Occupational medicine marketing to employers

An occupational medicine clinic has two kinds of customers. The employer signs the account, chooses the clinic for injury care, exams and testing, and pays the invoices. The employee is the patient, often sent in on a bad day with an injury or a deadline for a pre-placement exam. Good marketing speaks to the employer as a business buyer without forgetting that every service ends with a patient whose information has rules around it.

This guide covers the parts that are specific to occupational and employer health: pages for employers, what findings an employer can receive, the difference between an employer and an employer health plan, OSHA recordkeeping, post-offer exams, claims you make to employers and referral arrangements. If you also run walk-in urgent care, read our guide to urgent care marketing as well. If an employer wants primary care for its staff as well as injury care, read our guide to marketing a practice directly to employers. For work injury patients with hand problems, see hand surgeon marketing.

This is general information, not legal or medical advice. Sources cited were checked on October 29, 2026: 45 CFR 160.103, 164.504 and 164.512, the HHS page on employers and health information in the workplace (last reviewed November 2, 2020), 29 CFR 1904.5, 1904.7 and 1904.29, 42 U.S.C. 12112(d), 42 U.S.C. 1320a-7b(b) and 15 U.S.C. 45. State workers’ compensation and privacy laws vary and can add rules of their own. Check your plans with a health care attorney.

Two audiences, two sets of pages

Employers and injured workers arrive with different questions. A safety manager or HR lead wants to know which services you offer, how to open an account, how fast an injured worker can be seen, what paperwork comes back and who to call after hours. A worker wants your address, hours, what to bring and whether they need an appointment. Mixing both on one page usually serves neither.

An employer services page that lists each service in plain words: injury care, pre-placement exams, testing you actually perform, surveillance exams you are set up to do and any onsite services.
An account setup page that explains how an employer opens an account, how authorization forms work and who their contact is.
A worker page with locations, hours, what to bring, and what happens at the visit.
An after-hours path that tells employers and workers where to go when you are closed, with 911 for emergencies.

Name only services you are staffed and equipped to provide at each location. If a service is offered at one site only, say which one.

What an employer can receive from you

This is the question employers ask most, and the answer shapes your sales materials. HHS explains that the HIPAA Privacy Rule controls how a covered health care provider shares protected health information with an employer, and that if an employer asks a provider directly for information about a worker, the provider cannot give it without the worker’s authorization unless other laws require it.

One of those exceptions is written for occupational medicine. Under 45 CFR 164.512(b)(1)(v), a covered provider may disclose information to an employer about a member of its workforce when all of these are true:

The provider gives care at the employer’s request to evaluate medical surveillance of the workplace or whether the worker has a work-related illness or injury.
What is disclosed is the findings about the work-related illness or injury or the workplace medical surveillance.
The employer needs those findings to meet its duties under 29 CFR parts 1904 through 1928, 30 CFR parts 50 through 90, or a similar state law, to record the illness or injury or carry out surveillance.
The provider gives the worker written notice that this information is disclosed to the employer, either a copy at the time of care or, for care on the employer’s work site, a notice posted prominently where care is given.

A separate standard, 45 CFR 164.512(l), allows disclosures as authorized by and to the extent necessary to comply with workers’ compensation laws and similar programs established by law.

For marketing, this means your employer materials should describe reports in terms of findings, work status and the forms the law calls for, not full charts. Do not promise an employer access to a worker’s whole record, unrelated diagnoses or test results outside these limits. When an employer wants more, the path is the worker’s written authorization under 45 CFR 164.508, which is the worker’s choice.

Check whether HIPAA covers your clinic

HIPAA applies to covered entities. Under 45 CFR 160.103, a health care provider is a covered entity if it transmits health information in electronic form in connection with a transaction covered by the rules, such as electronic claims. Many occupational clinics bill health plans or workers’ compensation carriers as well as employers, but the answer depends on how your clinic actually bills. Confirm your status with counsel rather than assuming either way, and write your notices and employer agreements to match.

Even where HIPAA applies, it does not cover everything the employer holds. The same definition says protected health information excludes employment records held by a covered entity in its role as employer, and HHS notes that in most cases the Privacy Rule does not apply to the actions of an employer. Your marketing should not suggest that your clinic controls what the employer does with records once they are lawfully in the employer’s files.

