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Why Should You Integrate CDPs and Email?

Why Should You Integrate CDPs and Email?

Growing numbers of healthcare organizations are turning to Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) to consolidate and leverage patient data (or electronic protected health information (ePHI) from electronic health record (EHR) systems, RCM platforms, CRM systems, websites, communications channels, and other various sources. 

CDPs enable healthcare providers, payers, and retailers to better understand each patient’s needs, health conditions, treatment schedules, ongoing care, and so on, enabling them to take the right actions, at the right time to improve engagement. This results in more patient participation, enhanced coordination with providers and companies, and, ultimately, improved patient outcomes.

Why Should You Integrate CDPs and Email?

Integrating the functionality of a CDP with a HIPAA compliant email platform, such as LuxSci, empowers you to put your data into action. This includes enabling you to better target your various segments using real-time communications data – such as email opens, clicks and conversions – as well as using PHI in secure messages for greater personalization – all while operating within the bounds of HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) regulations. 

With this in mind, this post discusses the benefits of integrating your organization’s CDP solution with a HIPAA compliant email solution. We’ll explore the main benefits and how to integrate the two solutions, as well as several effective strategies for leveraging the valuable PHI stored within your CPD to increase patient and customer engagement.

Benefits of Integrating a CDP with HIPAA Compliant Email

Let’s begin by looking at the main advantages of pairing your CDP with a HIPAA compliant email platform.

Increased Protection of Customer Data

Above all, HIPAA compliant email platforms are specifically designed with the stringent data privacy and security requirements of the healthcare industry in mind. As a result, they contain a range of data security features, including encryption, access control, user authentication, and audit logging, that both better safeguard ePHI from unauthorized access and ensure HIPAA compliance. In short, HIPAA compliant email helps ensure that when valuable and sensitive CDP information is put into use, i.e. using it in patient emails and communications, it’s protected and safe both in transit and at rest.

Avoid the Consequences of HIPAA Violations

By opting for an email provider that meets the security requirements for HIPAA compliance – and better yet, HITRUST certification – your company can better mitigate the risk of data breaches, and the compliance violations that accompany them. The consequences of HIPAA compliance violations include: 

  • Financial penalties: this includes regulatory fines, legal fees and compensation to affected parties, and state-level fines (in certain cases). In the event that compliance officers can prove willful neglect, your company may even face criminal charges, incurring further damage.  
  • Operational disruptions: suffering a security breach requires healthcare organizations to spend time on containment and notifying and reassuring affected parties, as well as taking subsequent mitigation efforts – all of which take time away from running the day-to-day business.
  • Reputational damage: displaying an inability to safeguard sensitive data will cause patients and customers to lose trust in your organization and move to other providers or suppliers.

Enhanced Personalization in Engagement Efforts

With ongoing uncertainty around HIPAA regulations, healthcare companies are often reluctant to include PHI in their email communications and campaigns, missing opportunities to fully leverage your CDP to create more effective, more relevant messages, targeting highly segmented audiences. Safe in the knowledge that customer data derived from your CDP will be secured by your HIPAA compliant email provider or HIPAA compliant marketing solution, you can confidently include PHI in communications to craft more personalized – and potent – engagement opportunities.  

The data aggregated by CDPs can be used to divide, or segment, customers into smaller groups with particular commonalities, such as a health condition like diabetes, or users of a particular type of medical equipment. Healthcare marketers can use the shared needs and problems of each patient or customer segment to drive more effective and targeted campaigns that deliver more opens, clicks, and conversions.

Strategies for Leveraging Customer Data Through CDP and Email Integration

Having a better understanding of the benefits of CDP integration with your email communications, let’s move on to a few of the most effective ways to leverage your customer data through a HIPAA compliant, secure email services provider (ESP).

Segmenting Customers by Health Condition or Risk Profile

The first strategy, as alluded to above, is to use the health-oriented data stored in your CDP to group customers into segments that you can target with highly personalized messaging – using PHI to your advantage. Segmentation could be based on health conditions, such as demographics, location, or by a patient’s lifestyle risk factors, e.g., smokers. 

