In 2018, healthcare organizations incurred over $28 million due to HIPAA violations. Anthem, a large health insurance company in the US had to pay a $16 million settlement because of breach of health data.

This, with many other things at stake, signifies the importance of HIPAA compliance- which is only achievable by selecting the right web hosting company. Nobody enjoys paying huge fines or being a victim of other unwanted legal nightmares. A HIPAA-compliant web hosting service will help avoid this.

In other words, companies who are lackadaisical with their web hosting suffer the risk of HIPAA infringement. In this article, we shall look at some of the top HIPAA-compliant hosting services on the market.

What does HIPAA-compliant hosting mean?

HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Probability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The bill was passed in 1996 to create regulations that safeguard the patient’s confidentiality, especially their protected health information (PHI).

With HIPAA, healthcare organizations face the expediency of adhering to strict rules concerning the storage, processing, and transmission of electronically protected health information (ePHI). Thus, given the nature of web hosting to include the storage and handling of e-data, it is one of the elements of HIPAA-compliance.

In essence, a web hosting company can only be deemed compliant if it:

  • limits access to its facilities such that only authorized personnel can access the facilities
  • upholds policies related to electronic media and workstations
  • provides adequate prevention of access to ePHI by providing technical, physical, and administrative safeguards
  • maintains records of every activity- both software and hardware
  • owns a disaster recovery plan and sufficient network security.

Although, not all web hosting service providers have equal HIPAA compliance. This is why you need to know which of them to choose for your business.

5 Best HIPAA-compliant Hosting Services

#1. Atlantic.Net

Atlantic.Net was founded in 1994 and has ever since demonstrated as a leader in the web hosting company arena. The company owns data centres in different cities including Orlando, Ashburn, San Francisco, Toronto, New York, and London.

Boasting more than 25 years of experience and diligent service, Atlantic.Net is a great choice when it comes to being HIPAA-compliant and securing the health of your data and its records. They have an incredible cloud hosting solution designed to cater for these needs.

Sensitive medical records are, however, backed by thoroughly audited top-class data centre infrastructure and business associate agreements. Atlantic.Net provides web hosting services for more than 15,000 businesses. This is under the umbrella of their diverse cloud web hosting and managed services.

Reputed for excellence, it seeks to enhance the service quality offered to its customers, Atlantic.Net has grown to become HIPAA and HITECH audited. They are a seasoned veteran in the world of web hosting- specializing in secure, compliance-oriented hosting and managed services for over two decades now.

This explains why they can address every technical consideration for HIPAA with their solutions. The company provides hosting solutions- both managed and unmanaged- to meet every web hosting need that is HIPAA-compliant.

Some of the features of Atlantic.NET are:

  • a guarantee of zero downtime, which spreads over different hosting environments.
  • the company’s web hosting solution that is HIPAA-compliant- is possible with the provision of a firewall, SSAE 18 certificates, multifactor authentication, SSL certificates, backups, and a private hosted environment.

The price of a dedicated server on Atlantic.Net starts at $385 per month, although users can also subscribe for the company’s cloud hosting for just $8 per month. Altogether, Atlantic.Net is capable of catering to your requirements of HIPAA compliance, while you concentrate on other business functions.

Major features for an audited company are:

  • competitive pricing,
  • outstanding performance
  • full-year free use of a server
  • prompt and responsive customer support

Pros of using or choosing Atlantic.NET:

  • a simple and easy interface
  • Windows and Linux hosting.

Cons:

  • The only drawback with using Atlantic.Net is the limited method of payment available.

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#2. LiquidWeb

LiquidWeb specializes in offering unbeatable speeds in the web hosting business. Their support is also prompt and responsive. They are one of the top providers for web managed hosting to service small and medium businesses and website pros.

In 2017, the company introduced their partnership and interest in cloud dedicated solutions which are HIPAA-compliant. With the HIPAA-compliant interest, customers can afford their services much better.

There is also a 100% uptime guarantee as well as excellent customer support assured by seasoned professionals who know the nitty-gritty of the business of hosting. There are tons of web hosting companies who claim to have and offer HIPAA compliance but have nothing to deliver. LiquidWeb has audited certification that it is up to the task.

In addition, the company keeps an undiluted focus on meeting compliance expectations indicates that their clients can have an assurance of a formidable and trusted web hosting provider. That is, one that can deliver the requisite technical and physical safety measures.

The Single Server HIPAA Hosting features a single server dedicated for database and web and at a starting price of $299.

The Multiple-Server HIPAA Hosting features at least one web server, including a dedicated server for database, at a starting price of $788.

Meanwhile, for some users, the two HIPAA hosting plans may not meet their hosting criteria. In that case, they have to contact Liquid Web support to decide the right hosting plan that suits their needs- whether they be cloud hosting or dedicated servers.

Another interesting thing about Liquid Web is that they can migrate or transfer your site, blog or store to their servers to make HIPAA compliant hosting incredibly accessible for users.

Having served in many countries and with over 20 years of experience in the business, they are renowned for self-managed hosting that are suitable for enterprises and businesses with mission-critical websites, applications, and stores.

You will undoubtedly find it difficult to find a better web hosting provider that offers prompt support, 24/7/365. This is one of the company’s forte. Also included are:

  • Top-tier performance services which confirm the company’s position and capability in providing stringent security. This also indicates LiquidWeb’s prowess in privacy regulations concerning managing protected health information (PHI).

