PHI belongs on infrastructure built for it
Hosting an application that handles protected health information on ordinary hosting isn't just risky — it can be a compliance violation on its own. PHI demands encryption, strict access control, audit logging, and a hosting provider willing to sign a Business Associate Agreement accepting shared responsibility for protecting it. Most cheap hosting offers none of this, and won't sign a BAA at all. Put PHI there and you've breached HIPAA before your application does anything wrong.
HIPAA Cloud Hosting is managed AWS infrastructure engineered specifically for this: the technical safeguards HIPAA requires, operated by engineers, under a signed BAA. It's the runtime beneath our EMR and healthcare integration work, and it's available for your healthcare application too.
What's included
Encryption everywhere
Data encrypted at rest and in transit as standard — a HIPAA expectation, implemented properly rather than as an optional extra.
Access controls
Least-privilege access with unique identification and strong authentication, so only the right people reach PHI.
Audit logging
Comprehensive logging of access and activity, supporting HIPAA's audit-control and accounting-of-disclosures requirements.
Monitoring & response
Continuous monitoring with our security team ready to respond — because a PHI breach is a priority-one event.
Backups & recovery
Encrypted, tested backups and a recovery plan, so availability and integrity of PHI are protected, not assumed.
Signed BAA
A Business Associate Agreement, so your hosting layer is contractually part of your compliance, not a gap in it.
The Business Associate Agreement — the part that's non-negotiable
Under HIPAA, any vendor that stores or processes PHI on your behalf is a business associate and must sign a BAA — a contract accepting defined responsibilities for protecting that data. This isn't a formality; hosting PHI with a provider who hasn't signed a BAA is itself a compliance failure, regardless of how secure the infrastructure is. We sign a BAA as a matter of course, because we've built this service specifically for PHI workloads and we accept the shared responsibility that comes with it. If a hosting provider won't sign a BAA, PHI cannot go there — full stop.
Technical safeguards, implemented properly
HIPAA's Security Rule specifies technical safeguards for electronic PHI, and this hosting implements them as designed rather than as boxes ticked: access controls with unique user identification and automatic logoff; audit controls recording who did what and when; integrity controls ensuring PHI isn't improperly altered or destroyed; and transmission security protecting PHI moving across networks. These are backed by the administrative and physical safeguards of a well-run AWS environment. Because we also do HIPAA compliance consulting, the hosting is built by people who understand not just the technology but the regulation it has to satisfy.
Who it's for
- Health-tech companies building applications that handle PHI and needing compliant infrastructure with a BAA.
- Healthcare providers hosting EMRs, portals or clinical applications.
- Business associates processing PHI for healthcare clients who demand compliant hosting.
- Any organisation that has been told "you need HIPAA hosting" and wants it done properly, with the BAA and the safeguards, not just the label.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes hosting "HIPAA-compliant"?
A combination: the technical safeguards HIPAA requires (encryption, access controls, audit logging, transmission security), the administrative and physical safeguards of a well-run environment, and — critically — a signed Business Associate Agreement. No single feature makes hosting HIPAA-compliant; it's the whole package plus the BAA. Beware anyone selling "HIPAA hosting" without a BAA — that alone disqualifies it.
Why does the Business Associate Agreement matter so much?
Because HIPAA requires it. Any vendor handling PHI on your behalf must sign a BAA accepting responsibility for protecting it — and hosting PHI with a provider who hasn't signed one is itself a compliance violation, no matter how secure their servers are. We sign a BAA as standard because this service exists specifically for PHI. If a host won't sign a BAA, PHI simply cannot go there.
Does HIPAA-compliant hosting make our whole application compliant?
No — and assuming it does is a dangerous mistake. Compliant hosting covers the infrastructure and platform layer; your application's security and how you handle PHI within it remain your responsibility. A compliant host running an insecure app is still a breach risk. We draw the shared-responsibility line explicitly and can help secure the application layer too, so the whole stack is covered.
Can you host our existing healthcare application?
In most cases yes — we assess your application's architecture and requirements, then host it on the compliant infrastructure with the safeguards and BAA in place. If the application itself has security gaps, we'll identify them (compliant hosting won't paper over an insecure app) and can help remediate through our security and development teams.
Is this just AWS with extra marketing?
No. AWS provides HIPAA-eligible services and will sign a BAA for its part, but a bare AWS account is not automatically HIPAA-compliant — it must be configured, hardened, monitored and operated correctly, and you need a BAA covering the management layer too. We do that engineering and operational work and provide our own BAA, so you get compliant hosting rather than raw infrastructure you'd have to secure yourself.
What happens if there's a security incident?
Our monitoring aims to catch issues early, and our incident response team treats any event touching PHI as priority-one — containment, investigation and the breach-assessment process HIPAA requires. Having monitoring, logging and a response plan in place beforehand is itself part of compliance, and it's what turns a potential disaster into a managed event.
Do you offer this outside of healthcare?
The same secure, monitored, managed hosting is valuable for any sensitive workload, but the HIPAA-specific elements (BAA, PHI safeguards) are aimed at healthcare data. For general workloads, our standard managed hosting may be the better fit. We'll recommend the right tier for what you're actually hosting rather than overselling the HIPAA package.
How does pricing work?
It reflects the workload — resources required, the managed-operations and monitoring involved, and the compliance overhead — so it's scoped rather than a flat plan. Compliant hosting costs more than commodity hosting because it does genuinely more; we're transparent about what you're paying for. After understanding your workload we provide clear pricing.
HIPAA is a US federal regulation. AWS is a trademark of Amazon.com, Inc. Compliant hosting protects the infrastructure layer under a shared-responsibility model; application-level compliance remains the customer\'s responsibility. Xcodefix Global provides this hosting and signs a BAA for PHI workloads.