Share Moving Media

4 HIPAA Regulations You Should Be Careful Not to Violate

By

2020 was a busy year for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR). In addition to dealing with a pandemic, they resolved 19 HIPAA violation cases. Over $13 million worth of fines were paid, costing more than what’s settled in the previous years, since OCR now can implement HIPAA violations.

As a manufacturer of healthcare products, you need to ensure that the medical devices you sell comply with HIPAA regulations. If you are unaware you are in violation of HIPAA and there is a breach of patient data, you can still receive a fine. 

Knowing the commonly violated HIPAA regulations is the first step in ensuring your healthcare products are up to code. 

What are the Most Commonly Violated HIPAA Regulations? 

It can be difficult to stay current on all the HIPAA regulation changes and common violations. Here are the often-violated HIPAA regulations you should concern yourself with as a manufacturer: 

1. Securing Patient Records 

When protected patient health information is stored on an electronic device, it must be encrypted and safeguarded. While encryption isn’t a mandatory regulation, it is an effective way to prevent data breaches.  

In 2017, the Children’s Medical Center of Dallas had to pay a penalty of $3.2 million to address several HIPAA violations that spanned several years. An unencrypted BlackBerry device used by the facility that 4 HIPAA Regulations You Should Be Careful Not to Violate  contained almost 4,000 patient records was lost at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in 2009. Additionally, in 2013, an unencrypted laptop that had over 2,400 patient records was stolen from the hospital. 

The hospital knew the importance of encrypting patient information after what happened in 2009, yet they continued to distribute unencrypted devices to its staff. The failure to act by the hospital and document why their devices weren’t encrypted resulted in hefty fines. 

If you don’t encrypt patient records, you will need to use another security method. Having antivirus software on medical devices and continually updating it will help protect against data breaches. Firewalls will add another protection layer, as well as difficult passwords that you must change often. You can also use some advanced privacy tools such as fingerprint authentication for critical data. 

2. Performing a Risk Analysis

If a company doesn’t perform a risk analysis routinely, they are unable to determine where there are any vulnerabilities. Any potential risk will subsequently not be addressed, and hackers will be able to access private patient information. 

In 2020, Premera Blue Cross had to pay $6.85 million in fines for a data breach that affected 10.4 million people. A data breach occurred in 2014 when a hacking group accessed Premera’s patient information system for over nine months. The hackers installed malware through a phishing email and had access to Social Security numbers, bank information, and addresses. The investigation discovered that Premera did not conduct a routine risk analysis to find and reduce any potential risks and halt unauthorized access to patient records. Due to those factors, Premera had to start a plan of action to correct where they were noncompliant. 

Conducting a regular risk analysis and taking the proper steps to address any risks will help you avoid receiving this HIPAA violation. Some necessary steps are:

  • Figuring out what patient information your organization has access to and how it is stored/transmitted. 
  • Looking at what current security programs you have in place and if they’re adequate for protecting patient information. 
  • Evaluating where your company has vulnerabilities and the probability of a hacker accessing your patient systems. 
  • Depending upon how vulnerable you and the likelihood of you being hacked, figure out your risk level.
  • Document everything along the way, including how you will work to lower your risk.

3. Having Adequate Patient Information Access Controls 

HIPAA requires that organizations limit access to patient records to authorized individuals. Not implementing proper controls is a common HIPAA violation and has severe financial consequences. 

In 2018, Anthem had to pay $16 million in fines, the highest HIPAA penalty that was ever issued. Anthem failed to implement technical procedures and policies for their electronic health record (EHR) systems, allowing unauthorized individuals access to the information. They also did not perform a routine risk analysis to identify and address security incident detections before the breach. The breach resulted in hackers having access to the data of 78.8 million people.

4. Having a Business Associate Agreement 

As a medical device manufacturer, you’re classified as a business associate. You will need to have an up-to-date HIPAA business associate agreement with any vendor you deal with that’s provided with or given access to patient information. 

Raleigh Orthopaedic Clinic, P.A. of North Carolina had to pay $750,000 in 2016 for not entering into a business associate agreement with a vendor before sending through patient information. They sent the vendor X-ray images to have them made into digital files. They came to an agreement over the phone, but nothing was put into writing and it wasn’t HIPAA-compliant. In addition to the fine, Raleigh Orthopaedic had to enact a correction plan. 