Having defined your segments, you can create personalized email campaigns for each, which are far more likely to drive engagement and actions versus messages designed to appeal to everyone or with limited information. Better still, you can create different email campaigns to fulfill different purposes with automated workflows based on how your patients respond, giving you a range of opportunities to reach out and connect. Using intelligence from your CDP, you can design your email campaigns to:

  • Educate: send patients and customers educational materials designed to increase their understanding of their state of health and the options available to them for creating the most favorable outcomes. 
  • Offer adherence advice: include information on how to best adhere to a prescribed care or treatment plan, resources on overcoming common challenges, where to go for support, etc. 
  • Provide preventive care tips: help patients who fit a particular risk profile, such as diabetes or heart disease, make better lifestyle choices, with the ultimate aim of avoiding the disease they’re at risk of. 

Lifecycle-Based Messaging

This is a variation on the above strategy that segments patients and customers based on how far along they are in their treatment lifecycle, for instance: 

  • Onboarding: messaging that introduces your services, explains how to access care, and covers other preliminary details; this stage is essential for setting expectations and establishing trust with your patients and customers.
  • Active Treatments: regular check-ins, medication reminders, preparation guides, and educational resources based on their condition or treatment plan; this messaging is designed to support adherence and improve healthcare outcomes.
  • Follow-Up and Recovery: personalized care instructions, satisfaction surveys, or information about next steps; this shows ongoing support and maintains consistent communication when a patient may be feeling most vulnerable. 
  • Preventive and Long-Term Care: triggering routine screening reminders, vaccine alerts, or wellness tips based on age, history, and risk factors; an integrated CDP and email system can track when patients are due for services and automate communication accordingly.
  • Re-engagement: sending patients who have been inactive for a while tailored prompts, e.g., “We haven’t seen you in a while…”; this encourages proactivity and helps highlight new services that may be of interest.

Behavior-Triggered Messaging

Integrating your CDP with a HIPAA compliant email platform enables you to automate email delivery and workflows based on a customer’s behavior and engagement patterns. This type of email is enabled by the CDP’s ability to monitor events and behaviors across multiple activities and locations, enabling you to create email campaign strategies and workflows accordingly. This approach allows for a range of timely and relevant engagement opportunities, including: 

  • Missed appointments: sending a message if a patient misses an appointment that encourages them to reschedule and assists them in how to do so. 
  • Periodic checkup reminders: similarly, if a patient is supposed to have regular checkups, follow-up appointments, a recommended health screening, etc., this data can be passed from the CDP to the email client to schedule automated emails that drive up appointment bookings.  
  • Unfilled prescriptions: if a patient hasn’t picked up their prescribed medication, you can automatically trigger an email reminder and automated workflow to get the prescription filled; this information can also be fed back to their healthcare providers if repeated reminders see the prescription remain unfilled. 
  • Patient portal inactivity: if a user hasn’t logged into a portal for a predefined time frame, this can prompt a re-engagement email encouraging them to check messages in their portal, view test results, etc. 
  • Form completion: after inputting data into a web form, an integrated CDP can help facilitate the delivery of a tailored email that offers guidance on next steps or the most relevant products or services based on given answers.

Implement Feedback Loops for Optimized Engagement

Finally, a key benefit of integrating a CDP with a HIPAA compliant email platform is that it enables you to close the loop between engagement and results. By feeding campaign performance data, such as email opens, clicks, conversions, and other key metrics, back into your CDP, you can continuously refine your email outreach strategies to enhance engagement, while developing a more complete data profile of patients and customers.

Put Your CDP into Action with LuxSci Secure Email

Integrating HIPAA compliant communications solutions like LuxSci with your healthcare organization’s CDP empowers you to securely harness your customer data in email communications for consistent, timely, and relevant engagement – for better health outcomes and better business. 

To learn more about LuxSci’s suite of secure HIPAA compliant communication solutions and how we seamlessly integrate with leading CDP solutions to improve engagement, contact us today!

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healthcare marketing

How Automated Workflows Boost Engagement for Healthcare Marketing Campaigns

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

 

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

 

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

What Are Automated Workflows?

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

 

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

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

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

What Are the Benefits of Automated Workflows?

