Healthcare marketers have been spooked for years by a terrifying creature – the PHI Monster.

It’s said to breathe fire when someone dares mention personalization. Its claws have been sharpened on HIPAA regulations. And the moment a marketer tries to improve patient engagement, it lets out a bone-chilling roar: “COMPLIANCE VIOLATION!”

But the PHI Monster isn’t nearly as scary as it seems. With the right approach, it’s completely harmless.

How to Slay (or Befriend) the PHI Monster

HIPAA exists for a reason – we need to protect patient privacy. But too many healthcare marketers assume personalization is off-limits entirely, opting for one-size-fits-all messaging that’s about as effective as whispering in a hurricane.

Personalization works and you can do it without fear of fines or lawsuits – and no actual PHI Monster. It starts by working with compliance teams.

Compliance isn’t trying to sabotage great marketing. They just evaluate risk differently. The best healthcare marketers work with them, framing personalization in ways that lower both risk and anxiety. 

Here’s what we mean:

Instead of: “We want to track patient behavior and use their data for marketing.”
Try: “We want to use anonymized insights to deliver the right content at the right time.”

Instead of: “Can we share patient data with a third-party tool?”
Try: “Here’s a HIPAA-compliant vendor who will sign a BAA and de-identify all data before use.”

Instead of: “Let’s segment our audience based on past visits.”
Try: “We can use secure, first-party data to group patients into general interest categories, without identifying individuals.”

Instead of: “We should personalize our emails with patient history.”
Try: “Let’s personalize based on publicly available preferences, like location and condition-specific content, without using identifiable health data.”

The Real Danger? Doing Nothing.

Patients expect personalization. They’ve grown used to the seamless experiences they get from Amazon, Netflix, and even their local coffee shop that somehow remembers their weird oat milk order. So when providers treat every patient the same, people notice. They disengage. They go elsewhere. Or worse: they miss critical health information because the messaging doesn’t feel relevant. 

So, tame the PHI Monster. Feed it some compliance-friendly cookies. Show it a well-written BAA. It’s not here to stop you, it just wants to know you’ve read the fine print.