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Patient Engagement: Why Email is an Essential Channel

Saturday, February 22nd, 2025

In today’s increasingly digital world, email is often overlooked as a channel for patient engagement. Email may not appear to be as innovative or exciting as texting, social media, or mobile applications. Nevertheless, email is a powerful tool that remains widely popular and accessible to most of the population, making it an essential channel for patient engagement through HIPAA compliant email marketing.

doctor emailing patient

Email Adoption Rates

Because of its ubiquity, email should be prioritized as part of your patient engagement efforts. 92% of Americans have email accounts, and 49% check them multiple times daily. Compared to 80% who text, 72% are social media users, and 85% have a smartphone, email has one of the highest adoption rates among digital technologies. Even among older populations and disadvantaged communities, email has been widely adopted.

Best of all, email can be secured to meet HIPAA requirements and protect patient privacy, all while providing a patient-centered experience.

Patient Preferences

Communicating according to patient preferences is one of the most important ways to improve engagement. Many people prefer email communication because it’s less intrusive to their daily lives. The pandemic rapidly accelerated the demand for digital services, and healthcare was not exempt from these shifting preferences. A survey conducted by Redpoint Global found that 80% of patients said that they prefer to use digital channels to communicate with healthcare providers at least some of the time.

In today’s digital society, failing to communicate according to preferences can have significant consequences. Accenture found that 34% of people said they would switch medical providers or be less likely to access care in the future because of a poor experience.

Securing data to comply with HIPAA regulations and obtaining patient consent for marketing communications is essential to engaging patients with personalized emails. Email communications are easy to opt-in and out of- giving patients complete control over how their healthcare data is used.

The Advantages of Email for Patient Engagement

Email has several advantages, but the two most important include the ability to personalize and scale communications. Patients don’t want to receive the same generic newsletters or messaging. They expect their healthcare providers to provide information that is relevant to their health journey at the right time. The power of email lies in its ability to be customized and personalized at scale. Email APIs can pull data from your CDP, EHR, or CRM into dynamic templates. Messages can be triggered and personalized based on pre-determined actions or criteria. Organizations can create fully automated email workflows to streamline operations and meet patient needs.

By using dynamic personalization and automation, your staff can spend less time with their fingers on keyboards and more time assisting patients. Trigger-based email flows can remind patients of appointments, collect insurance information, ensure proper medication adherence, and send other relevant healthcare communications. This frees up time for staff to focus on other tasks and relieves some administrative overhead.

The Results: Improved Patient Engagement

HIPAA compliant email is one of the most effective channels for driving customer behavior. For every $1 spent on email marketing, the average ROI is $36. Email can also provide near-instant performance analytics, so it’s possible to tell what messages are resonating and which are not. In addition, A/B testing makes it simple to test components of your message on a small scale and then send out the winning formats. Trying out different email subject lines, calls to action, imagery, and other messaging is easy. Because of these features, personalized email messaging can provide better conversion rates, patient engagement, and return on investment than other digital channels.

Conclusion

Email is a powerful channel that can benefit your medical practice. It is often preferred for one-to-one communication and can also be an effective marketing channel. Learn more about how to address clinical communication challenges with secure email technology by contacting LuxSci today.

Tags: email automation, email engagement, email marketing, hipaa compliance, patient communication, patient engagement, patient experience, patient preferences, patient retention, patient satisfaction, personalization
Posted in HIPAA Marketing, HIPAA Compliant Forms, HIPAA Email Compliance
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6 Email Marketing Best Practices for Healthcare

Friday, February 14th, 2025

Email marketing can be a powerful tool for healthcare organizations, but it requires careful planning and execution because of HIPAA compliance requirements for HIPAA marketing. In this blog post, we will discuss email marketing best practices to help healthcare marketers achieve their goals. 

woman viewing email program

1. Define Your Campaign Goals

The success of any email marketing campaign depends on the goals you want to achieve. However, because healthcare organizations are often not selling products to their patients, marketers can be confused about how to set measurable goals for their campaigns that aren’t tied to revenue generation.

Healthcare marketers want to use email marketing campaigns for various purposes, including patient engagement, education, and retention. Some possible objectives of your campaigns could be:

  • New patient acquisition
  • Re-engaging lapsed patients
  • Spreading awareness about vaccines, treatments, or medical conditions
  • Increasing treatment or medication adherence
  • Collecting survey responses or patient-reported outcomes

All of these campaign objectives will correlate with different metrics. Identifying the campaign goal and the corresponding metrics you need to track is critical before selecting the audience and crafting the content.

2. Select Your Audience

Gone are the days of sending giant email blasts to your entire contact list. The best email marketers are creating highly targeted campaigns for specific audiences. Healthcare marketers using patient data in their audience targeting efforts are at an advantage. They can use patient information to create distinct audience segments. Targeting a patient population with common attributes makes it easier to craft a relevant message to drive clear results. For example, marketers can create more relevant campaigns when they can divide their patient population into subgroups based on shared characteristics like diagnoses, risk factors, and demographic data.