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

Reduced Administrative Workload

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Enhanced Scalability

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

 

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

Increased Consistency in Communication

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

 

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

Personalized Healthcare Engagement 

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

 

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

Automated Workflow Use Cases

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

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

How Automated Workflows Work in LuxSci Secure Marketing

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

 

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

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

Smart Event-Based Branching and Conditions

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

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

Automated Segment Management 

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

Navigation Across Steps

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

Automate Your Healthcare Marketing and Engagement Efforts

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

 

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

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

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

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

 

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Healthcare marketing plan

How To Create a Healthcare Marketing Plan?

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

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

Target Audience in Healthcare Marketing Plan Development

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

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

Budget Allocation

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

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

Digital Strategy to Drive Modern Patient Acquisition

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

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

Compliance Integration Protects Promotional Activities

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

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

Community Outreach Builds Local Patient Relationships

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

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

Performance Measurement Guides Strategy Optimization

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

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

Implementation Timeline

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

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HIPAA Marketing Rule

What Does the HIPAA Marketing Rule Require?

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

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

The HIPAA Marketing Rule Authorization Framework

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

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

Treatment Communications Bypass Marketing Restrictions

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

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

Financial Incentive Distinctions Shape HIPAA Marketing Rule Compliance

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

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

Business Associate Relationships Complicate Marketing Activities

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

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

Digital Platforms & Modern Marketing Compliance Challenges

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

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

Enforcement Penalties Reflect Serious Violation Consequences

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

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

Compliance Programs Minimize Violation Risks

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

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

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explanation of benefits

Why Healthcare Insurers Should Send Explanation of Benefits Statements Via Email

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Protecting Patient Privacy

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

HIPAA Compliance Benefits

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Increased Deliverability Rates

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

Cost Savings 

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

 

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

Reduced Carbon Footprint

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

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

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

 

Our HIPAA compliant email delivery platform features:

 

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

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

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Sending HIPAA Compliant Email

Sending HIPAA Compliant Email the Right Way

Maintaining HIPAA compliance is a critical requirement for healthcare providers, payers and suppliers dealing with protected health information (PHI). Ensuring your email communications align with those standards can be, well… tricky. With fines reaching into the millions, non-compliance isn’t something you want to risk. We’ve seen it time and time again when engaging with our customers and prospects. Unfortunately, many organizations fall into the trap of believing they’re sending HIPAA compliant emails because they’ve applied what we call “self-certification” strategies—without fully understanding what’s required to be compliant.

Are you 100% sure that you’re sending HIPAA compliant emails?

In this blog post, we’ll delve into the risks of being non-compliant, explain why self-certification strategies often lead to problems, and provide a HIPAA-compliant email checklist to help ensure your organization avoids the pitfalls self-compliance.

The Importance of Sending HIPAA Compliant Emails

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) was established to ensure the protection and privacy of patients’ PHI. This law mandates that any entity handling PHI must implement strict safeguards to prevent unauthorized access, breaches, and exposure of sensitive patient data.

In today’s digital world, where healthcare communications often take place over email and other digital platforms, maintaining HIPAA compliance becomes even more complex. It’s not enough to merely think you’re compliant; you must be able to prove it beyond a doubt.

What Is PHI and Why Does It Need to Be Protected?

As a quick reminder, PHI refers to any data that can be used to identify an individual and that relates to their past, present, or future health condition. This can include anything from personal identification information to medical records and billing information to email exchanges that reference patient care.

Examples of PHI include:

  • Names
  • Addresses
  • Birth dates
  • Social Security numbers
  • Medical history and diagnoses
  • Treatment plans & prescriptions
  • Medical device usage and services
  • Appointment information
  • Billing, payments and insurance information

The Risks of Not Being 100% Sure About HIPAA Compliance

In addition to losing sleep at night, the consequences of sending non-compliant emails can be significant. Non-compliance can result in hefty penalties, ranging from $100 to $50,000 per violation, depending on the severity and intent. In some cases, these fines can even surpass $1.5 million annually.

