Some marketing software companies in the dental industry secretly take patient information and purchase email look-ups from database companies to email advertise promotions to them. Hardly ethical? HIPAA compliant?

some dental software vendors quietly use patient info to buy patient emais - and sell them back to unwitting dentists

In the last few years there have been a slew of companies claiming “special partnerships with Google, “Preferred data providers to Google,” and now even those claiming special relationships with Facebook and Twitter.

Some of these same companies that make claims like this also advertise to dentists that they can discover the email addresses of their patients to market to them with “re-care messages” (i.e. 6 month care reminders, deals on clear braces, etc).

I wonder what patients would think if they knew their dentists were using the patient information stored in their dentist office database to purchase their email address without asking them? Hmmm. Dentists should be very, very careful about opting in for email purchase services! Getting the emails of your patients is important for re-care, communication, and otherwise – but you must ask for it, not buy them in bulk.