In 2025, healthcare organizations reported 772 giant information breaches to the Division of Well being and Human Providers Workplace for Civil Rights, exposing the protected well being info of almost 140 million folks. E mail is not the reason for each a type of incidents, however it’s one of many best methods for protected well being info (PHI) to finish up someplace it should not.
Customary Gmail or Outlook accounts aren’t constructed to deal with PHI. They lack the encryption, entry controls, and signed agreements that HIPAA requires, and sending PHI by way of an unprotected inbox places a follow liable to a critical violation.
To be HIPAA compliant, an e-mail device wants a signed Enterprise Affiliate Settlement (the authorized contract that holds a vendor accountable for safeguarding PHI), encryption sturdy sufficient to maintain messages unreadable in transit, and a few stage of entry management over who can see what.
Past that baseline, the main points range broadly. Some instruments encrypt all the pieces routinely. Others require a sender to recollect to show it on. We cannot dig into each technical requirement right here since every vendor paperwork its personal strategy to compliance. We have linked to that documentation for every device under.
What issues most is which device suits your state of affairs. A solo therapist managing consumer e-mail on a decent price range wants one thing completely different from a multi-location follow sending 1000’s of automated reminders a month.
Beneath are seven HIPAA-compliant e-mail suppliers that cowl that vary, together with the form of follow every one tends to suit greatest.
| Platform | Abstract | Beginning Value for HIPAA-Compliant Plans |
|---|---|---|
Assist Scout | Finest for healthcare groups managing excessive e-mail volumes throughout departments, Assist Scout makes it simple to collaborate on responses and preserve PHI-related conversations siloed by inbox. | Included within the Professional plan at $75/person monthly or accessible as an add-on to the Plus plan |
Paubox | Finest for practices that need compliant e-mail with zero additional steps, Paubox routinely encrypts each outbound message and delivers it straight to the recipient’s inbox — no portal or passcode required. | Beginning at $32/month for as much as 5 senders |
Virtru | Finest for practices that need management over PHI after it is despatched, Virtru layers encryption onto Gmail and Outlook and lets employees revoke entry, set expiration dates, or block forwarding on emails after they’ve gone out. | Beginning at $119/month for as much as 5 customers |
MailHippo | Finest for small practices on a decent price range, MailHippo secures messages by way of an internet portal slightly than direct inbox supply and affords message recall and expiration on paid plans. | Free for as much as 1,000 messages a month; paid plans begin at $4.95/person monthly |
Hushmail | Finest for solo suppliers and small practices, Hushmail combines encrypted e-mail with safe internet varieties, e-signatures, and an computerized archive, plus hands-on setup help. | Beginning at $11/month for one person |
LuxSci | Finest for healthcare organizations sending excessive volumes of e-mail, LuxSci routinely applies the strongest accessible encryption per recipient and integrates with EHRs and CRMs to set off PHI-personalized e-mail at scale. | Beginning at $99/month for as much as 9,999 e-mail sends |
athenahealth | Finest for organizations that need messaging constructed right into a full EHR, athenahealth ties safe affected person messages on to the chart. | Contact for pricing |
1. Assist Scout – Finest for healthcare groups managing excessive e-mail volumes throughout departments
Assist Scout is a shared inbox that is designed to convey order to high-volume e-mail with out sufferers feeling like they’re in a ticketing queue. It’s a fantastic step for healthcare organizations which have outgrown Gmail and Outlook and want construction round who owns a dialog, how briskly it’s answered, and the place PHI is allowed to reside.
For medical practices, Assist Scout offers the accountability and construction you want on the backend whereas sufferers really feel that non-public human contact in your replies. You may create a number of inboxes for various capabilities — consumption, information, scientific help, billing, insurance coverage, credentialing, and so on. — guaranteeing a minimum of one inbox is for emails that embrace PHI.
And whilst you can create separate inboxes for various capabilities, you don’t must. Use a single e-mail handle like hey@ or data@ to ship all emails to at least one place, then create groups for various departments and workflows that scan incoming messages for key phrases and routinely route them to the fitting crew.
Roles and permissions management who can see what, and customized properties permit you to seize and retailer information like date of delivery, clinic ID, and referral supply. You will see common affected person information and any customized properties in a sidebar alongside each dialog so anybody who opens the e-mail has the context they should reply instantly.