But it’s not just the fines—PHI exposure opens the door to a variety of serious risks, including the reputational damage that can stem from breaches of patient data that can impact peoples’ lives and the future of your business. Patients place immense trust in healthcare providers and organizations to safeguard their sensitive information, which stretches beyond HIPAA-compliance to overall data security and privacy. The loss of patient trust is difficult—if not impossible—to regain once compromised.

Sending HIPAA Compliant Email

The Problem with DIY HIPAA Compliance

Simply put, self-certifying HIPAA compliance is a recipe for disaster. Many companies and healthcare organizations falsely believe that if they conduct an internal review or have implemented basic security measures, they’re fully compliant. But without the right expertise and the right technology in place, especially encryption, it’s easy to overlook crucial details.

Even if you have encryption in place or think your emails are safe, these minimal steps can create a false sense of security. True HIPAA compliance requires continuous monitoring, updating of policies, and regular training to address potential risks.

A Checklist for Sending HIPAA Compliant Email

Sending HIPAA compliant email means ensuring you’ve implemented the following safeguards:

1. Encryption Standards for HIPAA Compliance

All emails containing PHI must be encrypted both at rest and in transit—end-to-end. Ensure your email service provider offers high-grade encryption protocols, like TLS (Transport Layer Security), for sending and receiving messages, and flexible options, including dedicated cloud infrastuctures for the highest levels of data protection.

2. Secure Access and Authentication

Set up multi-factor authentication (MFA) and role-based access controls to limit who can access emails containing PHI.

3. Business Associate Agreements (BAA)

If you’re using a third-party email provider, you must have a signed BAA. This agreement ensures that the provider will uphold HIPAA’s security standards.

4. Data Backup and Recovery

Make sure your email system has a secure backup and recovery solution. Data breaches can happen, but having a recovery plan will minimize damage and maintain compliance.

5. Employee Training and Awareness

Ensure your employees are regularly trained on HIPAA guidelines. Human error is one of the leading causes of HIPAA violations, so proper education is key.

6. Regularly Audit Your HIPAA Compliance Strategy & Practices

HIPAA regulations evolve as technology advances. Conducting regular compliance audits ensures your security protocols are up to date with the latest best practices.

7. Avoiding Overconfidence in Your Own Processes

No matter how confident you are in your HIPAA strategy, bringing in an external auditor can provide an unbiased view of your compliance status and help identify overlooked vulnerabilities.

Don’t Let HIPAA Self-Certification Fool You!

HIPAA compliance is not something you can afford to be unsure about. The risks—both financially and reputationally—are too great. While it may be tempting to “self-certify” or assume your current measures are sufficient, doing so can leave your organization—and your patients and customers—vulnerable. Instead, ensure that you follow a comprehensive strategy that includes best-in-class email encryption, secure access, regular audits, employee training, and support from external experts.

Don’t take shortcuts when it comes to protecting sensitive health information and ensuring HIPAA compliance—get it right from the start.

If you’d like to get your questions on sending HIPAA compliant email answered, don’t hesitate to reach out to talk with one of our experts—and learn more about the healthcare industry’s leading HIPAA-compliant email, text and marketing solutions from LuxSci.

Contact us here!

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hands on a keyboard sending secure email

How to Secure SMTP Email Delivery with TLS

Secure email sending is a priority for organizations that communicate sensitive data externally. One of the most common ways to send secure emails is with SMTP TLS. TLS stands for Transport Layer Security and is the successor of SSL (Secure Socket Layer). TLS is one of the standard ways that computers on the internet transmit information over an encrypted channel. In general, when one computer connects to another computer and uses TLS, the following happens:

  1. Computer A connects to Computer B (no security)
  2. Computer B says “Hello” (no security)
  3. Computer A says, “Let’s talk securely over TLS” (no security)
  4. Computers A and B agree on how to do this (secure)
  5. The rest of the conversation is encrypted (secure)

In particular:

  • The conversation is encrypted
  • Computer A can verify the identity of Computer B (by examining its SSL certificate, which is required for this dialog)
  • The conversation cannot be eavesdropped upon (without Computer A knowing)
  • A third party cannot modify the conversation
  • Third parties cannot inject other information into the conversation.

