Stark Law and Physician Marketing

The Stark law is a monster that strikes fear in the hearts of many hospital marketers. Guidance from your Compliance Department can be murky because there’s no case law precedent, and the various statutes that comprise Stark were enacted over time, building on prior regulations. The result is a murky mashup of gray areas that don’t apply to what most hospital marketers do on a daily basis.

Many hospitals avoid putting physicians in their campaigns because of Stark concerns. But physicians can be powerful spokespeople for your hospital. Featuring your physicians (employed and affiliated) is a great opportunity to grow your hospital’s brand.

In our research in markets across the country, physicians are often rated higher in credibility and trustworthiness than hospitals among consumers for delivering quality, technology and expertise messages. According to consumers, if a physician chooses to practice at and represents a hospital, then the hospital must be good. (Otherwise, the physician wouldn’t choose to practice medicine and send patients there.)

To help you build the case and comfort level for using your physicians in campaigns, here are some rules of thumb to keep in mind:

1.The cap on non monetary compensation for each physician is $355, so keep an eye on all those catered lunches you bring in to meetings, which many marketers say is the best way to get the physicians’ attention.

2. You can feature non-employed physicians in your advertising, provided you don’t put the doctor’s office practice phone number or office web address in the advertisement — otherwise, you’ll be advertising for the physician and not your hospital.

3. You should be more concerned about political fallout when featuring physicians in campaigns than being in Stark compliance.

Many hospital marketers feel overwhelmed at the thought of paring down which physicians to feature in their campaigns. One approach to sidestepping political land mines is asking one physician from each practice affiliated with your hospital to be featured in your campaigns. (For example, if you’re doing an ortho campaign, feature one orthopedic surgeon from every practice affiliated with your hospital.) By giving equal representation to all your physicians, you are likely to keep all your physicians happy. (Or, at least content!)

4. Review your hospital’s medical director contracts. Most of these contracts stipulate that the physician must assist the hospital with specific communications outreach, such as speaking to rotary groups or as part of overall communications campaigns. Because there are contractual agreements in place for these physicians, they can be the “go tos” for your campaigns and can also help build consensus.

Following is an example of new TV spots we filmed recently for Memorial that feature their physicians (employed and affiliated) to promote Memorial’s new Novalis cancer-fighting technology. The physicians were champions of this campaign thanks to our wonderful client’s extensive process of achieving buy-in, and also because we gave them the opportunity to share the good news about this new technology in their own words.

To view the entire campaign, click here.

Tell us: what are your Stark and physician marketing challenges? What are your work-arounds? Do you find your physicians are advocates or antagonists of your marketing campaigns?