How to Keep Your Marketing Compliant

Alliance Physical Therapy Partners: 00:03 You’re listening to the PT Leadership Podcast, where outpatient physical therapy leaders come to share their insights with your host, Richard Leaver.

Richard Leaver: 00:17 Welcome to the PT Leadership Podcast series, a platform for therapy leaders. Building on the success of Agile and Me, this new season of the podcast will explore a broader range of topics and dive into the most pressing issues impacting service delivery and providers today. Episodes will feature discussions on advocacy efforts, proposed changes in healthcare, and practical strategies to help leaders navigate the evolving landscape. Dedicated to informing and educating both emerging and experienced therapy leaders, PT Leadership offers insights and guidance to support effective clinical practice management and overcome the challenges of modern healthcare service delivery.

Richard Leaver: 01:13 Welcome to the PT Leadership Podcast series. I’m excited to welcome Catie Butler back onto our podcast series. Catie is Director of Marketing for Alliance Physical Therapy Partners. And today we’ll be talking about the most exciting topic of compliance as it pertains to marketing for healthcare providers. So really looking forward to it in my monotone voice.

Catie Butler: 01:43 And it it is an exciting topic. It’s much more interesting than I think anybody might realize. And I know that I’m a nerd, but it is really more interesting than people might understand.

Richard Leaver: 01:55 Before we perhaps dive into the topic, for anyone that perhaps hasn’t listened to a podcast with you on before, Catie, can you perhaps give us a little bit about your background?

Catie Butler: 02:06 Sure. I’ve been with Alliance Physical Therapy Partners for three years. And I oversee our strategy, our digital systems and communications over our network of clinics and partners. And my world is where marketing meets medicine. So it’s understanding how to help our practices grow while protecting and protecting our patients and earning their trust and being compliant, but also making it fun.

Richard Leaver: 02:32 That’s quite a quite an achievement. We we do that.

Catie Butler: 02:36 It’s a challenge.

Richard Leaver: 02:37 It is, yes. So joking aside, the compliance side of marketing, I think, is often overlooked, much to the detriment of one’s organization, because the consequences of not getting this right can be profound from a perspective of the legal costs associated with it, isn’t it? Is that right?

Catie Butler: 03:06 It is. So when you when you get it wrong, when you’re not compliant, there’s many other downfalls outside of like there’s legal requirements. There’s there can be a lot of students which have heavy fines. But outside of that, you also ruin your online trust. So when you violate HIPAA, when you have HIPAA violations, and especially when you do it in a marketing way, you get banned from Google, you get banned from different search engines. So the cost is much more than just financial. There’s there’s a trust cost with your patient, and there’s also a trust cost with like algorithms online and search engines.

Richard Leaver: 03:55 There are definitely a lot of eyeballs looking for issues as it pertains to patient privacy, advertising accuracy, uh, you know, maintaining the necessary legal and ethical standards, isn’t there? There’s a there there are a lot of hoops that one has to jump through. And there’s a lot of eyeballs from different entities making sure that one is compliant.

Catie Butler: 04:27 Yeah, that’s absolutely true. And it doesn’t matter the size of your company. It could be a single clinic practice or a practice as big as ours. We have everybody has the same intention on them. So people making sure that you’re not putting personal health information out there of your patients, making sure that you’re not making false promises. A lot of ads like to say pain-free or have claims like that. And that can that can get you into trouble too. And it’s not just what you say on your website, but it’s also in your advertisements. So when you think about Google ads, there’s a whole compliance side of Google Ads that tells you from a medical perspective what you can and cannot say in an ad, what you can, like what keywords you can use in ads. It’s very restrictive. And it’s a challenge to work at it and look at it in a way that’ll that keeps the engagement of your audience, keeps the attention of your audience and keeps the negative attention away. So making sure all of these different places where compliance is looked at by different entities, making sure they’re all happy and still being able to grow your clinics.