TLS and SSL help make the internet a more secure place. One popular way to use TLS is to secure SMTP to protect the transmission of email messages between servers.

Secure SMTP Email Delivery with TLS 

The mechanism and language by which one email server transmits email messages to another email server is called Simple Mail Transport Protocol, or SMTP. For a long time, email servers have had the option of using TLS to transparently encrypt the message transmission from one server to another.

When available, using TLS with SMTP ensures the message contents are secured during transmission between the servers. Unfortunately, not all servers support TLS! Many email providers, especially free or public ones, have historically not supported TLS. Thankfully, the trend is shifting. LuxSci found that most providers now support TLS- approximately 85% of domains tested as of July 2022.

Using TLS requires that the server administrators:

  1. purchase SSL certificates
  2. configure the email servers to use them (and keep these configurations updated)
  3. allocate additional computational resources on the email servers involved.

For TLS transmission to be used, the destination email server must offer support for TLS, and the sending computer or server must be configured to use TLS connections when possible.

The sending computer or server could be configured for:

  1. No TLS: never use it.
  2. Opportunistic TLS: use it if available; if not, send it insecurely.
  3. Forced TLS: use TLS or do not deliver the email at all.

How Secure is Email Delivery over SMTP TLS?

TLS protects the transmission of the email message contents. It does nothing to protect the security of the message before it is sent or after it arrives at its destination. For that, other encryption mechanisms may be used, such as PGP, S/MIME, or storage in a secure portal.

For sending sensitive information to customers, transmission security is the minimum standard for compliance with healthcare and financial regulations. TLS is appropriate to meet most compliance requirements and offers an excellent alternative to more robust and less user-friendly encryption methods (like PGP and S/MIME).

There are different versions of TLS- 1.0 and 1.1 use older ciphers and are not as secure, while TLS 1.2 and 1.3 use newer ciphers and are more secure. When an email is sent, the level of TLS used is as secure as can be negotiated between the sending and receiving servers. If they both support strong encryption (like AES 256), then that will be used. If not, a weaker grade of encryption may be used. The sending and receiving servers can choose the types of encryption they will support. If there is no overlap in what they support, then TLS will fail (this is rare).

What About Replies to Secure Messages?

Let’s say you send a message to someone that is securely delivered to their inbox over TLS. Then, that person replies to you. Will that reply be secure? This may be important if you are communicating sensitive information. The reply will use TLS only if:

  1. The recipient’s servers support TLS for outbound email (there is no way to test this externally).
  2. The mail servers (where the “From” or “Reply” email address is hosted) support TLS for inbound email.
  3. Both servers support overlapping TLS ciphers and protocols and can agree on a mutually acceptable means of encryption.

Unless familiar with the providers in question, it cannot be assumed that replies will use TLS. So, what should you do? Ultimately, it depends on what compliance standards you must meet, the level of risk you are willing to accept, and the types of communications you send. There are two general approaches to this question:

  1. Conservative. If replies must be secure in all cases, assuming TLS will be used is unreasonable. In this case, a more secure method should be used to encrypt the messages in transit and store them upon arrival. The recipient must log in to a secure portal to view the message and reply securely. Alternatively, PGP or S/MIME could be used for additional security.
  2. Aggressive. In some compliance situations like HIPAA, healthcare providers must ensure that ePHI is sent securely to patients. However, patients are not beholden to HIPAA and can send their information insecurely to anyone they want. If the patient’s reply is insecure, that could be okay. For these reasons, and because using TLS for email security is so easy, many do not worry about the security of email replies. However, this should be a risk factor you consider in an internal security audit. Consider nuanced policies that allow you to send less sensitive messages with TLS while sending more sensitive messages with higher security.

What are the Weaknesses of SMTP TLS?

