HIPAA Compliant Email With A Signed BAA
HIPAA compliant email for medical, dental, chiropractic, pharmacy and senior living practices — encrypted patient mail, a signed Business Associate Agreement and tested backups, on servers we own in the United States.
HIPAA Compliant Email: The Short Answer
HIPAA compliant email is not a product you buy off a shelf. It is a mailbox whose provider will sign a Business Associate Agreement, encrypt the message in transit and at rest, control and log administrative access, and restore your mail when something goes wrong. Ours starts at $7.95 a mailbox a month on Mail Pro, with the agreement signed during onboarding rather than sold as an upgrade. Your EHR, practice management system and billing service stay exactly where they are.
HHS publishes sample business associate agreement provisions, and the HIPAA Security Rule sets the safeguards behind them. Any vendor that stores or transmits protected health information needs to sign one, which is the first question to ask before you compare features. HIPAA compliant email from us includes that signature and the controls underneath it.
Where Practices Actually Leak Patient Data
Referrals and images sent as attachments
Imaging, chart notes and treatment plans travel to specialists as attachments every day, from shared mailboxes that are rarely audited. It is the most common exposure we find in a small practice, and the reason HIPAA compliant email matters more than any other single control.
Paper intake, scanned into an inbox
A new-patient packet with a full medical history, insurance details and a Social Security number gets scanned and emailed to the front desk, then sits in that mailbox for years. Online intake into a secure store removes the whole chain.
The backup nobody has restored
Practices back up religiously and test almost never. Encrypted off-site backups from $2.09 a month, with a restore we actually run, are part of what a Business Associate Agreement quietly commits a vendor to.
It is almost never the clinical software. It is the everyday habits around it.
- Signed as part of onboarding Not a premium tier, not a form you chase. If a vendor holding protected health information will not sign one, that tells you what you need to know about the vendor.
- What sits behind the signature Access control and multi-factor authentication on administrative access, audit logging, encryption in transit and at rest, tested restores and a written breach notification process with defined timelines. Ask to see them.
- Every other vendor needs one too Practice management, imaging, billing service, answering service, IT provider and backup vendor all touch protected health information. HIPAA compliant email is one signature in a set you should be able to produce on request.
The BAA And The Controls Behind It
Is Gmail Or Outlook HIPAA Compliant Email?
Free Gmail and Outlook.com: no
Consumer accounts are covered by no Business Associate Agreement, so they cannot be HIPAA compliant email however careful the person using them is. That includes the owner’s personal address used “just for referrals”. We go through it in detail in is Gmail HIPAA compliant.
Google Workspace and Microsoft 365: only once configured
Both will sign a BAA on paid business plans, and both leave the configuration to you: who has administrative access, what is logged, how long mail is kept and which third-party add-ons can read the mailbox. The agreement is the start of the work, not the end of it — see is Outlook HIPAA compliant for the Microsoft 365 settings that matter.
Encryption on its own is not compliance
An encrypted message sent from an unmanaged mailbox with no audit trail and no tested restore still fails the Security Rule. Compliance is the whole set: access control, logging, encryption, backups and a written breach process.
Practice-specific detail: HIPAA email for dentists, HIPAA email for chiropractors, pharmacy IT support, senior living IT, and HIPAA compliant hosting for healthcare.
- Copy first, cut over second Mailboxes, folders, read status and dates copy across over IMAP while your current provider is still live. Nothing is deleted and nobody loses history.
- SPF, DKIM and DMARC configured with you Authentication decides whether appointment reminders land in the inbox or the spam folder. We publish the records with you rather than leaving it as homework.
- A final sync, then phones and desktops One last pass catches anything that arrived during the change, then we reconnect the front desk, mobile devices and the scanner-to-email path.
Moving Your Mailboxes Without Losing Mail
- Signed Business Associate Agreement — included, not billed as an add-on
- Liberation Email from $1.95 per user/mo; Mail Pro, the tier most practices use, $7.95 per user/mo
- Hub for Teams $7.49 per user/mo for intake, consent and referral documents
- CodeGuard encrypted off-site backups from $2.09/mo
- SiteLock Fix $14.99/mo or Defend $49.99/mo
- Practice website built as a project, or Website Builder from $10.99/mo
- Mailbox migration from your current provider, run with you
- IT support for workstations, servers and the network, scoped per practice
What It Costs
Per mailbox, monthly. A five-person office on Mail Pro is about $40 a month. Full breakdown: HIPAA compliant email cost.
HIPAA Compliant Email FAQs
What is HIPAA compliant email?
HIPAA compliant email is business email whose provider signs a Business Associate Agreement and maintains the safeguards behind it: access control, multi-factor authentication on administrative access, audit logging, encryption in transit and at rest, tested restores and a written breach notification process.
Will you sign a BAA with our practice?
Yes, as part of onboarding rather than as a paid add-on. If a vendor holding protected health information will not sign one, that tells you what you need to know about the vendor.
How much does HIPAA compliant email cost?
$7.95 per mailbox a month on Mail Pro, the tier most practices use. Liberation Email starts at $1.95 per user a month, so a five-person office is around $40 a month.
Is Gmail HIPAA compliant?
Free Gmail is not, because no Business Associate Agreement covers it. Paid Google Workspace plans can be, once a BAA is signed and access, logging, retention and third-party add-ons are configured properly.
Do we have to replace our EHR or practice management system?
No. Your clinical system stays. We host and secure the email, the website, online intake, the backups and the network around it.
How should we send images and referrals?
Not as an email attachment. Secure document exchange in Hub for Teams at $7.49 per user a month gives the specialist access without copies living in several mailboxes indefinitely.
Can you move our existing mail without losing anything?
Yes. Mail copies across over IMAP while the old service is still live, then we cut the MX records over and run a final sync, so nothing is lost.
Start With The Referral Inbox
Show us how images and referrals leave your practice today. That is almost always the first thing HIPAA compliant email fixes.
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