Richard Leaver: 05:37 You make a very good point as it pertains to the size of organization being irrelevant. I sometimes wonder whether independent smaller practices feel that perhaps they have a little more leeway than the larger organizations that definitely have targets on their back. But this is one instance where I believe that there is a level playing field, and it doesn’t matter what size you are, if you are not marketing correctly, you are likely to get caught and you are likely to suffer consequences. If I remember correctly, one of the claims, successful claims against a PT entity that was associated with marketing was a a smaller entity, wasn’t it? I don’t know if you can remember that specific instance.

Catie Butler: 06:34 I vaguely remember the instance, but yeah, it only takes, it doesn’t matter how big your clinic is, or it doesn’t matter how big your practice is, it takes one single post to create a massive headache and a massive amount of trouble financially, legally, and even just rebuilding your trust online. It only takes one post, and it doesn’t matter if that post is from a company that has 150 clinics or one clinic. It’s just that one single post.

Richard Leaver: 07:01 Now I think when most people think about advertising or marketing within healthcare, they tend to be gravitated towards the issue of HIPAA and patient privacy. And I think that is really probably the primary concern. So if we spend a little bit of time about this, so HIPAA directly addresses this issue and it’s really surrounding the idea of kind of PHI: Protected Health Information, isn’t it? So perhaps from a marketing perspective, can you talk to us a little bit about HIPAA and patient privacy and then the the requirements to kind of stay on side?

Catie Butler: 07:46 Sure. So when you when you’re thinking about PHI from a marketing perspective, a lot of very effective marketing is telling the stories of your patients, but you have to do that in a way that protects their identity. It protect you have to do it in a way that is protective. So in a way that is it can be authoritative, but also it’s the dual purpose of you’re safe with us. We’re we’re protecting you, but we’re also marketing this and helping our clinic. So some of the key things that I think, especially smaller clinics might not think about is having written authorization from patients. So if you’re going to tell a patient story, making sure you have the written authorization to do so and helping them understand how you’re going to use it, how long you’re going to use it, making sure you disclose any financial benefits that this particular advertisement might create. A lot of the things that I think get forgotten, and I sometimes forget about it myself, is even having Google reviews on your website can be can be a tricky thing to do. So it’s it’s all dependent on how you bring that information in that can create HIPAA issues.

Catie Butler: 08:57 So if we- I don’t want to get too technical about it, but there are certain ways to go about bringing a Google ad or a Google review onto your website and sharing that in a way that is HIPAA compliant. So it either doesn’t have a patient’s name or only has their first name. It doesn’t talk about their specific treatment. So you don’t say Richard came in for shoulder treatment and he had a great, a great experience. So you you have to be very careful about how you talk about those different treatments and how you talk about treatments in the sense of reviews and patient testimonial, because patient testimonials is where a lot of people will get into a lot of hot water with HIPAA violations, just because they don’t think about it. Your patient is freely giving you their story and they’re happy about it, but you still have to do it in a way that is legally compliant and protects them to the best of your ability. And even with Google reviews, a lot of people, I I even had this understanding until maybe six months to a year ago with Google reviews, they your patients freely give Google reviews, but you still have to be careful how you use those, you how you use their identifying information, so not having their picture attached to it, reducing their name to either their first name or no name at all, and even how you reply to that review.

Catie Butler: 10:18 So that’s something that I learned recently. So when you reply to reviews, you can’t, you have to do it in a way that does not that does not talk about their treatment in particular. It’s more talking about thank you for a review and talking about the sentiment of their review and not talking about talking with them at all about their treatment. So with HIPAA, it’s really protecting and understanding how your patients talk about their treatment and how you talk about the treatment of your patients.

Richard Leaver: 10:49 Yes. Yeah, it it’s interesting you you talk about the response to reviews or to information that’s been provided, because ultimately you could accidentally, inadvertently actually provide information that would reveal the personal details of somebody. And when we talk about personal details, it’s not just their name, is it? There are a whole myriad of data points or or information that is considered HIPAA. And you know, I it’s a it’s a tightrope, isn’t it? You you basically you are very limited with regards to what you can say in response.

