Many medical practices do not realise that their website may be handling protected health information (PHI) in ways that violate HIPAA regulations. Contact forms where patients describe symptoms, appointment request forms that collect health details, and even analytics tools that track user behaviour on health-related pages can all create compliance risks.
The first area to address is forms. Any form on your website that collects health-related information needs to be encrypted in transit (using HTTPS) and stored securely. This means your basic WordPress contact form plugin may not be sufficient. Use form solutions that offer Business Associate Agreements (BAAs), such as JotForm HIPAA, Formstack, or custom-built solutions hosted on HIPAA-compliant servers. The form data should be encrypted at rest and access should be restricted to authorised personnel only.
Web hosting is another critical consideration. Your website should be hosted on servers that meet HIPAA security requirements. Major cloud providers like AWS and Google Cloud offer HIPAA-eligible services with BAAs, but you need to configure them correctly. Shared hosting plans from budget providers typically do not meet HIPAA standards. Expect to pay $50 to $200 per month for hosting that supports HIPAA compliance.
Analytics and tracking tools require careful configuration. Standard Google Analytics implementations can potentially capture PHI through page URLs, search queries, or custom dimensions. If your website has pages like "request-appointment-for-erectile-dysfunction" or "STI-testing-results," the URLs themselves may constitute PHI. Configure your analytics to anonymise IP addresses and exclude sensitive page paths from detailed tracking.
Email communication triggered by your website also falls under HIPAA scrutiny. If a patient submits a form and receives an automated email confirmation that references their health concern, that email must be sent through a HIPAA-compliant email service. Standard email services like Gmail (non-Workspace) and basic SMTP do not meet these requirements.
The practical approach is to work with a web design team that understands these requirements from the start. Retrofitting HIPAA compliance onto an existing website is more expensive and error-prone than building it in from the beginning. At Futurise Studio, every healthcare website we build includes HIPAA-aware design as standard — because in healthcare, compliance is not optional.