Yes, hosting can be configured to support HIPAA-related requirements for healthcare websites, but hosting alone does not make a website HIPAA compliant.
The starting point is simple: if your website (or anything connected to it) creates, receives, maintains, or transmits electronic protected health information (ePHI), your hosting or cloud provider usually becomes a vendor that needs a business associate agreement (BAA). No BAA, no go for ePHI. If your site is purely informational (services, providers, locations, phone number) and you keep ePHI out of forms, chat, and analytics, you may not need “HIPAA hosting” at all, but you still want strong security because healthcare brands are frequent targets.
For Orlando practices, the most common HIPAA problem we see is not the server, it’s the lead capture flow: a form that emails sensitive details in plain text, a chat widget that stores transcripts containing symptoms, or a scheduling embed that sends patient details into tools that were never meant to touch ePHI. Good hosting helps, but the bigger win is designing the site so patient data only goes to the right systems.
What hosting can do (and what to ask for)
| Hosting control | Why it matters for HIPAA | What you should ask for |
|---|---|---|
| BAA availability | Required when the host can touch ePHI | Signed BAA, clear roles, clear breach notification process |
| Encryption in transit and at rest | Protects ePHI during transfer and storage | TLS for the site and admin logins, encrypted disks and encrypted backups |
| Access controls | Limits who can reach systems that store ePHI | MFA, least-privilege accounts, separate admin users, strong password policy |
| Audit logs | Supports investigation and accountability | Server and application logs, retention policy, log access controls |
| Backups and disaster recovery | Availability is part of the HIPAA Security Rule | Encrypted backups, tested restores, documented recovery steps and timing |
| Patch and vulnerability handling | Reduces preventable risk from known issues | OS and web stack patching, malware scanning, firewall/WAF options |
If you want a managed setup where the hosting, WordPress, and security work stays under one roof, our WordPress hosting is built for businesses that want tight access control, monitoring, updates, and fast help when something looks off.
What hosting cannot cover by itself
HIPAA is also about policies and day-to-day behavior: who has access, how you approve vendors, how staff handle passwords, what happens when someone leaves, and how incidents are reported and contained. Hosting can support technical safeguards, but your practice still needs a HIPAA risk analysis and practical rules for your team and vendors.
A practical setup for most healthcare marketing websites
- Keep ePHI out of the marketing site when possible. Use a short “request an appointment” form that collects only what you need to call back (name, phone, preferred time). Avoid open text fields like “describe your condition.”
- Route anything sensitive to a HIPAA-ready system. Patient portals, intake forms, payments, and messaging should live in tools designed for healthcare and covered by the right agreements.
- Lock down WordPress. Unique admin accounts, MFA, limited login attempts, strong roles, and a clean plugin list. Many breaches start with outdated plugins.
- Audit every third-party script. Analytics, call tracking, chat, heatmaps, and embedded scheduling can accidentally receive ePHI. If they might receive it, treat them like a vendor and handle them properly, or remove them from the patient path.
- Plan for incidents. Have a simple runbook: who gets alerted, who can take the site offline, how restores work, and how you document what happened.
When we build healthcare sites through our web design service, we map every form field, integration, and embed so you can see where data goes before launch, which is the safest time to fix it.
If you want the broader checklist beyond healthcare, our FAQ on what web hosting compliance means helps you think through vendor risk, retention, and access control in plain language.
HTTPS is one of the basics for protecting traffic, and our FAQ on whether HTTPS affects SEO also explains what HTTPS actually does (and does not do) for privacy and security.
If you tell us what your website handles today (forms, chat, scheduling, patient portal links, payments, analytics), we can quickly sort it into two buckets: what can stay on the marketing site and what should be pushed into a HIPAA-ready system with the right agreements.
