How Do You Know if Software is HIPAA Compliant?

Business Solutions, HIPAA Compliant Email, HIPAA Email Marketing
Pete Wermter
February 21, 2025

As in any industry, the healthcare sector is eager to embrace any new technology solution that increases productivity, enhances operational efficiency, and cuts costs. However, the rate at which healthcare companies – and their patients and customers – have had to adopt new software and digital tools has skyrocketed since the pandemic. And while a lot of this software is beneficial, a key question arises: is it HIPAA compliant? While an application may serve an organization’s needs – and may be eagerly embraced by patients – it also needs to have the right measures in place to safeguard protected health information (PHI) to determine if it is indeed HIPAA compliant.

Whether you’re a healthcare provider, software vendor, product team, or IT professional, understanding what makes software HIPAA compliant is essential for safeguarding patient data and insulating your organization from the consequences of falling afoul of HIPAA regulations.

With this in mind, this post breaks down the key indicators of HIPAA compliant software, the technical requirements you should look for, and best practices for ensuring your software is HIPAA compliant.

What Does It Mean for Software to Be HIPAA-Compliant?

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) sets national standards for safeguarding PHI, which includes any data related to a patient’s health, treatment, or payment details. In light of this, any applications and systems used to process, transmit, or store PHI must comply with the stringent privacy, security, and breach notification requirements set forth by HIPAA.

Subsequently, while healthcare organizations use a wide variety of software, most of it is likely to be HIPAA-compliant. Alarmingly, many companies aren’t aware of which applications are HIPAA-compliant and, more importantly, if there’s a need for compliance in the first place.

However, it’s important to note that HIPAA itself does not certify software. Instead, it’s up to software vendors to implement the necessary security and privacy measures to ensure HIPAA compliance. Subsequently, it’s up to healthcare providers, payers, and suppliers to do their due diligence and source HIPAA compliant software.

How to Determine If Software Is HIPAA Compliant

So, now that we’ve covered why it’s vital that the applications and systems through which sensitive patient data flows must be HIPAA compliant, how do you determine if your software meets HIPAA requirements? To assess whether software is HIPAA compliant, look for these key indicators:

1. Business Associate Agreement (BAA)

A HIPAA compliant software provider must sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with covered entities, i.e., the healthcare company. A BAA is a legal contract that outlines the vendor’s responsibility for safeguarding PHI. If a software provider doesn’t offer a BAA, their software is NOT HIPAA compliant.

Now, if a vendor offers a BAA, it should be presented front and center in their benefits, terms or conditions, if not on their website homepage as part of their key features. If a vendor has taken the time and effort to make their infrastructure robust enough to meet HIPAA regulations, they’ll want to make it known to reassure healthcare organizations of their suitability to their particular needs.

2. End-to-End Encryption

A key requirement of the HIPAA Security Rule is that sensitive patient data is encrypted end to end during its transmission. This means being encrypted during transit, i.e., when sent in an email or entered into a form, and at rest, i.e., within the data store in which it resides.

In light of this, any software that handles PHI should use strong encryption standards, such as:

Transport Layer Security (TLS – 1.2 or above): for secure transmission of PHI in email and text communications.
AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) 256: the preferred encryption method for data storage as per HIPAA security standards, due to its strength.

3. Access Controls and User Authentication

One of the key threats to the privacy of patient data is access by unauthorized parties. This could be from employees within the organization who aren’t supposed to have access to PHI. In some, or even many, cases, this may come down to lax and overly generous access policies. However, this can result in the accidental compromise of PHI, affecting both a patient’s right to privacy and, in the event patient data is unavailable, operational capability.

Alternatively, the exposure of PHI can be intentional. One on hand, it may be from employees working on behalf of other organizations, i.e., disgruntled employees about to jump ship to a competitor. More commonly, unauthorized access to patient data is perpetrated by malicious actors impersonating healthcare personnel. To prevent the unintended exposure of PHI, HIPAA compliant infrastructure, software and applications must support access control policies, such as:

Role-based access control (RBAC): the restriction of access to PHI based on their job responsibility in handling PHI, i.e.., an employee in billing or patient outreach. A healthcare organization’s security teams can configure access rights based on an employee’s need to handle patient data in line with their role in the company.
Multi-factor authentication (MFA): this adds an extra layer of security beyond user names and passwords. This could include a one-time password (OTP) sent via email, text, or a physical security token. MFA is very diverse and can be scaled up to reflect a healthcare organization’s security posture. This could include also biometrics, such as retina and fingerprint scans, as well as voice verification.
Zero-trust security: a rapidly emerging security paradigm in which users are consistently verified, as per the resources they attempt to access. This prevents session hijacking, in which a user’s identity is trusted upon an initial login and verification. Instead, zero trust continually verifies a user’s identity.
Robust password policies: another simple, but no less fundamental, component of user authentication is a company’s password policy. While conventional password policies emphasize complexity, i.e., different cases, numbers, and special characters, newer password policies, in contrast, emphasize password length.

4. Audit Logs & Monitoring

A key HIPAA requirement is that healthcare organizations consistently track and monitor employee access to patient data. It’s not enough that access to PHI is restricted. Healthcare organizations must maintain visibility over how patient data is being accessed, transferred, and acted upon (copied, altered, deleted). This is especially important in the event of a security event when it’s imperative to pinpoint the source of a breach and contain its spread.

