In today’s evolving landscape of audience targeting, privacy and compliance are paramount concerns for pharmaceutical and life sciences brands. Knowing the advertising supply chain can help marketers better safeguard patient privacy and protect their brand. As legislation on how consumer health data can be shared and collected for targeting continues to evolve, brands are relying more and more on their legal teams and accredited organizations to vet privacy partners and ensure privacy across marketing initiatives. By focusing on data-driven privacy-compliant strategies, brands can shape a future where patient care and marketing effectiveness are more closely aligned.
Survey reveals marketers focus on HIPAA compliance
A recent survey titled Privacy Matters: Marketing Compliance in Practice Survey, conducted by Swoop/MM+M, shines a light on how healthcare marketers view patient privacy, the latest regulations and vendor selection.
The survey, which saw participation from 66 individuals across various industry sectors including advertising, marketing, communications, healthcare manufacturing, pharmaceutical and media, revealed 89.4% find the issue of privacy to be very important when working with data vendors.
Of those surveyed, the majority (60.6%) responded that violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) guidelines was their biggest privacy concern, followed by violating platform guidelines (18.2%), and state legislation (13.6%). A common misconception among healthcare brands is that HIPAA-compliant solutions automatically meet the latest privacy regulations.
A landmark for patient privacy when first established in 1996, HIPAA regulates how protected health information (PHI) is handled and generally prevents its disclosure without a patient’s consent. It predates many common modern advertising strategies and how brands advertise online today. HIPAA compliance alone does not guarantee adherence to new and evolving laws such as Washington’s My Health My Data Act (MHMDA).
For example, if a patient completes a contact form or survey on a health website and indicates a diagnosis, it becomes PHI and is subject to HIPAA. However, a HIPAA-certified de-identified data set still may not be privacy safe within a targeted advertising segment, particularly within a condition-specific segment.
Picking the right partner with privacy data ethics and risks in mind
Legal review and accredited organization approved are the top methods for vetting partners. To ensure vendors are maintaining compliance with data regulations, survey respondents depend on their legal team for rigorous analysis (63.6%), ensure the partner’s methodologies are approved by an accredited organization (51.5%) and rely on merit and reputation (30.3%).
Today, marketers need to be especially vigilant when selecting partners to ensure they align with the highest privacy standards, not just the minimum regulatory requirements. Pharma brand marketers should stay well-informed about privacy regulations and proposed legislation and how they impact targeting strategies and reporting abilities. By relying on only the most trusted, highest performing partners, brands can provide the proper oversight. Yet, only 41.4% of survey respondents are very comfortable and 43.9% somewhat comfortable with their current vendors and their data privacy practices.
Given the numerous requirements, it’s obvious that privacy in healthcare marketing will become increasingly more complicated over the next few years. The Swoop/MM+M survey revealed that there is no clear winner when it comes to mitigating risk. The majority of respondents have (37.9%) or have somewhat (33.3%) considered vendor consolidation while 28.8% have not yet considered it.
To be successful, advertisers must consolidate their supply chain — trying to ensure 10 or more vendors are all in compliance with so many different rules simply isn’t a viable strategy.
As consumer health privacy protections continue to evolve, it’s critical that brands partner with trusted vendors that take a conservative approach to privacy to mitigate the potential risk to patients and brands. Partners whose technology is not just in compliance with current regulations, but will be in compliance with future legislation.
Swoop is a leader in developing privacy-safe methods that effectively reach the ideal patient audience. Swoop builds audiences using zero knowledge methodology, ensuring all its segments are compliant with all state regulations.
By utilizing its patented predictive technology to pinpoint and cater to these valuable segments, Swoop ensures that its clients’ advertising budgets are invested with precision. Rather than dissipating funds on an indiscriminate audience, predictive targeting optimizes the effectiveness of ad spend, heightens conversion rates and ultimately drives Rx lift and lifetime patient value.
For more insights on how Swoop’s solutions are optimizing health outcomes and commercial success by ensuring patient privacy and improving the way brands connect with their audience, visit Swoop.com or contact [email protected].
