In today’s healthcare landscape, organizations that communicate effectively with their member populations gain a competitive advantage in both patient satisfaction and outcomes. With new regulations coming into effect April 11, 2025- the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) Consent Revocation Rule, it quickly becomes complex when multiple departments, vendors, and communication channels (IVR and SMS) are involved.
The way a healthcare organization structures its teams, vendor relationships, and technology solutions will either simplify or complicate the entire process of delivering effective and compliant member engagement. This blog post outlines how small, growing, and enterprise-level organizations typically structure their communication & engagement efforts, explores the pros and cons of each, and highlights why a centralized model supported by an integrated Health Experience and Insights platform can provide a more streamlined and effective way to manage member consent and communication.
The new Consent Revocation rule sets out a series of requirements that companies must adhere to that let consumers more easily opt-out and manage their consent to receive automated calls and texts. This includes opting a consumer out from all automated calls and texts if they opt-out of a single program, unless the consumer opt-ins into programs based on topic which is coordinated through an additional clarification step. Generally, to handle these requirements effectively, healthcare organizations will need to have a centralized record of consent and robust processes to share consent across departments that manage different communication & engagement topics. As organizations get larger their size and structure will influence best to navigate these new rules.
Small Organization
Often a small healthcare organization has a single department that oversees communication & engagement, and they typically work with a single vendor. This makes it relatively simple to develop and oversee member outreach and consent management for both automated text and phone-based outreach. With just one department responsible for communications, there is a lower likelihood of conflicting or redundant messages to members. This structure also reduces risk by simplifying the process of handling opt-outs, since the single vendor can more easily keep track of each member’s preferences and apply the right consent protocols across calls/IVR, text, and email. Although scalability can become an issue as the organization grows or expands its communication needs, this model often works well for smaller or specialized healthcare entities with a relatively contained set of compliance requirements.
When in Doubt, Opt them Out
Growing Organization
As the organization grows, multiple departments typically emerge with a growing need to communicate with the same member population. Separate business lines may end up working with multiple vendors, each using different channels and technologies. While this can allow for impactful solutions in specific niches, it often fragments data, disrupts brand consistency, creates over messaging for an individual member and increases the risk of non-compliance. Tracking and honoring opt-out requests across multiple platforms becomes cumbersome and often requires added technology investment, because each vendor may be unaware of preferences and consent data captured elsewhere. This fragmented approach can lead to duplicated messages or inadvertently ignoring a member’s request to opt out.
This also just creates a non-ideal member experience, where members may be messaged more than 3x per week (another TCPA rule) or overwhelmed with all of the outreach, leading to the need for orchestration technology. Many healthcare organizations in this stage begin reconsidering vendor consolidation or team consolidation to a centralized communication & engagement function to reduce risk and streamline workflows. This can result in a bottleneck in member outreach or unforeseen technology investment.
Enterprise Organization
In an enterprise-level setting, organizations frequently use a single team to manage all of the outreach, whether they are working with a single vendor or multiple vendors. This team is usually responsible for managing outreach, sometimes also responsible for marketing content, and orchestrating messages and touchpoints across consumers. Coordinating diverse business requests and data sources ensures that all communications meet a cohesive set of standards and a positive consumer experience is maintained. Centralizing both operations and compliance under one department or platform can prevent conflicting messages and ensure that opt-outs are managed effectively.
However, this model can create a bottleneck if the communications team is not supported by clear workflows and strong technology. These teams often need robust capabilities to manage and orchestrate messaging across departments and channels—phone calls/IVR, text, email, and more— for the enterprise to maintain consistent brand identity and unified opt-out handling. These enterprise teams typically work with a single or small number of communication & engagement vendors with capabilities that support the more complex needs of these larger organizations. This ensures, each business unit’s communications can be aligned to specific member needs while still contributing to a universal consent framework.
Single, Integrated Platform
All organizations seeking a stronger, more efficient member engagement strategy often find that leveraging a single, integrated platform is the best way to orchestrate communications across various channels and stakeholder groups. mPulse’s Health Experience and Insights platform can serve as a centralized hub for all communications, housing and managing each member’s preferences, consent status, and engagement history. Multiple departments can interact with this platform to launch campaigns tailored to their individual objectives—whether they involve text messaging, telephone calls/IVR, or email—while robust orchestration capabilities ensure patients & members are not overwhelmed with messaging and that any opt-outs are applied immediately and universally. In practice, this not only reduces compliance headaches but also provides a more cohesive and personalized experience for members.
Conclusion
Ultimately, there is no one-size-fits-all structure for healthcare organizations, as different circumstances require different approaches. However, a model that unites the organization under a single technology platform with clearly defined responsibilities is more likely to maintain compliance, support brand consistency, and create a more satisfying member experience. By carefully evaluating how each department communicates with members and how vendors are managed, a healthcare organization can adopt a model that drives engagement, reduces risk, and fosters a deeper relationship with its member population.
Navigating the New FCC TCPA Consent Revocation Rules: An In-Depth Guide for Healthcare Organizations
On April 11, 2025, the FCC’s updated TCPA consent revocation rules will reshape the way healthcare organizations communicate with patients. In our recent webinar, “When in Doubt, Opt Them Out, Upcoming TCPA Changes and How to Adapt” mPulse’s TCPA subject matter experts—Brendan McClure, Chief Marketing Officer, SriVani Gandhi, Director of Content and Creative Services, and […]
