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HIPAA → Checklist
HIPAA-Compliant Hosting Checklist
HIPAA-compliant hosting helps ensure that any protected health information (PHI) stored, processed, or transmitted through your hosting environment is safeguarded according to the strict security and privacy standards mandated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
This not only helps prevent costly data breaches and regulatory penalties, but also protects patient trust by ensuring their sensitive health data remains confidential, accurate, and available.
For covered entities and business associates, choosing a HIPAA-compliant hosting provider is a foundational step in meeting legal obligations while maintaining secure, reliable access to critical healthcare systems.
How do you know if your hosting provider really is doing everything you need to achieve compliance? Here’s your HIPAA-compliant hosting checklist.
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Legal and administrative requirements
Before focusing on servers and security, you must ensure your hosting arrangement meets HIPAA’s foundational legal obligations.
Signed Business Associate Agreement (BAA) – Your hosting provider must sign a BAA confirming they will protect PHI according to HIPAA regulations. Without it, the relationship is non-compliant, no matter how secure the infrastructure.
Designated compliance officer – Assign a person on your team to oversee HIPAA compliance for hosting, ensuring ongoing alignment with regulations and acting as the main point of contact with your provider.
HIPAA training for personnel – Any employee with access to PHI—including developers, IT staff, and admins—needs training on HIPAA rules and your hosting-specific policies.
Privacy policy alignment – Update your privacy policy to reflect how PHI is handled within your hosting environment, including encryption and access control measures.
Risk assessments – Perform regular assessments to identify threats to PHI in your hosting setup, documenting and addressing risks promptly.
Audit trails – Require your hosting environment to log every access or modification to ePHI for accountability and reporting.
Technical safeguards for HIPAA-compliant hosting
The right hosting setup must include strong technical protections to safeguard PHI.
Encryption in transit and at rest – Use SSL/TLS for web traffic and AES-256 or equivalent for stored data. Encryption must extend to backups and database storage.
SSL certificates – All web portals, APIs, and admin interfaces must be secured with valid SSL certificates.
Access controls – Implement role-based permissions, strong password policies, and unique logins for all users with PHI access.
Two-factor (multi-factor) authentication – Require MFA for server logins, control panels, and database access to reduce the risk of compromised credentials.
Firewall protection – Deploy fully configured firewalls to block unauthorized inbound and outbound traffic.
Host intrusion detection system (HIDS) – Monitor file integrity, system logs, and unusual activities on the host.
Antivirus and anti-malware protection – Use continuous scanning to block malicious files and scripts before they can affect ePHI.
Anti-DDoS management – Ensure the hosting environment can withstand denial-of-service attacks without interrupting PHI availability.
System monitoring and logging – Keep continuous watch over CPU, memory, and network usage, while logging all access and changes.
Integrity controls – Implement tools that ensure ePHI isn’t altered or deleted without authorization.
Private hosted environment – Use a dedicated server or private cloud environment with isolated resources to avoid shared hosting risks.
Dynamic data availability – Build redundancy into the system to maintain 24/7 access to PHI, even during maintenance or hardware failure.
Backup and recovery measures
HIPAA requires data to remain accessible even after unexpected failures or disasters.
Encrypted backups – All backup data should be encrypted using the same standards as your live environment.
Offsite backups – Store backups in a secure, geographically separate location to protect against data center-level disasters.
Disaster recovery plan – Maintain a clear plan with defined roles and timelines for restoring PHI systems after outages.
Incident response readiness
Even with strong prevention, you must be ready to respond to security events.
Incident response plan – Define exactly how your team and hosting provider will detect, contain, investigate, and resolve incidents involving PHI.
Breach notification – Follow HIPAA’s breach notification requirements, including timely communication with affected parties and regulators.
Additional considerations for HIPAA-compliant hosting
Some best practices go beyond HIPAA’s minimum standards but significantly reduce risks.
Encrypted VPN for remote access – Require all staff and administrators to connect through a secure VPN when accessing the hosting environment remotely.
Segregated development and production environments – Keep testing and staging systems completely separate from production systems handling live PHI.
Role-based vendor access – Give third-party vendors only the access they need and log all vendor activity.
Scalable infrastructure – Make sure your hosting environment can handle growth without compromising security or performance.
Getting started with HIPAA-compliant hosting
HIPAA-compliant hosting ensures your infrastructure meets strict legal and technical standards for protecting PHI. The right provider will give you the security framework you need, but your organization must also uphold compliance through policies, training, and active oversight.
Your next step is to review your current hosting provider’s HIPAA offerings against this checklist, identify any gaps, and implement the missing safeguards before storing or processing PHI.
The next step is to choose a hosting solution that fits your needs, and that’s where Liquid Web comes in. We offer the industry’s fastest and most secure VPS and dedicated servers—for Windows or Linux, unmanaged or fully managed.
Click below to explore options or start a chat with one of our hosting experts now.
HIPAA compliant hosting solutions
Standalone servers
Private data centers
Uninterruptible power supplies
Additional resources
What is HIPAA-compliant hosting? →
A complete beginner’s guide
HIPAA and HITECH →
The HITECH Act, how it compares, and what it means for your hosting
Are private clouds compliant? →
How private cloud compares to dedicated servers, and how to choose
Melanie Purkis is the Director of Liquid Web’s Managed Hosting Products & Services. Melanie has more than 25 years of experience with professional leadership, project management, process development, and technical support experience in the IT industry.