After months of political wrangling, the health-care reform bill is now law.

What does it mean for hospital marketing?

Here are some predictions:

1) It is generally held that prevention and wellness initiatives will reduce health-care costs over time. More and more, hospitals will reach outside of their four walls to address public health issues with new education campaigns on topics such as anti-obesity and hand-washing.

2. Beyond education, actionable public health initiatives such as vaccination programs will increase and require promotion.

3. Patient self-management of chronic diseases such as asthma and diabetes also saves health-care money, but will require patient awareness campaigns and education.

4. Hospitals will be required to report outcomes and quality care metrics on their websites and in community reports.

5. Media scrutiny of quality and costs will increase. Relationships with journalists will require special handling.

6. Providers are expecting an influx of new patients. Patient communications will grow in importance, as first-time patients will need help navigating the health-care system. As many previously uninsured patients may be younger, poorer, and more ethnically diverse, communicators will explore new channels to reach those audiences.

7. New patients will likely overwhelm the system in the near term, which will heat up competition to fill new positions. Recruitment advertising and branding aimed at prospective physicians and nurses hires will increase.

8. Staff will require education about the impact of health-care reform on their jobs. With more demands on the system, staff motivation efforts will increase.

9. Philanthropic support will be required to help fund increased capability and resources to meet the additional demand for services.

10. Hospitals which haven’t already done so will open internet portals where patients can access their personal medical records and test results, as well as manage their accounts.

11. As more collaborative arrangements develop, managing and promoting relationships with payers, government agencies and social-service organizations will increase in importance.

12. Hospitals will promote their quality-improvement and cost-cutting measures. Branding will be based upon the proven success of these initiatives.

Those are my guesses for what the next few years hold in store for health-care communicators. What are yours?