In light of this, HIPAA compliant software must:

Maintain detailed audit logs of all employee interactions with PHI.
Provide real-time monitoring and alerts for suspicious activity.
Support log retention for at least six years, as per HIPAA’s compliance requirements.

5. Automatic Data Backup & Disaster Recovery

Data loss protection (DLP) is an essential HIPAA requirement that requires organizations to protect PHI from loss, corruption, or disasters. With this in mind, a HIPAA-compliant software solution should provide:

Automated encrypted backups: real-time data backups, to ensure the most up-to-date PHI is retained in the event of a security breach.
Comprehensive disaster recovery plans: to rapidly restore data in case of cyber attack, power outage, or similar event that compromises data access.
Geographically redundant storage: a physical safeguard that sees PHI. stored on separate servers in different locations, far apart from each other. So, if one server goes down or is physically compromised (fire, flood, power outage, etc.,) patient data can still be accessed.

6. Secure Messaging and Communication Controls

For software that involves email, messaging, or telehealth, i.e., phone or video-based interactions, in particular, HIPAA regulations require:

End-to-end encryption: for all communications, as detailed above.
Access restrictions: policies that only enable those with the appropriate privileges to view communications containing patient data.
Controls for message expiration: automatically deleting messages after a prescribed time to mitigate the risk of unauthorized access.
Audit logs: to monitor the inclusion or use of patient data.

7. HIPAA Training & Policies

Even the most secure software can be compromised if its users aren’t sufficiently trained on how to use it. More specifically, the risk of a security breach is amplified if employees don’t know how to identify suspicious behavior and who to report it to if an event occurs. With this in mind, it’s prudent to look for software vendors that:

Offer HIPAA compliance and cyber safety awareness training for users.
Implement administrative safeguards, such as usage policy enforcement and monitoring.
Support customizable security policies to align with your organization’s compliance needs.

Shadow IT and HIPAA Compliance

Shadow IT is an instance of an application or system being installed and used within a healthcare organization’s network without an IT team’s approval. Despite its name, shadow IT is not as insidious as it sounds: it’s simply a case of employees unwittingly installing applications they feel will help them with their work. The implications, however, are that:

IT teams are unaware of said application, and how data flows through it, so they can’t secure any PHI entered into it.
The application may have known vulnerabilities that are exploitable by malicious actors. This is all the more prevalent with free and/or open-source software.

While discussing the issue of shadow IT in general, it’s wise to discuss the concept of “shadow AI” – the unauthorized use of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions within an organization without its IT department’s knowledge or approval.

It’s easily done: AI applications are all the rage and employees are keen to reap the productivity and efficiency gains offered by the rapidly growing numbers of AI tools. Unfortunately, they fail to stop and consider the data security risks present in AI applications. Worse, with AI technology still in its relative infancy, researchers, vendors, and other industry stakeholders have yet to develop a unified framework for securing AI systems, especially in healthcare.

Consequently, the risks of entering patient data into an AI system – particularly one that’s not been approved by IT – are considerable. The privacy policies of many widely-used AI applications, such as ChatGPT, state the data entered into the application, during the course of engaging with the platform, can be used in the training of future AI models. In other words, there’s no telling where patient data could end up – and how and where it could be exposed.

The key takeaway here is that entering PHI into shadow IT and AI applications can pose significant risks to the security of patient data, and employees should only use solutions vetted, deployed, and monitored by their IT department.

Best Practices for Choosing HIPAA Compliant Software

Now that you have a better understanding of how to evaluate software regarding HIPAA compliance, here are some best practices to keep in mind when selecting applications to facilitate your patient engagement efforts:

✔ Look for a BAA: quite simply, having a BAA in place is an essential requirement of HIPAA-compliant software. So, if the vendor doesn’t offer one, move on.

✔ Verify encryption standards: ensure the software encrypts PHI both at rest and in transit.

✔ Test access controls: choose HIPAA-compliant software that allows you to restrict access to PHI based on an employee’s role within the organization.

✔ Review audit logging capabilities: HIPAA compliant software should track every PHI interaction. This also greatly assists in incident detection and reporting (IDR), as it enables security teams to pinpoint and contain cyber threats should they arise.

✔ Ensure compliance support: knowing the complexities of navigating HIPAA regulations, a reputable software vendor should provide comprehensive documentation on configuring their solution to match the client’s security needs. Better yet, they should provide the option of cyber threat awareness and HIPAA compliance training services.

✔ Create a List of Software Vendors: combining the above factors, it’s prudent for healthcare organizations to compile a list of HIPAA compliant software vendors that possess the features and capabilities to adequately safeguard PHI.

Choosing HIPAA Compliant Software

Matching the right software to a company’s distinctive workflows and evolving needs is challenging enough. However, for healthcare companies, ensuring the infrastructure and applications within their IT ecosystem also meet HIPAA compliance standards requires another layer of, often complicated, due diligence.

Failure to deploy a digital solution that satisfies the technical, administrative, and physical security measures required in a HIPAA compliant solution exposes your organization to the risk of suffering the repercussions of non-compliance.

If select and deploy the appropriate HIPAA compliant software, in contrast, your options for patient and customer engagement are increased, and you’ll be able to include PHI in your communications to improve patient engagement and drive better health outcomes. Schedule a consultation with one of our experts at LuxSci to discuss whether the software in your IT ecosystem meets HIPAA regulations. and how we can assist you in ensuring your organization is communicating with patient and customers in a HIPAA compliant way.

