HIPAA Compliance Consulting Services

HIPAA compliance consulting helps you meet the Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules in a way an investigator, a customer or a cyber insurer would recognize: a documented security risk analysis, written policies, working safeguards and signed business associate agreements. PS3G does this work for organizations of every size, from a solo practice buying its first telehealth tool, to a multi-site group with a shared EHR, to a health-tech founder whose customers are asking for proof before they sign. We also build and run our own HIPAA-compliant EHR and telehealth platform, DocVilla, so the advice comes from a team that is regulated by the same rules it helps you meet.

HIPAA in practice, from a team that lives with it

HIPAA is not a certification and no official body issues one. It is a set of federal rules, enforced by the HHS Office for Civil Rights, that require you to protect health information and to be able to show how you do it.

The Privacy Rule governs how protected health information (PHI) may be used and disclosed. The Security Rule requires administrative, physical and technical safeguards for electronic PHI. The Breach Notification Rule sets out what you must do when PHI is compromised.

Operating a regulated platform means we deal with the same obligations every day: an annual risk analysis, access reviews, encryption decisions, vendor agreements, customer security questionnaires and incident drills. That experience shapes the advice. We know which safeguards are routine, which ones take real engineering, and which documents an investigator asks for first.

HHS has proposed updates to the Security Rule and the rules change over time, so verify the current official text before relying on any summary, including this one. This is general information, not legal advice.

Who needs HIPAA compliance services

• Covered entities: medical, dental, behavioral health and specialty practices, hospitals and clinics, health plans and clearinghouses. The obligation does not scale down for small practices; a two-provider office must have the same risk analysis and policies as a hospital, scoped to its own systems.
• Business associates: billing companies, IT providers, cloud hosts, transcription and scribe services, analytics firms, law firms and anyone else who creates, receives, maintains or transmits PHI for a covered entity. Business associates are directly liable under the Security Rule and must sign business associate agreements (BAAs).
• Health-tech vendors: software companies building patient apps, telehealth tools, remote monitoring services or integrations. Your customers will ask for a risk analysis, a BAA, and evidence of safeguards before they connect you to their EHR.

If you are not sure which category you fall into, the first conversation usually settles it. The answer changes which documents you need and who signs what.

What we do

Security risk analysis

The Security Rule requires an accurate and thorough assessment of risks to electronic PHI, and HHS publishes guidance on how to conduct one. We inventory where PHI lives and flows, identify threats and vulnerabilities, rate likelihood and impact, and document the result with a risk management plan. The same HIPAA risk assessment is commonly requested by cyber insurers and in federal incentive program attestations, so we write it to serve all three.

Policies and procedures

We write or revise the policy set the rules expect: privacy practices, minimum necessary, access control, workstation and device use, encryption, audit logging, sanctions, contingency planning, breach response, and workforce training. Policies are short and specific to your organization, because a 200-page template nobody reads is worse than no policy during an investigation.

Technical safeguards review

We check what is actually configured against what the policies say: unique user IDs, automatic logoff, encryption at rest and in transit, audit controls, integrity checks, authentication strength, remote access, mobile devices and backups. You get a findings list ranked by risk, with the fix for each one.

Cloud and HIPAA architecture

A HIPAA-compliant cloud is a matter of configuration and contracts, not a label on a provider. We design and review environments on Azure, AWS and Google Cloud: the BAA with the provider, which services are covered by it, network segmentation, key management, logging, backup and disaster recovery, and the separation of PHI from everything else.

BAAs and vendor review

We build your vendor inventory, decide who needs a BAA, review the agreements you are asked to sign, and set up a proportionate vendor review: a questionnaire and evidence request for vendors with PHI access, a lighter check for everyone else. Where you are the vendor, we prepare the BAA template and the evidence pack your customers will ask for.

Training

Workforce training is required, and it only works when it is specific. We produce role-based sessions and short refreshers: front desk, clinical staff, billing, engineering and leadership each see the scenarios that apply to them, including phishing, mis-sent records and the correct way to report a suspected incident.

Incident and breach response plan

We write the plan your team will follow when something goes wrong: how to contain the incident, how to perform the risk assessment that decides whether a breach has occurred, who notifies individuals, HHS and, where required, the media, within the timeframes the rule sets, and how to document it. Then we run a tabletop exercise so the first time is not a real one.

