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Posts Tagged ‘patient engagement’

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 Email
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6 Email Marketing Best Practices for Healthcare

Tuesday, November 14th, 2023

Email marketing can be a powerful tool for healthcare organizations, but it requires careful planning and execution because of HIPAA compliance requirements. 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 Secure Marketing 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 Email Marketing
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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 Email Marketing
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Overcoming Barriers to Successful Digital Health Patient Engagement

Tuesday, October 31st, 2023

Effective patient engagement is a goal for many healthcare organizations because of the benefits. When patients are engaged in their healthcare, illnesses are diagnosed sooner, bills are paid faster, and patient satisfaction is increased, leading to better business outcomes for the healthcare organization. Advances in technology have made it easier to achieve successful digital health patient engagement. Nevertheless, barriers remain when using digital channels to engage patients effectively. This article discusses the main barriers to digital patient engagement and how to overcome them to drive better results.

hand pointing at ipad with digital health symbols

Barriers to Digital Health Engagement

Patient engagement involves encouraging patients to make informed decisions about their health. Engaged patients are activated patients, meaning they participate in positive behaviors to manage their health. Proactive management of healthcare conditions helps improve outcomes and achieve lower costs. Digital health tools offer scalable ways to engage patients but must be thoughtfully implemented and deployed to achieve the best results.

Let’s review the most common barriers to digital health patient engagement and potential solutions for these issues.

Limited Access to Technology

Digital patient engagement tools may be a poor choice for patients without access to the internet, smartphones, or other digital devices. Though broadband access and smartphone users have risen over the past few years, the individuals without access are often the most in need of patient engagement efforts.

Solution: Invest in Consumer Technology

Some organizations have experimented with providing low-income, at-risk populations with the tools they need to monitor their health digitally. Providing smartphones, internet-connected medical devices, and even mobile hotspots can help increase access to digital health tools that drastically improve patient lives.

Low Health Literacy

If you’ve ever received a bloodwork report and struggled to understand what it meant, you can relate to the struggles that patients with low health literacy face. Suppose the digital health patient engagement tactics you employ are heavy with medical jargon and unclear to lay people. In that situation, patients cannot act on the information to improve their health.

Solution: Create Content for Users

Strip technical jargon from patient communications and keep patients from being overwhelmed with information. Engagement messages should be easily understood and clearly define the patient’s next step.

For example, if you use remote patient monitoring tools for patients with diabetes and send weekly reports on their average A1c levels, you must 1) make sure the patient knows what the reading means and 2) provide a clear direction for what the patient should do with that information. If the reading is too high, clearly state that and provide some next best steps. If the reading looks good- celebrate that and encourage them to continue to make the right choices to manage their diabetes.

Privacy and Security Concerns

It’s no secret that healthcare data is valuable to cybercriminals, and many high-profile breaches have made patients wary about digitally sharing health information. Patients may be concerned about the privacy and security of their personal health information, particularly if they are unsure how it is used.

Solution: Invest in Tools Designed for HIPAA Compliance

Ensure that the digital tools you use to engage with patients have recommended security features, including encryption and access controls like multifactor authentication. You can also work with your legal and security teams to craft policies that outline how patient data is used and when it will be securely disposed of. Patients have a right to control their data, and these policies can help build trust and increase confidence in your patient population to boost the adoption of digital health tools.

Limited Provider Support

Patients may be less likely to engage with digital health tools if they do not receive adequate support or encouragement from their healthcare providers. Even basic patient portals are more likely to be used by patients to review their health information only once prompted by their healthcare provider.

Solution: Work with Providers to Encourage Adoption

Digital health patient engagement tools must have buy-in from providers to be effectively deployed. Eighty-five percent of patients say they always trust their healthcare providers, meaning their support can influence patient adoption rates. Having providers explain the solution, why it is in use, and how patients can utilize it to improve their health can significantly increase engagement with the tools.

Age and Cultural Differences

Patients from different ages and cultural backgrounds may have different preferences and expectations regarding digital health tools. We are all familiar with the stereotypes of older people not understanding how to use technology. That does not mean digital health engagement tools cannot be used, but instead must be deployed in a culturally specific way.

Solution: Improve Accessibility and Invest in Training

Based on the patient’s comfort level with technology, allocate resources to help educate and train individuals on how best to use the tools. Make sure any technology you use is adequately designed to support individuals with disabilities, i.e., is accessible by screen readers and can support assistive technologies. Also, make sure the digital health tools support the patient’s first language and are personalized to their cultural context.