As discussed, SMTP TLS has been around for a long time and has recently seen a great deal of adoption. However, it has some deficiencies compared to other types of email security:

  • There is no mandatory support for TLS in the email system.
  • A receiver’s support of the SMTP TLS option can be trivially removed by an active man-in-the-middle because TLS certificates are not actively verified.
  • Encryption is not used if any aspect of the TLS negotiation is undecipherable/garbled. It is very easy for a man-in-the-middle to inject garbage into the TLS handshake (which is done in clear text) and have the connection downgraded to plain text (opportunistic TLS) or have the connection fail (forced TLS).
  • Even when SMTP TLS is offered and accepted, the certificate presented during the TLS handshake is usually not checked to see if it is for the expected domain and unexpired. Most MTAs offer self-signed certificates as a pro forma. Thus, in many cases, one has an encrypted channel to an unauthenticated MTA, which can only prevent passive eavesdropping.

The Latest Updates to Secure SMTP TLS

Some solutions help remedy these issues—for example, SMTP Strict Transport Security. SMTP STS enables recipient servers to publish information about their SMTP TLS support in their DNS. This prevents man-in-the-middle downgrades to plain text delivery, ensures more robust TLS protocols are used, and can enable certificate validation.

In addition, users can adopt TLS 1.3. NIST recommends that government agencies develop migration plans to support TLS 1.3 by January 1, 2024. LuxSci supports both SMTP MTA-STS and TLS 1.3.

How Secure SMTP TLS Email Works with LuxSci

Inbound TLS

LuxSci’s inbound email servers support TLS for encrypted inbound email delivery from any sending email provider that also supports that. For selected organizations, LuxSci also locks down its servers to only accept email from them if delivered over TLS.

Outbound Opportunistic TLS

LuxSci’s outbound email servers will always use TLS with any server that claims to support it and with whom we can talk TLS v1.0+ using a strong cipher. The message will not be sent securely if the TLS connection to such a server fails (due to misconfiguration or no security protocols in common). Outbound opportunistic TLS encryption is automatic for all LuxSci customers, even those without SecureLine.

Forced TLS

When Forced TLS is enabled, the message is either dropped or sent with an alternate form of encryption if the recipient’s server does not support TLS. This ensures that messages will never be sent insecurely. Forced TLS is also in place for all LuxSci customers sending to banks and organizations that have requested that we globally enforce TLS to their servers.

Support for strong encryption

LuxSci’s servers will use the strongest encryption supported by the recipient’s email server. LuxSci servers will never employ an encryption cipher that uses less than 128 bits (they will fail to deliver rather than deliver via an excessively weak encryption cipher), and they will never use SSL v2 or SSL v3.

Does LuxSci Have Any Other Special TLS Features?

When using LuxSci SecureLine for outbound email encryption:

  1. SMTP MTA STS: LuxSci’s domains support SMTP MTA STS, and LuxSci’s SecureLine encryption system leverages STS information about recipient domains to improve connection security.
  2. Try TLS: Account administrators can have secure messages “try TLS first” and deliver that way. If TLS is unavailable, the messages would fall back and use more secure options like PGP, S/MIME, or Escrow. Email security is easy, seamless, and automatic when communicating internally or with others who support TLS.
  3. TLS Exclusive: This is a special LuxSci-exclusive TLS sending feature. TLS Exclusive is just like Forced TLS, except that messages that can’t connect over TLS are just dropped. This is ideal for low-importance emails that must still be compliant, like email marketing messages in healthcare. In such cases, the ease of use of TLS is more important than receiving the message.
  4. TLS Only Forwarding: Account administrators can restrict any server-side email forwarding settings in their accounts from allowing forwarding to any email addresses that do not support TLS for email delivery.
  5. Encryption Escalation: Often, TLS is suitable for most messages, but some messages need to be encrypted using something stronger. LuxSci allows users to escalate the encryption from TLS to Escrow with a click (in WebMail) or by entering particular text in the subject line (for messages sent from email programs like Outlook).
  6. Domain Monitoring: When TLS delivery is enabled for SecureLine accounts, messages will never be insecurely sent to domains that purport to be TLS-enabled, i.e., TLS delivery is enforced and no longer “opportunistic.” The system monitors these domains and updates their TLS-compliance status daily.
  7. Double Encryption: Messages sent using SecureLine and PGP or S/MIME will still use Opportunistic TLS whenever possible for message delivery. In these cases, messages are often “double encrypted.” First, they are encrypted with PGP or S/MIME and may be encrypted again during transport using TLS.
  8. No Weak TLS: Unlike many organizations, LuxSci’s TLS support for SMTP and other servers only supports those protocol levels (e.g., TLS v1.0+) and ciphers recommended by NIST for government communications and which are required for HIPAA. So, all communications with LuxSci servers will be over a compliant implementation of TLS.