Catie Butler: 11:33 Yep, you’re very limited in what you can say and what you can show too. So making sure you have more than just your eyes on anything that is posted or talked about in a marketing way, because even if you have a computer screen in the background, we had an issue recently where a post, it was a great post, but like there was a computer screen in the background that may have had PHI displayed on there. So it’s something that we had to pull down and remake so that it was blurred out. So like having those sharp eyes to make sure, even in images that you use within your clinic, making sure there’s no PHI in the background, making sure if there are patients in the background, they’re either blurred out or you have their consent. So it’s it’s very multifaceted and very you have to have very sharp eyes and have more than one set of eyes on anything that you’re putting out there.

Richard Leaver: 12:19 And then I know this is going into the weeds somewhat, but I think this is really important for independent practitioners. When we talk about consent, okay, verbal consent isn’t sufficient, is it? I don’t believe. So it has to be written consent. And not only does it have to be written consent, the written consent has to be very explicit as well, doesn’t it, in this instance? You can’t have a generic, you know, sign this complete waiver when it comes to marketing. I if I believe correctly, it has to clearly outline what you want to do, how you want to use it, when, where, how, et cetera, et cetera. Am I right with that?

Catie Butler: 13:01 I think so. So our our consent forms, they they say we may use these images or your testimonial on social media in various mark printed marking marketing material, just really line lining up this is where you can expect to see the information that you’re providing us. And then it’s it’s not enough just to have like a date that they signed up, but you have to have an expiration date. So we can use this for three years. So making sure that that is understood that this is the time limit that we are allowed to use this information that you’re providing for us. And it gets a little more tricky with like Google reviews because there isn’t that explicit consent, but that some of that consent is on Google side and it all depends on how you pull that information from Google on where that PHI is. So if you’re pulling that manually from Google, that can be a HIPAA violation. So like it really gets you can get very into the weeds about how how information is pulled, but having that consent form is really essential and making sure you have like this starts from the day that you signed it and it ends at this date. And these are all of the different things that we can use. This information, these pictures that we took of you, this video that we took of you, these words that you’re telling us, this is how we can use it and being true to that, to that sheet.

Richard Leaver: 14:22 Absolutely. And then the final piece, as far as I’m aware, there has to be an opt-out option as well for patients, correct?

Catie Butler: 14:32 Always. They always have to have a way to opt out. So they have you have to be able, they have to be able to contact you to say, I want you to no longer use this information. And so using your contact form on your website, calling you whichever ways and their copy of of this consent form should have contact information about like if you no longer want us to use this information, contact us here. And so making sure that they have that option. And you have you always have to have option, opt-out options, whether it’s text messages, providing images, getting a newsletter. There’s so many different things that you have to be people have to be able to physically check a box either with their hand or on online to say, I opt in or I am opting out of this. You have to be able to not only have that record, but keep that record and obey that record.

Richard Leaver: 15:26 Before we move on from HIPAA and patient health information, it’s not only the patient’s consent for using information and how that information is used, time frame, etc. It’s also from a marketing perspective, it’s also being very careful with regards to how we store that information and protecting it for the life of that in that that kind of marketing episode. So you have to treat the information just like perhaps in a very simplistic mind, just the same as, for instance, if it was embedded within any AMR system, for instance.

Catie Butler: 16:22 Yeah, exactly.

Richard Leaver: 16:22 So an organization has to take deliberate steps to protect that information and be very careful with regards to what platforms, what software, and even hardware is used to ensure that protection. Yes?

Catie Butler: 16:40 Yeah, I’m really glad you brought that up because, like you said, it’s it’s about storing the information as well. So when you think about websites, your website needs to be your domain and website need to be on a host and a server that are HIPAA compliant. And there are different companies that may or may not be HIPAA compliant. Like I’m not going to name any names, but there’s a major website hosting service that most everybody uses that is not HIPAA compliant. And so it’s really making sure that you look into that information to make sure your your the software that you’re using, where your website is stored, where you’re uploading documents from, like even scans of the PDFs or scans of the consent forms, how is that stored? Where is that kept? And it has everything has to live in a HIPAA compliance, a HIPAA compliant environment. And it even comes down to like software you use, even like certain web forms that you might use on your website, even though where your website is hosted, it’s HIPAA compliant, but the software that you’re using to collect information from patients, the type of information, how you’re keeping it, and the actual like if you’re using WordPress and you’re using a plugin, your plugin has to be HIPAA compliant. So it’s really making sure every tool you use is compliant with HIPAA and compliant with and just a safe tool to use.