Pete Wermter

As a marketing leader with more than 20 years of experience in enterprise software marketing, Pete's career includes a mix of corporate and field marketing roles, stretching from Silicon Valley to the EMEA and APAC regions, with a focus on data protection and optimizing engagement for regulated industries, such as healthcare and financial services. Pete Wermter — LinkedIn

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LuxSci High Email Deliverability Best Practices Paper

What you’ll learn:

HIPAA Security Rule Email Encryption Requirements

July 8, 2026
Tom Deeb

Your Email Platform Is Becoming Critical Healthcare Infrastructure

July 1, 2026
Pete Wermter

Most healthcare organizations view email as a utility, a necessary tool for sending messages between staff, communicating with patients, sending out newsletters, connecting workflows, and so on. Historically, IT teams focused on keeping it running, security teams worried about phishing, and compliance teams made sure sensitive emails were encrypted.

Today, however, that view is rapidly becoming outdated.

Email has evolved into one of healthcare’s most critical digital infrastructure components, and also one of it’s biggest security threats. It’s a core channel for patient engagement, care coordination, revenue cycle operations, digital marketing, remote monitoring, and increasingly, AI-powered communications. The organizations that recognize this shift are building communications platforms designed for security, performance, automation, and growth. With the new HIPAA Security Rule requiring email encryption on the horizon, those companies that don’t may find themselves constrained by systems that were never intended to support modern healthcare.

Email Is No Longer Just a Messaging Tool

Healthcare organizations now depend on email to support dozens of mission-critical workflows every day.

Patients receive appointment reminders, registration instructions, imaging results, billing notifications, Explanation of Benefits (EOBs), prescription updates, preventive care reminders, patient education, and post-discharge follow-up. Marketing teams deliver personalized wellness campaigns and service line promotions. Clinical systems generate transactional notifications. Revenue cycle teams rely on secure digital communications to accelerate payments and reduce paper costs.

For many organizations, mission-critical patient communications flow through email every month.

When viewed collectively, email is more than a simple communications channel. It has become operational infrastructure with high levels of security needed and increasing compliance requirements.

The Stakes Continue to Rise

As healthcare becomes more digital, every communication carries greater business and clinical importance.

A delayed billing email may postpone payment. A failed appointment reminder can increase no-show rates. An undelivered care management message may impact patient outcomes. A misconfigured security policy can expose protected health information (PHI). Poor deliverability can undermine expensive patient engagement initiatives before they ever reach the inbox.

These are no longer isolated IT issues. Email can affect revenue, patient satisfaction, operational efficiency, compliance, and organizational reputation.

Today’s healthcare leaders require email infrastructure to provide the same reliability and visibility they demand from electronic health records, identity management systems, and other core infrastructure.

AI Is Raising the Bar Even Higher

There’s little doubt that artificial intelligence (AI) promises to transform patient communications.

Healthcare organizations everywhere are exploring AI-generated patient education, personalized outreach, intelligent scheduling, multilingual communications, and automated follow-up programs.

But AI also increases the importance of the underlying communications infrastructure.

Generating more personalized emails means little if organizations cannot:

Automatically protect PHI.
Apply consistent security policies.
Maintain complete audit trails.
Deliver messages reliably.
Integrate with EHRs, RCM and CRM platforms, and customer data platforms.
Demonstrate compliance during an audits.

In many ways, AI amplifies both the opportunities and the risks. Your email platform can help determine whether AI initiatives succeed or create new compliance and operational challenges.

Infrastructure Matters More Than Features

Healthcare buyers have traditionally evaluated email platforms based on individual features such as encryption, spam filtering, or secure portals.

Those capabilities remain important, but they no longer tell the whole story.

Today’s healthcare organizations should be evaluating communications platforms the same way they evaluate any mission-critical infrastructure.

Questions increasingly include:

Can it support both transactional and marketing communications?
Does it automatically enforce security policies without relying on user decisions?
Can it integrate with EHRs, CRM systems, CDPs, and business applications?
Will it scale during peak communication periods?
Does it provide detailed audit logging and reporting?
Can it adapt as regulatory expectations evolve?
Does it maintain high deliverability at enterprise scale?
Does it support single-tenant dedicated infrastructure for high performance and increased security?

These infrastructure characteristics often determine long-term success far more than any single feature comparison.

Email and the Future Of Secure Healthcare Communications

Healthcare is steadily moving toward a world where nearly every patient interaction is digital, personalized, and data-driven.

Healthcare leaders often ask whether they need a more secure email solution. That may be the wrong question.

The better question is whether their communications infrastructure is ready for where healthcare is headed over the next decade.

If you want talk about the future of your healthcare email infrastructure, reach out today and schedule a 30-minute assessment call with our experts.

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The HIPAA Security Rule Missed Its May Deadline — Here’s What We Know

June 9, 2026
Pete Wermter

The proposed HIPAA Security Rule update has become one of the most closely watched healthcare compliance developments in recent years. Designed to strengthen cybersecurity protections for electronic protected health information (ePHI), the proposal could significantly reshape how healthcare organizations approach risk management, ePHI encryption, and mandatory email encryption requirements.

A final rule was expected as early as May 2026. However, that deadline has now passed without publication from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

So, what happens next—and what should healthcare IT directors, CISOs, and compliance officers do now?

Where Things Stand Today

The HIPAA Security Rule Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) was published on January 6, 2025, with the goal of strengthening cybersecurity protections for ePHI in response to escalating ransomware attacks, healthcare breaches, and growing concerns about cyber resilience across the healthcare sector.

