HIPAA Compliance for a Healthcare AI Startup

The company was building AI features that would process protected health information from partner health systems. No healthcare customer would engage without evidence of HIPAA compliance.

The founding team understood the technical requirements but lacked experience with HIPAA administrative requirements, Business Associate Agreements, and risk assessment processes.

Resources were limited. The company needed to implement HIPAA controls without derailing product development or hiring a dedicated compliance team.

We started with infrastructure design rather than retrofitting compliance onto an existing system. HIPAA requirements were built into the architecture from the start.

We implemented encryption for data at rest and in transit, network segmentation to isolate PHI processing, and comprehensive audit logging for all data access.

Administrative controls were sized appropriately for the company stage. We created practical policies and procedures rather than enterprise-scale documentation.

We developed Business Associate Agreement templates and a review process for evaluating BAAs from potential customers and vendors.

The engineering team received targeted training on HIPAA requirements relevant to their daily work, focusing on practical implications rather than regulatory text.