> Technically, we could claim that we are HIPAA compliant, as we don't store PHI Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal ad

> Technically, we could claim that we are HIPAA compliant, as we don't store PHI Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice. There's a lot more to being HIPAA compliant than how you store PHI. As an engineer, you might view not storing PHI as compliance-by-default (the null case), but I don't think a lawyer would agree. Even if you're correct and HIPAA doesn't apply to you (which I'm not convinced is the case), it'd be like saying "we're PCI-compliant, because we don't store any financial information or process any financial transactions". For what it's worth, I founded a company that does store PHI, and we had to get a BAA with AWS (though we ended up using Aptible (YC S14)[0] for hosting and compliance, as it's much easier. Using Aptible is like using Heroku (git push to deploy), and they manage not just the data backups/retention/etc. from a technical standpoint, but all of the human training and paperwork aspects to compliance[1]. [0] https://www.aptible.com/ https://www.aptible.com/ [1] Which, to be honest, is the tough stuff. From a technological perspective, HIPAA doesn't really mandate much that developers of robust applications shouldn't already be doing, but it's the matter of actually demonstrating that you've done everything in compliance with the law that makes things complicated. Having the 'rubber stamp' of a third-party company that specializes in this matter gives immense peace-of-mind as the CTO, compared to the DIY approach.