The proposal generated thousands of public comments from healthcare providers, payers, business associates, technology vendors, and industry groups. OCR has spent much of the past year reviewing this feedback and evaluating the operational and financial impact of the proposed changes.

Although the Spring Unified Regulatory Agenda identified May 2026 as a target date for a final rule, that milestone came and went without publication. As of June 2026, the proposed HIPAA Security Rule update remains under review.

While some organizations may be tempted to take a wait-and-see approach, the missed deadline should not be interpreted as a signal that the initiative has stalled. If anything, the proposal offers valuable insight into the future direction of healthcare cybersecurity regulation.

The Growing Focus on Mandatory Email Encryption

One of the most discussed aspects of the proposed HIPAA Security Rule update is encryption.

Under the current HIPAA Security Rule, encryption is generally classified as an “addressable” implementation specification. Organizations can choose alternative safeguards if they document and justify their decisions through a risk analysis process.

The proposed changes would significantly reduce that flexibility. Instead, many security safeguards, including encryption controls, would become more prescriptive and difficult to avoid.

While the final language has not yet been released, healthcare organizations should pay close attention to the proposal’s clear message: protecting ePHI through encryption is increasingly viewed as a baseline cybersecurity requirement.

This is particularly important for email communications.

Email remains one of the most widely used communication channels in healthcare, supporting everything from patient engagement and care coordination to billing, scheduling, and marketing communications. As regulators continue to focus on reducing data breach risks, mandatory email encryption is emerging as a likely area of increased scrutiny.

What Healthcare Organizations Should Do Now

The current delay creates an opportunity, not a reason to postpone action.

Healthcare organizations can begin preparing for likely requirements today by evaluating the security controls highlighted throughout the proposed rule.

Key areas to review include:

Encryption of ePHI across systems and communications channels
Comprehensive asset inventories and ePHI data mapping
Enhanced risk analysis and risk management processes
Multifactor authentication (MFA)
Vulnerability scanning and penetration testing
Incident response planning and testing
Backup and recovery procedures
Email security and secure email encryption practices

Organizations that proactively strengthen these areas now will be better prepared regardless of the final rule’s implementation timeline.

Why Secure Email Encryption Should Be a Priority

For many healthcare organizations, email remains one of the largest compliance and security risks.

Human error, misdirected messages, phishing attacks, and inconsistent encryption practices continue to contribute to breaches involving protected health information. As a result, secure email encryption is increasingly becoming a foundational component of healthcare cybersecurity strategies.

Organizations that rely on manual encryption processes or employee judgment alone may find it difficult to meet evolving regulatory expectations.

Instead, healthcare organizations should look for solutions that automate encryption decisions, reduce user error, and provide flexibility based on the sensitivity of the communication.

At LuxSci, we have long believed that security and usability must work together. We are 100% focused on secure healthcare communications, helping healthcare providers, payers, and suppliers protect sensitive data while improving patient and customer engagement. Our proven secure email solutions, used by leading companies including Athenahealth, 1-800 Contacts, and Hinge Health, help organizations protect ePHI with automated encryption capabilities that support both compliance and operational efficiency. Our unique SecureLine encryption technology enables organizations to apply the appropriate level of protection while maintaining a seamless experience for patients, customers, and staff.

For organizations already using Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, LuxSci Secure Email Gateway can add HIPAA-compliant email security and encryption without requiring users to change their existing workflows. This approach helps reduce risk, while preserving productivity and user adoption.

The Bottom Line

The HIPAA Security Rule final rule may have missed its anticipated May deadline, but the cybersecurity challenges driving the proposal remain very real.

The OCR is still expected to make the rule change, which could require mandatory encryption of ePHI by early 2027.

The time to prepare is now!

Healthcare organizations should view the proposed HIPAA Security Rule update as an advance warning of where regulatory expectations are heading. Stronger cybersecurity controls, enhanced risk management, ePHI encryption, and mandatory email encryption requirements are all likely to remain central themes in future compliance efforts.

The organizations that begin preparing now will not only be better positioned for future regulatory changes, but will also strengthen their ability to protect patient data, reduce risk, and build trust in an increasingly challenging threat landscape.

At LuxSci, we’re proud to support the healthcare industry’s ongoing digital transformation through secure healthcare communications. Our HIPAA-compliant solutions for secure email, email marketing, and forms empower organizations to safely use and protect PHI, while delivering better patient experiences and outcomes.

Ready to strengthen your healthcare cybersecurity strategy?

Learn more about LuxSci and our complete suite of HIPAA compliant email and marketing solutions, or schedule a consultation with one of our healthcare communication experts today.

LuxSci Awarded 20 Badges in the G2 Summer 2026 Reports

May 28, 2026
Pete Wermter

We’re excited to announce that LuxSci has again been recognized by G2 with 20 badges in its just-released Summer 2026 Reports, highlighting our continued leadership in secure healthcare communications and HIPAA compliant email solutions.

The new LuxSci G2 recognitions span several categories, including:

Best Estimated ROI
Best Support
High Performer
Leader

These latest LuxSci G2 awards reflect what matters most to our customers: delivering secure, HIPAA compliant healthcare communications backed by responsive support and measurable business results.

As one of the most trusted providers of HIPAA compliant email, marketing, and forms solutions, we’re proud to see our commitment recognized across multiple product categories and customer satisfaction metrics.

