Crm And Ethics

Running head: Ethical Considerations in CRM

Ethical Considerations in Customer Relationship Management

Sandra L. Felty

University of Phoenix

The Impact of E-Health ITH/510

Abstract

Due to issues such as managed care contracting, and the financial impact of indigent care, healthcare providers find themselves in competition for patients with adequate health insurance, or the ability to pay cash for services provided to try to maintain fiscal solvency. E-health applications serve not only to advertise the services of a facility, but also to help the health care provider identify potential patients for the services they offer. In this paper I will explore the ethical considerations of Consumer Relationship Management (CRM) applications and services, which are increasingly being utilized to help target potential consumers for health care providers.

When inquiring about a health condition on the internet, do internet users give up their expectations for privacy regarding their healthcare information? Although consumers may not expect the information they provide to get into the database of marketing firms, this is often exactly what happens. Consumer Relationship Management (CRM) software firms or service providers are a growing industry. The purpose of CRM software in the healthcare field, is to assist providers in identifying potential customers for a service based on information they have supplied. This information can be provided in a number of ways. In some cases, the consumer has knowingly supplied the information to the actual provider via an inquiry sent from the provider's website. In other cases the provider determines a marketing target based upon mining information in their own database by linking relationships which may help identify a potential need. Yet in another scenario, identification of a potential consumer is based on information they provided at another website, which was then sold to the healthcare provider of a related service by a data mining firm.

While consumers don't object to receiving information they have requested, they often do not welcome the solicitation from a provider regarding a health related service about which they did not request information. They are more uncomfortable if the information appears to be targeted to their specific health care needs which they assumed were private. In the United States, consumers are accustomed to privacy regarding their personal health information. Indeed, HIPAA mandates that personal health information regarding consumers be maintained in strict privacy and shared only with the written consent of the consumer. The violation of these policies is treated seriously, and punishable by the imposition of a potentially hefty fine of up to 25,000.00.

Often, consumers expect the same assurance of privacy when inquiring about a health related service on the internet. However, while most internet sites maintain some standards regarding privacy, many have fine print disclosing that they will provide some information to other parties. This information is often hard to locate, and phrased in a way to make this disclosure of information seem more like a service to the consumer, than a violation of trust. When viewing the "about policies" section of WebMD, a popular health care site that provides health information to consumers, it describes five different ways that the consumers information might be used by WebMD. These ways include disclosure to maintenance contractors, including vendors, disclosure to third party websites, disclosure to co-branded channel partners, disclosure to linked sites, and disclosure of aggregate information. Although the policy statements are meant to be reassuring, it is clear that information provided to them can be shared. This practice is the same on most other e-health sites. Selling the information consumers provide is a lucrative business. One company that markets health information is CPM Marketing Group. Their website discusses the possible market for CRM information as "Empowered consumers who are seeking information on the Internet in record numbers, dissatisfied consumers who are willing to spend their own money to get the care they want, and consumers who want to manage their own care and have greater access to their physicians." CPM Marketing Group claims to offer innovative marketing to the health care provider, while it also offers a different service to health care consumers. Their website offers to store all their health information in one "easy to access" site.

In an article about the benefits of CRM to healthcare organizations, Alyson Atwood gives the following example "Hospitals can use segmentation models to market lucrative services to the appropriate patients. For example, a health care organization in the Southwest United States used predictive modeling to market bariatric surgery to eligible patients by using a multiple touch point mailing campaign. Although the cost of multiple piece marketing campaigns can be high, by using a CRM database, the hospital was able to channel its marketing dollars to reach an extremely targeted demographic." While it makes sense for institutions to target their marketing information to consumers who need the service and have the means to pay for it, somehow it sounds a little less beneficial to the consumer who may be insulted to find out that the CRM program identified them as a patient who was grossly obese and had good insurance and was therefore, a potential candidate for bariatric surgery.

These uses of CRM software seem