Medicare Marketing Guidelines

Covered entities have a long list of laws and regulations governing their conduct, including their communications with patients, customers, and members.  Specifically, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) permits many such communications, including those about health care products and services, but precludes certain “marketing” communications absent written consent.  Recently, however, healthcare providers and health plans have been subject to a spate of class actions alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), which generally precludes autodialed (or “robo”) calls to residential and cellular phones.  The TCPA was originally enacted to curtail pesky “telemarketers,” but has recently been used to go after a range of other business.  The penalties under the TCPA can be substantial – at $500 to $1,500 per phone call, the statutory damages can quickly exceed $100 million.
Continue Reading Do Routine Calls by Health Plans to Patients and Health Plan Members Constitute “Telemarketing” Under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act? Not Today!