Healthcare marketing can feel like walking a tightrope. You want to create personalized, engaging campaigns that modern audiences expect, but HIPAA compliance requires you to ensure every piece of protected health information (PHI) stays completely secure.
HubSpot's HIPAA-compliant marketing tools help with this. It offers specialized features like field-level permissions for sensitive data and encrypted contact properties to let you run sophisticated marketing campaigns while maintaining strict HIPAA compliance.
Let's discuss how to keep your marketing personalized while keeping patient data locked down tight with HubSpot’s tools.
In marketing, HIPAA compliance means protecting any identifiable health information your organization creates, receives, maintains, or transmits.
This includes obvious things like medical records and test results. Still, it also covers subtler data points that marketers often use—like appointment histories, prescription information, or even the fact that someone is your patient.
Why does this create a marketing challenge? Modern digital marketing thrives on data. We want to know our audiences inside and out, track their behaviors, and create highly personalized experiences.
However, with HIPAA, you can't drop all that valuable health information into your standard marketing tools or use it freely in your campaigns. Healthcare data breaches reached an all-time high in 2023, with 725 reported breaches and 133 million records exposed.
The good news? You don't have to choose between effective marketing and HIPAA compliance. HubSpot's enterprise platform includes specific features designed for this balance:
Traditional lead generation can be a HIPAA compliance minefield. Marketers typically want to collect detailed information about prospects, track their behaviors across websites, and store their data for future campaigns.
This is because data lets you tailor experiences. 71% of buyers want personalized company interactions, and 76% get frustrated when they don't receive them.
However, when that information includes protected health information (PHI), you need iron-clad systems to collect, store, and use that data. One mishandled form submission containing health information can result in a serious compliance violation.
HubSpot's Enterprise platform transforms this challenge into a manageable process. Here's how:
First things first—consent is a priority in HIPAA-compliant marketing. HubSpot's form management system includes specific features for handling sensitive data securely:
When you mark a property as containing sensitive data, any forms collecting that information automatically encrypt submissions with an additional layer of security beyond standard encryption.
Forms can safely handle file uploads containing sensitive information – think medical documents or insurance information – with automatic encryption and secure storage.
Form submission notifications automatically respect your sensitive data permissions, ensuring that only authorized users can access the submitted information.
Super Admins can set granular permissions controlling exactly who can view and edit sensitive form data, creating an audit-ready trail of data access.
Pro tip: While making your forms secure, keep them human. Instead of legal walls of text, try something like: "We'd love to send you personalized health tips.
Mind if we use your information to make that happen?" Ensure your friendly tone still clearly communicates what data you're collecting and how you'll use it.
Once you've collected sensitive data properly, HubSpot helps you use it effectively while maintaining strict compliance:
With Secure Property Management, you can create custom properties specifically designated for sensitive data. These properties come with extra encryption and restricted access, allowing you to segment and personalize outreach while adhering to HIPAA guidelines.
Protected Segmentation enables you to build targeted lists and segments based on health interests or conditions, keeping the underlying Protected Health Information (PHI) secure.
For instance, a physical therapy practice could create segments for "back pain resources" or "sports injury recovery" without revealing individual patient information.
For Compliant Email Marketing, HubSpot allows you to send targeted campaigns to these segments confidently, knowing sensitive data properties are protected and only accessible to authorized personnel.
With Access Controls, field-level permissions ensure that only designated team members can view or use sensitive data, maintaining security throughout your marketing processes.
Finally, Audit-Ready Records track every interaction with sensitive data, providing comprehensive logs that make compliance demonstration straightforward and thorough.
While HubSpot provides tools for handling sensitive data, some features are intentionally restricted for HIPAA compliance.
For example, sensitive data properties can't be used in personalization tokens, chatbots, or playbooks. This restriction is good—it helps prevent accidental exposure of protected information.
Pro tip: When planning your lead generation strategy, map out what data should be marked as sensitive. Not all health-related information is PHI. General interests in health topics might not need the same level of protection as specific health conditions or treatment information.
It's not enough to simply group your audience—you should ensure those groupings don't reveal protected health information.
HubSpot's enterprise-level segmentation tools let you target your marketing effectively while keeping sensitive information secure.
Here's what you need to know.
