Healthcare · HIPAA development

HIPAA compliant web development

Healthcare websites that actually meet the regulation, not just claim to. We build on BAA-covered infrastructure with encrypted forms, compliant analytics, and audit trails that hold up under review.

The regulation

What HIPAA actually requires for a website

Most articles about HIPAA web compliance get the basics wrong. They treat an SSL certificate as full compliance, or assume a privacy-policy checkbox makes a contact form HIPAA-ready. It does not. HIPAA's Security Rule defines three categories of safeguards — administrative, physical, and technical — and for a website the technical safeguards are where most organizations fail: access controls, audit controls, integrity controls, and transmission security for any system that touches protected health information (PHI). A standard WordPress site on shared hosting with a contact-form plugin does not satisfy these. Neither does a Squarespace site with a HIPAA badge in the footer. Compliance is a function of architecture, not decoration. The moment a visitor can submit their condition, treatment history, or insurance through a form, that submission is PHI — and where it goes next decides whether you are compliant. We build sites where every component handling PHI is covered by a Business Associate Agreement, encrypted in transit and at rest, and backed by audit logs that record who accessed what and when.

How we build compliant

Compliance is in the architecture

Six layers, every one of them load-bearing. Skip one and the whole site is a breach notification waiting to happen.

  1. 01

    BAA-covered hosting

    We deploy on infrastructure that will actually sign a Business Associate Agreement — AWS, GCP, Azure, or Aptible — using only the HIPAA-eligible services, with encryption and audit logging enabled from day one.

  2. 02

    Forms encrypted end to end

    Patient submissions are encrypted in transit with TLS 1.2+ and at rest with AES-256. PHI lands in HIPAA-covered storage, never in an inbox or a plugin database on shared hosting.

  3. 03

    Server-side form processing

    Submissions are validated and routed server-side. No PHI is written to application logs, no PHI is echoed back in confirmation pages, and no field data leaks into analytics or referrer headers.

  4. 04

    Compliant GA4, properly configured

    Google will not sign a BAA for GA4, so we run it through server-side tagging that strips PII before data leaves your infrastructure. When you need a covered platform, we deploy Freshpaint or Heap under a signed BAA instead.

  5. 05

    Access controls on PHI

    Role-based access, enforced authentication, and network isolation separate PHI-handling services from public static assets. Only the people and systems that need patient data can reach it.

  6. 06

    Audit logs that hold up

    Immutable, timestamped records of who accessed what and when — form submissions, edits, deletions, and admin actions — retained to the schedule your state and federal requirements demand.

Who it's for

Healthcare providers whose sites collect, transmit, or store patient data — and who cannot afford to find out the hard way that "HIPAA-ready" was a marketing word.

Behavioral health and SUD treatment centers, medical and dental practices, telehealth platforms, clinics running intake forms, appointment scheduling, or patient portals. Anywhere a visitor can type their condition into a form, the regulation applies — and the architecture has to back it up.

Need a HIPAA intake form first? See Halo →
Safeguards
Admin · Physical · Technical
access, audit, integrity, and transmission controls across every PHI surface
Hosting + BAA
AWS · GCP · Azure · Aptible
signed BAAs, eligible services only, encryption and audit logging on by default
Analytics
Server-side GA4
PII scrubbed before data leaves your infra; Freshpaint or Heap under BAA when needed
Timeline
8–14 weeks
compliance layer adds 2–4 weeks; portals and EHR connections, plan 12–20
FAQ

Questions healthcare teams ask

Does my healthcare website need to be HIPAA compliant?

If your website collects, transmits, or stores any protected health information (PHI), yes. This includes contact forms that ask about conditions or treatment history, appointment scheduling systems, patient portals, and any intake forms. A simple brochure site with no forms or data collection may not fall under HIPAA, but the moment a visitor can submit health-related information through your site, compliance applies.

What is a BAA and do I need one with my hosting provider?

A Business Associate Agreement (BAA) is a legal contract between a covered entity (your practice) and any vendor that handles PHI on your behalf. You need a BAA with your hosting provider, your form processing service, your email marketing platform, and any other third party that touches patient data. Not all hosting providers will sign a BAA. AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Aptible are among the platforms that offer BAA-eligible configurations.

Can I use Google Analytics on a HIPAA-compliant website?

You can use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) on a healthcare website, but only with specific safeguards. Google will not sign a BAA for GA4, so you must ensure no PHI reaches Google servers. This means implementing server-side tagging to strip identifying information before data leaves your infrastructure, blocking PII from URL parameters, scrubbing form field data from analytics events, and disabling User-ID and enhanced measurement features that could capture PHI. Alternatively, you can use a HIPAA-eligible analytics platform like Freshpaint or Heap with a BAA in place.

How long does it take to build a HIPAA-compliant website?

A typical HIPAA-compliant healthcare website takes 8 to 14 weeks from kickoff to launch. The compliance layer adds roughly 2 to 4 weeks compared to a standard website build. That additional time covers BAA procurement and review, encrypted form infrastructure setup, analytics configuration and PII scrubbing validation, security testing and audit log verification, and documentation of technical safeguards. Practices that need patient portal integration or custom EHR connections should plan for 12 to 20 weeks.

Get started

Building a healthcare site that has to be compliant?

We'll walk your requirements, map where PHI flows, and scope a build that meets the regulation without slowing your team down.

Call 833-MAANTIS