HIPAA Violation Penalty Tiers

There are different tiers to HIPAA violation penalties that you should keep in mind. The higher the tier goes, the higher the fine:

  • First Tier: The organization didn’t know or couldn’t have known about the breach. 
  • Second Tier: The organization knew or could have known about the breach but didn’t act with neglect.
  • Third Tier: The organization acted with willful neglect and they corrected the issue within 30 days.
  • Fourth Tier: The organization acted with willful neglect and did not correct the issue promptly.

Take Precautions to Avoid HIPAA Violations Today 

Following HIPAA regulations is essential as a manufacturer of medical devices. Failing to comply has catastrophic results, from million-dollar fines to employment termination and prison sentences. Communicate often with your quality assurance, regulatory affairs, and development teams to make sure the proper protocol is being followed for dealing with patient information. With everything being digitized these days, it’s vital to protect patient information and your company from any violations.  

Share Moving Media is all about providing consistent healthcare tips, advice, and research. Subscribe to our weekly The Marketing Minute newsletter. 

Healthcare Manufacturers Can’t Afford to Skip Digital PR because buyers don’t trust brands!

By

When you think of public relations, what tactics come to mind?

Most healthcare manufacturing marketers or execs might mention TV ads, billboards, press releases, and even dinners or charity events.

While these traditional methods are all valuable, digital PR is the only way healthcare manufacturers can set themselves up for long-term success.

You need a multi-prong, diversified PR strategy. 

It’s really simple: Your audience spends time browsing virtual channels and consuming content, so you need to show up there too. 

Why is Digital PR Mandatory for Healthcare Manufacturers?

On LinkedIn alone, you’ll find over:

  • 7.2 million healthcare professionals
  • 850 thousand doctors
  • 188 thousand healthcare companies
  • 2.3 million nursing professionals

The point is, your audience hangs out online. They read blogs and news articles, they talk about their day, they search for solutions to problems, they research new products and brands.

Digital PR gives healthcare manufacturers leverage. 

Digital PR Adds Much-Needed Emotion to Healthcare Manufacturing 

Syringe barrels, speculums, table covers, and other healthcare supplies aren’t exactly the warmest or most wholesome products as-is. Who says they can’t be though?

Healthcare products save lives, keep people safe, promote sanitation, and function as some of humankind’s greatest achievements. That’s pretty emotional if you ask me. 

That’s why digital PR is essential for healthcare manufacturers. 

Instead of simply running ads for your products or dropping off samples, digital PR lets you create an entire aesthetic around your brand. Eventually, people will associate the emotions expressed via your PR material anytime they hear your brand’s name or see a product.

Without Digital PR, You’re Letting Competitors Take the Digital Market Share

You might not have a digital PR presence in the healthcare manufacturing realm, but you should assume your competitors do. That means you’re letting your competition soak up the entire digital audience share. 

Do some research into your competition’s online presence. What values and emotions do they want people to associate with their brand? What type of content do they produce? Where do they publish? And most importantly, how engaged is their audience?

Use the answers to set your digital PR strategy apart.

Buyers and Consumers Don’t Trust Brands

Everyone knows paid advertisements are just that: Brands paying for reach to sell products. No one likes ads and they don’t trust brands – not consumers or business buyers. 

Maintaining an active digital PR strategy lets you engage your audience in a non-promotional way, encouraging trust and loyalty.

Nine out of ten consumers buy from brands they follow on social media. Furthermore, 61% say a brand’s engagement with its audience is the most important aspect – even before transparency. 

Press Releases and Print Media Aren’t Enough to Build Connections

Niche journals, magazines, and publications are certainly an important part of any successful digital PR strategy – but they’re not enough. 

People only spend so much time reading print material. However, most of us spend several hours online each day, especially with 71% of Americans still working from home as of December 2020.

Your task is to figure out which platforms and channels your audience segments use and insert your digital PR content there.

5 Tips to Win at Digital PR for Healthcare Manufacturers

Digital PR includes both macro and micro strategies to pull off a comprehensive “image.”

At the macro level, you have:

  • Short- and long-term objectives
  • Ideal platforms to reach your audience
  • Your brand’s style guidelines to maintain a consistent voice and aesthetic
  • Editorial guidelines to keep a stable opinion/stance in thought leadership

At the micro level, use the tips below to create your healthcare manufacturing digital PR strategy.

1. Sign Up for HARO to Boost Digital PR

Why wait (and hope) for relevant journalists in your niche to find your press releases? Why not just assign a member of your team to go to the journalists when they need quotes for topics in your niche?

