" healthcare marketing Archives - LuxSci

Posts Tagged ‘healthcare marketing’

Healthcare Marketing And HIPAA: Are You In Compliance?

Tuesday, January 14th, 2025

Healthcare marketing is essential to growing your business successfully, but when you work in regulated spaces, there are serious compliance considerations. Whether responding to an online patient review or trying to increase patient engagement through marketing campaigns, misunderstandings in marketing best practices can lead to patient privacy breaches.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which controls what and when patient information may be shared for marketing purposes, was enacted before the electronic age. As a result, it can be challenging to find information regarding appropriate marketing practices using modern social and software technologies.

HIPAA and Healthcare Marketing

A large part of HIPAA regulates what is appropriate for the use or disclosure of patient information. There are certain instances where the use and disclosure of protected health information (PHI) is allowed without patient consent. These instances include sharing PHI for treatment, payment, or healthcare operations.

However, before you can use patient information for marketing efforts, you need to receive explicit written consent from the patient. The consent form must be specific to the marketing efforts you will use the patient’s PHI in. For instance, if you would like to share patient testimonials, photos, or videos on your website or social media accounts, the patient must sign a consent form stating that you will use their information in this way.

HIPAA-compliant marketing also largely depends on an employee’s understanding of the law. Employees responsible for handling PHI must be trained to use and disclose PHI within the scope of their job role. Improperly trained employees can expose your practice to HIPAA violations and costly fines.

8 Common Misunderstandings of Marketing and HIPAA

1. As long as patient consent is obtained, HIPAA doesn’t matter
Some organizations think they can use any marketing tool with a signed patient consent form. Still, the tool has to be HIPAA-compliant. Even if patients agree, it does not remove the organization’s obligations to secure PHI under the law. If protected health information is improperly accessed, it is still a breach and can lead to severe financial and reputational consequences.

2. Marketing emails do not need encryption
Many marketing emails imply a relationship between patients and providers and, as such, can often be classified as protected health information. PHI must be encrypted in transit and at rest to comply with HIPAA.

3. Personalizing marketing emails is a HIPAA violation
Marketing emails can be personalized as long as the proper safeguards and precautions are in place to protect patient privacy and meet compliance requirements.

4. Marketing companies do not need to sign Business Associates Agreements
As of 2013, the HIPAA Omnibus rule expanded HIPAA obligations to include business associates and subcontractors. Marketing agencies and vendors that process PHI on behalf of a covered entity must comply with HIPAA regulations, which include signing a BAA.

5. The only way to protect PHI is to use patient portals
TLS encryption meets HIPAA transport encryption requirements and provides a better user experience. Marketing emails sent with TLS encryption are more likely to be opened than those sent to a patient portal.

6. Using BCC is enough to keep patient identities private
BCC is NOT enough to protect patient identities. Although the end recipient cannot tell who else received the message, the entire list is visible as the messages are transmitted from server to server. The messages can be eavesdropped on by someone with technical abilities.

7. Always respond to social media reviews
Be extremely careful when responding to online reviews. Publicly confirming information about a patient’s health or treatment status is a HIPAA violation.

8. Healthcare marketing isn’t necessary or worth the hassle
Healthcare consumerism is rising, and patients are willing to change providers if they are unsatisfied with their experience. Educating and informing current and potential patients about your services is essential to improve new customer acquisition and retention.

How to be HIPAA-Compliant

The most crucial step is vetting marketing vendors and HIPAA compliance tools. Any vendor that handles PHI on behalf of a healthcare entity needs to sign a Business Associate Agreement that outlines how patient data will be stored, transmitted, and disposed of. Don’t choose a vendor who is unfamiliar with HIPAA’s stringent requirements. Also, watch out for quasi-compliance. Some self-identified “HIPAA-compliant” vendors can protect data at rest but not in transmission or require patient waivers to achieve compliance.

