outsourceeasilycom Blog

The Top 5 HIPAA Website Hosting Services that are HIPAA-compliant for WordPress

Mar 24, 2023

Contents

Reader Disclosure

Your HIPAA policy officer has to get through a checklist as long as their arm to make sure your company is following all regulations.

Failure to adhere to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements has steep fines.

This could result in jail time and fines of as high as $50,000 per violation (up to $1.5 million per year). This is a serious risk for top-tier criminals!

For small businesses, HIPAA compliance can be extremely difficult to grasp as well asafford. And yet you're the ones most likely to be stung by expensive penalties.

Don't worry, though. We're here for you.

We've put together a list of solutionsthat'll protect your data and safe, and ensure that you are adhering to all HIPAA rules (at least when it comes to ground zero).

We'll also break down the essential features and accreditations that are needed. That way you can check the operation of our system and rest in the knowledge that your data is secure.

So let's get to it!

Do I need HIPAA-compliant Web Hosting?

If you're not in the U.S.

HIPAA is designed to protect the personal health data (PHI) that is the information of Americans regardless of where they may be located wherever they are in the world. So if you're doing transactions online, HIPAA compliance is your best bet, no matter the location you're located.

If you're not involved working in the field of healthcare, you'll have be in compliance with HIPPA If you manage PHI as part of your business.

As telemedicine is growing in popularity and remote patient monitoring and remote patient monitoring, HIPAA-compliant hosting is now more necessary than ever. Indeed, non-compliant internet hosts even prohibit the using their services to sites that are subject to HIPAA guidelines.

It is essential to note that if you are hosting any kind of medical records on your website including patient records, prescriptions, and so on - it is essential to use HIPAA-compliant hosting for your website.

Here's the reason it's worth the effort...

Why Set up an Online Healthcare Business?

There are many websites such as Zocdoc as well as Betterhelp which offer healthcare professionals the opportunity to connect with clients via an online platform.

They're huge and powerful, and may make you feel compelled to skip the hassle of building your own website. However, you should not!

There are several reasons why setting up your own site is the ideal choice...

1. Increased Control of ownership and profits

Third-party platforms could receive a substantial portion of your revenue. In addition, you often have to be charged membership fees. Also, they're at liberty to modify fees or the terms and conditions at moment of need.

Seth Meyers Lol GIF by Late Night with Seth Meyers - Find & Share on GIPHY

For instance, Zocdoc recently changed its fee structure from a flat annual rate of $3000 for each service. Now, Zocdoc healthcare professionals must be paid a flat amount for each new patient booking and an annual fee for license.

The more you do business via third-party platforms more at risk you become. This isn't any sense in terms of business.

2. Establish an intimate and supportive community of Patients

By using WordPress along with  other platforms, you can have greater control over pricing. But you'll also be able to create a community around your service.

Patients value the personal touch of an individual healthcare practitioner they can contact anytime they need to.

Plus, you can include additional resources including resources and information to your patients that they can use and reference.

For instance, customer New Hope Counseling & Wellness Center can provide therapies and counseling services on their site.

They also regularly upload material that will help their community of survivors of eating disorders, trauma and other eating disorders.

3. Maximize Recurring Revenue

Recurring revenue is a stream of earnings that comes in on a regular basis. Subscription-based services can be a good instance of recurring revenues. This model of revenue is more stable and predictable than single-time payment.

Here are some regular revenue ideas for healthcare services that you can provide through your WordPress site. They include :

Offer ongoing appointments for subscriptions

Offer your patients a monthly payment option to help spread the costs of treatments or regular appointments.

Paying a regular subscription may be a way to encourage patients to make regularly scheduled appointments and treatment. Patients will feel more obligation to use the treatment they're paying for.

Additionally, offering the option of paying monthly can help to make healthcare more accessible to patients who be unable to afford large amounts in advance.

This will improve patient satisfaction and loyalty, and ultimately lead to improved health outcomes.

Create treatment courses

Design treatment programs to assist your patients with their care at home.

If you're a physiotherapist, for example, you could develop a program that incorporates more challenging exercises that will aid your clients' recuperation.

As a primary care practitioner You could develop an educational program on how to treat the type 2 form of diabetes.