That’s exactly how HARO works. Help a Reporter Out sends out automated emails three times each day for the lists you subscribe to – in your case, healthcare and business. 

Someone on your team can browse the in-progress pieces and reach out to the individual journalists to provide quotes. Plus, it helps you build long-term rapport with journalists and writers in your niche – and access to their audience.

2. Partner with the Right Healthcare Influencers

Did you know half of your B2B buyers are millennials (or possibly even younger)? 

No one takes an influencer’s word as ultimate truth, but millennials are more likely to trust an influencer’s opinion (compared to your marketing content) since they aren’t working directly for your company. 

Research and choose influencers who have an engaged audience that mirrors your target market.

3. Rally Around a Relevant Cause

As a healthcare manufacturer, your brand’s image can either appear cold and aloof or warm and human. Any winning digital PR for healthcare manufacturers must highlight a relevant cause. 

Look for a relevant cause (or causes) based on the products you sell so your target audience segments will connect with the goal. Go niche when you can: Awareness, prevention, and prompt treatment of heart attacks in women works much better than the general “women’s health.”

4. Host Q&As or AMAs for Digital PR 

Video content gives you a chance to literally connect with your audience segments human-to-human. Choose someone friendly who embodies your brand’s aesthetic and values to host live Q&A videos, webinars, AMAs, tutorials, and anything else helpful.

5. Publish Thought Leadership Content

While content marketing helps you establish awareness, thought leadership helps build authority in your expertise. 

Thought leadership puts names and faces to your brand’s knowledge, opinions, values, and visions for the future – all vital for effective digital PR. Pick the right digital outlets where your target audience segments will see it.

Healthcare Manufacturers Can’t Have Digital PR Without Content

Whatever strategy you build, you’ll need content at every touchpoint. 

Social media videos, emotion-driven copy, nuanced thought leadership blogs, influencer content for sharing – content is the backbone of digital PR for healthcare manufacturers. 

At Share Moving Media, we manage a wide range of highly targeted publications online and off where we help brands like yours reach thousands of professional readers in your niche. Find the right publication for your brand now!

The Sum is Greater Than the Parts: Co-Marketing Strategies in Healthcare

By

Co-marketing in healthcare can help your brand expand its audience and win new, brand-loyal followers who are likely to convert into paying customers.

Healthcare distributors that partner with other brands in their field also can take advantage of new resources, expertise, and ideas. All of this adds up to more creative, impactful, and far-reaching marketing campaigns.

Benefits of Co-Marketing

A well-executed co-marketing effort will be greater than the sum of its parts in the truest sense of the saying: A collaborative campaign between two brands is often more compelling than a single-brand campaign, as each partner adds unique assets to the equation.

If you need proof of the value of co-marketing, look at some of the world’s biggest brands:

  • GoPro and Red Bull co-branded for the Stratos campaign.
  • Pottery Barn and Sherwin-Williams joined forces for the “Color Your Room” campaign.
  • BMW and Louis Vuitton teamed up for “The Art of Travel” campaign.

These companies have the funds and expertise to run entirely effective marketing campaigns solo. So why team up? They recognize the immense value of co-marketing.

Here are some of the benefits:

Save Money

Marketing campaigns cost money. Some initiatives, like email marketing or organic search engine optimization marketing, can be reasonably cost-efficient. However, other initiatives like paid search marketing and pay-per-click advertising can require five-figure budgets.  

When you co-market in conjunction with another brand, you tend to split the costs of the campaign. This allows both sides to save, resulting in a greater return on investment.

Reach a Wider Audience of Brand-Loyal Consumers

If you’ve been in the healthcare business for some time, you probably already have a built-in audience – loyal consumers and followers form a network of connections that you’ve nurtured for years. Finding new leads to convert is often a challenge, however, especially in the competitive healthcare market.

When you co-market with another brand, you gain automatic exposure to their built-in following of customers. Of course, they gain exposure to your built-in following, too – quid pro quo.

Not only do you gain automatic exposure, that exposure is also more likely to result in conversions. Why? The people who follow your co-marketing partner presumably already trust that brand. They are thus even more likely to trust your company. You’re no longer a stranger. You’re a friend of a friend.

Target the Right Customers at the Right Time

Partnering with other brands also opens up unique opportunities to reach customers at a point in the sales funnel when they are more likely to convert.

