Five: Empower

The final stage of the patient engagement framework focuses on empowering patients to manage their health independently when appropriate. Patients receive comprehensive tools and knowledge to make informed healthcare decisions aligned with their personal values. Organizations support patient autonomy while maintaining appropriate clinical oversight for complex conditions. Technology platforms provide personalized insights and recommendations based on individual health patterns. Care teams function as coaches and consultants rather than directing all aspects of patient care. The empowerment phase of the patient engagement framework acknowledges patients as the primary drivers of their health management with healthcare providers serving supportive roles.

Implementing the Patient Engagement Framework

Healthcare organizations implement the patient engagement framework through gradual, strategic changes to clinical processes, technology systems, and organizational culture. Leadership commitment proves essential for allocating necessary resources and championing patient-centered approaches. Staff training addresses both technical skills and communication methods appropriate for each engagement stage. Technology selection focuses on tools that can evolve alongside advancing engagement capabilities. Progress measurement includes both process indicators and outcome metrics tied to each framework stage. Organizations typically find that different service lines and patient populations may operate at different engagement levels simultaneously, requiring flexible implementation approaches. The patient engagement framework provides a roadmap while allowing organizations to adapt implementation to their unique circumstances and patient populations.

HIPAA Compliant Email Encryption

Is Office 365 HIPAA Compliant?

Microsoft Office 365 can be HIPAA compliant when properly configured and covered under a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with Microsoft. The platform includes security features, access controls, and encryption capabilities that support HIPAA requirements when implemented correctly. Healthcare organizations must enable specific security settings, configure appropriate access permissions, and train staff on proper usage to maintain compliance within the Office 365 environment.

Microsoft BAA Coverage

Microsoft offers a Business Associate Agreement covering Office 365 services when used by healthcare organizations. This agreement establishes Microsoft as a business associate under HIPAA regulations and outlines their responsibilities for protecting health information. Not all Office 365 services fall under BAA coverage – Microsoft provides documentation specifying which services qualify for healthcare data. Core services like Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Teams typically qualify with proper configuration. Organizations must execute this agreement before storing any protected health information in Office 365.

Email Protection Capabilities

Exchange Online includes several features supporting HIPAA compliant status for healthcare email. Transport Layer Security (TLS) encrypts email during transmission between systems. Data Loss Prevention policies can identify and protect messages containing patient information. Rights Management Services allows message encryption for sensitive healthcare communications. Organizations can implement archiving and retention policies that maintain healthcare records according to regulatory requirements. These capabilities help protect patient information sent through email while maintaining appropriate documentation for becoming HIPAA compliant.

Document Storage Safeguards

SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business provide document storage with security features supporting HIPAA compliance. Encryption protects stored healthcare documents from unauthorized access. Permission controls restrict document viewing based on user roles and responsibilities. Audit logging tracks document access and modifications for HIPAA compliant documentation. Version history maintains records of document changes. Organizations can implement information barriers that prevent inappropriate sharing between departments. These features allow healthcare organizations to store and collaborate on patient information while maintaining appropriate security controls.

Collaborative Healthcare Communication

Microsoft Teams offers collaboration capabilities that support HIPAA compliant communication when properly configured. Private channels allow secure discussions about patient cases between authorized healthcare providers. Meeting recordings and chat logs maintain appropriate documentation of clinical consultations. Guest access controls allow external providers to participate in care discussions with proper security boundaries. Organizations can implement retention policies that maintain records according to healthcare requirements. These features enable healthcare teams to collaborate effectively while protecting patient information confidentiality.

Platform Management Tools

Office 365 includes administrative tools that help maintain HIPAA compliance across the platform. Multi-factor authentication adds security beyond passwords for accessing healthcare information. Conditional access policies can restrict system access based on device status, location, and risk factors. Mobile device management enforces security requirements on smartphones and tablets accessing patient data. Security monitoring identifies potential threats and suspicious activities across the environment. These administrative capabilities help organizations implement security programs that protect healthcare information throughout the Office 365 environment.