Next, always use encryption and default to security. Identifying PHI is often tricky, and the legal burden should not fall on the marketing team. By selecting technology that encrypts every marketing email, you can rest assured that messages are secure and compliant. A bonus tip- do not send marketing messages to an encrypted patient portal. Instead, send marketing messages with TLS encryption directly to patients’ inboxes. You will see much higher response rates and engagement.

Finally, to create the most effective marketing campaigns, use PHI to create segmented audiences and send them personalized content. These tactics are widely used outside the healthcare industry because they deliver results. *Remember that any tool you put PHI into must be HIPAA-compliant.

How LuxSci Can Help

LuxSci’s Secure Marketing tool is an email marketing platform designed to meet HIPAA requirements. It allows marketing teams to segment audiences and personalizes emails to engage patients and improve marketing ROI. If you are already using a third-party email marketing platform, no worries, we got you covered. LuxSci’s Secure High Volume Email solution can integrate with any third-party platform to make sure those emails are also HIPAA-compliant.

The PHI Difference in Healthcare Marketing

Sunday, December 22nd, 2024

Healthcare marketers are facing complex challenges with serious stakes. Unlike in other industries, healthcare marketers share messages that can impact people’s health and livelihood. Creating the most effective messaging needs to be a priority for healthcare marketing teams. Using first-party data is one way to make a major difference in your marketing efforts. Marketers can craft highly targeted campaigns using protected health information (PHI) to deliver better results for patients. 

First-Party Data for Healthcare

In some ways, healthcare marketers are at an advantage because of the amount of first-party data they can access. First-party data is information a company collects directly from its customers. The company owns this data and can verify its authenticity. Marketers can use data like digital interactions, purchase history, and preferences to create experiences that cater to an individual’s interests. In the healthcare industry, first-party data goes way beyond digital interactions. Information about health statuses, diagnoses, and recent patient visits can all be incorporated into marketing campaigns to guide patients on their journey to better health. 

Marketers in other industries know that first-party data achieves the highest return on investment of any data type. In 2020, Google partnered with Boston Consulting Group to study how brands succeed with first-party data strategies. The report found that businesses using first-party data for key marketing functions achieved up to a 2.9 times revenue uplift and a 1.5 times increase in cost savings. In addition, as data privacy restrictions grow and third-party cookies are phased out, marketers need more control over their data sources to ensure compliance.

Why Use PHI in Healthcare Marketing?

When healthcare organizations use PHI to segment their email lists and personalize campaign content, they experience better results. Using a HIPAA-compliant email marketing solution allows marketers to leverage the data and information they have about patients to increase engagement. When using PHI, there are so many ways to customize email content that can deliver impressive results.

PHI in healthcare marketing stats

It makes intuitive sense. What would you prefer- frequent emails about products and services you don’t want, or consistent emails that relate to your goals and interests? It’s an easy decision. No one likes to be annoyed by pointless emails. Using information about your patients’ health statuses and goals to craft personalized messages increases patient satisfaction and retention, while also improving engagement.

email stats

As discussed above, healthcare patient data is an excellent source of first-party data that is more comprehensive than the information gathered in other industries. However, healthcare marketers face another hurdle. In addition to getting patient consent to use this data for marketing purposes, organizations are also strictly governed by HIPAA compliance regulations that restrict the use of PHI.

The Challenge For Healthcare Marketing: HIPAA Compliance

So what can healthcare marketers do to surmount this obstacle? First, they must understand the regulations surrounding the transmission of protected health information (PHI). Responsible healthcare marketers must comply with HIPAA when utilizing patient data in their marketing efforts.

Most marketers rely on some sort of email marketing software, CRM, or CDP to manage their marketing campaigns. However, not all platforms are able to meet HIPAA’s stringent requirements. A simple approach to evaluating marketing software for HIPAA compliance focuses on three crucial aspects:

  1. Sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA)
  2. Securely Store Data
  3. Securely Transmit Data

healthcare marketing comparison

First, any third party with access to PHI must sign a Business Associates Agreement to govern how the information will be secured and what happens in case of a breach. If they will not sign a BAA, the software should not be used to store or process PHI.