The most obvious example can be seen when you book a vacation. As soon as you buy a flight, you get offers for hotels and car rentals. These brands are demonstrating co-marketing common sense. They are creating a one-stop shop to maximize your spending when you’re already in a buying session.

How might this scenario look in the healthcare setting?

Say you work for a medical devices company selling blood glucose monitors for diabetics. You partner with healthcare providers in the diabetes space, promoting a campaign that raises awareness about symptoms of diabetes and the importance of diagnosing and managing the illness.

The campaign will drive potential diabetics to seek testing from HCPs, bringing them business. Those diagnosed with diabetes will then already have your brand name in mind and know where to turn when they need blood glucose monitors to manage their illness.

Tips for Co-Marketing in Healthcare

Ready to implement co-marketing in healthcare? Follow these steps.

Choose the Right Partner

The value of co-marketing partnerships depends mainly on who you partner with. Choosing well-respected and well-recognized brands can enhance your brand identity. Conversely, aligning yourself with brands that have a bad reputation can harm your image. Reputation management is critical.

You also want your partnership to make sense. As a healthcare distributor, it won’t look good to partner with a tobacco brand. Now, that’s a pretty egregious example – but you get the point. Your partnership needs to be logical. You shouldn’t just pick a partner because they have a big name. The aim is to align services and products that support each other.

Set Shared Goals and Develop Your Strategy Accordingly

Both partners need to benefit from your co-marketing campaign. Define individual goals and share them to make sure your agendas are aligned. You can then develop mutual goals. With your aspirations set, you can craft your time-specific marketing strategy, including key milestones, deliverables, and metrics you will use to track progress.

Create a Co-Marketing Agreement

If you’ve determined that your mutual goals are aligned, go ahead and hammer out a formal co-marketing agreement. This will help to avoid miscommunication as your collaboration progresses.

Your agreement should cover goals, timelines, topics, promotional plans, and reporting initiatives. If you are creating co-branded content, where will each party share it? How often do they need to share it? What evidence do they need to provide to the other party that they’ve shared it? Finally, make sure to define ownership of content and assets that result from your collaboration.

Tap into Each Party’s Strengths and Weaknesses

Co-marketing campaigns are created collaboratively. Working with an external brand to craft compelling healthcare marketing strategies and content can reinvigorate your in-house marketing. Such collaboration allows you to tap into novel resources and expertise and develop new ideas.

Before you start creating your campaign, take stock of each party’s strengths and weaknesses. Maybe your healthcare marketing team is hitting it out of the park in social media marketing but falling short on blogging. If your partner has a high-traffic blog, that’s great. Once you know each side’s strengths and weaknesses, you can better divide up tasks for maximum effectiveness.

Craft Compelling Co-Marketing Content

Finally, you can get to the fun part of co-marketing in healthcare: creating actual campaigns. You and your partner should craft new content together. Brainstorm collaboratively and select the ideas you like best to carry forward. Mapping the customer journey can help ensure alignment of concepts and goals as you develop joint content marketing in healthcare.

Boost Your Co-Marketing Impact with Share Moving Media

Trust Share Moving Media to support your co-marketing in healthcare. We are a full-service media company, crafting everything from ebooks to white papers and podcasts. We can help you and your marketing partners prepare compelling content that engages and converts audiences to increase healthcare sales.

Contact us for help with your healthcare marketing.

Marketing Minute Survey

By

Here at Share Moving Media, our internal marketing team is conducting a survey to gather information regarding today’s market strategy.

We want to know what’s critical and what’s not when determining what goes into your marketing campaign. Please take this quick 2-minute survey to give us insight on what is important to you!!

All responses are held confidential and ONLY respondents will get the results! Participate to learn what is important and top of mind for your peers! 

Take the Quick Survey Now!

Make Your Organization Leaner with Agile Marketing in Healthcare

By

Lean organizations are focused on one thing: creating greater customer value while minimizing waste. This type of business model is a natural fit for the healthcare industry, which prioritizes getting patients the best care possible, as quickly as possible, at the lowest cost possible. As a healthcare distributor, it’s worth doing your homework into the lean approach to see how it can enhance your business operations. Agile marketing in healthcare is one way to make your organization leaner.

What Is a Lean Organization?

“Lean” refers to a type of organizational structure. It’s all about using as few resources as possible to achieve the best outcomes for customers.

In a lean model, every member of the organization will find ways to improve daily processes. When small tasks performed by individuals become more efficient, the organization as a whole becomes more streamlined. The end result is the ultimate lean goal stated in the introduction: more value for customers, less waste for companies. Everybody benefits.

