Questions Before Signing a Healthcare Marketing Contract

Before signing a healthcare marketing contract, lock four things in writing: who owns the data and accounts, how HIPAA-aware tracking is set up, what the monthly report contains, and how cancel or pause works. Catalyze Care publishes fees, referral $5,000/month (3-month minimum), SEO $799/month, paid ads $2,500/month management with media separate. The checklist below is the conversation, not a rank promise. Pair it with how to choose a healthcare marketing agency.

If the contract is for outreach to referring clinicians, read healthcare referral marketing before you sign the fee and the minimum term.

In one sentenceIf accounts, tracking, reporting, and cancel terms are not in the same document as the fee, do not sign yet.

Eight questions to ask in order

1. Who owns the accounts? Google Ads, Meta, GBP, Analytics, Search Console, and the CMS should sit under the practice. The agency works as a user. If they “bring their MCC and you never get admin,” you are renting, not building.
2. Who owns the lists and creative? Referral target lists, suppression lists, and approved fax/email copy should transfer if you leave. Ask for the export format in the SOW.
3. How is HIPAA-aware tracking set up? Conversion events should measure booked inquiries the front desk can confirm. Do not put diagnosis-level values in pixels or URL parameters. HHS OCR has published tracking-technology guidance for covered entities. None of this is legal advice.
4. What is in the monthly report? Activity plus intake fields you already own. If a number cannot be checked against your system, it does not belong on the slide. Process: how Catalyze Care works.
5. What are the published fees? Write the retainer, what it includes, and what is billed separately (media, directories, print). Catalyze Care’s published numbers are $5,000 / $799 / $2,500 as above. Monthly reporting of verified activity.
6. What is the minimum and how do we cancel? Referral marketing has a published 3-month minimum because a single month is not a test. SEO and paid ads are monthly retainers at the published fees. Ask for notice period and what happens to logins on the last day.
7. What PHI does the agency never need? Diagnosis-level patient files are not required to run referral, SEO, or paid ads. Kickoff needs who you take, locations, and access to GBP, site, or ad accounts, not charts.
8. When do we pause? Write the conditions: intake full, a license lapse, a policy disapproval, or a channel that is not producing a usable pattern. Pause is not the same as a guaranteed result.

Source: HHS OCR, Use of Online Tracking Technologies. Source: HHS, HIPAA and marketing. Source: Google Ads, Healthcare and medicines policy.

Red flags before you sign

• Reports that cannot be checked against your own intake.
• No unnamed case-study percentages. Permissioned outcomes only: case studies.
• Certifications or partner badges the agency cannot show you.

If you should not hire yet, read when not to hire a healthcare marketing agency.