Simplifying HIPAA Compliance and Case Management with HubSpot.

How a Strategic HubSpot Implementation Made HIPAA Compliance and Case Management a Breeze for Union EAP

SmartBug helped Union EAP’s growing team of Care Coordinators establish a compliant, convenient, and cohesive system for managing caseloads through strategic HubSpot implementation.

Image of a group of care coordinators un a meeting room

100 %

Cases now managed through HubSpot Service Hub with full HIPAA compliance

5.16 %

Utilization rate achieved within a year—nearing U.S. average for SMW assistance programs

6000 +

Members reached and 250+ directly assisted within 10 months of implementation

Background

Union EAP is a specialized employee assistance program (EAP) dedicated to supporting organized labor unions and their members across the United States, most commonly sheet metal workers (SMWs). The organization focuses on creating sustainable, recovery-friendly workplaces by addressing a range of challenges, including mental health, substance use, financial, and legal issues.

The organization's leadership, including CEO Ben Cort and COO Melissa Burke, LCSW, brings extensive experience in behavioral health and a deep commitment to serving the labor community. Their mission is to foster stigma-free, trust-based organizational cultures that prioritize the well-being of union members.

The Problem

Care Coordinators in Dire Need of a Connectivity and Compliance Overhaul

At the core of Union EAP's services is a national network of centrally managed Care Coordinators—licensed clinicians available 24/7/365. These professionals provide immediate crisis response, prevention education, and assistance in accessing a comprehensive continuum of high-quality services to union members and their families. They also verify members' benefits, including deductible status and out-of-pocket maximums, to offer practical solutions beyond merely listing in-network providers.

The role of Care Coordinators is essential as the demand for employee assistance programs and care increases. This trend emphasized the growing team’s dire need to implement formal systems and scalable processes for opening, managing, and tracking cases. The existing manual, disconnected tracking systems used by individual care coordinators were insufficient, offering no centralized visibility. There was also an urgency to implement a HIPAA-compliant system for managing sensitive member data.

To combat these challenges, the SmartBug team worked with Melissa Burke and the Care Coordinators to implement HubSpot Marketing, Sales and Service Hub. The teams also collaborated to migrate the Union EAP website to HubSpot’s Content Hub, allowing for closed-loop reporting and expanding marketing efforts through the creation of landing page, thank you page, blog, and email templates

As a new company just starting out, everything just seems so gray and so questionable, and [SmartBug] helped us build a path. I thought that was amazing, and now every time we have a ticket that's open, we know that all of our Care Coordinators are protected. Because if something were to arise, everything's documented. We know that if they call back, the person answering the phone is going to know exactly what's going on. We know that everything is in one spot, so all of our PandaDocs are right there. All of the contacts that we need […] all of the information is right there and easy to get. I don't think we would have been so successful in that without SmartBug and Aubreigh helping us navigate.

Colleen Meredith, Care Coordinator, Union EAP

Our Solution

Leveraging HubSpot Tools to Establish a Case Management Pipeline Structure

Implementation of HubSpot Content Hub, Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, and Service Hub
Custom Naming Conventions for HIPAA Compliance
Creation of Custom Properties, Custom Objects, Custom Reporting, and Dashboards
Native Integrations with Dialpad and PandaDoc
Migration Support from Wix to HubSpot
Meeting Scheduler and Ticketing Pipeline
Snippets and Email Templates
Weekly Care Coordinator Workshops

The SmartBug team began with an in-depth discovery meeting to gain a better understanding of Union EAP’s mission and services and how those services address the pain points of its audience—union members and partnered unions. This process involved live walkthroughs of fictional example scenarios to establish a formal yet accessible system for case outreach.

SmartBug helped address the client’s data security gaps by implementing Sensitive Data properties in HubSpot, which partitioned access through the setup of users and teams. Custom naming conventions were used for HIPAA compliance (e.g., the first three letters of first and last names), ensuring only necessary parties could view sensitive information.

Service Hub was instrumental in creating an efficient case management pipeline, which leverages custom properties and objects to build customized reports and dashboards. The new ticketing pipeline, complete with Dialpad and PandaDoc integrations, uses leadership-specific tracking when assigning clinical versus non-clinical cases. Content Hub and Marketing Hub were used in conjunction to execute a detailed marketing plan, which also involved setting up basic snippets and templates in Sales Hub. Additionally, SmartBug supervised the client’s migration from Wix to HubSpot, providing technical support and optimization throughout the process.

Discovery and Kickoff

Week 1 →

Client Onboarding: Union EAP partnered with SmartBug for onboarding across HubSpot Marketing Pro, Sales Enterprise, and Service Enterprise. Teams aligned on goals and expectations.
Kickoff & Discovery: SmartBug learned Union EAP's mission, processes, and tech stack, prioritizing Service Hub for a HIPAA-compliant case management system.
Onboarding Prep: Provided contact import templates and user permission set recommendations.
Site Migration Discussion: Initiated discussions on migrating the website from Wix to HubSpot CMS.

Initial Setup and Care Coordinator Discovery

Week 2 - Week 4 →

Internal Planning: Defined project milestones and sequencing.
HubSpot Tracking & Teams: Installed tracking code and embedded a contact form on the site. Team segmentation and user permissions were configured.
CTI Selection: Chose Dialpad for telephony integration to log Care Coordinator calls in HubSpot.
Care Coordinator Workshops: Weekly scenario-based workshops helped inform pipeline design and property customization.
Case Management Pipeline: SmartBug began building the automated ticketing system with custom fields.

CTI Integration and Implementation

Week 5-12 →

Dialpad Integration: Integrated with HubSpot via native connector for HIPAA-compliant call logging.
Sales Hub Setup: Built email templates, snippets, and meeting scheduling links for Care Coordinators.
Record Customization: Tailored views for Care Coordinators to access relevant contact, company, and ticket info.
Assessments & Custom Objects: Created assessments and a "Providers" custom object to streamline care sourcing.
Dashboards: Developed dashboards for utilization, case metrics, and team performance.
Website Migration: Completed Wix to HubSpot migration, including technical, SEO, and ADA improvements.
Marketing Hub Setup: Developed a full marketing toolkit—landing pages, blog templates, email templates, opt-out lists, and a moodboard.
Care Coordinator Adoption: Coordinators actively managed cases in HubSpot; workshops continued.

Marketing Hub Setup, Training, and Support

Week 13 - 20 →

Training: Delivered full platform overview and Dialpad onboarding. Provided user manual and a visual walkthrough deck.
Support Extension: Continued HubSpot and Dialpad support. Union EAP added 20 more hours to ensure seamless adoption.

The Results

Streamlined Case Management and a Sustainable Data Security Plan

100% of cases are now managed through HubSpot Service Hub, with full HIPAA compliance less than a year after implementation.
Union EAP achieved a 5.16% utilization rate for sheet metal workers (SMWs), closing in on the 5.5% national average for SMW EAP usage in the U.S.
HubSpot’s unified, HIPAA-compliant database has:
- Centralized critical member information
- Improved visibility into the customer lifecycle
- Made key data more accessible for Care Coordinators
Ongoing training and workshops keep Union EAP’s staff up to speed on:
- HubSpot’s evolving features
- New ways to optimize member experience
- Strategies for sustained organizational growth