Request a HIPAA risk assessment scoped to your systems and vendors.

HIPAA-compliant software and app development

Many clients come to us for compliance and stay for engineering. HIPAA-compliant software development means the safeguards are designed in: role-based access, audit trails that record who viewed what, encryption, session controls, secure APIs for EHR integration, de-identification where analytics do not need identifiers, and a deployment pipeline that produces change evidence. The same applies to HIPAA-compliant app development for patient-facing mobile apps, where device security, push notification content and third-party SDKs each need a decision.

Our healthcare software development team builds patient portals, telehealth features, remote monitoring integrations and HL7 and FHIR interfaces, using the same practices we apply to our own platform. If you are evaluating HIPAA compliance software or a vendor’s HIPAA-ready claim, we can review the architecture and the contract before you commit.

Not legal advice; we work with your counsel

PS3G is a technology and compliance consulting firm, not a law firm and not an auditor. We prepare the risk analysis, policies, safeguards and evidence, and we work with your attorney on legal interpretation, state law overlays, breach determinations and contract negotiation. Many clients involve counsel only at defined points, which keeps legal spend focused on the questions that need it. Verify the current official text of the rules before relying on any summary.

Engagement models

• Fixed-scope project: a security risk analysis, a policy set, or a cloud architecture review with a defined deliverable and a fixed-scope quote.
• Dedicated team or staff augmentation: a security engineer or compliance analyst inside your team, month to month.
• Managed services: we run the annual risk analysis, vendor reviews, training cycle and evidence calendar under defined SLAs.
• Advisory: a fractional security officer who answers customer questionnaires and owns the roadmap.

How we start: a first conversation, a short assessment of your systems and vendors, and a written proposal. A solo practice and a health system division get the same method, scoped differently.

Related services

• All services: everything we build, run and govern.
• IT compliance consulting: SOC 2, ISO 27001, NIST CSF and other frameworks that health-tech companies often need alongside HIPAA.
• Healthcare software development: portals, telehealth, EHR integration and patient apps built HIPAA-ready.
• Information security: healthcare cybersecurity assessments, monitoring and incident response.
• Data governance: classification, retention and access rules for clinical and operational data.
• AI governance: policies and vendor reviews for AI tools that touch PHI.

Guides on this topic

• HIPAA Compliance Checklist for Small Practices and Health-Tech Vendors
• HIPAA-Compliant Software Development: Requirements & Checklist

Frequently asked questions

Is there such a thing as HIPAA certification?

No. HHS does not certify organizations or software as HIPAA compliant, and no third-party certificate carries legal weight on its own. What you can have is a current security risk analysis, written policies, implemented safeguards, signed business associate agreements and training records. Those documents are what an investigator, a customer or an insurer will ask to see.

How often do we need a HIPAA risk assessment?

The Security Rule requires the risk analysis to be kept current rather than naming a fixed interval in the text. In practice most organizations update it at least annually and whenever something material changes: a new EHR, a cloud migration, a new vendor with PHI access, an acquisition or a security incident. Verify the current official guidance for your situation.

Does a cloud provider’s BAA make our system HIPAA compliant?

No. The provider’s BAA covers its share of the responsibility for the services it lists. Your configuration, access controls, logging, backups, application code and workforce behavior are yours. A HIPAA-compliant cloud environment is the combination of the provider’s BAA, correct use of covered services, and your own safeguards and policies on top.

Do we need a BAA with every vendor?

Only with vendors that create, receive, maintain or transmit PHI on your behalf, such as cloud hosts, billing services, transcription tools and IT providers with access to systems holding PHI. Vendors that never touch PHI do not need one, and some entities, such as conduits that merely transport data, are treated differently. We help you sort the inventory and document the reasoning.

Can we use AI tools with patient data?

Only when the vendor will sign a BAA, the contract rules out training on your data, and the tool is included in your risk analysis and policies. Pasting PHI into a consumer AI tool without those protections is an impermissible disclosure. Our AI governance team sets the rules for which tools may be used with which data.

What happens during an HHS investigation?

The Office for Civil Rights typically requests documents first: your risk analysis, policies, training records, BAAs, access logs and the incident file. Organizations that can produce those promptly are in a far better position than those that cannot. Preparing that evidence set in advance is most of what our HIPAA compliance services deliver.