Richard Leaver: 18:03 Before we move off HIPAA and patient privacy, anything else I’ve forgotten as it pertains to that piece? Because that I believe is the most important piece when we’re talking about compliance issues and and healthcare marketing.

Catie Butler: 18:15 So I think one of the things that often gets missed is making sure you understand, we we kind of talked about data security, but working with a tech, either your technology team in your company or a third party that can help you set up all of your systems so you so that your email is compliant, so that your every piece that you’re using to communicate with your patients from a marketing point of view, that every little piece is compliant. And just making sure if you if you don’t have if you don’t know the technology team or you don’t have the technology background to understand is is my MSN email HIPAA -compliant? It’s important to seek to consult with someone and seek advice from experts who can help you with that.

Richard Leaver: 19:00 That’s great advice.

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Richard Leaver: 19:31 The second area where there’s common compliance issues as it pertains to marketing for healthcare is false or misleading advertising, isn’t there?

Catie Butler: 19:44 Mm-hmm. Yep.

Richard Leaver: 19:45 Yeah, and that’s interesting. Sorry, what was really interesting yesterday I was in New York on work and I walked past this PT, national PT chain building, and on the front door it said Nation’s best, voted nation’s best. Physical therapy. I thought, oh. I thought that’s a big claim. Yeah, that’s that’s quite a claim. And I thought, well, that’s probably, you know, might be bending the the rules with regards to false or misleading advertising. But I won’t necessarily go there. But but you know, I’d love to perhaps talk a little bit more about this concept or risk of false advertising and misleading advertising.

Catie Butler: 20:26 Well, it’s interesting that you say that it just reminds me of this old adage is if your mother tells you she loves you, checks her, check her sources. So you can say that you are the best clinic in the United States, but you better have the documentation to back that claim up. So you can say it as long as you can prove it. So that’s when it comes to false or misleading advertising. If you know for sure it’s true, absolutely shout it from the root rooftops, but you have to be able to back up that information. So, and it doesn’t, it’s not just we’re the best physical therapist out there. It comes down to we want to help you become pain-free. Well, we can’t, no, no one can guarantee pain free. So it’s really understanding the language that you would use instead of pain-free. So, like we we help you achieve comfort levels. We help you, we help support your how you live. So finding those other ways to say that. So the false or misleading advertising, it’s such a slippery slope because everybody’s like, oh, pain-free this, and we can cure your headaches and we can fix your shoulder pain. And it’s it’s really making claims like that can be hurtful because, like, if I want to, if I have a shoulder pain and I go somewhere because, like, oh, they’re gonna say they say they can fix all shoulder pain and they don’t, that you lose trust with that customer, but that or that patient, and that patient tells their friends. So it’s not just losing trust with a patient, it’s not just having false information out there, but like once one patient has a bad experience because you didn’t make their life pain-free, they tell five of their friends who tell five of their friends, and it just that reputation grows very quickly.

Richard Leaver: 22:07 Yes, you you bring another good point with regards to it’s not so much or not just whether it’s truthful. It has to be substantiated. And I would imagine when we say substantiated, it can’t be, well, Richard Lever said this was, you know, you were the best. I I would imagine it has to be substantiated ideally from scientific literature at least, or at least a an objective manner rather than a third party’s opinion or a vote of hands.

Catie Butler: 22:42 So like having uh on national awards from credible sources. So that that can be a way that you can have those claims. So you can say that you have the best physical therapy in El Paso if you have all of these different areas in El Paso who have stated that yes, this is the best place that you can go to and it’s credible. It’s not just like popular votes, it’s not, but just making sure that it’s backed up by scientific data. And it all depends on how you use it too. So making that claim just randomly or just slapping it on a website with no resources, no backup, that’s not really going to be that’s not really the right way to do it.

