WebMD Ignite and Freshpaint Bring a Privacy-First Approach to High-Performance Healthcare Marketing

NEW YORK, Oct. 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, WebMD Ignite, a full-service growth partner for organizations across the healthcare industry, announced a strategic partnership with Freshpaint, a healthcare privacy platform that allows healthcare providers to continue doing high-performance marketing while protecting patient privacy.

The partnership promotes compliance for hospitals, health systems, and health plans through a privacy-first approach to using Google Analytics, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and other marketing tools that rely on web-tracking technologies. The collaboration will ensure a seamless integration of high-performance marketing services and technologies while upholding the highest data privacy and security standards. 

Together, the partnership enables healthcare organizations to take a privacy-first approach to high-performance marketing by:

• Removing non-compliant tracking technologies to support HIPAA compliance
• De-identifying and masking individual visitors to enable performance reporting 
• Controlling data flow across the entire marketing tech stack to prevent PHI from reaching destinations where organizations do not have a BAA

"Getting the right information to the right people is critical in a healthcare setting. That takes understanding a consumer's unique circumstances and needs. At the same time, protecting privacy and security are also paramount. In the face of constantly evolving regulations, doing both can be exceedingly difficult. That's why we are collaborating with a privacy leader to help our valued client partners balance driving high-performance healthcare outreach efforts while maintaining consumer privacy," said Ann Bilyew, SVP, Health and Group GM, WebMD Ignite. "Freshpaint offers the right healthcare privacy platform to integrate into our product ecosystem, as well as offering it to healthcare organizations who want to layer on their own product stack." 

In the wake of the December 2022 Bulletin from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the most recent joint privacy warning in July 2023 from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and HHS, healthcare organizations find themselves navigating a labyrinth of compliance laws and evolving data privacy regulations surrounding the use of cookies, tracking technologies, digital advertising and analytics. This crucial need for alignment between high-performance marketing and strict data privacy for HIPAA compliance is the challenge this strategic partnership aims to address. 

"For healthcare organizations, the new guidance surrounding web tracking technologies and HIPAA compliance has become exceedingly complex. That's why we're thrilled to partner with WebMD Ignite. The partnership will give healthcare organizations of all sizes a privacy-first approach to using the tools and services they need to do high-performance marketing, while helping to maintain HIPAA compliance," said Steven Fitzsimmons, co-founder of Freshpaint.

Existing WebMD Ignite clients will have their products configured and powered by Freshpaint to manage their privacy and data settings. Future client partners can have confidence that their engagement ecosystem is set up to support compliance with HIPAA Privacy rules and regulations.

Organizations interested in learning more can contact their WebMD Ignite or Freshpaint representative, or visit webmdignite.com to connect with the team.

About WebMD Ignite
WebMD Ignite, a division of WebMD and Internet Brands, is the growth partner for healthcare organizations. We guide people to better health at all stages of their journey, from discovery to recovery. Our combination of leading brands in the industry—including WebMD, Medscape, Krames, PulsePoint, Vitals, The Wellness Network, and Mercury Healthcare—offers comprehensive solutions that engage individuals with timely, relevant messaging that optimizes experiences and outcomes, driving loyalty and lifetime value for our clients. Learn more at WebMDIgnite.com. 

About WebMD Health Corp.
WebMD, an Internet Brands company, is at the heart of the digital health revolution that is transforming the health care experience for consumers, patients, health care professionals, employers, health plans, and health systems. Through public and private online portals, mobile platforms, and health-focused publications, WebMD delivers leading-edge content and digital services that enable and improve decision-making, support and motivate health actions, streamline and simplify the health care journey, and improve patient care. The WebMD Health Network includes WebMD Health, Medscape, Jobson Healthcare Information, MediQuality, Frontline, Vitals Consumer Services, Aptus Health, Krames, PulsePoint, The Wellness Network, SanovaWorks, MedicineNet, eMedicineHealth, RxList, OnHealth, Medscape Education, and other owned WebMD sites. WebMD®, Medscape®, CME Circle®, Medpulse®, eMedicine®, MedicineNet®, theheart.org® and RxList® are among the trademarks of WebMD Health Corp. or its subsidiaries.

About Freshpaint
Freshpaint helps healthcare marketers unlock high performance marketing in a HIPAA-compliant way through its healthcare privacy platform. Freshpaint's privacy-first approach to data sharing allows healthcare marketers to continue to use the most advanced ad, analytics, and personalization tools – without heavy engineering or long implementation times. Freshpaint is backed by leading investors such as Intel Capital and Y Combinator. For more information, visit www.freshpaint.io.

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SOURCE WebMD Ignite