Case Study – Wolters Kluwer Health – Clinical Solutions
Educating Government Policymakers to Protect and Advance Business Goals.
After passage of the HITECH Act in 2009, Wolters Kluwer Health – Clinical Solutions (WKH) sought help from Snow Communications in navigating new government regulations that would bring dramatic change to the health information technology industry. Snow moved quickly to put a government relations strategy in place, began close monitoring of the regulatory process and reached out to key influencers and regulators to discuss issues of importance to the company. After working with Snow for more than 2 years, WKH is well positioned to take advantage of the market changes created by HITECH and anticipate future policy changes that potentially impact their business.
Wolters Kluwer Health – Clinical Solutions is a leading provider of health information technology and content for professionals and students in medicine, nursing, allied health and pharmacy.
Our Objectives
- Create a government relations strategy.
- Monitor current and future changes in government policy, with a specific focus on HITECH.
- Ensure that the HITECH certification process not exclude products offered by WKH.
- Advocate for specific criteria to be included in the HITECH regulations.
Our Actions
- Developed a multi-year strategy to provide education and guidance to regulators on the HITECH regulations.
- Identified and reached out to key influencers who will shape the regulations.
- Closely monitored the development of the Meaningful use and Certification regulations.
- Educated key lawmakers and regulators on policy issues of importance to WKH.
- Began to identify other changes in government policy that will impact WKH’s business.
The Results
- The HITECH Certification process includes the types of products offered by WKH.
- Stage 1 of the EHR Incentive program includes several criteria important to WKH.
- Relationships with key influencers and lawmakers have been established.
- WKH now has an early warning system in place to monitor pending and future policy changes that can either adversely impact their business or provide new market opportunities.