Privacy-First Foundation for High-Performance Healthcare Marketing

Privacy regulations make healthcare marketing harder. A healthcare privacy platform adds a layer of protection, giving digital marketers access to the analytics tools they need without putting protected health information at risk.

// By Ray Mina //

Going to Google, Facebook, or YouTube to access information today is second nature for millions of people. And while those platforms are undeniably convenient, they’re also undeniably risky — especially when you add private health information to the mix.

In a perfect world, healthcare organizations could connect with potential patients in ways that automatically guarantee their privacy. But the reality is that consumers use platforms that put their personal health information at risk to research symptoms, locate providers, and book appointments. Healthcare marketers must be on those platforms to thrive, but doing so requires making privacy the foundation of your marketing strategy.

In this article, we explain how healthcare marketers get in hot water with regulators and how to structure your tech stack for HIPAA compliance.

It All Starts with Protected Health Information (PHI)

In December 2022, HHS made it clear that tracking technologies like Google Analytics put healthcare organizations at risk of violating HIPAA. The trackers on your website collect HIPAA identifiers, like IP addresses, by default. They also collect data that could contain health information, like visiting a web page about knee replacement surgery. When you combine these two components, you get Protected Health Information (PHI).

Sharing PHI with a non-compliant destination like Google Analytics, Google Ads, or Facebook Ads can lead to a HIPAA violation. So how can you safely handle PHI without compromising patients’ privacy? Enter business associate agreements (BAAs). But what if an analytics solution like Google Analytics won’t sign a BAA?

In this article, we talk about the challenges of navigating consumer privacy and share some options that will allow you to safely use tracking technologies without triggering a HIPAA violation.

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