Richard Leaver: 23:23 Yes, I assume it has to be referenced, credible references as well that do exist rather than just made up by AI or or a politician or two. Um so so so first off, it has to be truthful and substantiated. But then I think probably more importantly, and perhaps what you see more of is exaggeration or omission, isn’t it? You know, when we we can certainly talk about exaggeration, but I think you know what people don’t think about is is the omission part as well.

Catie Butler: 23:57 Yeah, for sure. So making sure that you’re telling them the whole story. So all of your information is free from, like we said, free from exaggeration, but also being able to understand like these are things that we don’t do. So like saying that we are a physical therapy clinic and we treat everything is not necessarily true because you’re not telling them what you don’t do or what what you don’t have the expertise to handle. You might know where to go, or you might have another clinic in your practice that they can go to, but being very careful about making sure you’re just honest and transparent about how you communicate about what you can and cannot do.

Richard Leaver: 24:37 Yes. And you know, one I think it’s a theoretical example is let’s say, you know, physical therapy can treat headaches. Well, we can treat a small subsection or a percentage of headaches that are you know cervicogenic or uh you know musculoskeletal origin, but a lot of headaches are uh you know are chemical in nature and the therapy is not going to help. So I think it’s making sure we don’t have too broad a brush sometimes when it pertains to marketing.

Catie Butler: 25:08 Yeah, for sure. And making sure your patients understand. So a recent blog post might be physical therapy can help you help you with your your blood pressure, help high blood pressure. And that’s yes, some activity can help that, but like making sure if you’re going to see something like that, that you’re also making sure high blood pressure needs to be diagnosed by a medical professional and making sure that like even with your example, Richard, with headaches, like making sure that you have seen a medical professional when it’s necessary for headaches because there might be something different going on, other than something with your muscles, something that just physical therapy can help. And your physical therapist can probably help determine, hey, you really need to get an MRI or you really need to see a doctor about this because this is what I think it is. But they can’t, they’re not going to diagnose you with high blood pressure or certain neurological issues that are causing your headache. They can steer you in the right direction for sure. But just making sure that we market it in a way that doesn’t say that we can diagnose X, Y, and Z and that we will fix it. So make just being, like I said, being honest and upfront and very transparent in what we do and how we do it. So focusing on the function, focusing on the function and the process. So the physical therapy process, how that helps you instead of using terms like we can help you support you, we can improve and manage, instead of we can fix, we can make it go away.

Richard Leaver: 26:34 Yeah. Now, the two main agencies I think that regulate false or misleading advertising is the FTC, uh, if it still exists under the after the various cuts, and then the FDA, isn’t it? Perhaps for therapy, it’s not so much the FDA, I would imagine it’s kind of FTC. Now, they have teeth, don’t they, when it comes to this, correct?

Catie Butler: 26:57 They do. They they have big fines and they can sh- they can shut so many things done down. So when you think about like if the FTC comes after you for false advertising, false advertising or misleading advertising, they that can ruin a business in in so many ways. So it can financially it can deplete a a business. So it can you can be removed from the you can basically be removed from the internet or be blocked somehow. There are there’s a lot of different ways that they can come towards you with if they have any viable claim that you violated any FTC.

Richard Leaver: 27:44 The rise of social media digital marketing, but but social media specifically I’m sure has brought these issues. Not necessarily brought the issues to to a head, but certainly have compounded the potential risks, I would imagine. With regards to doing a brochure or a photograph that’s used in collateral materials, I would imagine that’s that’s very easy to manage compared to trying to manage online content given the fact that the content is being uploaded by multiple sources, you know, this social media in a way or has the propensity to actually perhaps level the playing field with regards to getting information into the into the the world. But with that ease of hosting on online presence comes the same risks, but I would imagine multiplied immensely because how do you how do you control that compared to, for instance, designing a you know a little brochure for a business?

Catie Butler: 29:17 So that’s where that’s where all of this gets interesting. So it’s a big compliance minefield. Social media, it works. The good thing about it is that it humanizes healthcare. It humanizes, it lets us show the stories of how we help people, but it also human humanizes lawsuits. So it just makes everything more real. Because if you talk about it in the wrong way, it’s it can have the complete opposite effect that you’re intending. So with social media, you can have accidental PHI and stuff that you’re not even thinking about in comments when you’re commenting on a patient’s story. And in that comment, if you make it clear that yes, they were a patient at your clinic, that can be a HIPAA violation. Having photos, we talked earlier about photos and making sure you have several people looking at your photos to make sure A, you have consent to take their photo and use their photo. But also if you have patients who are taking their own photos and videos in your clinic, you need to make sure they might post that on their own social media, but you need it’s hard to control, but you need to make sure that they’re not getting other patients in the background.

