In December 2022, the Department of Health and Human Services released a bulletin announcing additional compliance requirements for healthcare marketers when it comes to third-party trackers. The guidance lays forth expectations for how healthcare organizations collect data on activities that take place on their website and mobile apps.
So, what’s the problem? Per the bulletin, when a healthcare organization collects and shares email addresses and IP information with tracking vendors, like Google (through Google Analytics) and Facebook (via the Meta Pixel), they are at risk of violating HIPAA rules unless one of the below criteria is met:
- The organization has a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) in place with the vendor
- Consent has been provided by the healthcare consumer
- The PHI is properly deidentified
Looking specifically at Google Analytics, this platform has been a long-standing and well-loved toolset of marketers for years, with full teams dedicated to learning how to master its capabilities to increase an organization’s marketing performance. Healthcare marketers are no exception, often relying on Google Analytics to track the patient journey on their website and identify where web visitors are coming from (for example, referring sites/ads and physical location of web traffic), how long they are sticking around, reasons they depart from their site, and which paths produce the highest conversion rate. The requirement to potentially depart from using Google Analytics is a major disrupter to how teams have been operating for years. However, full adherence to HHS guidance and HIPAA regulations is non-negotiable, so in light of recent guidance, change is completely warranted.
While the process of offloading from Google Analytics may feel daunting, it represents an excellent opportunity for healthcare marketers to adopt a more secure web analytics strategy that also catapults their ability to act. With the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Personalization suite, marketers can keep up with evolving regulations and consumers’ growing demand for privacy, while building loyalty through personalization.
Analytics are Just Numbers – Unless You Do Something with Them
Web and mobile analytics are only as powerful as the utility behind them. What do we mean by that? Data tells us a story and is only beneficial to the organization and their consumers when it’s acted upon – ideally in real-time to provide a more personable end–user experience.
With Marketing Cloud Personalization, marketers can deploy many of the key capabilities that Google Analytics provides while enabling their organization to harness those insights and respond on the fly based on a consumer’s behavior.
Marketing Cloud Personalization is certainly not a one-to-one replacement for Google Analytics, but the ways in which it goes above and beyond Google Analytics will bring marketing operations and performance into the modern age. With more robust and dynamic capabilities, Marketing Cloud Personalization uses first-party data to deliver real-time personalization across multiple channels.
Where performance and use cases become really powerful in healthcare is when the organization has a solution like Salesforce Data Cloud or Health Cloud with integration to the electronic medical record. Consider these exciting examples of how website content could be personalized based on an individual’s healthcare journey:
- Insight: A UTM parameter identifies that a website visitor came from a Facebook campaign promoting the hospital’s pediatric offerings. The website visitor also has a child that has previously been seen by pediatrics.
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- Action: Website banner can be dynamically displayed, showing a child engaging with a pediatrician.
- Insight: A website visitor resides in Arlington, TX, and has never had an appointment with your health system.
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- Action: Provide a pop-up message when they arrive on your website announcing a new clinic opened in Arlington and is accepting new patients.
- Insight: A patient is overdue for their annual exam.
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- Action: Dynamically render a message promoting preventive care appointments and display open appointment times at the last clinic they were seen at.
These examples, and many more, highlight the power of Salesforce Marketing Cloud Personalization, but when combined with the solution’s security features it becomes a perfect response to the new guidance regarding potential HIPAA violations when using Google Analytics. With security controls for sensitive data, such as encrypting certain fields within data sources and using Security Health Check to identify potential vulnerabilities. Salesforce customers also have the option to create a BAA, though – just like any technology – – it is always the organization’s responsibility to ensure the use of Marketing Cloud Personalization meets HIPAA requirements.
If you are interested in learning more about Marketing Cloud Personalization, please reach out! We have an amazing team of Marketing Cloud Personalization Accredited Professionals ready to help!
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