Lack of Personalization

Digital health engagement tools that do not account for individual patient preferences or needs may not be as effective at engaging patients as tools tailored to their specific needs. After the 2020 pandemic, patients have higher expectations for personalized digital experiences. 90% of patients surveyed want to receive communications that reflect where they are in their healthcare journey. If your tools cannot provide a personalized experience, you may be annoying patients rather than helping them.

Solution: Adopt Tools That Enable the Use of PHI

Use digital health engagement tools that are secure enough to transmit protected health information. When patient data is adequately protected, it can be used to transform your digital patient engagement efforts and improve the patient experience.

Conclusion: Successful Digital Health Patient Engagement starts with the Right Tools

Digital health tools for patient engagement can be quite effective if properly configured and deployed. When looking at ways to improve patient engagement, ensure you are using tools that are easy for patients to use and fit seamlessly into their day-to-day lives. With over 90% of adults already using email, secure email messaging is an effective way to reach patients and provide them with the information they need to improve their health. Contact LuxSci today to learn more strategies for improving patient engagement with digital health tools.

Tags: digital health, email personalization, health literacy, patient engagement, personalization, phi, technology access
Posted in LuxSci Library: HIPAA
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Fuel Your Cross-Channel Marketing Strategy with Email

Monday, July 24th, 2023

Moving to an omnichannel or multichannel marketing strategy requires time and investment. However, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to drive behavior and achieve results. For reasons we will explore in this article, email is a powerful tool in patient engagement and driving a successful cross-channel marketing strategy.

Email is Everywhere

One of the main reasons email is so essential to a cross-channel marketing strategy is its high adoption rates. Compared to other channels, email has an almost universal adoption rate. 92% of Americans have email accounts, and 49% check them multiple times daily. Let’s look at some other tech adoption rates. In the United States:

  • 80% text
  • 72% are social media users
  • 85% have a smartphone

As you can see, email has one of the highest adoption rates among popular digital technologies. Even among older populations and disadvantaged communities, email is widely used, making it an essential channel to address health equity.

Email is also excellent at generating revenue and driving patient behavior. Email is one of the most effective channels, delivering an average ROI of $36 for every $1 spent. Delivering results in the email channel drives business success, even if other channels are slow to take off. Best of all, email can be secured to meet HIPAA requirements and protect patient privacy, all while providing a patient-centered experience.

Email Messaging to Drive Cross-Channel Actions

Email is essential in a cross-channel marketing strategy because you can harness an already engaged mailing list and direct them to take action in other channels.

The best way to illustrate this is with examples. Email can:

  • Encourage people to visit a website to take a specific action
  • Drive visits to patient portals for appointment scheduling or viewing medical information
  • Get users to follow accounts on social media channels
  • Solicit reviews and survey responses
  • Direct people to physical locations to address health concerns
  • Prompt patients to opt-in to SMS messaging
  • Alert people to look out for a physical piece of mail

using email messaging to drive cross-channel actions

This list is just a sampling of the types of messages that marketers can send to prompt activity in other channels. When you segment your audience and personalize your messaging for specific audiences, email can effectively drive desired behavior.

Use Email Data to Determine Next-Best Actions

The other benefit of email is the data you can acquire from the campaigns. Most people open and engage with emails within 24 hours of receipt. This data can be used to trigger activity in other channels.

Similar to how there are so many use cases for email campaigns, there are innumerable ways that you can use the data from these campaigns to drive cross-channel activity. For example, if you notice that a patient is engaging with content about scheduling an appointment but failing to complete the process, it can trigger a staff member to make a phone call to help them. It would be too time-consuming and expensive for staff members to contact everyone who has not scheduled an appointment recently. But by looking at your email data and information about the patient, you can identify people who may want to schedule appointments but are hitting roadblocks in the process.

A counter-example is that if people are not engaging with your emails, you can focus your marketing efforts on other channels like paid advertising and direct mail. These channels are often more expensive than email, so by only targeting those who are hard to reach, you see a better ROI and don’t waste valuable marketing dollars.

Conclusion

If you are struggling to drive conversions in other channels, consider focusing on email. It’s easy to get started with, and once you build a solid list, it can be used to drive cross-channel behavior. To learn more about the benefits of email marketing, contact LuxSci today.

Tags: email marketing, email reporting, email reports, health equity, marketing strategy, multi-channel marketing, omnichannel marketing, patient engagement, personalization
Posted in Email Marketing
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