HIPPA Compliance is King
In the lead generation business, any good marketer will tell you that compliance is king. Having proper practices and procedures in place to ensure that your lead generation efforts are compliant with the various government regulations in place can seem like an impossible and costly task – but having a reputation within the industry for strong compliance is priceless.
What is HIPAA?
These days, one of the most notable pieces of legislation that helps to ensure compliance is HIPPA – or the Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act. Established in 1996, this legislation was enacted to make it easier for people to maintain their health insurance by allowing them to carry their coverage from one job to another and avoid gaps in care.
However, a secondary function of this act set out to increase security around what is known in the medical industry as “protected health information” or PHI. PHI includes any record that contains your personal healthcare information – hospital records, eye exams, routine physicals, anything at all.
Under these provisions, this PHI is not to be shared with third party companies – like lead generation marketers – under any circumstance, except when express written consent has been given by the patient. While there are some exceptions, this clause obviously has significant implications for the practice of lead generation marketing within the medical equipment space.
(This is a simplified, third party explanation of the HIPPA provisions – for official details please visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services here.)
Unlike some legislative bodies, HIPAA is nothing to shrug off or willfully ignore. Penalties for violations of this act result in penalties ranging from $50,000.00 and one year in jail (the minimum penalty for this offense) all the way up to a fine of $100,000.00 and five years in prison. These consequences are taking the medical equipment industry by storm – as it is no longer just about selling new equipment, but about how stored patient information is handled on equipment that may be re-sold or discarded. If your medical device uses PHI in any way – chances are that it falls under HIPAA regulations in some capacity.
With that said, it is important to recognize that, as of 2015, HIPAA has not been formalized as an accreditation or credential. Therefore, there is no way to have your company recognized as being “100% HIPAA compliant”. It is simply a series of practices and guidelines against which to assess, adjust, and align your marketing practices.
How does this affect Lead Generation Marketing?
Developing prospective leads for individuals who have a particular condition or ailment is the basis of lead generation, and a large component of that is being able to target your marketing efforts towards individuals who you know are affected by that condition or disease.
DME companies have been so successful due to their ability to match their products and services to a customer base that could truly benefit from their product. Being able to create a solution for patients who need it is at the crux of many DME providers, and regulation like HIPPA threatens to make that task significantly more difficult to achieve.
With the requirement that all leads have given express consent for third party companies to contact them, having a system where your leads are qualified is more important than ever. Having tools, campaigns, and a network in place to be able to produce leads that are of a high quality and a high degree of compliance is a challenge that all lead generation companies who wish succeed must address.
Here are some of our tips to ensure your lead generation campaign continues to see results while adhering to all the necessary regulations:
Keep Your Data Secure
Knowing how your data is produced, stored, and shared is instrumental in ensuring that your company remains compliant with HIPPA and other government legislation. Keeping up with best practices on data security and staff training is the best advice we can give on this issue. Unfortunately, it’s all too often that a new staff error or a misunderstanding of the infamous “cloud” results in sensitive patient data ending up where it shouldn’t. Whether it is e-mail encryption, increased call monitoring, or an HR-focused training session on compliance and its consequences, it is absolutely worth both your time and your money to ensure that your team is on board with keeping it compliant.
Trust Your Process
In developing a lead generation pipeline, you need to be confident that the leads you are producing maintain their integrity, are shared only with the right people, and that consent has been obtained where required. For many well-established lead generation companies, there are a lot of moving parts, often in many different locations. It is imperative that you have the utmost trust in the staff, suppliers, and contractors that you choose to align with to develop your pipeline – their decisions to cut corners or forego compliance for better numbers can spell disaster for your company.
Stay Up To Date
The future of HIPAA – and other instances of these compliance regulations – is unclear. As technology advances and mHealth becomes more prevalent in our society, the rules about how patients are reached, how consent is obtained, and what qualifies as PHI will continue to evolve. Staying up to date with these changes will not only ensure that your company remains on the right side of the rules, but it will show your current and potential companies that you take compliance seriously.
At the end of the day, managing results and regulation becomes less about finding a balance and more about integration. The most successful companies will be those who seamlessly build their lead generation cycle around these regulations, and make a point of highlighting their commitment to compliance.
After all, it’s HIP, wait HIPPA to be compliant.
Using a lead generation company is one of the easiest, efficient, and powerful ways to generate high-quality leads to increase conversion.
Click here to get in touch with Prizm Media for more information.