This is archived HHS content.

FAQs Categories

Marketing

Does the HIPAA Privacy Rule expand the ability of providers, plans, marketers and others to use my protected health information to market goods and services to me? Does the Privacy Rule make it easier for health care businesses to engage in door-to-door sales and marketing efforts?

Can contractors (business associates) use protected health information for its own marketing purposes?

Can telemarketers obtain my health information and use it to call me to sell good and services?

When is an authorization required from the patient before a provider or health plan engages in marketing to that individual?

How can I distinguish between activities for treatment or health care operations versus marketing activities?

Do disease management, health promotion, preventive care, and wellness programs fall under the HIPAA Privacy Rule's definition of "marketing"?

Is it marketing for a covered entity to describe products or services that are provided by the covered entity to its patients, or to describe products or services that are included in the health plan's plan of benefits of the health plan?

Is it marketing for a covered entity to describe the entities participating in a health care provider network or a health plan network?

Is it marketing for an insurance plan or health plan to send enrollees notices about changes, replacements, or improvements to existing plans?

Can health plans communicate about health-related products or services to enrollees that add value to, but are not part of, a plan of benefits?

Can a doctor or pharmacy be paid to make a prescription refill reminder without a prior authorization under the HIPAA Privacy Rule?

What are examples of "alternative treatments" that are excepted from the HIPAA Privacy Rule's definition of "marketing"?

Are prior authorizations required when a doctor or health plan distributes promotional gifts of nominal value?

Are health care providers required to seek a prior authorization before discussing a product or service with a patient, or giving a product or service to a patient, in a face-to-face encounter?

Must insurance agents that are business associates of a health plan seek a prior authorization before talking to a customer in a face-to-face encounter about the insurance company's other lines of business?

What effect do the “marketing” provisions of the HIPAA Privacy Rule have on Federal or State fraud and abuse statutes?

May covered entities use information regarding specific clinical conditions of individuals in order to communicate about products or services for such conditions without a prior authorization?

Are communications concerning information to beneficiaries about government programs or government-sponsored programs "marketing" under the HIPAA Privacy Rule?

This is archived HHS content.