Moreover, Assist Scout is designed to cease the small breakdowns that occur within the day-to-day of an everyday inbox. Collision detection prevents two crew members from replying to the identical affected person without delay, saved replies allow you to reply FAQs in two clicks, and customized views let your crew filter their inboxes to see solely the emails that they are liable for.
After a dialog is closed, you’ll be able to ship a buyer satisfaction survey to the affected person instantly. Then, you’ll be able to view satisfaction scores total, by crew, and by particular person in experiences, which additionally offer you particulars on issues like tendencies in e-mail volumes, busiest instances of the day and days of the week, and common reply and determination instances.
Be taught extra about HIPAA compliance in Assist Scout.
Pricing
Free trial accessible. View Assist Scout’s present pricing.
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2. Paubox – Finest for encrypting e-mail despatched by way of your present supplier
Paubox is a HIPAA-compliant e-mail encryption service that layers onto Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or Microsoft Alternate. It encrypts each outbound e-mail routinely by default and delivers it straight into the recipient’s inbox with no portal login or passcode required to learn it.
The core characteristic is computerized, blanket TLS encryption utilized to each outbound e-mail with no motion required from the sender. If a recipient’s mail server does not help TLS, Paubox uploads the message to a safe internet app as a substitute of failing to ship it. As a substitute of the message, the recipient will get an e-mail prompting them to click on by way of and look at it.
Each plan features a signed Enterprise Affiliate Settlement together with HIPAA-compliant varieties for amassing affected person consumption info and signatures. Greater tiers add inbound safety towards phishing, malware, and enterprise e-mail compromise, plus archiving and information loss prevention for practices that must retain and search e-mail for compliance audits.
Study HIPAA compliance in Paubox.
Pricing
Free trial accessible. View Paubox’s present pricing.
3. Virtru – Finest for practices that need management over PHI after it is despatched
Virtru is a knowledge safety platform that layers encryption onto Gmail and Outlook by way of a plugin, very similar to Paubox however with a distinct precedence. The place Paubox focuses on getting compliant e-mail out the door with as little friction as attainable, Virtru focuses on what occurs to that e-mail after it leaves the follow’s fingers.
The core characteristic is persistent management over a message even after it has been delivered. Senders can set an expiration date on an e-mail that revokes entry totally after the date is met, and so they can block a recipient from forwarding or downloading it. All of this may be executed after the ship, so if an e-mail goes to the mistaken affected person or the mistaken inbox accidentally, employees can pull entry again as a substitute of hoping the recipient deletes it.
Whereas Paubox is about up on the area stage, Virtru is an e-mail extension that must be put in on each desktop individually, so the setup is a little more cumbersome and never as foolproof. Recipients and not using a Virtru-enabled e-mail might must view a message by way of a safe reader slightly than immediately of their inbox, relying on the way it’s despatched.
In alternate, practices get a better stage of oversight. A centralized dashboard exhibits who has accessed a given message and when, plus information loss prevention guidelines that may flag or block delicate content material earlier than it goes out.
Virtru additionally extends past e-mail. Safe Share permits encrypted file transfers for bigger paperwork, like imaging recordsdata or full affected person information, and the broader Information Safety Gateway can apply the identical controls to information transferring out and in of different linked purposes.
Study HIPAA compliance in Virtru.
Pricing
No free trial provided. View Virtru’s present pricing.
4. MailHippo – Finest for small practices on a decent price range
MailHippo is a HIPAA-compliant safe messaging platform. As a substitute of encrypting a message and dropping it immediately into the recipient’s inbox, MailHippo sends a notification {that a} safe message is ready, and the recipient clicks by way of to an internet portal to learn and reply.
The core providing is easy: 256-bit AES encryption for messages and attachments, each in transit and at relaxation, with each plan together with a signed BAA. MailHippo additionally affords SendSafe, a private safe hyperlink (yourname@sendsafe.to) that lets anybody ship a HIPAA-compliant message to a follow while not having their very own compliant e-mail account.
Pricing scales by message quantity and storage slightly than by person seat, with plans starting from 1,000 messages a month on the free tier as much as 10,000 messages and 100 MB attachments on the Professional plan.
The place MailHippo falls wanting a device like Paubox is on the executive facet. There is not any role-based permission construction for managing bigger groups and no centralized dashboard for overseeing exercise throughout a number of customers, which makes it a greater match for solo suppliers or very small practices than bigger, multi-department organizations.
Study HIPAA compliance in MailHippo.