Recognition Built on Customer Experience

LuxSci’s G2 rankings are based on verified customer feedback and real-world user experiences, making these badges especially meaningful to our team.

This year’s Summer Reports recognized LuxSci for consistently delivering value to healthcare organizations looking to securely engage patients and customers while maintaining compliance with HIPAA requirements.

Among the highlights, the LuxSci G2 recognition includes:

Best Estimated ROI, reflecting the measurable value customers achieve through secure healthcare communications and personalization
Best Support, reinforcing LuxSci’s long-standing reputation for responsive, knowledgeable customer service
High Performer badges across multiple categories for customer satisfaction and product performance
Leader recognition for delivering secure, scalable communications solutions trusted by healthcare organizations

At LuxSci, we believe secure communications should also drive better engagement, stronger outcomes and operational efficiency. These recognitions reinforce our focus on helping healthcare providers, payers and suppliers personalize communications while protecting sensitive patient data.

Supporting the Future of Personalized Healthcare Engagement

LuxSci’s secure healthcare communication and patient engagement solutions empower organizations to safely communicate with patients and customers through:

HIPAA-compliant high volume email
Secure email marketing
Secure forms and data collection
Flexible encryption with SecureLine technology

Our solutions are designed to help healthcare organizations improve engagement, streamline workflows and personalize the healthcare journey while maintaining the highest standards of security and compliance.

These latest LuxSci G2 recognitions also build on LuxSci’s broader reputation for security, performance and customer success. Security and trust remain foundational to everything we do, alongside our commitment to delivering smart, responsive support for our customers.

Thank You to Our Customers

We’re grateful to our customers for their continued trust, collaboration and feedback. Their reviews and insights help shape our products and drive ongoing innovation across the LuxSci product set.

To learn more about LuxSci’s secure healthcare communications solutions, contact our team to schedule a secure email assessment or demo.

Connect with us today!

What is the HIPAA Security Rule? Understanding Its Impact and Upcoming Changes for ePHI

February 24, 2025
Pete Wermter

The HIPAA Security Rule is a critical part of The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA): legislation specifically designed to establish national security standards to protect the electronic protected health information (ePHI) held by healthcare organizations. Compliance with the HIPAA Security Rule is essential for safeguarding sensitive patient data against security breaches, cyber threats and even physical damage.

However, as cyber threats grow in both variety and, more alarmingly, sophistication and technological advancements, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which enforces the Security Rule, has proposed updates to further strengthen the data security and risk management postures of healthcare organizations.

In light of these upcoming changes to the HIPAA Security Rule and their importance to healthcare organizations, this post details the existing HIPAA Security Rule and what it entails. From there, we’ll look at the proposed modifications to the HIPAA Security Rule, helping you to understand how it will affect your organization going forward and, subsequently, how to best prepare for potential changes coming later this year to remain compliant.

What is the HIPAA Security Rule?

Added to HIPAA in 2003, the Security Rule introduced a series of mandatory safeguards to protect the increasing amount of digital data, i.e., ePHI, and the increasing prevalence of electronic health record (EHR) systems, customer data platforms (CDPs) and revenue cycle management (RCM) platforms.

The HIPAA Security Rule centers around three fundamental categories of safeguards:

Administrative Safeguards
- Risk modeling: frequent risk assessments to identify, categorize, and manage security risks.
- Workforce security policies: including role-based access controls.
- Contingency planning for emergency access to ePHI: i.e., disaster recovery and business continuity planning.
Technical Safeguards
- Access controls: implementing controls to restrict access to ePHI, e.g., Zero Trust, user authentication, and automatic timeouts.
- Audit controls: to track access to sensitive patient data.
- Encryption protocols: to protect ePHI end-to-end, in transit and at rest.
Physical Safeguards
- Onsite security measures: to prevent unauthorized physical access, e.g., locks, keycards, etc.
- Surveillance equipment: cameras and alarms, for example, to signal unauthorized access.
- Secure disposal of redundant hardware: devices containing ePHI must be properly disposed of by companies that specialize in data destruction.

The HIPAA Security Rule: The Dangers of Non-Compliance

Consequently, should a healthcare company fail to comply with the safeguards outlined in the HIPAA Security Rule, it can result in severe consequences, including:

Civil penalties: up to $2.1 million per violation; repeat offenses can result in multi-million dollar settlements.
State-Level HIPAA Fines: in addition to federal HIPAA penalties, states, such as California and New York, can impose fines for compliance violations under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act
Criminal charges: for willful neglect, unauthorized collection of ePHI, and, the malicious use of patient data (including its sale). This can result in up to 10 years in prison.
Reputational damage: demonstrating an inability to secure ePHI results in a loss of patient trust, making them less inclined to purchase your services or products. More alarmingly, cybercriminals will also become aware that your company’s IT infrastructure is vulnerable, which could invite more attempts to infiltrate your network and steal ePHI.

Proposed Updates to the HIPAA Security Rule

Now that we’ve discussed the present HIPAA Security Rule, and the consequences for failing to implement its required threat mitigation measures, let’s turn our attention to the proposed changes to the Security Rule, which were announced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in December, 2024, and how they will affect healthcare organizations.

Mandatory Encryption for All ePHI Transmission

The proposed updates require end-to-end encryption for emails, messages, and data transfers involving ePHI, making all implementation specifications required with specific, limited exceptions. This means that patient data must be encrypted in transit, i.e., from one place to another (when collected in a secure form, sent in an email, etc.), and in storage, i.e., where it will reside.