Workforce Readiness Elements

Achieving HIPAA compliance with Office 365 requires proper implementation and staff training beyond technical configuration. Organizations must develop policies governing appropriate use of Office 365 services for healthcare information. Staff need training on security features and compliance requirements specific to the platform. Regular security assessments help identify potential vulnerabilities in Office 365 implementations. Documentation should include Office 365 security configurations as part of overall compliance planning. These implementation practices help organizations maintain HIPAA compliance while leveraging Office 365 productivity benefits.

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How do I fix the reputation of my IP address?

It happens — you’re sending email messages without issue, and then suddenly emails are not being delivered, or they’re being flagged as spam. A little digging reveals that the problem is that your “IP reputation” is poor, and you need to fix it somehow.

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HIPAA Compliant Email Marketing

How To Implement HIPAA Compliant Email Marketing?

HIPAA compliant email marketing requires healthcare organizations to obtain written patient authorization before using protected health information in promotional communications, implement end-to-end encryption for all marketing messages, execute business associate agreements with email service providers, and maintain detailed audit trails of all promotional activities. Medical practices must distinguish between permissible treatment communications and restricted marketing activities, ensuring that any promotional campaigns involving patient data receive explicit consent through properly executed authorization forms while utilizing secure email platforms that meet HIPAA requirements.

Healthcare organizations feel mounting pressure to attract new patients through digital marketing channels while navigating privacy regulations. Email marketing campaigns that appear straightforward in other industries are legally complicated when patient information enters the equation, demanding careful planning and compliance oversight.

Patient Authorization Requirements for HIPAA Compliant Email Marketing

Written patient consent precedes any use of protected health information in promotional email campaigns, including patient testimonials, demographic targeting, or treatment outcome sharing. Authorization forms require sixteen specific elements including detailed descriptions of information usage, recipient identification, expiration dates, and clear explanations of revocation rights. Healthcare organizations cannot condition treatment or payment on patients providing marketing authorization. HIPAA compliant email marketing authorization forms use plain language that patients understand without legal expertise. Organizations cannot combine marketing authorization with treatment consent documents or bundle multiple promotional purposes into single authorization requests. Each marketing campaign requiring PHI usage needs separate, specific authorization that clearly explains how patient information will be used.

Patients retain the right to revoke marketing authorization at any time, forcing organizations to immediately remove those individuals from all promotional campaigns. Revocation requests receive prompt attention, with most organizations processing these within 48 hours of receipt. Organizations maintain systems to quickly identify and remove revoked patients from active marketing lists across all platforms and campaigns.

Email Platform Selection Ensures HIPAA Compliant Email Marketing

Email service providers handling patient information for marketing purposes sign business associate agreements that outline HIPAA compliance responsibilities, data protection requirements, and breach notification procedures. These agreements cannot be generic vendor contracts but specifically cover healthcare privacy obligations and liability allocations for potential violations. Marketing platforms provide end-to-end encryption for all messages, secure data storage with access controls, and comprehensive audit logging capabilities. Email systems encrypt data both in transit and at rest, utilize strong authentication protocols, and maintain detailed records of message creation, transmission, delivery, and recipient interactions.= Cloud-based email marketing platforms present compliance challenges because patient data may be stored on servers in multiple geographic locations. Organizations ensure their chosen platforms maintain appropriate data residency controls and can demonstrate compliance with HIPAA safeguards through independent security assessments and certifications.

Platform configuration requires careful attention to default settings that may not meet HIPAA requirements. Marketing teams disable automatic data sharing features, configure appropriate access controls based on staff roles, and establish secure backup and disaster recovery procedures that protect patient information throughout the email marketing infrastructure.

Content Creation Within Privacy Protection Guidelines

Marketing email content avoids using patient information without proper authorization, even for seemingly innocuous purposes like demographic statistics or general treatment outcome claims. Any reference to patient experiences, treatment results, or practice statistics derived from patient data requires explicit authorization from affected individuals or proper de-identification according to HIPAA standards. HIPAA compliant email marketing content creation involves careful review processes to ensure no protected health information appears in marketing messages without appropriate consent. Stock photography replaces actual patient images, and testimonials include proper authorization documentation. Even appointment scheduling or service reminder emails can become marketing communications if they promote extra services or third-party products. De-identification offers an alternative to patient authorization but requires removing all identifying elements that could reveal patient identity when combined with other available information. Safe harbor de-identification requires removing eighteen specific identifier categories, while expert determination methods need statistical analysis to ensure re-identification risks stay appropriately low.