The pros of choosing Liquid Web as a HIPAA-compliant hosting company include:

  • its offer of VPS and dedicated servers, high-quality managed hosting
  • 100% uptime and constant network
  • auto-migrations, backups and real-life monitoring
  • block/object storage and load balancer add-ons

The only drawbacks are:

  • the huge cost attached, and
  • the fact that there is no shared hosting with Liquid Web.

Having undergone a third-party audit, they are now confirmed to live up to their claims of representing well when it comes to HIPAA compliance in the company’s offer of single-server, multiple-server plans, and custom solutions.

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#3. Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a popular option on the market when it comes to web hosting, especially in the HIPAA-compliant world. Why do you think top businesses use AWS’s cloud environment? The answer is simple. They use it to store, maintain, and transmitting sensitive customer’s PHI data.

They are a cloud computing web hosting platform available on demand. Among their offers are content delivery, database storage, and computing power, and other varieties of functionality an ideal host would offer. Many companies use AWS including Netflix, NDTV, Dropbox, and Quora. Why would anyone then question its reliability?

Their risk management program is also in conformance with some unique security standards that are aligned with HIPAA such as NIST 800-53, FedRAMP, and others. AWS is a HIPAA-compliant provider because they sign a business associate addendum (BAA). Their cloud network’s scalability and reliability are the best of their kind.

Meanwhile, AWS does not boast of a robust-enough customer support services. That is, users can find them complicating sometimes. AWS’s security service and solution are amazing, and they align with the HIPAA risk management program for higher security standards that map to the respective security rule.

Their pricing system is on a pay-as-you-go basis. That is, rather than pay a particular fee per month even when you have just limited resources to use, you can pay for the ones you use and the usage time. More so, whenever you choose to quit, you won’t have to bother about the extra fees of terminating the deal. Who wouldn’t want such flexibility?

AWS provides top-tier web hosting services to:

  • healthcare providers
  • IT professionals, and
  • payers

This is in a way that the HIPAA and HITECH standards are met with the HITRUST Common Security Framework. Consequently, they can consolidate the regulations and standards into a single framework that any organization can adapt to, based on its size, existing systems, and other functions.

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#4. Rackspace

This is another trusted name in the web hosting service industry. The root of Rackspace traces as far back as 1996. Over 50% of the Fortune 100 companies trust the brand. The San Antonio-based web hosting service provider is believed to deliver unmatched infrastructure and excellent support. The company’s focus is on managed cloud and dedicated servers from a variety of vendors.

Rackspace’s end-to-end HIPAA compliance comprises customized designs, implementations, build, and some regular reviews of cloud and dedicated environments are put in place to ensure that users meet the regulations optimally.

Rackspace offers the benefits of Azure support and simple migration. That is an offer of a detailed and unique selection of digital services plus accompanying solutions to cater to the industries’ and organization’s needs.

Rackspace offers many cloud platforms to choose comprising:

  • flexible scalability of public cloud
  • a hybrid cloud, which enhances connection with other clouds
  • traditional dedicated servers for individualized applications.

The multi-cloud feature is established on the cloud-providing services of Microsoft or Amazon. While it does not matter the choice of cloud platform you make, Rackspace’s forte include scalability and flexibility.

Users can migrate to your desired cloud with great confidence that the Fanatical Support of the signature of the company will have their back all through. The hosting solutions of the company are HIPAA-ready and are privately embedded in the cloud environment.

This is an indication of its HIPAA compliance. Coupled with the provision of privacy standards and security to handle PHI, specialists at the company are always on the ground to help your business formulate a hosting plan that suits your needs cost-effectively.

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#5. Microsoft Azure

This is a diverse cloud solution that can be used as a:

  • software-as-a-service (SaaS)
  • infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), and
  • platform-as-a-service (PaaS).

The catalogue comprises more than 600 services including a vast amount of data storage and management as well as web hosting. Azure has grown to be recognized as a formidable competition for AWS. The goal is to help organizations achieve their respective HIPAA compliance needs.

The Microsoft cloud services are also embedded in the FedRAMP assessments, while their services are covered under the business associate agreement (BAA). Subsequently, Microsoft Azure has received the ISO/IEC27001 certification from a process of rigorous auditing.

The HIPAA/HITRUST Blueprint is to help healthcare companies deploy and comply with the guidelines according to HIPAA.

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Conclusion

If you have heard of HIPAA and have a fundamental understanding of what it means, we have walked you through some all-time favourite providers with an offer of HIPAA-compliant services to healthcare professionals.

This is such that the seemingly complex infrastructure is presented in a simplified and managed luxury package. Some of these companies deliver high-stakes hosting through managed and cloud-dedicated servers.

In some cases, though, the combination of the long-standing reputation of immense knowledge about the compliance with the administrative, physical and technical safeguards will suffice to store, transmit and protect patients’ data.

Therefore, if this sounds like what you want with web hosting, particularly if your company serves in the healthcare industry or something related, then the aforementioned hosting services are tested and trusted to deliver accordingly.

Overall, note that buying any of these services does not guarantee that you are HIPAA compliant. This is because the safe tools and solutions provided by these companies can be misused and this is why diligence is still a requirement.