To accommodate these changes, many healthcare organizations will need to upgrade to HIPAA-compliant email solutions, for their outreach requirements, as well as encrypted databases to store the ePHI in their care.

Expanded MFA Requirements

Healthcare providers must implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for all personnel with access to ePHI. MFA moves beyond usernames and passwords, requiring users to prove their identity in more than one way.

This could include:

One-time passwords (OTPs) via email, an app, or a physical security dongle (e.g., an RSA token)
Access cards or Fobbs
Biometric identification, such as retina scans, fingerprints, or voice recognition.

This proposed rule change addresses increasing risks from phishing and other credential-based attacks, in which malicious actors acquire employee login details to access ePHI.

Stronger Risk Management and Third-Party Security Controls

Healthcare organizations must conduct more frequent risk assessments to identify, categorize, and mitigate threats to ePHI. A considerable part of this is implementing stricter security controls for business associates who have access to the healthcare company’s ePHI.

A business associate could be a software vendor with which an organization processes patient data, or it could be a supplier or partner that requires access to ePHI to fulfill its operational duties. In light of this, one of the proposed changes to the HIPAA security rule is that vendor security audits will become more mandatory rather than optional.

New Incident Response (IR) and Breach Reporting Rules

The new rule changes emphasize stricter breach notification timelines for healthcare entities and the business associates that handle ePHI on their behalf. This means that healthcare companies are obligated to inform affected parties of a data breach as soon as possible.

For healthcare companies, this means devising, or strengthening, continuous monitoring protocols, so their security teams become aware of suspicious activity as as soon as possible and can accurately communicate their containment efforts and take the neccessary actions to mitigate damages.

Preparing For The Changes to the HIPAA Security Rule: Next Steps for Healthcare Organizations

As the proposed changes to the HIPAA Security Rule move forward, and are likely to go into effect by the end of this year, healthcare organizations can prepare by:

✔ Conducting frequent risk assessments to pinpoint vulnerabilities to the ePHI in IT ecosystems. This should be done annually, at least – or when changes are made to IT infrastructure that may affect ePHI.

✔ Evaluating existing email and communication platforms to ensure compliance with encryption and authentication requirements, especially under the newly proposed security rule and its requirements.

✔ Hardening your organization’s cybersecurity posture by considering the implementation of network segmentation, zero-trust security principles, and data loss protection (DLP) protocols.

✔ Strengthening vendor risk management to ensure third-party service providers meet HIPAA compliance standards and that you have a Business Associate Agreement in place.

How the Proposed Changes to the HIPAA Security Rule Affect Healthcare Communications and Email Security

One of the most significant implications of the proposed changes to the Security Rule is the heightened focus on secure email communications involving ePHI. Key takeaways for secure healthcare email include:

Encryption is now essential: healthcare organizations relying on unencrypted email delivery platforms to communicate with patients will need to switch to secure, HIPAA-compliant email solutions with the appropriate encryption capabilities.
Email providers must meet stronger compliance standards: if your current email service provider doesn’t support automatic encryption, for instance, it may be non-compliant under the new rule.
Stronger authentication for email access: healthcare professionals sending or receiving ePHI via email must implement MFA and similar, robust access control protocols.

With email communication being a key part of patient outreach and engagement, it’s vital for healthcare companies to identify and address security gaps in their IT infrastructure, and prepare for the coming changes to the HIPAA security rule.

Changes to the HIPAA Security Rule: Final Thoughts

The HIPAA Security Rule remains the foundation for protecting ePHI within healthcare organizations. The proposed updates to the Security Rule reflect the growing need for stronger cybersecurity controls in healthcare. The stark reality is that patient data is, and always will be, sensitive and, as such, will always be a valuable target for cybercriminals.

In light of the persistent and growing threat to ePHI, healthcare organizations that fail to proactively address the requirements brought forth by the proposed changes to the HIPAA Security Rule risk data breaches, financial penalties and other punitive action.

If you have questions about HIPAA compliant secure email, encryption, or how the coming changes to the Security Rule will impact your healthcare communications, contact LuxSci today for expert guidance.

Email Marketing Best Practices for Healthcare

November 14, 2023
Pete Wermter

Email marketing can be a powerful tool for healthcare organizations, but it requires careful planning and execution because of HIPAA compliance requirements. In this blog post, we will discuss email marketing best practices to help healthcare marketers achieve their goals.

1. Define Your Campaign Goals

The success of any email marketing campaign depends on the goals you want to achieve. However, because healthcare organizations are often not selling products to their patients, marketers can be confused about how to set measurable goals for their campaigns that aren’t tied to revenue generation.

Healthcare marketers want to use email marketing campaigns for various purposes, including patient engagement, education, and retention. Some possible objectives of your campaigns could be:

New patient acquisition
Re-engaging lapsed patients
Spreading awareness about vaccines, treatments, or medical conditions
Increasing treatment or medication adherence
Collecting survey responses or patient-reported outcomes

All of these campaign objectives will correlate with different metrics. Identifying the campaign goal and the corresponding metrics you need to track is critical before selecting the audience and crafting the content.

2. Select Your Audience

Gone are the days of sending giant email blasts to your entire contact list. The best email marketers are creating highly targeted campaigns for specific audiences. Healthcare marketers using patient data in their audience targeting efforts are at an advantage. They can use patient information to create distinct audience segments. Targeting a patient population with common attributes makes it easier to craft a relevant message to drive clear results. For example, marketers can create more relevant campaigns when they can divide their patient population into subgroups based on shared characteristics like diagnoses, risk factors, and demographic data.