Catie Butler: 30:27 So having having the having the courage to be able to go to patients who might be filming their recovery or their their exercises within your clinic, making sure that you’re have the courage to go to them to say, hey, I love that you’re taking this video. And if you want to tag us, that’s great. But I need you to move to this area so we don’t have other patients in the background. And just making sure your whole that everybody is in a safe environment. And patient testimonials, patient testimonials are written all the time, whether or not you want them. So yes, people, most companies will request that you leave a Google review. Did you have a great experience? Leave a Google review. But oftentimes, if they had a bad experience, they’re still gonna leave a Google review and making sure, even though it’s a negative experience, making sure they’re they are still protected and making sure your comments on that are still protected and still HIPAA- compliant.

Catie Butler: 31:22 So there’s so many pitfalls when it comes to social media and online risk. And it’s very difficult to wrap your arms around if you’re even like a medium-sized or small, bigger than small, but smaller than medium, if that makes sense. Once you, as you have you as you add more clinics to your practice, it gets harder and harder to wrap your arms around it. So having a team that is informed, that knows how to look for this information and knows how to respond to information, having pre-approved content libraries for uh we have Social Champs at Alliance. So making sure that we have pre-approved content for them to post and every that everything that gets posted on our various social medias goes through an approval process so we can note, hey, there’s some PHI in there, let’s take this part out, or having advice and we shouldn’t talk about it like this, let’s talk about it like this. Just making sure you have a playbook in hand, making sure you have tracking technology that helps you understand what’s being posted on on your behalf and your what your patients are posting, being able being sure that you can listen to how your patients are talking about you online, making sure that that is also HIPAA compliant where it needs to be.

Richard Leaver: 32:36 Came across a scenario recently where a relative of a patient uh had a uh a phone within the clinic and inadvertently, accidentally got information material that would be considered essentially PHI and used it in a social media environment, ultimately the entity the healthcare entity is liable for that, isn’t it? Even though we you know perhaps had a sign saying no no cameras or no phones, even though they inadvertently collected the patient information or film them not as the primary subject in the clinic, but but as in the background, for instance. There’s no malice uh associated with it. Right. But the rules were broken, PHI is is released, and the entity is ultimately responsible, yes?

Catie Butler: 33:54 Yeah, they are because it happened in your clinic, it happened on your turn. So absolutely the clinic would be held responsible because that’s where the it comes back to. So we didn’t catch, I don’t want to say we as if as it was us, but the person who had, even if it was inadvertent, it still happened in your clinic. So you’re still going to hold some responsibility there because that’s just I guess that’s just how it works. And it’s and it can be unfortunate because we don’t we don’t have control over what everybody is recording or accidentally recording, but making sure rules are known that anything that is recorded in the clinic shouldn’t be shared without consent of anybody who might be on it, or making sure that there are rules in place like please don’t have your phone on during treatment, making sure different rules are in place and that people understand those rules.

Richard Leaver: 34:45 Yes. I think what will be very interesting in the years to come is information that is publicly available and let’s say there is consent associated with that content. But given the capabilities, processing capabilities and technology that is here and now, and alone in the future how it develops, technology is going to probably be able to connect the dots with different materials to form a picture and be able to get to a point where by connecting various pieces of information from various locations, it can then create a situation where you enter identify an individual to a point where the amount of information collected can potentially compromise that individual. Yes?