As a mental health practitioner, you could create courses to help individuals manage their moods, or even develop a meditation practice.

The courses are able to be tiered. As an example, a base subscription gives access to an online course lasting four weeks course. A pro subscription gives access to personal one-on-one telehealth sessions.

Make a resource hub that is paywalled

Develop a library of resources which your patients are able to access with their subscription. This could include information sheets or meal plans, pertinent videos, or articles There are many options!

Your patients will have all the information they need to complement their treatments at a single location, making it much easier for them to stay engaged and motivated between appointments.

makes recurring revenue a doddle

Whatever you're planning for your website, is the best WordPress membership plugin to bring your idea to fruition.

Create tiered subscriptions, paywall-based content, and control your telehealth appointment all right from your website.

It is compatible with more than 5000 platforms and add-ons including the following plugins that can aid you with HIPAA conformity:

4. It's Much Simpler Than You Believe

Don't let security terminology on the internet make you nervous. With the right service supplier and some solid professional advice, you can be able to navigate HIPAA guidelines and create an impressive web site.

However, before you do, continue reading to determine the top web hosting company to suit your needs.

Necessary Features for HIPAA-Compliant Web Hosting

For HIPAA conformity it is necessary to have a number of important features and accreditations your web hosting solution must have. They include:

  • Advanced firewalls
  • Malware scanning and security monitoring
  • Multi-factor authentication
  • VPNs that are encrypted (VPNs) for secure cloud access and electronically protected health information (ePHI) during transport
  • Secure SSL/TLS encryption with extra security for the storage of files
  • Physically secure server locations in HIPAA-approved data centers
  • Audit logging to track HIPAA-governed actions and access to data
  • Backup of data and off-site storage
  • Resistance to recovery of data in the event in the event of loss or natural disaster
  • 100% server availability and 100% uptime
  • Fantastic Support!
  • The ability to sign a business associate agreement (BAA) to ensure HIPAA conformity

There is a comprehensive (and extremely useful) HIPAA compliance checklist on this page.

Here are some additional words and badges to look out for:

 HITECH

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) law is an up-to-date version of HIPAA which was made law in 2009. If anything is HITECH compliant, it is also HIPAA conforming... and certain.

 HITRUST

In contrast to HIPAA or HITECH and HITECH, the Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) isn't part of a legal framework. It's a well-known organization which certifies businesses for showing HIPAA and HITECH conformance.

 HITRUST CSF

The Common Security Framework of HITRUST (CSF) covers international security and privacy rules including ISO, PCI, and GDPR to ensure compliance across the globe.

 SOC2 as well SOC3

Service Organization Control 2 (SOC2) and SOC3 frameworks help ensure the security of their data center and cloud security security.

But, there are instances where something is SOC2/3 compliant and it isn'tHIPAA compatible So be aware!

Three Facts to Learn About HIPAA Web Hosting

Prior to jumping onto the next item, it's best at taking some time to set expectations.

1. HIPAA Secure Web Hosting Could Cost a Lot

HIPAA web hosting has a higher price tag as compared to other hosting services. That's because HIPAA compliance demands more of web hosting providers as compared to a standard shared or VPS hosting.

The added security comes with a cost.

2. There are fewer options on the ground

3. Do Your Own Diligence

The fact that the provider that you're using meets the requirements to ensure HIPAA conformity doesn't mean the service will be used correctly. Did you see anyone wearing a helmet without doing up the straps? It's kind of like that.

Helmet Safety GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

If you mess up your settings, or if your internal processes for handling and sending PHI do not comply with HIPAA regulations, you could still be in breach.

Make sure to do your own due diligence and get expert advice whenever necessary. The responsibility to ensure HIPAA compliance rests with the individual.

5 HIPAA Compliant Web Hosting Services

After getting the disclaimers in place, here are our top 5 HIPAA-compliant web hosting services.

#1 - Liquid Web

The majority of reviewers praise its reliability, excellent uptime, as well as its prompt customer service, and super fast speeds.

Their motto is "The Most Helpful Humans in Hosting" Based on reviews from their clients They live up to their claim.

Thanks to their support it's easy They can also assist you in ensuring that your site completely meets HIPAA requirements.

Liquid Web is proudly HIPAA/HITECH certified. The company has been through rigorous audits by third parties to make sure they " not only meet, but exceed government guidelines."

