Tweet an
appointment reminder to a patient. Post photos from a Botox party on Instagram.
Offer rewards for referrals. To social marketers, these strategies may sound
like perfect cosmetic surgery promotions. But it turns out that each of these
strategies could land a physician in court. That’s according to Alex Thiersch,
a Chicago attorney and director of the American Med Spa Association.
Cosmetic
surgery has embraced social media to a greater extent than any other field of
medicine, reflecting its unique reliance on marketing and advertising, says Mr.
Thiersch. At the same time, he says, these retail-born strategies must be legal
and ethical.
The
problem is that those marketers and advertisers don’t understand the unique
rules of medicine, says Thiersch, who spoke recently at The Aesthetic Meeting,
the annual gathering of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.
“We’ve
seen a lot of non-health care marketing companies start moving into this space
from the insurance and auto industry worlds. They come in without any knowledge
of health care regulation,” Mr. Thiersch tells Cosmetic Surgery Times. “They
try to solicit doctors and say, ‘This is how we market, this is what has proved
successful in industry X.’ To their credit, it often does, but they’re often
using techniques that are just flat out illegal or toe the line of ethics.”
So what
exactly could go wrong? Here are a few examples, compliments of Mr. Thiersch:
TWEETS,
POSTS & PRIVACY
Twitter
is a big part of social marketing, and a promotions consultant could tweet a
patient with a simple message, such as, “Great seeing you today for your laser
treatment. See you next week and don’t forget the sunscreen! #sunsmart”
The
problem: A tweet like this violates a patient’s privacy.
Mr.
Thiersch has heard “horror stories” of posts on social media that have
inadvertently exposed the names of patients — and their procedures — to the
world. “If you’re blasting out posts over social media, and you’re recognizing
individual patients,” he says, “you need to be careful.”
POSTING
PHOTOS
“Social
media is all about posting photos,” Mr. Thiersch says. Cosmetic surgeons may
have special events where someone snaps a photo of patients getting treatments.
Or perhaps someone shoots a selfie at the event and a patient is in the
background getting a Botox injection.
“Then it
gets blasted on Instagram,” he says. While he hasn’t seen anyone get in trouble
for this particular kind of privacy violation, Mr. Thiersch says it’s a
clear-and-present danger.
RESPONSES
TO NEGATIVE REVIEWS
Have you
ever received a negative review? It’s hard not to take it personally and your
initial reaction can be to provide a detailed response to a negative review on
sites like Yelp, Mr. Thiersch says. But watch out: You may violate a patient’s
privacy by revealing too much information about their case.
INSECURE
DEVICES AND SYSTEMS
“Everybody
and their brother has smart phones and tablets,” Mr. Thiersch says. “People
need to be careful about whether those devices are secure.”
At the
office, be careful about allowing outsiders, like your marketing consultants,
to gain access to computers that hold patient information. “The sole job of
marketers is to bring people in,” he says. “They’re not coached on traditional
medical health care issues.”
Keep in
mind that protected health information goes beyond the basics of name, date of
birth and condition. According to Thiersch, other protected health information
includes email addresses, telephone and fax numbers, Social Security numbers
and even car license plates and account numbers.
FREEBIES
FOR REFERRALS
Your
credit card rewards you when you bring in a new customer. So why shouldn’t a
cosmetic surgeon offer the same deal to his or her patients? A marketing
consultant may want to start a program that gives patients a free gift card
when they make a successful referral.
Think
again, Thiersch says. “In most states you can’t pay something in value for a
referral,” he says. If you try, you might violate anti-kickback laws.
Instead,
just say “thank you” to the patient who provides a referral. And just say “no
thanks” to a marketer who wants to take it a step too far.
No comments:
Post a Comment