Content review workflows include legal oversight for any marketing emails that reference patient data, treatment outcomes, or practice statistics. Organizations benefit from establishing clear guidelines about what constitutes marketing versus treatment communications to prevent inadvertent violations when staff create promotional content.

Segmentation and Targeting

Patient list segmentation for marketing purposes requires careful evaluation of whether targeting criteria constitute protected health information usage. Segmenting patients based on age, gender, or geographic location may be permissible, while targeting based on medical conditions, treatment history, or appointment patterns requires specific authorization for marketing purposes. Email marketing platforms provide sophisticated targeting capabilities that can inadvertently use protected health information without proper authorization. Healthcare organizations configure these systems to prevent automatic segmentation based on medical data while still enabling effective marketing communication with appropriate patient segments. External marketing vendors and consultants need clear guidelines about permissible data usage when creating targeted email campaigns. Business associate agreements specifically prohibit vendors from using patient information for purposes beyond the agreed-upon marketing activities, and organizations monitor vendor compliance through audits and oversight procedures.

Marketing automation workflows present particular challenges because they may trigger different messages based on patient behavior or characteristics that constitute protected health information. Organizations carefully design these automated systems to ensure all triggered communications comply with authorization requirements and privacy protection standards.

Security Measures and System Protection

HIPAA compliant email marketing systems implement appropriate safeguards including access controls, audit logs, integrity protection, and transmission security measures. User authentication requires strong passwords, multi-factor authentication for administrative access, and access reviews to ensure only authorized personnel can access patient information used for marketing purposes. Email transmission security requires encryption protocols that protect messages during delivery to patient email accounts. Transport Layer Security protocols need proper configuration, and organizations verify that recipient email systems can receive encrypted messages appropriately. Some patients may need alternative secure communication methods if their email providers cannot handle encrypted messages. Backup and disaster recovery procedures for marketing email systems maintain the same privacy protections as primary systems. Marketing data backups containing patient information require encryption, access controls, and secure disposal procedures when retention periods expire. Organizations test recovery procedures to ensure patient data stays protected during system restoration activities.

Network security measures isolate marketing email systems from other practice management systems when possible, reducing potential exposure if security breaches occur. Firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and security monitoring help protect patient information used in marketing campaigns from unauthorized access or cyberattacks.

Performance Monitoring and Compliance Auditing

HIPAA compliant email marketing requires monitoring of campaign performance, patient engagement metrics, and compliance adherence across all promotional activities. Organizations track authorization status for all marketing recipients, monitor revocation requests, and maintain detailed records of patient consent for regulatory auditing purposes. Email marketing analytics avoid collecting protected health information without authorization. Standard metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribe rates don’t require extra authorization, but behavioral tracking that reveals health-related interests or conditions may trigger privacy protection requirements. Compliance audits examine marketing authorization documentation, vendor compliance with business associate agreements, and safeguard implementation across all email marketing systems. These audits help identify potential violations before they result in regulatory enforcement actions or patient complaints.

Staff training on HIPAA compliant email marketing occurs annually and whenever marketing procedures change significantly. Training covers authorization requirements, content creation guidelines, and system usage to ensure all team members understand their compliance responsibilities when handling patient information for marketing purposes.

Enforcement Trends and Violation Prevention

Recent Office for Civil Rights enforcement actions have targeted healthcare organizations for using patient information in email marketing without proper authorization, sharing marketing data with vendors without business associate agreements, and failing to honor patient requests to opt out of marketing communications. These cases show increasing regulatory scrutiny of healthcare marketing practices. Common violations include using patient email accounts obtained for treatment purposes in marketing campaigns without separate authorization, incorporating patient testimonials or photos in promotional emails without consent, and failing to properly segment marketing lists to exclude patients who have revoked authorization. Organizations establish clear procedures to prevent these compliance failures.

Settlement agreements require organizations to implement HIPAA compliant email marketing programs, conduct staff training, and submit to monitoring for extended periods. Compliance programs that consider these enforcement priorities can minimize violation risks and avoid costly regulatory investigations that disrupt practice operations and damage professional reputations.