HubSpot's segmentation system uses encrypted property storage to protect sensitive data. When you create segments based on sensitive data, the platform automatically applies additional encryption to protect that information.
Your marketing team can still use these segments to target campaigns, but they'll never see the underlying protected health information unless they have specific permission.
Access control is equally important. Super Admins can set granular permissions to determine who can view and modify sensitive segments. Every interaction with these segments is tracked in detailed audit logs, creating a clear record of who accessed what information and when.
With secure segments, you can run targeted campaigns without compromising privacy. A behavioral health practice, for example, can send resources about stress management to interested contacts without exposing anyone's private health information.
You can test different messages, create specialized content, and run targeted ads while maintaining HIPAA compliance.
You don't have to sacrifice marketing effectiveness for security. HubSpot handles the heavy lifting of compliance, so you can focus on creating engaging campaigns that connect with your audience.
Pro Tip: Start small with one secure segment and one targeted campaign. Test your processes and permissions before scaling up to more complex segmentation strategies.
HubSpot’s Enterprise platform provides essential features that make HIPAA compliance manageable for marketing teams. It focuses on practical tools for safeguarding sensitive data every day.
Here’s how HubSpot helps protect patient information, streamline compliance monitoring, and ensure your marketing efforts remain secure and effective:
Sensitive data must always be kept secure, which is why HubSpot offers encrypted contact properties. This feature adds a layer of protection to specific data fields, ensuring that personal health information (PHI) is automatically encrypted and inaccessible to unauthorized users.
For example, if you need to store information related to patient health interests, such as “recovery resources” or “therapy preferences,” encrypted contact properties keep these details safe within HubSpot.
Encrypted data is stored securely, so you can confidently store and access essential information without compromising compliance.
Ensuring that only authorized personnel can access sensitive data is vital for compliance. HubSpot’s role-based access controls allow you to assign specific permissions to team members, restricting data access to only those who need it.
This setup helps avoid accidental data exposure and limits sensitive data access to qualified marketing, sales, or customer service team members.
For instance, you might configure access controls so that only managers and compliance officers can view sensitive data properties, while other team members access only non-sensitive marketing data.
HIPAA compliance requires a complete record of every interaction with sensitive data, which is where HubSpot’s audit logs come into play.
Audit logs automatically capture and store every access, modification, and action taken with PHI-related data fields, creating a detailed trail for compliance audits. These logs allow you to review past actions and quickly identify potential issues.
For example, if a team member inadvertently accessed a restricted property, audit logs allow you to track when and by whom it happened, helping you address potential compliance gaps efficiently.
Collecting information through online forms is often essential in marketing, but forms can also present risks if data isn’t protected. HubSpot’s secure forms are designed to encrypt every submission when data is entered, ensuring that no PHI is exposed in transit.
This means patients filling out information on your website, like contact details or health preferences, are protected when they hit “submit.”
HubSpot’s secure forms allow you to gather necessary data without worrying about compliance breaches, making it easier to use customer data responsibly.
Email marketing remains a powerful way to engage with your audience, but HIPAA compliance requires careful handling of any campaigns containing sensitive data.
HubSpot’s email marketing tools are HIPAA-compliant and designed to secure sensitive information during campaigns. For example, if you are targeting patients with specific interests, you can send newsletters or resources while keeping PHI securely protected.
You can safely engage your customers and promote relevant content with compliant tools without risking data exposure.
HIPAA compliance in marketing doesn’t mean sacrificing creativity or connection with your audience. With HubSpot’s compliance features, healthcare marketers can design engaging, personalized campaigns that protect patient privacy and adhere to regulatory standards.
Using HubSpot’s tools, you can take your healthcare marketing to the next level while keeping data security at the forefront. Begin by evaluating your current processes to identify compliance gaps.
You can integrate HubSpot’s HIPAA-compliant tools from there to ensure your data handling aligns with healthcare standards.
Empowering your team with knowledge and creating campaigns that respect patient confidentiality will build trust and credibility with your audience, enhancing your brand's reputation and effectiveness.
Want to learn how HubSpot’s HIPAA-compliant features can enhance your healthcare marketing? Find out more about these tools and see how they can bring value to your strategies.
Contact Origin 63 to discuss how HubSpot can support your journey toward secure, compliant marketing success.