For customers who can use TLS to meet security or compliance requirements, it enables seamless security and “use of email as usual.” SecureLine with Forced TLS enables clients to take advantage of this level of security whenever possible while automatically falling back to other methods when TLS is unavailable.

Of course, using Forced TLS as the sole method of encryption is optional; if your compliance needs are more substantial, you can turn off TLS-Only delivery or restrict it so that it is used only with specific recipients.

If your email use cases are complicated, LuxSci’s flexibility enables the secure sending of emails to any recipient, regardless of their email service provider’s support for TLS. Contact the LuxSci sales team to learn more about our secure SMTP TLS email sending.

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secure email sending button on keyboard

What is a Secure Email Gateway?

As threats to email security are increasing, organizations are looking for ways to enhance their security and reduce risk. One option is a secure email gateway. In this article, we review what secure email gateways are and how they can be used to secure sensitive data as it flows into and out of your accounts.

secure email sending button on keyboard

Protect Your Accounts With A Secure Email Gateway

Secure email gateways are an excellent way to strengthen the security of your email accounts without a costly switch to a new email provider. They layer on top of your existing email accounts to encrypt messages, scan for threats, and even capture messages for archival or backup purposes. They can also hide the sender’s IP address because messages are routed through another email infrastructure before delivery to the recipient. If you are concerned about increasing risks to sensitive data, secure email gateways offer a simple and effective way to enhance your email security.

How Do Secure Email Gateways Work?

When using a secure email gateway, your messages are routed to a separate server before being sent or received. When sending an outbound message with LuxSci’s Secure Connector, it is routed through our SecureLine encryption before being securely delivered to the recipient. A copy of the message may also be sent to an independent email archive to help meet compliance requirements for message retention.

 

LuxSci Secure Connector

 

For incoming messages, the gateway can employ email filtering technology to quarantine suspicious messages. These technologies can scan incoming messages and prevent spammers and scammers from reaching employee inboxes and wreaking havoc. Just like with outbound email sending, the gateway can also capture a copy of inbound messages and retain them in an independent message archive.

The exact features of a secure email gateway will vary from vendor to vendor, but these represent some of the core functions that these tools provide. Simply put, a secure email gateway protects both incoming and outgoing messages to ensure that sensitive data is guarded from threats.

Why Choose a Secure Gateway?

There are two main reasons to implement a secure email gateway: the security and compliance benefits and their ease of use. Let’s look at each.

Compliance and Security Benefits

Many companies, like healthcare organizations, must comply with regulations for protecting patient or customer data. Many organizations grapple with the best way to secure potentially sensitive communications without interfering with or slowing down critical business workflows. Because secure email gateways layer on top of existing email accounts, they offer a speedy way to bring your organization into compliance with data security and retention guidelines.

As email continues to be an important channel for essential business communications, all organizations can benefit from protecting their employee accounts and reducing their risk and liability.

Easy to Administer and Use

Another benefit of using a secure email gateway is that your organization does not need to switch your primary email provider to enhance its security. Changing to a more secure email provider can be extremely challenging, especially if you have a lot of users with a lot of data that needs to be migrated to a new system. Add on the training time, and some organizations will find that switching email providers is a significant burden on the organization.

Installing a secure email gateway is very easy for account administrators and often does not require additional training or implementation for email users. Employees can continue to use their regular Microsoft or Google email accounts and do not need to take additional steps to learn an entirely new email program. With 73% of breaches in the healthcare industry caused by human factors, implementing tools that don’t rely on employee decision-making is essential.

Learn More About LuxSci’s Secure Connector

LuxSci’s Secure Connector is unlike other secure email gateways in that it encrypts every email automatically to reduce the risk of breaches caused by human errors. LuxSci provides the flexibility to opt-in to more secure methods of encryption for highly sensitive messages. Email filtering and archival tools are also available to reduce risk and improve resilience in the case of a cyber incident. Contact our sales team to learn more about our email security tools.