3. Personalize Your Content

Once you have clearly defined your goal and your audience, it’s essential to use personalization techniques to craft relevant messaging. Healthcare consumers expect more personalization from their providers and want to receive messages that tie into their past experiences. Generic, irrelevant messaging is more likely to annoy patients than get them to act. Healthcare marketers are lucky to have a wealth of data points to use in their messaging, but they must be aware of patient privacy and take steps to secure their messaging. When you have taken the appropriate steps to secure patient data, including protected health information in email messages is possible. This improves the patient experience and makes it easier for healthcare marketers to achieve their objectives.

4. Use A Clear Call-to-Action

Your emails should include a clear call-to-action (CTA) that encourages your audience to take the desired action. These actions may include scheduling an appointment, downloading a resource, logging into a patient portal, filling out a survey, or contacting your organization. Ensure that your CTA is prominent, stands out from the rest of your content, and ties back to the goal of your campaign. Most importantly, implement appropriate tracking technologies so you can see how many email recipients followed through on the CTA.

Don’t include too many calls to action in one message! Including multiple prompts may confuse the recipient and make it more difficult for your team to understand how the campaign performed.

5. Review Your Data

Finally, it’s essential to monitor your email metrics to evaluate the success of your campaigns. Some key metrics may include open rates, click-through rates, surveys completed, successful logins, appointments scheduled, and other relevant metrics that tie back to your goals. Use this data to refine your email marketing strategy, trigger follow-up campaigns and marketing activity, and optimize future campaigns. Use APIs or webhooks to ensure your email campaign statistics are tied into marketing dashboards to get a holistic view of how your campaigns are performing.

6. Choose an Email Marketing Platform Designed for Healthcare

Finally, to use the tactics recommended above, it’s necessary to use a HIPAA-compliant email marketing platform. Segmenting audiences and personalizing content requires the use of protected health information. Therefore, it must be secured in compliance with HIPAA. You must select a platform that can protect data both at rest and in transit to utilize the power of your data fully.

LuxSci’s HIPAA-compliant Secure Marketing was designed to meet the needs of healthcare marketers and enables the use of PHI at scale. Contact our sales team to learn more about our capabilities and email marketing best practices.

Is There a HIPAA Compliant Email?

June 26, 2025
Erik Kangas

Yes, HIPAA compliant email is available through specialized platforms and services designed specifically for healthcare organizations that need to transmit protected health information securely. HIPAA compliant email solutions include encryption, access controls, audit logging, and other security features required to meet regulatory standards for protecting patient information during electronic communication. Healthcare providers, payers, and suppliers can choose from various HIPAA compliant email options that range from standalone secure messaging platforms to integrated solutions that work with existing healthcare systems. Understanding available HIPAA compliant email solutions helps organizations select appropriate tools for their communication needs while maintaining regulatory compliance and protecting patient privacy.

Types of HIPAA Compliant Email Solutions

Several categories of HIPAA compliant email solutions serve different organizational needs and technical requirements. Cloud-based secure email platforms provide hosted solutions that require minimal technical infrastructure while offering enterprise-grade security features. These platforms handle encryption, server maintenance, and security updates, allowing healthcare organizations to focus on patient care rather than email system management. On-premises HIPAA compliant email systems give organizations direct control over their email infrastructure and data storage locations. Hybrid solutions combine cloud convenience with on-premises control, allowing organizations to customize their email security approach based on specific requirements. Email encryption gateways work with existing email systems to add HIPAA compliance features without requiring complete system replacement.

Security Features in HIPAA Compliant Email Platforms

HIPAA compliant email platforms include end-to-end encryption that protects messages and attachments from unauthorized access during transmission and storage. Transport Layer Security protocols secure connections between email servers, while message-level encryption ensures that only intended recipients can read email content. Digital signatures verify sender authenticity and message integrity, preventing tampering or impersonation. Multi-factor authentication requires users to provide additional verification beyond passwords before accessing email accounts. Access controls limit which users can send emails to external recipients and which types of information can be included in different message categories. Automatic data loss prevention features scan outgoing emails for protected health information and apply appropriate security measures or block transmission of potentially sensitive content.

Business Associate Agreements and Vendor Requirements

Healthcare organizations using HIPAA compliant email services need business associate agreements with their email providers to ensure regulatory compliance. These agreements specify how email vendors will protect patient information, limit data use to authorized purposes, and report security incidents or unauthorized disclosures. Email providers operating as business associates must implement appropriate safeguards and allow healthcare organizations to audit their security practices. Vendor selection criteria should include security certifications, compliance track records, and technical capabilities that meet organizational requirements. Service level agreements define uptime expectations, support response times, and data recovery procedures. Due diligence processes help verify that email providers have appropriate security controls and compliance programs before entering into business relationships.

Implementation Challenges and Solutions

Healthcare organizations implementing HIPAA compliant email often encounter workflow disruptions as staff adapt to new security procedures and software interfaces. Training programs help users understand proper email security practices and organizational policies for handling protected health information. Change management strategies address resistance to new procedures and ensure that staff members understand the importance of email security compliance. Technical integration challenges arise when connecting HIPAA compliant email systems with existing healthcare applications and databases. Application programming interfaces enable custom integrations that streamline workflows while maintaining security standards. Migration planning addresses data transfer from legacy email systems and ensures that historical communications remain accessible when needed.

