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Patient Portals and Patient Engagement

Wednesday, March 8th, 2023

Patient portals are powerful tools that allow patients to access their health records and even enable appointment scheduling and communication with healthcare providers. Despite their growing importance and popularity, patient portals alone aren’t a solution for patient engagement.

What is a Patient Portal?

A patient portal is a secure online website that gives patients 24-hour access to personal health information from anywhere with an internet connection. By logging in to an account with a unique username and password, patients can view health information like medical records and lab results and communicate securely with their healthcare provider.

In May 2020, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) finalized federal rulemaking to increase patients’ and caregivers’ access, exchange, and use of electronic health information. This rule implements key provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act. The legislation requires certified health IT developers to adopt secure, standards-based application programming interfaces that enable individuals to access and manage their health records using a health application.

The top ways patient portals are used include:

patient portal usage

The Problems with Patient Portals and Patient Engagement

Despite their growing popularity, not all patients want to use online portals. Below, view some of the top reasons patients do not want to use a portal.

why patient portals aren't used

The most common reasons included just simple patient preferences. Survey respondents preferred to use another channel to communicate with their healthcare providers. This survey data was collected before the Covid-19 pandemic began. Over the past two years, other surveys have identified a growing acceptance of digital health tools. Nevertheless, it’s important to remember that not everyone prefers to use internet-based technology and provide alternate methods for engagement.

Another primary concern is technology access. Three factors accounted for over 50% of responses, including:

  • Difficult to login (24%)
  • Uncomfortable with computers (20%)
  • Do not have a way to access the website (13%)

Not all patients can access a reliable internet connection or confidently use a computer. These barriers can prevent patients from accessing their medical information and highlight why providing multiple channels for patients to interact with their providers is essential. 

Security concerns are not irrelevant either. With increasing threats to the healthcare industry, it’s understandable that some patients are hesitant to have their health information shared online. Providers must do more to secure their digital environment and earn patients’ trust.

Patient Engagement Challenges

Sending timely, personalized messages is critical to the success of patient engagement efforts. However, patient portals can also be a barrier to engagement if they are the sole vector for patient communication. Nearly 40% of patients never login into the portal, while only 18% log in more than six times a year.

patient portal access

If you attempt to send engagement messages via the patient portal, they will go unread by most of your audience. A simple forgotten password could prevent patients from accessing the portal for months, meaning they could miss out on timely messages about their healthcare.

In addition, patient portals do not support the creation of personalized messages at scale. These platforms were designed to send one-to-one messages about a patient’s upcoming appointment, lab results, and medical records and do not possess the same customization features as email marketing platforms. 

Finally, most patient portals were designed to be data repositories and were not built to enable patient communication. Most send a vague notification email to the patient, letting them know a message is waiting. However, the burden is on the patient to log in and read the message. Most EHRs cannot even track who is opening and reading the messages! For healthcare marketers trying to identify the best patient engagement strategies, patient portals lack the analytics and data needed to define, track, and boost engagement.

Patient Engagement with No Portals: Secure Email Solutions

Patients expect a healthcare experience that is more like that of e-commerce. 90% of patients want to receive emails from their providers that apply to their health journey. By moving patient engagement activities out of the portal as much as possible, it opens up new possibilities for marketers. TLS-encrypted emails do not require passwords to read, and securely deliver information directly to inboxes. 

Not all messages are appropriate to send via TLS-encrypted emails. Sometimes the security of the patient portal is preferred. Patient portals are an excellent place to store sensitive data and must be a part of the patient’s healthcare experience. It’s always a good idea to post highly sensitive data like test results and medical records in an encrypted portal and not send them via email because of possible interception and eavesdropping issues. However, by using secure email to send less-sensitive patient engagement messages, marketers can reduce barriers and promote precision nudging in a way that does not compromise data security. 

Marketers will see better open and engagement rates by delivering the message directly to patients’ inboxes. Using a HIPAA-compliant email marketing solution enables the use of PHI to customize messages designed to guide patients on their healthcare journeys. Contact LuxSci today to learn about creating a flexible, data-informed patient engagement strategy.

Tags: email marketing, ePHI, medical records, patient engagement, patient portal
Posted in Email, Email Marketing
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The PHI Difference in Healthcare Marketing

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2023

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: HIPAA Compliance Requirements

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 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 Email Marketing
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Reduce Risk with Set It and Forget It Email Encryption

Tuesday, February 7th, 2023

Leveraging PHI in your communications provides relevant, meaningful information to patients while significantly increasing positive health outcomes. LuxSci’s secure and HIPAA-compliant always-on email encryption streamlines the communications process and reduces risk. Use PHI safely and securely with set it and forget it email encryption technology.

doctor sending email

The Email Encryption Landscape

There are many ways to enable encryption for messages that contain protected health information. The most common include data loss prevention technology and manual opt-in encryption.

First, data loss prevention uses software to scan message contents to look for keywords, phrases, or patterns that indicate the presence of sensitive or confidential information. Administrators must create detailed rules that instruct the DLP technology on what information is privileged and should be encrypted. While this is effective for some common keywords and patterns like social security numbers, a lot of health data does not fall neatly into pre-defined rules. DLP can quickly be rendered inadequate by misspellings, typos, or other human errors that fail to trigger the technology.

