This is an excerpt from a member-only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe.

Every marketer worth his or her salt knows that it's easier and cheaper to sell to existing customers than it is to find new ones. Former and current patients are much more receptive to your marketing messages than someone who has never had contact with your organization. And all of the detailed personal information that you need to market to these current and former patients? It's already at your fingertips, contained in the medical records that you possess. Unfortunately, how you mine this internal database is regulated by portions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).