Catie Butler: 35:45 Yeah, absolutely. So tell cell phone technology is I think of it as magic. So when you take a picture, the the geography of where you took that picture is captured in the background of that image. So not just like physically in the background where you can see where this is identifiable, but there are codes, there’s coding in the background of that that says this was taken at this GPS location. It can identify potentially there’s all kinds of facial recognition in any kind of pictures, any kind of video, pretty much anywhere that you look now. And when you even think about, I almost hate to bring it up, but it’s going to be an issue as we go forward with AI. Any AI tools that are that have ambient listening, there has to be a lot of caution around those because that can get out there and some depending on the type of AI, if it’s not a regulated AI so like you are recording with Chat GPT, it can record the sounds around you. And it’s not that is definitely not HIPAA compliant. It’s definitely not a super regulated tool. It takes any information it can and it absorbs it. So just I think I think the issues that we have now with digital marketing compliance, it’s it’s really just kind of the tip of the iceberg as we as this technic technology starts to talk to each other more and starts to connect more. I think we’re gonna see a lot more issues come forward. And it’s just a matter of making sure you’re staying a step ahead of anything that you can.

Richard Leaver: 37:17 George Orwell would have a lot to say about this, wouldn’t he?

Catie Butler: 37:21 Yeah, he would. It’s time for the tin foil hat.

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Richard Leaver: 38:10 I think the last thing we want to talk about is what can organizations, what can the independent private practice do to help remain compliant? Okay. Yeah, let’s dumb it down essentially. The realities of the situation, what what do they need to do?

Catie Butler: 38:30 I think the biggest thing is to make sure your team understands HIPAA compliance. So anybody that’s doing marketing for you, making sure that they understand what they can and cannot use, making sure they understand what is PHI and how they can avoid accidentally displaying that somewhere or accidentally letting that out in the world or out in the digital wild, making sure you have clear approval workflows. So having a not just for your internal marketing. So like marketing flyers should go through some kind of an approval process. So there’s more than just one person’s eyes on it, but also the approval process of having your patients consent to not just give treatment, but to give testimonials and to like being inpatient videos and patient pictures, making sure you have all of those little pieces set up. There are there are some just basic things that you can set up that can get you started and have you start working in a compliant way.

Catie Butler: 39:31 And also having, if you have the ability, but having some kind of cross-departmental collaboration. So when you have a larger corporation making sure you have a compliance team and making sure your marketing team, you know, are friends with your compliance team. So they work together and make sure everything that they do is compliant. But if you’re just a single company, talk to other talk to other companies, talk to find some vendors or any experts in your area that might be able to help you understand is That is the way that I’ve been doing this is this compliant, just asking questions and getting feedback from whoever can help you.

Richard Leaver: 40:08 And then I believe the government actually has good resources on this as well. The HS HHS government, is that right?

Catie Butler: 40:19 Yeah, there’s a lot of government sources available. And unfortunately, I don’t have them at my hand. But yeah, there is the HSS that has a type of marketing guide. Even like for physical therapy, if you go to APTA, they’ll probably have guides. There are different marketing, even WebPT has guides on that. There is a lot of different company, a lot of different sources out there. So there’s a pull a website called intelligencebake.com that can help you that helps understand certain current threats and trends that are going on and how you can avoid them. There are a lot of different sources online. And even just starting with I don’t all I I do sometimes always give this advice, but sometimes just starting with a Google search or Chat GPT thing, how can I be more compliant? Provide me some government resources to understand compliance. So just looking for those online as well.

Richard Leaver: 41:12 Yeah. We’ve covered a lot of ground. Any other words of wisdom or thoughts on the subject for our listeners before we uh close out?

Catie Butler: 41:24 I think just making sure you’re you’re thinking about compliance as you’re thinking about marketing, because it’s it’s important to grow your clinics, but it’s also important to grow your pa -patient’s trust. And you do that through thinking in a compliant manner.

Richard Leaver: 41:36 That’s fantastic. Thank you so much, Catie. We’ve managed to move what perhaps is a somewhat dry topic into what I believe is a fairly interesting discussion. So I appreciate your time today. And talking about HIPAA and marketing and false advertising, et cetera, et cetera. So thank you.

Catie Butler: 41:57 Thank you.

Alliance Physical Therapy Partners: 42:01 This has been another episode of the PT Leadership Podcast, brought to you by Alliance Physical Therapy Partners. Learn more about our team and find more episodes online at allianceptp.com/podcasts.