Pricing
Free plan and trial accessible. View MailHippo’s present pricing.
5. Hushmail – Finest for e-mail messaging and varieties
Hushmail is a safe e-mail service constructed for small healthcare practices, with a specific deal with solo and group behavioral well being suppliers. E mail between two Hushmail customers encrypts routinely. For everybody else, the sender activates encryption the primary time they message that recipient, and a message goes to a safe internet portal that may be unlocked with a password.
Past e-mail, Hushmail contains internet varieties and e-signatures for consumption paperwork, consent varieties, and self-assessments, together with prebuilt templates. Submitted varieties generate a PDF that may be uploaded immediately into an EHR, which makes Hushmail helpful as a complement to a follow’s present methods slightly than a alternative for them.
Moreover, a built-in archive routinely retains a document of all emails despatched and acquired throughout the area, which helps practices keep audit-ready with out establishing separate archiving.
For practices that do not have IT help available, Hushmail’s crew will arrange a customized area e-mail handle, construct out consumption and call varieties, and stroll by way of getting began, which issues for solo suppliers with out time to configure a brand new system on their very own.
Study HIPAA compliance in Hushmail.
Pricing
Free trial accessible. View Hushmail’s present pricing.
6. LuxSci – Finest for sending excessive volumes of e-mail
LuxSci is constructed for organizations that must ship PHI-containing e-mail at scale slightly than simply one-to-one communications. It handles issues like appointment reminders, lab consequence notifications, or care coordination updates despatched to giant numbers of sufferers, utilizing PHI to personalize every message.
LuxSci’s SecureLine expertise routinely picks the strongest accessible encryption methodology for every recipient with out the sender having to decide on.
The core differentiator from a device like Paubox or Virtru is quantity and integration. LuxSci connects through API to EHRs, CRMs, and income cycle administration methods, so emails can set off routinely primarily based on occasions in these methods slightly than being despatched manually. A LuxSci Safe Advertising and marketing add-on extends that into segmented affected person outreach campaigns, like care hole reminders or enrollment notices.
LuxSci additionally affords complete audit logging and engagement reporting, monitoring message-level supply and open standing, which bigger compliance groups want for periodic assessment.
That depth comes with extra setup complexity than a device constructed for a single follow with a handful of senders, which is why LuxSci tends to suit organizations like regional well being methods, well being plans, or multi-site supplier teams slightly than a solo practitioner.
Study HIPAA compliance in LuxSci.
Pricing
No free trial provided. View LuxSci’s present pricing.
7. athenahealth – Finest for organizations that need messaging constructed right into a full EHR
Observe administration platform athenahealth is a cloud-based EHR that handles safe affected person messaging. When a supplier sends a message, the affected person will get an e-mail notification {that a} message is ready, however the e-mail itself does not carry any PHI. The affected person logs into the affected person portal to learn the message and reply, and the alternate is routinely tied to their chart.
As a result of messaging lives contained in the EHR slightly than a separate inbox, each dialog, reminder, and reply is logged towards the affected person document. Employees can delegate routine outreach, like appointment confirmations or post-visit follow-ups, to administrative crew members, and athenahealth can run a few of that messaging at scale on a follow’s behalf.
The tradeoff is that sufferers must be enrolled within the portal to obtain something past a generic notification, which is a better bar than opening a standard e-mail.
The messaging platform, athenaCommunicator, is priced as an add-on to athenaOne slightly than bundled in, so it makes essentially the most sense for practices that already use athenahealth as their EHR or are on the lookout for an EHR that features affected person messaging.
Study HIPAA compliance in athenahealth.
Pricing
No free trial provided. Contact athenahealth for pricing.
Discovering the most effective HIPAA-compliant e-mail supplier to your wants
There is not any single greatest device on this record, as a result of the fitting selection depends upon what your follow truly wants everyday.
A crew drowning in departmental e-mail site visitors wants construction greater than encryption. A solo supplier primarily wants PHI to cease touchdown in an everyday inbox with out loads of setup. A bigger group sending excessive volumes of automated, customized e-mail wants infrastructure.
No matter you land on, the work does not cease at selecting software program. A signed BAA and the fitting encryption settings solely remedy a part of the issue. Employees nonetheless want to know what counts as PHI, when to make use of the safe channel as a substitute of an everyday one, and what to do if one thing goes to the mistaken handle.
The device makes HIPAA-compliant emails attainable, however the folks utilizing it make it occur in follow.
