Match the agency to the assignment. Brownstein Group can run creative, PR, influencer and digital media under one roof; Quaker City Mercantile is the specialist for beer, wine and spirits brands; LevLane suits senior living, retail and life-science marketers; Neff covers branding, PR and production for regional companies; and Brolik is built for owner-led small businesses that want a website, ads and tracking together. Because so much Philadelphia marketing touches health care, brief your agency on the three federal rules below.
Can hospitals and medical practices use tracking pixels on their websites?
With care. In a December 2022 bulletin, the federal health department’s Office for Civil Rights (HHS OCR) warned that tracking technologies on HIPAA-covered websites and apps can disclose protected health information. A federal court in Texas vacated part of that guidance on June 20, 2024, the portion treating an IP address combined with a visit to a public, unauthenticated page about specific health conditions or providers as protected information, and HHS later dropped its appeal. The guidance still covers tracking on authenticated pages such as patient portals and telehealth platforms and in mobile apps, so tracking there still needs HIPAA safeguards such as a business associate agreement with the vendor.
What are the rules for prescription-drug TV and radio ads?
Since November 20, 2024, the FDA’s rule on the major statement in direct-to-consumer drug ads has required that the statement of side effects and contraindications use consumer-friendly language, be delivered at a volume, articulation and pace at least as understandable as the rest of the ad and, on TV, appear as text and audio together, in type that is easy to read, with no sounds or images that interfere with comprehension. In September 2025 the FDA said it was sending thousands of letters warning drugmakers to remove misleading ads, along with about 100 cease-and-desist letters, so agencies working on pharmaceutical campaigns should expect closer review.
Can health brands still optimize Meta ads around conversions?
Less than before. Meta’s developer documentation says that beginning September 2, 2025 it started rolling out more proactive restrictions on custom conversions, flagging and blocking from ad campaigns any that suggest health conditions or financial status, and its ad set reference applies similar limits to custom and lookalike audiences. Ask how your agency will define conversions for clinics, pharmacies or health products before a campaign launches.