Cost Considerations for HIPAA Compliant Email

HIPAA compliant email solutions involve various cost components including software licensing, implementation services, ongoing support, and staff training expenses. Per-user subscription models allow organizations to scale email security based on their actual usage patterns. Enterprise licensing agreements may provide cost advantages for larger healthcare organizations with many email users. Hidden costs can include system integration expenses, data migration fees, and productivity losses during implementation periods. Return on investment calculations should consider potential savings from avoiding HIPAA violation penalties, reduced risk of data breaches, and improved operational efficiency from streamlined secure communication processes. Long-term cost analysis helps organizations budget appropriately for ongoing email security requirements.

Selecting the Right HIPAA Compliant Email Solution

Healthcare organizations should evaluate HIPAA compliant email options based on their specific communication patterns, technical infrastructure, and regulatory requirements. Feature comparisons help identify which platforms offer the security capabilities and integration options needed for particular use cases. Pilot testing allows organizations to evaluate user experience and system performance before making long-term commitments. Vendor demonstrations provide opportunities to assess ease of use, administrative features, and customer support quality. Reference checks with similar healthcare organizations offer insights into real-world performance and implementation experiences. Decision frameworks that consider security requirements, usability needs, and budget constraints help organizations select HIPAA compliant email solutions that will serve their long-term communication and compliance objectives effectively.

LuxSci Unveils New Website and Branding – A New Era of Personalized Healthcare Engagement

September 5, 2024
LuxSci

Today, we’re excited to unveil our new website and branding, reflecting the company’s next stage of growth and evolution – as well as our aspirations to bring more clarity to data security and the HIPAA compliance landscape for healthcare communications.

In an era where healthcare is rapidly evolving, personalized engagement and communications are more critical than ever, driving greater participation in today’s healthcare journeys and delivering better outcomes. At the same time, HIPAA compliance and the security of protected health information (PHI) are a constant concern for all healthcare organizations. New regulations and cybersecurity threats pop up almost daily and without warning.

At LuxSci, we believe that you can both protect PHI data and use it to carry out more personalized, more effective, and more inclusive healthcare experiences. Our new website and branding are designed to represent this belief, and to help you make the smartest decisions when it comes to secure healthcare communications and HIPAA compliance.

Personalization: The Key to Better Healthcare Engagement

With new healthcare initiatives aimed at increasing patient participation rapidly emerging, including connected care and value-based care, one-size-fits-all communication strategies are no longer effective. Today, patients and customers increasingly expect personalized, relevant, and timely communications over the channel of their choice – and organizations that can deliver on these expectations will deliver better healthcare outcomes for everyone involved. The problem is that patient portal adoption has been hovering at around 50-60% for years, leaving a large portion of the population out of the health conversation.

Now’s the time for healthcare organizations to take action by adopting a more multi-channel approach to communications – while remaining HIPAA-compliant. LuxSci’s new website highlights our capabilities in helping you protect and leverage PHI data for personalized healthcare engagement across email, text, and marketing channels. By combining secure communication channels with advanced personalization powered by PHI data, we empower healthcare organizations to connect with patients in more meaningful ways across the end-to-end healthcare journey.

A New Look for a New Era

Over the years, LuxSci has been at the forefront of providing secure healthcare communications, establishing itself as a leader in HIPAA-compliant email. We serve some of the healthcare industry’s largest organizations, securely sending hundreds of millions of emails per month for our customers. This includes athenaHealth, Delta Dental, Rotech Healthcare, and 1800 Contacts, to name a few.

The launch of our new website reinforces our strategy to deliver a secure multi-channel healthcare communications suite that includes high volume email, and support for text, marketing and forms – and more in the future. Today, LuxSci’s secure healthcare communications suite includes:

Secure High Volume Email – proven, highly scalable HIPPA-compliant email.
Secure Email Gateway – Automatically encrypt emails sent from Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or on-premises solutions for HIPAA compliance.
Secure Marketing – Easy-to-use HIPAA-compliant email marketing solution for healthcare with advanced segmentation and automation.
Secure Text – Secure access to patient portals and digital platforms via SMS from any device – no application required.
Secure Forms – HIPAA-compliant data collection, including PHI, from patients and customers for improved workflows and business intelligence.

All LuxSci products are HIPAA-compliant and are anchored in the company’s highly flexible and automated SecureLine^TMencryption technology. LuxSci’s SecureLine^TM technology enables you to set different levels of security based on the needs and goals of your targets, and your business. This includes enabling the right level of security for your HIPPA-compliant communications – and all your communications. The best part: SecureLine^TM encryption technology is automated, so your users do not need to take any action to ensure all your communications are secured.

“Personalized communications are more likely to engage patients and customers, leading to better care, improved adherence to treatment plans, more purchases, higher satisfaction rates, and ultimately, improved health outcomes,” said Mark Leonard, CEO at LuxSci. “Our new website and branding underscores our ongoing commitment to empower healthcare organizations with best-in-class security and encryption, stellar customer support, and the power to connect with their patients and customers over the communication channel of their choice.”

Whether you’re a customer, partner, or healthcare professional on the lookout for your next HIPAA-compliant, secure healthcare communications solution, check out the new LuxSci website today. See how personalized healthcare engagement can impact your patients, your customers – and your business.

Visit the new LuxSci.com today!

If you’d like to talk, connect with us here.