3. Personalize Your Content

Once you have clearly defined your goal and your audience, it’s essential to use personalization techniques to craft relevant messaging. Healthcare consumers expect more personalization from their providers and want to receive messages that tie into their past experiences. Generic, irrelevant messaging is more likely to annoy patients than get them to act. Healthcare marketers are lucky to have a wealth of data points to use in their messaging, but they must be aware of patient privacy and take steps to secure their messaging. When you have taken the appropriate steps to secure patient data, including protected health information in email messages is possible. This improves the patient experience and makes it easier for healthcare marketers to achieve their objectives.

4. Use A Clear Call-to-Action

Your emails should include a clear call-to-action (CTA) that encourages your audience to take the desired action. These actions may include scheduling an appointment, downloading a resource, logging into a patient portal, filling out a survey, or contacting your organization. Ensure that your CTA is prominent, stands out from the rest of your content, and ties back to the goal of your campaign. Most importantly, implement appropriate tracking technologies so you can see how many email recipients followed through on the CTA.

Don’t include too many calls to action in one message! Including multiple prompts may confuse the recipient and make it more difficult for your team to understand how the campaign performed.

5. Review Your Data

Finally, it’s essential to monitor your email metrics to evaluate the success of your campaigns. Some key metrics may include open rates, click-through rates, surveys completed, successful logins, appointments scheduled, and other relevant metrics that tie back to your goals. Use this data to refine your email marketing strategy, trigger follow-up campaigns and marketing activity, and optimize future campaigns. Use APIs or webhooks to ensure your email campaign statistics are tied into marketing dashboards to get a holistic view of how your campaigns are performing.

6. Choose an Email Marketing Platform Designed for Healthcare

Finally, to use the tactics recommended above, it’s necessary to use a HIPAA-compliant email marketing platform. Segmenting audiences and personalizing content requires the use of protected health information. Therefore, it must be secured in compliance with HIPAA. You must select a platform that can protect data both at rest and in transit to utilize the power of your data fully.

LuxSci’s HIPAA compliant email marketing solution was designed to meet the needs of healthcare marketers and enables the use of PHI at scale. Contact our sales team to learn more about our capabilities and email marketing best practices.

Tags: email analytics, email marketing, ePHI, hipaa, hipaa compliance, patient engagement, personalization, phi, secure email, segmentation
Posted in HIPAA Marketing
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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.

Tags: email marketing, email personalization, healthcare marketing, patient engagement, patient retention, personalization, phi, segmentation
Posted in HIPAA Marketing
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Send Secure Emails: Alternatives to Web Portals

Tuesday, December 5th, 2023

Digital technologies have entirely shifted how individuals want to interact with their healthcare providers. As consumers have become used to emailing or texting with their hairstylists, mechanics, and other providers to schedule appointments, they want to have the same level of interaction with their healthcare providers.

However, many healthcare organizations find it challenging to deliver the same experience because of their compliance requirements under HIPAA. They must balance usability and access with security and patient privacy. To send secure emails, they often resort to secure web portals. 

Problems with Secure Web Portals

One of the most common ways that healthcare organizations communicate securely with patients is by using the secure web portal method of email encryption. In this scenario, messages are sent to a secure web server, and a notification is sent to the recipient, who then logs into the portal to retrieve the message.

While highly secure, this method is not popular with recipients because of the friction it creates.

To maintain a high level of security, users must log in to a separate account to retrieve the message. This extra step creates a barrier, especially for individuals who are not tech-savvy. In addition to creating a new account, they must remember a different username and password to access their secure messages. If the recipient doesn’t have this information readily available, they will likely delete the message and move on with their day. Many users will never bother logging in because of the inconvenience. This creates issues for organizations that want to use email for standard business communications and patient engagement efforts. 

While this method may be appropriate for sending highly sensitive information like medical records, financial documents, and other valuable information, many emails that must meet compliance requirements only infer sensitive information and do not require such a high level of security. Flu shot reminder emails are not as sensitive or potentially devastating as sending the wrong medical file to someone. Healthcare organizations need to use secure email solutions that are flexible enough to send only the most sensitive emails to the portal and less sensitive emails using other methods.

How to Meet Compliance Requirements for Sending Secure Email

So, what other options do you have for sending secure emails? The answer will depend on what specific requirements you need to meet. Healthcare organizations that must abide by HIPAA regulations will find a lot of flexibility regarding the technologies they can use to protect ePHI in transit.

In addition to a secure web portal, three other types of encryption are suitable for email sending: TLS, PGP, and S/MIME. PGP and S/MIME are more secure than a web portal. They also require advanced technological skills and coordination with the end-user to implement, which makes them impractical for most business email sending.

That leaves us with TLS, which is suitable to meet most compliance standards (including HIPAA) and delivers an email experience much like that of a “regular” email.

