HIPAA-aligned websites: fast, easy to book, and careful with patient details.

A HIPAA-aligned website is a practice website designed and built so that anything it collects or transmits about patients is handled with HIPAA-aligned safeguards: minimal data collection, encryption, access controls, and signed agreements with any vendor that touches patient information. There is no official certification for a website.

People often search for a HIPAA compliant website, but no website is compliant by itself. HHS says it does not certify any persons or products as "HIPAA compliant" (HHS). Compliance depends on how your practice and its vendors handle patient information, including agreements, access controls, and policies. A site can be built to support that, which is why we say aligned, and your practice stays responsible for its own compliance.

The test is what your practice does, not how big it is. A provider of any size is a covered entity if it electronically sends health information in standard transactions such as claims or eligibility checks, and using email alone does not make a provider one (HHS Privacy Rule summary). If you bill insurance electronically, plan on treating your website as part of your HIPAA responsibilities, and ask your attorney about your own situation.

It depends on the page. HHS's online tracking bulletin says a clinic may not use tracking tools in a way that discloses patient information to the vendor without the right permission, and that a vendor receiving that information on the clinic's behalf is a business associate. It says tools on many pages with general information, such as location and visiting hours, have no access to patient information, while tools on a page where people schedule appointments without logging in may. A June 2024 federal court ruling vacated the part of the bulletin about visits to public pages on health conditions or providers, and HHS says it is evaluating next steps. We keep advertising and analytics tools off booking, form, and portal pages, and suggest your compliance adviser review the rest.

Often yes, for a site that only publishes information. If your site collects health details through forms, booking, or chat, check that the builder and every add-on will sign a Business Associate Agreement and protect stored data. Some do not, so confirm before you collect anything. Your compliance adviser can confirm what your practice needs.

Only if it stores or processes patient information for you. HHS says that when a clinic uses a cloud service to create, receive, maintain, or transmit electronic patient information, the service is a business associate and the two must sign an agreement, even when the data is encrypted and the service holds no key (HHS cloud computing guidance). A site that only publishes general information stores none. If your forms, booking, or messages are stored on the host or on a tool connected to it, treat that vendor as one that needs an agreement. Your compliance adviser can confirm.

It can be. HHS uses a clinic's appointment page as an example in its online tracking bulletin: an email address, or a reason for seeking care that a patient types or selects, is individually identifiable health information. So the tools handling booking need safeguards and agreements. We design booking to collect only what is needed to schedule the visit, and we sign a Business Associate Agreement before we handle any PHI. See online booking.

Four questions. Which third-party scripts run on the booking and form pages, and who receives data from them? Where are form submissions stored, who can open them, and are they sent by ordinary email? Does every vendor that stores patient information sign a Business Associate Agreement? Who owns the code, the domain, and the hosting account? If the answers are vague, ask your compliance adviser to review the site.

In your own cloud environment (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud), in accounts you own. The code and designs are yours to keep, with documentation your own team can pick up. We can also handle hosting, monitoring, and updates after launch if you want that.

Weeks, not the many months a traditional build can take. Once the plan is agreed, you see a working prototype before you commit to the full build. Your exact timeline is fixed in writing with the scope.