Employer or health plan: a distinction to get right

Some clinics sell onsite or near-site clinics to employers. How that clinic is set up matters. If the clinic’s services are offered through the company’s group health plan, information moving from the plan to the employer as plan sponsor falls under 45 CFR 164.504(f).

The plan documents must restrict how the plan sponsor uses and discloses the information.
The plan sponsor must agree not to use or disclose the information for employment-related actions and decisions, or in connection with any other benefit plan it sponsors.
The plan documents must provide for adequate separation between the plan and the employer, including which employees can see the information.
Without those plan provisions, the plan may share with the sponsor only summary health information for premium bids or for changing the plan, and whether a person is enrolled.

This is why an onsite clinic proposal should not offer the employer individual health data for staffing, discipline or promotion decisions. Describe reporting as the plan documents and counsel allow, usually aggregate or summary information. If you are not sure whether a proposal sits under the employer or the plan, ask counsel before the deck goes out. A wellness or screening program sold to the same employer brings its own rules on rewards, notices and reports, covered in our guide to corporate wellness program marketing.

OSHA recordkeeping: the employer’s job, not a sales promise

OSHA recordkeeping is the employer’s duty, and the rules decide what gets recorded. Under 29 CFR 1904.5, an injury or illness is work-related if an event or exposure in the work environment caused or contributed to it or significantly aggravated a pre-existing condition, and work-relatedness is presumed for events in the work environment unless a listed exception applies. Under 29 CFR 1904.7, the general recording criteria include medical treatment beyond first aid and a significant injury or illness diagnosed by a physician or other licensed health care professional.

Clinics sometimes market to employers with phrases about keeping cases off the log or lowering recordable rates. Recordability follows from the facts and these criteria, not from the clinic the employer picks. A claim that your care will reduce an employer’s recordables is an outcome claim. Under Section 5 of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 45, deceptive acts or practices in commerce are unlawful, so do not make that claim without evidence that supports it, and do not suggest that treatment choices are made to avoid recording.

You can explain, accurately, how your clinic documents care and work status so that the employer has the findings it needs. You can also point employers to the rule on privacy concern cases. Under 29 CFR 1904.29(b)(6) and (7), certain cases, such as an injury or illness to an intimate body part or the reproductive system, an injury from a sexual assault, and mental illnesses, are entered as “privacy case” instead of the worker’s name, with a separate confidential list kept by the employer.

Post-offer exams and the ADA

Pre-placement exams are a core employer service, and the Americans with Disabilities Act sets the frame. Under 42 U.S.C. 12112(d)(3), an employer may require a medical examination after an offer of employment and before the person starts work, and may condition the offer on the results, if all entering employees are examined regardless of disability and the information is kept on separate forms, in separate medical files, and treated as a confidential medical record. The statute lists narrow exceptions, such as informing supervisors of necessary work restrictions or accommodations.

Your employer materials can reflect this without giving legal advice. Call the service a post-offer exam rather than a screening for applicants. Describe what the employer receives, such as whether the person can perform the job’s functions and any restrictions, and remind employers to keep the results in separate confidential medical files. Leave the question of which exams a given job needs to the employer and its counsel.

Tuberculosis tests for new hires and after an exposure are covered in our guide to tuberculosis testing outreach, including CDC guidance for health care personnel, which calls for baseline screening upon hire and does not recommend annual testing unless there is a known exposure or ongoing transmission.

Claims you make to employers

Business buyers are still protected from deceptive claims. Because 15 U.S.C. 45 applies to commerce generally, the claims in your proposals, emails and employer pages need the same care as patient-facing pages. If you offer commercial driver exams, our guide to DOT and sports physical marketing covers examiner, same-day and certificate wording.

Turnaround and wait times. If you say workers are seen within a set time or reports arrive the same day, make sure that is true at every location you name, or say where and when it applies.
Cost savings. A statement that employers save money or lower claim costs by using your clinic is an outcome claim. Use it only with evidence that fits the claim, or leave it out.
Approvals and credentials. Do not imply that a government agency endorses or approves your clinic. Name only certifications and credentials your clinicians actually hold, and keep the list current.
Services list. Describe tests and exams by what they are, and list only those you perform or arrange.

Case studies about employer accounts need the employer’s permission and accurate facts. Do not include worker details, and do not present one account’s experience as what every employer can expect. For more on endorsements, see our guide to patient testimonials and before-and-after photos.

