Home Health & Hospice Week

Weigh the pros and cons of an online presence.

Social networking is a huge part of today’s culture, and many providers are evaluating whether jumping on the bandwagon could help promote their services and bring in new referrals. But if you don’t pay attention to the rules surrounding social media, you could get your agency in a sticky situation.

Take a look at this expert advice to help you evaluate whether an agency Facebook page or Twitter feed might be a beneficial part of your marketing strategy.

Explore Your Options

There are a variety of ways for your agency to be involved in the social media arena. Some of the most common include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Tumblr. For home care providers, the first three are typical choices.

“There are lots of choices in terms of if you want to communicate,” says attorney Wayne J. Miller, founding partner of the Compliance Law Group in Los Angeles in his recent audioconference titled “Social Network Marketing: Avoid Regulatory Pitfalls!”. Providers want to potentially communicate with new patients, prior patients, colleagues, regferral sources, etc. “Social media ... makes a lot of sense for health care providers,” Miller said.

Creating a social media presence for your agency allows you to communicate with existing patients, reach out to potential new patients, market your organization, promote your services, increase word-of-mouth referrals, and even become more involved in your local community, experts says.

Example: In this time of year, during flu season, you could post hand washing tips, flu shot hours, and local flu outbreak statistics on your agency Facebook page. You could also send tweets out on Twitter with daily provider tips on flu prevention or reasons to get vaccinated.

You can tailor the content you put out on social media to meet your needs. You can post agency updates, photos of your office, or preventive healthcare tips. Providers often find it helpful to include phone numbers, normal business hours, and staff profiles. How much you want to post online and where you want to post it is an individual agency decision.

Caveats: There are a few things to be careful of when you set up a social media page or feed.

First, Miller says that you need to be cautious about defining the provider/patient relationship. “Be very clear about not creating a relationship with the patient if that’s not intended in a social network setting; and most of the time it won’t be intended,” he warns. You need to be aware of the difference between general advice and taking over care for the patient.

Next, be careful about licensing and scope of practice pitfalls. “One of the things that is of concern with the communications that involve a person in one part of the country and a doctor or a health care facility in another part is that often the states will say, ‘If you’re going to be providing [advice] to somebody in Wisconsin and you’re located in Florida, you need to be licensed in the state of Wisconsin in order to provide that advice,’” Miller explains.

You’ll also need to be sure your online information does not violate HIPAA in any way, including somehow disclosing patients’ protected health information (PHI). There are also questions of whether the social media networks that you connect with could be considered business associates (BAs).

Additionally: Be cautious about offering discounts via online networks or soliciting based on a patient’s payment sources (i.e., the insurance they have), as you may be subject to anti-kickback, Stark, or solicitation laws.