Most patients assume that doctors and hospitals take great care to protect their health and financial records. They may be surprised, then, to learn that about 20 percent of hospitals nationwide are actually mining these confidential records, along with information from consumer marketing firms, to target a demographic of patients to whom they can most successfully promote more health services generally independent of medical need.
This new trend among hospitals, called customer relationship marketing, uses a person s age, income, insurance status, residence, and other demographic data obtained from patient records and outside sources to pitch lucrative screenings and tests to those with the best insurance coverage. Though some may find the practice a serious invasion of privacy, federal law actually allows hospitals to use confidential medical records in order to inform patients of services they think might help them. And hospitals are taking full advantage of this loophole by launching large-scale targeted marketing campaigns to increase their bottom line. Take Mercy Health Partners in western Michigan, for instance. This hospital sent out 7,450 targeted cardiac screening mailings last year, resulting in $1 million in revenue and 1,729 patient visits that was a 7 percent increase over the control group, which did not receive the mailings.
For the hospitals, the real payoff but for us, the real health concern lies in what those screenings may lead to: additional tests that often result in more studies, procedures, and even surgery. I find the whole practice scary and disconcerting, says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. Once patients act on these targeted mailings, they re in the system for more and more diagnostic work-ups, some of which may be totally unnecessary.
But hospitals are defending the practice, claiming that marketing to patients whose insurance pays more reliably or at higher rates allows them to continue to serve other people, regardless of their insurance status. This is a means to an end, Provena Health marketing executive Lisa Lagger stated. But, ACSH s Dr. Ruth Kava comments, does this end really justify the means? Shouldn t all patients be informed of available screenings if they are indeed necessary?
Though ACSH s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan acknowledges that hospitals are like any other business out there, trying to remain profitable in order to continue operations, she still finds these targeted mailing campaigns troubling. I can t believe they re exploiting affluent people in order to subsidize costs for patients with fewer resources, she says. If that is in fact what these hospitals are doing with the extra profits.
There is still a generation of physicians, says Dr. Ross, that has fond memories of a time when the practice of medicine was different when hospitals were more concerned with the health of their patients. But I suppose the future of health care places a greater emphasis on profits over patients.