Send Secure Emails with TLS Encryption

TLS encryption is an excellent option for secure email sending that provides a seamless experience for the recipient. Emails sent securely with TLS appear like regular, unencrypted emails in the recipient’s inbox.

TLS encrypts the message contents as they travel between mail servers to prevent interception and eavesdropping. Once the message reaches the inbox, it is unencrypted and can be read by anyone with access to the email account. For this reason, it is less secure than a portal but secure enough to meet compliance requirements like HIPAA.

If you’re wondering why this is, HIPAA only requires covered entities and business associates to protect PHI when it is stored on their systems or as it is transmitted elsewhere. After the message reaches the recipient, it is up to the recipient to decide what they want to do to secure the information. HIPAA does not apply to individuals. Each person is entitled to share and store their health information however they see fit.

Conclusion

Balancing security and usability is a significant challenge for healthcare organizations. If the message is too secure, it may be difficult for the recipient to open and engage with it. If it’s not secure enough, it is too easy for cybercriminals and other bad actors to intercept private information as it is sent across the internet. 

Choosing an email provider like LuxSci, which offers flexible email encryption options, allows users to choose the right level of encryption for each message to maximize engagement and improve health outcomes. Contact our team today to learn more about how we can support your efforts.

Tags: digital transformation, email, email encryption, email security, patient engagement, patient experience, secure web portal, tls, tls encryption
Posted in HIPAA Email Compliance
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Improve the Patient Experience with Personalized Patient Engagement

Tuesday, November 7th, 2023

Patient expectations of healthcare providers have dramatically changed in the last decade. The introduction of technology and the widespread adoption of digital communications in other industries have increased the pressure on healthcare providers to provide a comparable experience.

The 2023 Healthcare Consumer Perspectives on Digital Engagement and AI report conducted by Dynata Research found that more patients are adopting digital tools to manage their health and want their providers to provide a consistent experience across all channels. To improve the patient experience, a personalized patient engagement strategy is necessary.

Personalized Patient Engagement Improves the Patient Experience

Healthcare organizations manage so much data that can be used to improve the patient experience. As audience segmentation and personalization techniques have become more common in other industries like e-commerce and personal care, consumers are starting to expect the same experiences from their healthcare providers.

For example, media streaming services make personalized recommendations for new shows based on what you have previously watched. People like these features because it helps them discover new content they may not know about. Likewise, patients are beginning to expect a similar personalized patient engagement experience from their healthcare provider. Suppose a patient wants to control their diabetes diagnosis and communicates with their provider about this at an appointment. Afterward, when they log into the patient portal or receive follow-up information, they expect to receive relevant information that aligns with that provider’s conversation.

survey data patient preferences

Proactive, personalized patient engagement can also drive patients to make the right choices in managing their health. By sending patients the correct information at the right time in the context of their individual health journey, it is easier for them to manage their own health.

Shifting Preferences for Digital Tools Enable Personalized Patient Engagement

As more people are open to incorporating digital tools into their healthcare journeys, it has revealed new patient engagement opportunities. Several reasons led healthcare organizations to embrace digital tools. The coronavirus pandemic kicked off a necessary wave of digital transformation because of the rapid transmission of the disease through close contact. The desire to use these tools has remained strong even after institutions largely reopened in 2021. Patients have also shown no desire to go back to the way things used to be. Digital channels and tools like patient portals, email, medical devices, and mobile applications all make it easier for patients to manage their health on the go.

shifting digital preferences survey data

As patient preferences have shifted to embrace digital channels and technologies, organizations that can implement digital-first personalized patient engagement strategies intelligently are more likely to have satisfied and healthier patients. However, healthcare organizations must strive to provide a consistent experience across both in-person and digital avenues. According to the survey, the number one reason consumers would consider changing their healthcare provider is “complex or confusing experiences.” Poorly implemented and executed patient engagement can negatively impact the patient experience and retention, so it’s essential to be thoughtful in your approach.

How to Personalize the Patient Experience

Traditionally, HIPAA compliance requirements have made it difficult for healthcare providers to utilize protected health information (PHI) in personalized patient engagement efforts. Using PHI in communications is vital to craft messaging relevant to the patient’s health journey. However, when transmitting and storing PHI, HIPAA regulations must be followed to protect patient privacy.

The first step to executing personalized patient engagement involves selecting the right tools. Many traditional digital engagement tools are not designed to meet these stringent encryption and security requirements. By selecting tools that meet HIPAA’s technical requirements (like LuxSci’s Secure Marketing and Secure High Volume Email) and properly training employees, healthcare teams can employ the same segmentation and personalization techniques to reach patients with relevant and consistent communications.

Conclusion

Personalizing patient engagement is one way to improve patient marketing and retention. Contact us today to learn more about improving the patient experience with secure email communications.

Tags: digital health, email marketing, ePHI, hipaa compliance, patient engagement, patient experience, personalization, segmentation
Posted in HIPAA Marketing
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