Can this business model really make that much of a difference? You’d be surprised. Some big names in the business world subscribe to the lean methodology, including Toyota and Intel. 

A lean organization benefits your employees, customers, and company alike. Here’s how:

  • Employees: Lean can boost employee accountability and engagement within your organization, as the onus is put on individuals to find ways to improve processes.
  • Customers: Since Lean is ultimately all about improving customer value, it forces the company to get into the customer’s shoes. This means placing value on customer opinions, soliciting feedback, and acting on it. By catering to customers, the company can better meet their needs.
  • Company: Lean promotes growth by paring the business down to the essentials, using readily available resources without over-extending beyond existing means. Plus, more engaged employees mean improved performance, while happier customers whose needs are being met drive sales – ultimately boosting profitability.

Agile Marketing 101

How can agile marketing in healthcare contribute to a lean organization? First, let’s define agile marketing.

A Quick History of the Agile Mindset

The agile approach was initially developed as an approach for software delivery in 2001. It’s characterized by its iterative process, which is what gives agile its defining trait – flexibility.

In the past, developer teams conceptualized a product and then concentrate their efforts to deliver that final product as they had envisioned it. In contrast, the agile approach requires development teams to assess value at every development stage – not just once they’ve crossed the finish line.

What sets the agile approach apart (and made it so groundbreaking when it appeared) is the flexibility it insists upon. Agile development requires a continual feedback loop. The software development team doesn’t just define a product and deliver that end product to the market. They continually seek feedback throughout the development process, tweaking things as they go along.

This results in more innovative development and, ultimately, a more user-friendly product. Agile development has proven extremely successful in the software industry and is still used to this day.

Agile Marketing Defined

So, what’s all that got to do with marketing?

Let’s get back to that defining trait mentioned above – flexibility. This is likewise a defining characteristic of agile marketing campaigns.

Marketers have recognized that they can’t just create campaigns and shove them down consumers’ throats. By consistently soliciting feedback from their target audience, marketers – including in the healthcare industry – can craft campaigns that truly resonate with that audience.

Agile marketing is about more than just collecting feedback, however. As a tactical marketing technique, agile requires teams to:

  1. Collectively identify high-value projects and then focus collectively on those projects.
  2. Measure the impact of those projects.
  3. Tweak their efforts to incrementally yet continuously improve the results of the project.

This marketing model supports a lean organizational structure because it improves value for the customer (creating marketing campaigns that engage clients) while reducing wasted time and resources for the company through constant feedback, measurement, and tweaking.

Tips for More Agile Marketing in Healthcare

Implementing agile marketing in healthcare is easier than you might think. These tips can get you started.

Implement Sprints

Agile marketing teams rely on sprints to drive cooperative and efficient collaboration. A sprint is a short, predefined period in which teams jointly focus on a single task. For example, you might ask your team to implement a new pay-per-click ad campaign within X days or weeks.

Hold Daily Stand-Up Meetings

Agile’s flexibility means projects are always evolving. It’s thus smart to check in with your team’s progress regularly. A short, 15-minute (maximum) stand-up meeting every day is a great way to do this. Team members should bring up issues and bottlenecks (e.g., that PPC campaign isn’t performing as hoped) so they can be addressed quickly. The entire team can then collaborate on the solution.

Use a Board to Track Progress

Another key trait of agile is that it relies on visual progress tracking. You can go old school and use a whiteboard and sticky note to track progress. Alternatively, you can use a digital Kanban board. This is also a great way to enforce accountability. You can update the board together as a team during stand-ups to see who is doing what.

Measure, Measure, Measure

As mentioned, feedback is critical to agile success. Now, that doesn’t mean that marketers have to continually ask their target audience, “Hey, what did you think of that campaign?” or something similar. Modern marketing tech and tools make it easy to get feedback.

For example, the success of social media influencer marketing can be measured by metrics like shares, comments, and likes. The success of an email marketing campaign can be measured by opens and clicks.

Ramp Up Your Healthcare Marketing

Share Moving Media can help you tap into the power of agile marketing in healthcare. A full-service media company, we help our clients create content and campaigns that deliver real value to their target audiences. Our goal is to help you increase healthcare sales.

Subscribe to our newsletter to learn about the latest healthcare marketing tools, tips, and tricks.

Contact us to collaborate.