HIPAA-ready cloud teams
Stay HIPAA compliant while shipping product weekly
episki maps administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to your systems and keeps PHI protections verifiable.
What is HIPAA?
HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) is a US federal law that sets standards for protecting sensitive patient health information. Any organization that creates, receives, maintains, or transmits protected health information (PHI) must comply.
The three HIPAA rules
- Privacy Rule — governs who can access PHI and under what conditions.
- Security Rule — requires administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to protect electronic PHI (ePHI).
- Breach Notification Rule — mandates timely reporting of PHI breaches to affected individuals, HHS, and in some cases the media.
Who must comply?
HIPAA applies to covered entities (health plans, healthcare providers, clearinghouses) and business associates — any vendor or subcontractor that handles PHI on their behalf. SaaS companies serving healthcare customers almost always fall under the business associate category.
Common compliance gaps
- Missing BAAs — business associate agreements must be in place before PHI is shared with any vendor.
- Access control drift — employee role changes and offboarding create orphaned access to ePHI systems.
- Incident response delays — the breach notification rule requires reporting within 60 days, which demands a practiced, documented response process.
HIPAA topics
Deep-dive into specific HIPAA compliance topics.
HIPAA Breach Notification Rule
The HIPAA Breach Notification Rule requires covered entities and business associates to notify individuals, HHS, and sometimes the media after a breach of unsecured PHI.
Business Associate Agreements (BAA)
A Business Associate Agreement is a legally required contract ensuring that vendors and subcontractors handling PHI comply with HIPAA requirements.
HIPAA Compliance Checklist
A comprehensive HIPAA compliance checklist covering the Privacy Rule, Security Rule, Business Associate Agreements, workforce training, and breach response procedures.
HIPAA outcomes with episki
Quantify the impact security and compliance brings to your business.
30-day rollout
Average time to production monitoring across safeguards.
PHI-safe sharing
Role-based portals keep sensitive documents organized and protected.
24/7 alerts
Continuous monitoring for access, logging, and vendor risks.
Why teams choose episki for HIPAA
Framework-specific automation, collaboration, and reporting in one workspace.
Safeguards mapped to your stack
Every HIPAA standard comes with plain-language owners, SLAs, and tests.
- Assign compliance, engineering, and ops leads to each safeguard
- Playbooks explain what “good” looks like for each requirement
- Timeline view keeps renewals and reviews on schedule
PHI-aware evidence locker
Secure uploads, access controls, and audit trails keep regulators satisfied.
- Granular permissions for internal and external reviewers
- Automated retention and deletion policies
- Download tracking and access audit trails
Vendor & incident workflows
Track BAAs, vendor attestations, and incidents from discovery to closure.
- BAA repository tied to vendor risk levels
- Incident response runbooks with reminders
- Post-incident reports aligned to HIPAA timelines
HIPAA launch kit
Guided steps keep privacy, security, and ops in sync from day one.
Plug episki into your stack and work directly from this checklist during the free trial.
- ✓ Safeguard library with ownership matrix
- ✓ Evidence tracking for access logs and configs
- ✓ BAA tracker with renewal reminders
- ✓ Incident and breach response templates
- ✓ Stakeholder portal with PHI redaction controls
HIPAA enablement
HIPAA enablement
Keep leadership, customers, and partners aligned.
Board-ready posture report
Shows maturity score, risk trends, and upcoming audits.
Customer FAQ pack
Answers the most common HIPAA diligence questions.
Ops automation guide
Explains how to plug security tasks into existing tools.
HIPAA compliance frequently asked questions
HIPAA applies to covered entities (health plans, healthcare providers, clearinghouses) and business associates — any vendor or subcontractor that creates, receives, maintains, or transmits protected health information (PHI). SaaS companies serving healthcare customers almost always qualify as business associates.
A BAA is a legally required contract between a covered entity and a business associate that establishes permitted uses and disclosures of PHI, requires appropriate safeguards, and outlines breach notification responsibilities. No PHI should be shared with a vendor before a BAA is signed.
HIPAA penalties range from $100 to $50,000 per violation depending on the level of negligence, with annual maximums up to $1.5 million per violation category. Criminal penalties can include fines up to $250,000 and imprisonment. The HHS Office for Civil Rights enforces compliance.
Yes. Any SaaS company that handles, stores, or transmits PHI on behalf of a healthcare organization is considered a business associate under HIPAA and must comply with the Security Rule, Privacy Rule, and Breach Notification Rule.
HIPAA requires administrative safeguards (policies, training, risk assessments), physical safeguards (facility access, workstation security), and technical safeguards (access controls, encryption, audit logging) to protect electronic PHI.
Related terms
What is Access Control?What is an Audit Trail?What is a Business Associate Agreement (BAA)?What is Breach Notification?What is a Business Associate?What is a Covered Entity?What is Encryption?What is Evidence Collection?What is a Framework?What is GRC?What is HIPAA?What is the HITECH Act?What is Incident Response?What is Key Management?What is Least Privilege?What is Log Management?What is the Minimum Necessary Rule?What is Multi-Factor Authentication?What is Offboarding?What is Protected Health Information (PHI)?What is Security Awareness Training?What is Workforce Security?
Other compliance frameworks
Launch HIPAA monitoring in minutes
Kick off the free trial and invite stakeholders before your next diligence call.