They offer the full gamut - offsite backups, fully operated and fully owned data centers complete with locked servers, extensive security as well as a lot more.

Unlike other hosting providers that are on this list There's no need go through their website for their HIPPA-compliant services. They're fully transparent about what their service entails and how much it costs.

Pricing starts at $299/month for an individual HIPAA server, and as high as $657/month when you purchase a multi-server solution.

#2 - Atlantic.Net, Inc.

Atlantic.net, Inc. is yet another company that boasts HIPAA compliant hosting. a 100% uptime Service level agreements (SLA) and round-the-clock support.

Atlantic.Net, Inc. offers completely managed as well as unmanaged hosting solutions. And if you plan on migrating your current WordPress website on their HIPAA-certified server, they can help you with that too.

As a specialist in compliance hosting, Atlantic.Net, Inc. has perfected the process of setting up in order to make what could be an intimidating experience simple.

Atlantic.Net, Inc. has 3 pricing tiers which range between $279.98/month for their quickstart solution up and $609.97/month to their HIPAA Business Edition.

But where they really excel is by providing customized hosting environments for your specific requirements. You'd be better off getting a custom quote from them.

They also provide a 30-day free trial so you can test it out before making any commitments.

#3 3 HIPAA Vault

HIPAA Vault (formerly VM Racks) offers a fully managed and secure WordPress publishing and publishing platforms.

The name of the program says it all. HIPAA Vault has been specially designed to meet HIPAA conformity. The company provides customer support 24 hours a day, with 90% of first-call resolution that ensures everything's functioning as expected.

They also actively monitor their infrastructure and update it often to minimize the risk and increase security.

If the cost/month of HIPAA-compliant web hosting has you reeling, HIPAA Vault is your best option. The most well-known annual plan costs just $84 per month.

#4 - Rackspace

Rackspace doesn't outwardly offer HIPAA compliant services as a package. However, they declare themselves to be "HIPAA prepared". What does it mean to them by this?

This means on request they can ensure they meet all necessary standards to ensure HIPAA conformity.

All you need to be sure of is be sure to sign an agreement with them and it is a standard with their clients in the field of healthcare.

And when they say that they're ready to go and ready, they're really saying it. They reliably serve 2,500 healthcare organizations, which indicates their proficiency in HIPAA compliance.

They're HITRUST CSF accredited that means they're in compliance with the requirements of HIPAA for public, private, and hybrid cloud infrastructures.

To top that, they're also Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) certified and utilize Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols.

Do you get lost in the acronyms? Just know about transmitting and receiving data they've got it covered.

#5 AWS #5 AWS

Amazon Web Services ( AWS) is a cloud service company (CSP) that also has web hosting services. It is able to securely process, store and transfer PHI. It also allows patients to be able to sign BAAs to ensure they are in compliance with HIPAA. BAA to ensure compliance with HIPAA safeguards.

Being that it's a CSP (as instead of Web Hosting Provider), AWS isn't eligible for HIPAA accreditation. But, it meets the standards that apply to it.

The company's HIPAA Risk Management program is aligned to the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP). It also complies with protocols of NIST 800-53, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST 800-53).

They both have more standards of security over HIPAA.

The primary benefit of AWS is the pay-as you-go model, where you only pay for what you actually use for the time you use it.

It is different from the fixed monthly pricing model used by the other web hosts on our list. Also, you are able to stop at any time without losing a dime.

However, AWS is complex to comprehend, and unlike the others mentioned that we have mentioned above the AWS service, their customer support is sketchy.

Although other companies on this list offer guidance on the way to go, don't expect similar support from AWS.

Conclusion

In the case of websites hosting with HIPAA compliance There's no shortage of choices. The 5 we've covered here are the most effective that are available. Which one you choose depends on your individual requirements and personal preferences.

After you've chosen the ideal option for you, the enjoyment (and earning money!) begins. With plus integrations with the HIPAA compliant software, you will be able to accomplish beyond just providing a telehealth service.

Begin to build an online community, and offer an exceptional service to your customers today.

cta character

Take Action Now!

Begin to generate recurring income for your business.

Have you got any concerns concerning HIPAA compliant web hosting? Please let us know via the comment section below!