PHI data risk

The next way that email messages are commonly encrypted is through human decision-making. The user switches a toggle or types a word like “encrypt” into the subject line or message to notify the system that the message should be secured. This form of opt-in encryption is hazardous because it relies on staff members making the right decisions around confidentiality and security. Even the best employees will make mistakes. How many times have you forgotten to include an attachment with an email message?

A Better Way: Set It and Forget It Email Encryption

set it and forget it email encryption At LuxSci, we recommend a different approach. Encrypting every email message automatically drastically reduces the risk of user error and ensures 100% message encryption. In industries like healthcare and finance, even one mistake could lead to a breach with severe financial penalties.

By encrypting all messages with a baseline of TLS encryption, organizations can meet their compliance requirements and provide a better user experience for recipients because portal logins are not required.

Set It

Setting up LuxSci’s Secure Connector takes less than one hour. Administrators can set it up globally, with no local installation or download required by staff members to connect. Once DNS and encryption settings are configured, employees can send secure emails immediately.

Administrators can choose the encryption configuration option that best fits their business processes. TLS is suitable for most communications, but sensitive data like health records, financial reports, or other confidential information can be sent to a secure portal for increased security. Administrators can create and manage encryption settings on an individual or group level to provide maximum flexibility. LuxSci’s encryption technology is highly configurable to meet any business need.

Forget It

Administrators don’t have to rely on employee decision-making when all messages are automatically encrypted. Employees do not need to be trained on when to enable encryption. It just happens automatically in the background, which increases security and gives you peace of mind.

It’s also easier for administrators to manage. There is no need to create detailed lists of rules to trigger encryption technology. Once you’ve selected your encryption preferences, all emails are sent that way. Minimal ongoing training or support is needed, and administrators can be confident that their messages are protected. In addition, users can verify that secure message delivery occurred with comprehensive analytics reports.

The Results: Improved Patient Engagement

TLS encryption is a game-changer because it is secure enough to meet compliance requirements and is user-friendly. TLS-encrypted messages appear just like regular, unencrypted emails in the recipient’s inbox, making them easy to read and respond to but without the risk of interception or eavesdropping. This is crucial for users who are not tech-savvy and helps to increase engagement with the message contents. If a user needs to take an extra step to log into a portal or create an account, they are more likely to drop off and not read the message.

Reducing friction in patient communications helps improve conversions and nudges patients into taking actions that will improve their health outcomes. Access to health care needs to be equitable, and that means making clinical communications seamless for users of all technical abilities.

Tags: always on encryption, automatic encrypion, dlp, email encryption, human error, patient engagement, phi, risk analysis, secure connector, set it and forget it
Posted in Email, LuxSci Library: HIPAA
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Precision Nudging and Patient Engagement: Using PHI to Improve Outcomes

Friday, January 20th, 2023

Precision nudging is a new buzzword in the patient engagement space. But what does it mean, and how does it apply to your email engagement efforts?

precision nudging email with PHI

What is Precision Nudging?

Forrester defines precision nudging as “the act of notifying or sending a message that prompts action by the patient to overcome patient-specific barriers to action at the right time and place for scalable, sustained behavior change.”

Precision nudging is a preemptive and proactive approach to patient communication. Reminding patients about appointments before they occur can ensure they do not miss important screenings and checkups. By receiving timely diagnoses and treatments, it saves money and improves health outcomes in the long term. Automating these processes at scale can streamline clinical communications and improve patient satisfaction. Beyond appointment reminders, there are many applications for this strategy.

Precision Nudging Strategies

The most critical part of precision nudging is delivering information to the patient at the correct time. Some common ways organizations are adopting precision nudging include:

  • Appointment reminders
  • Medication refill reminders
  • Pre and post-surgery instructions
  • Chronic condition education and resources
  • Mental health check-ins
  • Annual screening reminders

Sending notifications that nudge patients into taking necessary actions is a practical patient engagement strategy. Engaging with patients more frequently can build trust with the provider and encourage patients to take early action that improves their health. Precision nudging can prevent unnecessary visits to the hospital and ultimately drive down spiraling healthcare costs. So many unnecessary hospital admissions occur because patients do not understand or adhere to treatment plans. Nudging patients to change bandages, take medication, or get preventative screenings increases the likelihood of better health outcomes.

How to Use PHI in Precision Nudging

When communicating with patients about their healthcare, it’s essential to use a secure and encrypted communication channel. Regular texts and emails won’t cut it. 93% of patients prefer to communicate with their healthcare provider via email, so it’s wise to start there.

Also, make sure these messages are not locked behind a patient portal. Use TLS encryption to secure the email to make it as easy as possible to read and respond to, while staying in compliance.

Once you have determined your channel, determine your audience. It makes sense to start small. Maybe you want to encourage individuals who have skipped an appointment to reschedule or want to help people recently diagnosed with a chronic condition like diabetes better manage their condition.

Then, create your message. Make sure it is clear, concise, and has a simple call to action. Also, personalize it to fit the audience’s preferences. If the patient primarily speaks Spanish, provide a message in their native language.

