Almost a third of Americans were impacted by the February cyberattack on Change Healthcare – UnitedHealth Group’s clearinghouse for medical claims – and it has taken more than four months for Change to get a handle on the full extent of the massive breach. As a result, patients are just now beginning to receive notifications from Change that their data may have been compromised. In cases like this, providers have a valuable role to play in the notification process: serving as conduits between patients and vendors (in this case, Change). Providers should take the opportunity to engage with their patients through empathetic, informed, and, in some instances, face-to-face communications, which can increase trust and bolster the provider’s reputation. This is especially important considering patient switching costs are at their lowest in history. Below are some recommended steps for providers to consider as they determine their own strategies and tactics for engaging with patients regarding this attack and compromised patient data. While these recommendations are directed towards providers who use Change’s platform, they can be applied to any service providers whose vendors are the victims of cyber incidents. First, work with your vendor to gather the facts. Second, develop key messages and communications posture. Third, develop the materials you will use to deliver the key messages. Finally, assess the impact of the strategy and materials and adjust as necessary.

What we can learn from Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light Marketing Debacle  Anheuser-Busch’s recent marketing campaign featuring a transgender social media influencer, Dylan Mulvaney – which was intended to make the brand appeal to a broader audience – turned into a debacle and reputational crisis for the company.  Like many crises, this one was greatly exacerbated by the company’s response to the initial backlash and could have been mitigated or even avoided with a more effective and empathetic communications strategy rooted in articulation of corporate values. For those unfamiliar with the details, in April, Anheuser-Busch launched a Bud Light-branded promotional contest via Mulvaney’s Instagram account. Almost immediately, the company faced a strong and widespread wave of criticism from the public, business partners, and other stakeholders that spanned the political spectrum and both sides of the transgender rights issue. This topic has divided the country like other social and political issues (such as abortion, gun control, COVID vaccines and mask mandates, and ESG initiatives), and Anheuser-Busch should have been aware of how the public would react to the marketing campaign involving a prominent transgender influencer and prepared to respond when the fallout occurred. A recent Wall Street Journal article by reporter Jennifer Maloney does an excellent job detailing where the company went wrong following Mulvaney’s Instagram post, which, according to Maloney, angered “pretty much everyone: core Bud Light consumers, supporters and opponents of transgender rights, wholesalers, retailers, bar owners and company staff.” As Maloney notes, the company’s initial posture towards the intense backlash was silence, which was then followed by a widely-panned statement “about bringing people together, prompting criticism from all sides for both waiting too long to respond and also not taking a clear stand.” The fallout has since intensified, resulting in: Over the past several weeks, Anheuser Busch’s leadership team has scrambled to devise and deploy an apparent rehabilitation plan. Despite these efforts, according to Maloney, while Anheuser Busch executives told wholesalers that Bud Light’s market share losses had stabilized, “…several wholesalers said Bud Light sales and market share in their markets were still falling.” What can we learn from Anheuser-Busch’s missteps?