However, signing a BAA alone is not enough. Understanding the terms of service and what the provider allows is essential. If their terms of service forbid you from sending PHI, it could put your organization at risk. It’s also important to review how the data will be secured at rest and in transit. When storing patient health data in a marketing application, consider how it will be protected. Simply put, you must ensure that all PHI is encrypted and can only be accessed by people with the appropriate keys.

If protected health information is transmitted outside of the database or application via email, encryption must also be used to protect the data in transmission. At a minimum, TLS encryption (with the appropriate ciphers) is secure enough to meet HIPAA guidelines. However, many applications do not offer transmission encryption that is secure enough to comply with HIPAA. You should only send communications containing PHI if they are encrypted.

Conclusion

Using PHI data in your healthcare marketing efforts can yield improved results. However, this approach requires careful vetting and planning by your marketing and compliance teams to ensure data is secured under HIPAA regulations. To learn more about HIPAA-compliant marketing solutions, contact LuxSci today.

Omnichannel Healthcare Marketing

Saturday, November 23rd, 2024

Omnichannel healthcare marketing is a relatively new strategy that can help healthcare marketers achieve success.

Marketers need to leverage a variety of marketing tactics to reach and communicate with their patients. Omnichannel marketing involves the integration of digital channels and traditional media to provide a consistent and personalized experience across all channels to drive marketing success.

omnichannel marketing

Read the rest of this post »

LuxSci and Compliancy Group Work Together to Transform Healthcare Communications

Wednesday, September 14th, 2022

Boston, MA- September 2022 – LuxSci, a provider of HIPAA-compliant email services, is pleased to announce a new partnership with Compliancy Group, a leading software solution for healthcare compliance. By partnering with LuxSci, Compliancy Group can offer best-in-class email security solutions to close technology gaps identified by their proprietary compliance platform.

“The way healthcare organizations communicate with patients is constantly evolving. These organizations often fail to realize that HIPAA regulates the ways in which providers can communicate with patients and the tools that they are permitted to use. As a forward-thinking email service provider, LuxSci has taken the steps required to meet HIPAA’s communication standards.” Kelly Koch, Director of Dental Relations, Compliancy Group.

The Covid-19 pandemic forced healthcare organizations to adopt new digital technologies quickly. Many turned to Compliancy Group to navigate the complex HIPAA compliance questions associated with new technologies like telehealth. Likewise, providers rapidly implemented digital tools, like LuxSci’s suite of HIPAA-compliant email solutions, to engage patients. The partnership allows LuxSci and Compliancy Group to help healthcare organizations address the difficult compliance questions that arise during digital transformation.

“Compliancy Group offers a vital service to healthcare organizations and vendors in these rapidly changing times. Their comprehensive compliance platform allows providers to navigate this heavily regulated environment with the confidence that they are complying with HIPAA. LuxSci is proud to partner with Compliancy Group to help their customers secure email communications and engage patients with HIPAA-compliant technology.” Heather Clark, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, LuxSci.

Compliancy Group enables healthcare organizations and vendors serving the healthcare industry to achieve HIPAA compliance through an easy-to-use software platform and live guided coaching. The Guard, its proprietary compliance platform, covers all the necessary parts of the HIPAA regulation to protect organizations in case of an audit. Compliancy Group awards clients the HIPAA Seal of Compliance upon successful completion. The Seal can be used in marketing and proves they are dedicated to protecting patient information and have completed the steps required to satisfy the law.

LuxSci provides secure email solutions to help healthcare organizations meet compliance requirements and protect patient data. LuxSci’s SecureLine encryption technology helps healthcare providers reduce risk profiles while providing easy-to-use email tools. LuxSci’s top-rated US-based support team goes above and beyond to help organizations stay protected.

 

Engage Patients with Educational Messaging

Tuesday, March 15th, 2022

Educating patients about their upcoming medical procedures is an important part of building trust and increasing retention. Using digital technologies to educate patients is just one way to reinforce messaging and improve patient compliance. This article provides some examples of how to digitally engage with patients both before and after undergoing a medical procedure.

patient education

Read the rest of this post »