HIPAA compliant online responses protect your reputation and your patients’ privacy

Responding to all negative online reviews may seem like a good idea. However, you need to be careful not to violate HIPAA as a medical practice. The wrong verbiage can constitute revealing protected health information (PHI) without the patient’s consent, subjecting you to fines and penalties. To help, Catalyst Healthcare Marketing offers HIPAA compliant online responses as part of our reputation management services.

Responding to online reviews is important

Selecting the right medical practice can be a matter of life and death, so most patients turn to online reviews when selecting a provider. As a result, negative reviews on websites like Google, Healthgrades or Vitals can influence potential patients to look elsewhere for their care.

Thankfully, responding to negative reviews with thoughtful HIPAA compliant online responses can cause some potential patients to overlook the bad reviews. Additionally, responding to positive reviews in a HIPAA compliant manner can bolster your reputation as a caring and responsive practice.

The value of HIPAA compliant online responses

It’s important to know that HIPAA does not prevent your practice from responding to patient reviews. It only prevents you from responding in a way that reveals a patient’s PHI.

• Name, birthdate and contact information
• Whether they are your patient
• Diagnoses, test results or appointment times

Even if the patient already revealed some of this information, your practice still cannot respond in a way that reveals or confirms it. However, you can respond to the review in general terms, such as by discussing your approach to patient care. By posting HIPAA compliant online responses, your practice can gain a reputation for being responsive to patient concerns and safeguarding PHI.

Reach out to get assistance

Our healthcare marketing agency works with outsourced HIPAA consultants to ensure compliance with this important privacy law. If you would like to speak to one of our consultants, please contact us. We are also happy to work with your HIPAA consultant when providing reputation management services.