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Introducing Unified Login: Seamless Access Across Your LuxSci Accounts

At LuxSci, we’re committed to making secure communication easier and more efficient for healthcare organizations. Today, we’re excited to introduce Unified Login—a new feature that simplifies identity management and streamlines access to multiple LuxSci accounts, helping users and administrators save time and improve workflows, without sacrificing security.

If your organization manages multiple LuxSci accounts—or if you’re new to LuxSci and require multiple secure email accounts and domains—switching between them just became faster, easier, and more efficient. With Unified Login, users can seamlessly move between linked accounts without the hassle of repeated logins, ensuring uninterrupted productivity while maintaining strict security and compliance standards.

Why Unified Login?

Healthcare professionals, IT administrators & security, marketing teams, and compliance officers often need to manage multiple secure email accounts across different departments, domains, or business units. Traditionally, switching between accounts required a separate login, disrupting workflows and wasting time by requiring multiple logins and passwords.

With LuxSci’s new Unified Login feature, administrators can link user identities across accounts and domains, enabling one-click access without repeated authentication. This means:

  • More Efficiency – No more logging in and out multiple times a day. Switch identities instantly and move between accounts uninterrupted.
  • Better User Experience – Access the accounts and resources you need in seconds, with a seamless transition between roles and domains.
  • Strong Security & Compliance – Every identity switch is logged for full transparency. Actions performed under a switched identity also track who switched into the identity, ensuring security and regulatory compliance are maintained.

Real-World Use Cases

Here’s how Unified Login can benefit different healthcare functions and use cases:

Compliance Officers & IT Security

A compliance officer or IT security director conducting an audit across multiple business units can quickly switch between accounts to check email logs, security settings, and compliance reports—saving time and reducing administrative burdens.

Healthcare Marketing Teams

A healthcare marketing professional or a digital communications manager sending out segmented campaigns across different services, products, or brands can quickly and easily navigate between campaigns and results for each account or domain.

IT Administrators Managing Multiple Accounts

A hospital or health plan IT administrator overseeing multiple accounts for different departments (e.g., patient services, billing, and compliance) can now switch between accounts instantly—without re-entering credentials each time. This speeds up troubleshooting, reporting, and user management, making workflows significantly more efficient.

Physicians & Providers with Multiple Roles

A doctor working across multiple clinics or locations with separate email accounts can easily transition between them without needing to log out and back in. Whether reviewing patient communications or sending secure messages, Unified Login ensures a seamless and secure experience.

How It Works

Unified Login provides administrator-managed identity linking, ensuring organizations retain full control over who can switch between accounts. The feature supports:

  • Unique Access Separation – Users maintain distinct identities, having quick access when needed.
  • Shared & Delegated Access – Teams working across multiple accounts can transition seamlessly.
  • Administrative Access – IT and compliance teams can manage multiple accounts efficiently while maintaining strict security protocols.

The main features of Unified Login include:

  • Administrators can link individual users to other users in the same or a different account.
  • Users can switch identities with one click without the need to re-authenticate.
  • Each identity switch starts a new session, giving the user the same access and permissions as the target identity.
  • Access and audit logs reference the original user, preserving accountability.

Once configured, users will see a “Switch Identity To” section in their account menu. Clicking on a linked identity seamlessly switches to a new session with the appropriate permissions, ensuring security while keeping workflows uninterrupted. If two or more identities are available, a “View All Identities” option appears.

Designed for Secure Healthcare, Built for Convenience

As a leader in HIPAA-compliant secure communications, LuxSci understands the challenges of balancing efficiency with security. Unified Login is ideal for healthcare organizations that need:

  • Secure, streamlined workflows for managing multiple email accounts for multiple business units, departments, or locations.
  • Faster access to multiple accounts for authorized personnel without compromising compliance.
  • Reduced password fatigue for users managing multiple roles or accounts.

Get Started with LuxSci Unified Login

Current LuxSci customers interested in using this service can request that it be enabled on their account, via a support ticket. You can also refer to our technical documentation for more information. If you’re new to LuxSci, reach out and learn more today.

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