Health advocacy and HIPAA

Health advocacy and HIPAA work together to support a healthcare system that is patient-centered and equitable. Healthcare providers can use HIPAA compliant emails to promote health advocacy, supporting patients more effectively and maintaining federal regulatory compliance.

What is health advocacy?

According to Medical Teacher’s publication on Health Advocacy, health advocacy includes "activities related to ensuring access to care, navigating the system, mobilizing resources, addressing health inequities, influencing health policy, and creating system change."

Social, economic, environmental, and political factors all affect an individual's health and well-being. As the authors explain, "Any discussion of health advocacy must start with the social determinants of health and health inequities."

The social determinants of health include factors like housing, education, employment, transportation, income, food security, and access to healthcare services. These factors influence whether individuals can achieve and maintain good health.

The article notes that "the social determinants of health (i.e., the conditions in which people live and work) account for a significant proportion of an individual's and a population's health outcomes." As a result, healthcare professionals help individuals and communities overcome barriers to care and access the resources they need.

Unpacking health inequities

The authors define health inequities as "inequalities in health between groups of people within countries and between countries that are perpetuated by social and economic conditions, including the distribution of health resources."

Health inequities often result from systemic issues where people living in underserved communities may face challenges like limited access to healthcare providers, transportation barriers, language barriers, financial constraints, and limited access to nutritious food.

These factors can lead to poorer health outcomes, associated with delayed treatment and higher rates of chronic disease.

Health advocacy versus health promotion

Medical Teacher explains that health promotion is often interpreted as encouraging individual behavior changes, like smoking cessation, exercise, healthy eating, immunization, or participation in screening programs.

While these interventions are important, the authors argue that "effective health advocacy" addresses the root causes of health inequities.

The article further states that "promoting behavior change in the absence of addressing the social determinants of health assumes a universally high degree of individual choice and does not account for the impact of the environment and social policies on health behaviors or outcomes."

For example, advising a patient to eat healthier foods may have a limited impact if the patient lives in an area without access to affordable fresh produce.

Additionally, encouraging a patient to attend follow-up appointments may not be effective if transportation barriers prevent them from reaching healthcare facilities.

Health advocacy must identify and address these issues.

Why HIPAA matters in health advocacy

Since health advocacy involves sharing patients’ protected health information (PHI) to connect patients with community resources, providers must use a HIPAA compliant email solution.

Platforms like Paubox email are proven to improve patient trust by implementing technical safeguards for electronic PHI. More specifically, these platforms use advanced security features like encryption and access controls to prevent unauthorized PHI access.

It also promotes trust among vulnerable populations, including low-income individuals, patients experiencing homelessness, older adults, and underserved communities.

HIPAA compliant emails allow advocacy to take place, giving these populations additional support when coordinating advocacy efforts.

The physician as a health advocate

According to the authors, "Physicians are uniquely positioned to contribute to the transformation of the system that will ultimately result in improved health systems, health outcomes, and reduction of health inequities."

Healthcare professionals interact directly with patients and witness firsthand how social and economic conditions affect health. Their perspective allows them to identify barriers to care and advocate for patients’ health improvements.

As such, providers must "participate in activities that contribute to improved health of their individual patients, communities, and populations by identifying and addressing health inequities."

These advocacy activities can happen at different levels, like supporting individual patients, working with community organizations, influencing healthcare systems, and contributing to public policy discussions.

Regardless of the setting, providers must maintain HIPAA compliance and protect individuals’ PHI.

Agency and activism in health advocacy

The article introduces the UBC Health Advocacy Framework, which categorizes advocacy activities into two types: agency and activism.

Agency

According to the authors, agency "encompasses a variety of activities that involve navigating the system." This may include providing information and education, making referrals, helping patients understand healthcare systems, and assisting with access to social services.

Healthcare providers must use HIPAA compliant email systems for interactions that require sharing information among healthcare providers and authorized organizations.

Activism

The article explains that activism includes "raising awareness of an issue, mobilizing resources needed for change, directly making a change, or evaluating a change."

For example, healthcare providers can use HIPAA compliant emails to support public health initiatives and reduce systemic barriers to care. If an LGBTQ+ patient were to reach out to a healthcare provider through a HIPAA compliant email, they could receive confidential care without fear of discrimination or privacy breaches. Activism within the healthcare industry, therefore, can directly impact marginalized communities and improve access to quality care.

While activism may rely on population-level data, organizations must still properly de-identify patient data in accordance with HIPAA requirements.

Shared and directed advocacy

In shared advocacy, patients, communities, or populations help identify their own needs and priorities. According to the Medical Teacher, "The contribution of a physician to advocacy is based on collaboration, facilitation, and engagement."

Healthcare providers thus work with patients to empower them with patient-led initiatives and health education programs, so patients can advocate for their own preferences.

Directed advocacy occurs when healthcare professionals use their expertise to identify needs and advocate on behalf of individuals or communities. The article describes this as involving "representation or expert guidance on an issue."

For example, providers can use HIPAA compliant emails to recommend preventive screenings like mammograms or colonoscopies to patients who may benefit from them based on their medical history. Ultimately, this type of advocacy can lead to improved health outcomes and increased awareness of preventive care options among patients.

What are the challenges in health advocacy?

"Health advocacy remains one of the most difficult domains of medicine to teach, learn, assess, and evaluate,” as evidenced by the abovementioned research.

One challenge is that advocacy activities often happen outside of healthcare organizations, like when providers form or system-level initiatives that are not easily observed or measured.

For example, providers may work with community organizations to address social determinants of health, which can have an impact on patient outcomes but may not be directly tied to healthcare organizational metrics.

The interplay between advocacy and HIPAA compliance

The authors conclude that addressing health inequities requires action from "education enterprises, organizations, and institutions as well as the communities they serve."

As the authors summarize, "Health advocacy is both a mindset and a multi-faceted set of skills that includes ensuring access to care, navigating the health care system, mobilizing resources, addressing health inequities, influencing health policy, and creating system change."

Similarly, HIPAA compliance is the responsibility of all healthcare organizations, where they must establish policies, training programs, technologies, and safeguards that support privacy and advocacy goals.

FAQs

What is HIPAA compliance?

HIPAA compliance refers to adhering to regulations outlined in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act to safeguard patients’ protected health information (PHI).

What types of information can HIPAA compliant emails include?

Providers can use HIPAA compliant emails to send sensitive health information, like patient education materials, appointment reminders, treatment plans, and other medical communications.

Can healthcare organizations customize emails for specific language needs?

Yes, healthcare organizations can customize HIPAA compliant emails to support specific language needs by sending educational materials in multiple languages to cater to diverse patient populations.

Read more: Using HIPAA compliant emails for multi-language patient education