Healthcare Marketing and Compliance: What Marketers Need to Know

Healthcare marketing is one way health providers engage with patients, raise awareness of health issues, treatments, and services, and help to build trust and loyalty with new and existing patients. Collecting digital visitor data is a key piece of any successful marketing strategy and leverages the same signals of interest and intent as any marketing organization.

However, the task at hand can be challenging, as healthcare marketing is subject to a wide range of compliance and regulatory requirements aimed at protecting patient privacy, preventing false, misleading advertising, and ensuring competition is fair amongst health providers.

At the end of the day, protecting the privacy and security of patient information is the number one goal. It comes down to how to capture the right data, do it compliantly, and use it to deliver a better patient experience.

Here are some considerations for marketers when maintaining compliance in healthcare marketing.

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Understand HIPAA Compliance Front and Back

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) sets standards for protecting the privacy and security of patient health information (PHI). Marketing materials containing PHI must comply with HIPAA regulations. Providers must obtain written consent from patients before using their PHI in marketing campaigns, and ensure that all PHI is stored, transmitted, and used confidentially.

One of the most common ways healthcare marketing violates HIPAA is through the unauthorized disclosure of PHI. Even if a patient signs a form that allows their information to be used for marketing purposes, if the form is unclear or misleading, it is not HIPAA-compliant.

Another way healthcare marketers can violate HIPAA is using PHI for targeted advertising. While healthcare providers can use PHI for treatment, payment, and healthcare operations, they cannot use it for marketing without getting the patient’s authorization. Targeted advertising based on a patient’s medical history without consent is a violation of their privacy.

While many healthcare organizations are aware that certain procedures must be followed when handling personal health information (PHI), there is a lot of confusion around whether Google Analytics is HIPAA compliant. The short answer is no.

Although Google provides features like IP Anonymization and data masking, they disclose they are not HIPAA-compliant, and a marketer cannot use Google Analytics in any way associated with PHI.

This is why we are seeing healthcare organizations discontinue analytics with platforms like Google.

By de-identifying or anonymizing PHI, training staff, conducting regular audits, and working with a HIPAA compliance expert, marketers can ensure their efforts do not break HIPAA regulation.

Understand Data Trackers

With digital marketing expanding, digital analytics are increasing in popularity and HIPAA implications must be considered.

The problem with most tracking technologies is they are third-party (outside one’s organization), which means the captured data is sent to them. When data is collected by a third-party tool, it is analyzed and digested and then sent to a healthcare institution, which becomes an instant HIPAA violation, according to recent U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) guidelines.

Organizations have been relying on third-party solutions like Google to track and build digital patient data models – but recent guidance means they cannot do that anymore.

With massive penalties for HIPAA violations and an increased public awareness of privacy, it is not worth the risk. Even IP addresses are considered PHI, and since IP address is a standard piece of data collected on most (if not all) analytics and marketing platforms, healthcare organizations need to take note.

Examine the Benefits of First-Party Data Capturing

The first thing any healthcare organization should do is evaluate their technology vendors: Do they meet the definition of a business associate? Are the disclosures made to the vendor permitted by the Privacy Rule?

If the two above conditions are met, a marketer must have a signed BAA that expressly lays out the vendor’s permitted uses and disclosures of PHI, and that the vendor will safeguard the PHI.

One thing to note: all breaches on the part of vendors will affect the marketer and his or her organization as well.

The best solution, though, is to use a first-party data capture solution that the organization owns and controls, directly within the HIPAA-protected environment. That is the only sure-fire way to ensure full compliance, and not accidentally collect risky information through messy JavaScript tags or backend IP or Device ID collection.

It is also critical for healthcare marketers to review all related policies and procedures regularly to ensure continuous compliance with regulations. Using a first-party data capture solution that the organization owns, and controls, is the only secure way to track digital user behavior and build robust digital patient data models without putting patient privacy at risk.

Conclusion

Healthcare providers and marketing companies must protect patient privacy and ensure compliance with ever-changing and oftentimes confusing legislation. By doing so, they can build trust with their patients and maintain the integrity of the healthcare system while avoiding the consequences of financial penalties and damage to an organization’s reputation.

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