Marketing plays a critical role in the success of many businesses. However, in the medical world, advertising by medical professionals is frowned upon as this provides a sound platform for unprofessional quacks trying to win the market share. This necessitated a ban on any form of medical advertising as the American Medical Association considered any form of advertising, be it in the form of testimonials, pamphlets or flyers as degrading to the medical profession. These prohibitions majorly served to protect unsuspecting poor patients from unscrupulous and money-hungry practitioners who peddled overpriced medical services without any form of standardization. Some practitioners went as far as employing salesmen who masqueraded from town to town hawking medical services. Even as conservative medical practitioners frowned upon advertising in the medical industry, journalists and media house owners viewed the entire practice as an income-generating stream with the potential to propel their businesses into profitability.
The ban on medical advertising remained much in enforcement until 1977 when the American Medical Association amended its standing regulations to pave the way for controlled advertising in the medical field. This decision was further supported by the Federal Trade Commission ruling in 1979, which stated that the American Medical Association lacked a sound legal standing that necessitates their banning of professional and specialized medical doctors from advertising their services to the citizenry.
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This new change in opinion was orchestrated by the ever-increasing cut-throat competition occasioned by new technological improvements where laboratory equipment manufacturers and pharmaceuticals purposed to introduce their new services to people. As a result, advertising became part of their marketing teams as the firms engaged in competition and sought to introduce their services for a market share. It also became apparent that in as much as medical services were harmless to the population, harmful products like cigarette advertising went on uninterrupted. This beat logic, as medical services were essentials for human life.
Furthermore, there was no clarity on what would qualify as an advert in the medical field. While interactions between medics and potential customers conveyed information on their services, this was not viewed as advertising as it arose out of normal human interactions. It was considered as an advertisement if a medical practitioner deliberately put information in the print media, e.g., magazines, newspapers, TVs, flyers, posters, and radio (Pozgar, 2019). As a result, the prohibition was seen as biased in that it excluded those who ran personal campaigns to the detriment of practitioners who lacked such avenues but had access to print media.
The legislation became necessary to regulate and streamline advertisements and how marketing information is relayed to persons. This led to the establishment of the HIPAA sets of rules, which set national standards to be adhered to by advertisers in their quest to broaden their market reach. It also sets the limits and circumstances under which medical service providers are permitted to share a patient's health information without express permission.
The HIPAA regulations also serve to provide guidelines on how industry players convey health-related communications for purposes of convincing people to utilize their products. An entity is prohibited from exchanging a patient's medical information in exchange for remuneration without the patients' permission, especially for cases where another entity will utilize such information in communicating about its services or products (Secretary & (OCR), 2013). A medical service provider must obtain express permission from a patient before disclosing their protected information except for face to face advertising communications. This serves to eliminate privacy breaches in the medical industry as medical practitioners and pharmaceuticals engage in large scale production of data-based products and solutions to medical needs. Such practitioners go to lengthy extends to extract meaningful data from patients.
References
Pozgar, G. D. (2018). Legal aspects of health care administration . Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Secretary, H., & (OCR), O. (2013, July 26). Summary of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/laws-regulations/index.html