Referral arrangements with employers

Occupational medicine is often paid by employers and workers’ compensation carriers rather than federal health care programs. If your clinic also bills Medicare, Medicaid or another federal health care program, the federal Anti-Kickback Statute matters. 42 U.S.C. 1320a-7b(b) makes it a felony to knowingly and willfully offer, pay, solicit or receive remuneration in return for referring a person for items or services paid in whole or in part by a federal health care program.

Free or discounted services offered to an employer on the condition that it sends you other business that federal programs pay for deserve a careful look. Have counsel review any discount, free service or bundled offer before you put it in a proposal. Our guide to patient and physician referrals covers the broader topic.

Search, ads and tracking

Employers search differently from patients. They look for the service and the area, and they often compare a few clinics before calling. A clear employer page for each service and location gives search engines and buyers what they need. Keep your Google Business Profile hours and services accurate for each location; see our guide to Google Business Profile for doctors.

Worker pages and booking forms are patient pages. Keep tracking tools from sending what a worker types or which injury page they viewed to ad platforms; our guide to tracking pixels on practice websites explains why. Employer inquiry forms should ask for company details, not worker health information.

Illustration

A clinic offering injury care and post-offer exams at two sites rewrote its employer page. The old page promised fewer recordables and next-day full reports. The new page lists each service by site, explains how to open an account, and says that employers receive work status and findings about the work-related injury, with forms required by law. A post-offer exam page tells employers that results come back as whether the candidate can perform the job and any restrictions, to be kept in separate medical files. A worker page lists hours, what to bring and the after-hours path. The onsite clinic proposal now describes aggregate reporting only, reviewed by counsel.

Illustration of the approach, not client data.

Common mistakes

Promising full records. Employer materials that offer complete charts go beyond what 164.512(b)(1)(v) allows without authorization.
Recordables as a sales pitch. Claims about keeping cases off the OSHA log are outcome claims and invite scrutiny.
Individual data from onsite clinics. Offering employers identifiable health data for staffing decisions conflicts with 164.504(f) where the plan is involved.
Unclear notices. Workers should get the written notice about disclosures to the employer, at the visit or posted at the work site.
Health questions on employer forms. An employer inquiry form should never collect a worker’s diagnosis.
Discounts tied to referrals. Where federal payers are involved, have counsel review any free or discounted offer.

How we help

We build and run websites, local search, ads and phone handling for independent practices and clinics. For an occupational medicine clinic, that means separate employer and worker pages, service and location pages written plainly, employer inquiry forms that do not collect health details, and tracking set up so worker pages do not send sensitive data to ad platforms. We do not write outcome or savings claims, and we do not promise accounts, leads or rankings. See our medical lead generation page for how the parts fit together, or the healthcare marketing rules guide for related topics.

Can we send an employer the results of a work injury visit?

Under 45 CFR 164.512(b)(1)(v), a covered provider may disclose findings about a work-related illness or injury when it gave care at the employer’s request, the employer needs the findings for its recordkeeping or surveillance duties under the listed rules, and the worker got written notice. Workers’ compensation disclosures are covered by 164.512(l). Anything beyond that needs the worker’s authorization.

Can an onsite clinic give the employer data about individual employees?

If the clinic is part of the group health plan, 45 CFR 164.504(f) requires plan documents that bar the employer from using the information for employment-related actions and decisions. Plan to describe reporting as aggregate or summary information unless counsel confirms otherwise.

Can we advertise that we reduce OSHA recordables?

That is an outcome claim and needs evidence that supports it under 15 U.S.C. 45. Recordability follows the criteria in 29 CFR 1904.5 and 1904.7, so focus your materials on accurate documentation instead.

What should our post-offer exam page say?

Describe the exam as taking place after a job offer, explain what the employer receives, and remind employers that 42 U.S.C. 12112(d)(3) requires the information to be kept in separate confidential medical files.

Does the Anti-Kickback Statute apply to employer contracts?

It applies to remuneration tied to referrals of items or services paid by a federal health care program. If your clinic bills Medicare or Medicaid, have counsel review discounts or free services offered to employers.

Sources

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Occupational medicine marketing: selling to employers within HIPAA, OSHA and ADA limits