My mom at the time was rocking 70. She recently had a check up that required a followup visit to a cancer doctor. The test were negative and she left the offices in good spirits. The next day she received a formal invitation from the same hospital group inviting her to join ‘the cancer support groups for those living with the illness.’ She went into a complete panic.
Did the doctor give her the wrong results? Does the support group know more about her health condition than she does?
Although the 2 events were completely unrelated, as far as the hospital marketing policies were concerned. Her visit to the doctor wasn’t the trigger to for the invitation for the support group. It was the fact she was a recent customer of the hospital group that triggered the invitation for the support group. Very fuzzy logic (the chicken or the egg).
But for a 70 yr women, who lost her mother to cancer, it didn’t feel like two unrelated events.
When she went in for her test, she ‘signed’ into the hospital. She agreed to receive marketing information from the hospital and other other fuzzy marketing efforts.
We are all familiar with HIPAA laws or at least the form we fill out at a doctor’s office. They protect your test/results from being shared, not the fact you are customer of a hospital that specializes in (pick your medicine).
Standard terms and conditions for doctors and medical facilities:
We may use your medical information when conducting research projects, fundraising events and marketing campaigns, throughout the health system. We or our affiliates may also send out fundraising communications about our fundraising efforts to solicit your support.
If you wish to opt-out of these activities, you have the right to request to do so in writing.
What is reasonable marketing material and the data to support the content of that marketing material? What responsibility does an organization have to use the collected personal data (in this case) respectable way.
FYI – No HIPAA laws were broken in my mom’s case.
the Privacy & Security Rule under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) provides clear standards for protecting and securing patient information, while allowing the flow of necessary information for patient care and other important purposes.