Once you’ve established the proper cadence, you can expand your use cases to some examples above. Using a scalable and HIPAA-compliant platform like LuxSci’s Secure Marketing or Secure High Volume Email makes it easy to personalize, send, and review the results of these campaigns. Contact us today to learn more about how to incorporate precision nudging into your clinical communications efforts.

Tags: email engagement, email marketing, health outcomes, operational efficiency, patient education, patient engagement, precision nudging
Posted in Email Marketing, LuxSci Library: HIPAA
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The Benefits of Dedicated IP Addresses vs. Shared

Thursday, December 22nd, 2022

Choosing a dedicated or shared IP address may seem like an inconsequential decision, but it can significantly impact the effectiveness of your patient engagement efforts. Learn why dedicated IP addresses are preferred for transactional and marketing emails in the healthcare industry.

dedicated ip address

What is a Dedicated IP Address?

An IP address is a string of unique characters that can be found in the headers of your sent emails. Internet service providers use them to identify the origin of the email message. ISPs use the IP address’s reputation to determine if the message is spam and should be delivered to the recipient.

Dedicated IP addresses belong to your organization and cannot be used by other customers of your email service provider. By having a dedicated IP address, the server’s reputation and delivery power are a function only of the organization’s sent mail. Dedicated IP addresses have several advantages, including:

  • No shared resources with other senders
  • Reputation management and brand safety
  • Improved email deliverability
  • Easier to troubleshoot blacklisting issues

We will discuss the benefits of dedicated IP addresses and what they mean for your organization later.

What is a Shared IP Address?

In contrast, a shared IP address does not belong to your organization and is shared among the customers of an email service provider. Shared IPs are the default option for many email service providers. Upgrading to a dedicated IP usually incurs an additional fee, so many organizations get started using a shared IP address. It is a cost-effective solution for some smaller organizations with limited or small sending needs. No IP warm-up is required since the address is active and in use, meaning it’s easy to start sending quickly. However, as organizations grow and their sending needs increase, they may be frustrated with the following:

  • Slow email delivery
  • Undelivered emails
  • Emails frequently flagged as spam
  • Blacklisted IP addresses

When email becomes a critical business channel, it’s often time to switch from a shared IP to a dedicated solution.

The Benefits of Dedicated IP Addresses for Patient Engagement Emails

Healthcare organizations that rely on email should strongly consider using dedicated IP addresses to improve trust and ensure critical communications are sent on time and are received in patients’ inboxes. If patients cannot receive critical information about appointments, prescriptions, or other healthcare needs, it will negatively impact their experience and may cause them to choose another provider.

No shared resources with other senders

When sending substantial quantities of time-sensitive emails, your sending speed may be limited by others using a shared IP address. Important emails (like password resets and appointment reminders) can get stuck in long sending queues, and you will have no control over when the messages are sent out. In contrast, you have complete control over your sending speed and resources when using a dedicated IP address (or multiple IP addresses). External users will never slow you down.

Reputation management and brand safety

Another perk of using a dedicated IP address is that you can match it to your company’s DNS records. To do this, your mail server’s IP address to send outbound emails must have a “Reverse DNS.” This is the responsibility of the email service provider (at LuxSci, we set this up automatically). If set up incorrectly or missing, you will have significant deliverability issues.

When someone performs a reverse DNS lookup on a company’s dedicated IP address, it will clearly identify the sender and provides additional information about the company. This data builds trust and improves your reputation with ISPs.

Improved email deliverability

The main reason many choose dedicated IP addresses is to improve the deliverability of their emails. If email service providers do a terrible job vetting their customers and allow spammers to use their service, bad actors can quickly contaminate reliable IP addresses. When using dedicated IP addresses, you can control the IP warm-up process and prevent employees from engaging in spammy practices. By having full control over your IP reputation, you can improve the deliverability of your emails and prevent them from being flagged as spam.

Easier to troubleshoot blacklisting issues

Though most ISPs will not acknowledge “whitelists,” senders using dedicated IP addresses can subscribe to Complaint Feedback Loop (CFL) programs to help minimize complaint rates. If you participate, ISPs will forward complaints from users about emails sent from your organization’s IP addresses.

Even if you can’t get on a whitelist, understanding when and why your IP address is blacklisted is valuable information. When using a shared IP, it’s impossible to know why it was blacklisted. Another user could have sent spammy content, used a paid list, or sent a large mailing to an old contact list. To get off the blacklist, troubleshooting the issue, fixing it, and avoiding future mistakes are essential to increasing reputation and staying out of the spam filter. It’s easier to identify which emails are generating spam complaints when you aren’t sharing IP addresses.

Conclusion

Consider using dedicated IP addresses if your organization uses email for patient engagement efforts. They provide the reliability and reputational benefits you need to execute these campaigns at scale. Contact us today to learn more about how to engage patients with personalized email campaigns.

Tags: dedicated ip, dedicated server, email deliverability, email delivery, email spam, ip address, patient engagement, spam complaint
Posted in Email, Email Marketing, LuxSci Library: The Technical Side of Email
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