What is HIPAA?
HIPAA is the US federal law that protects health information through three rules, Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification. The Security Rule requires administrative, physical, and technical safeguards for electronic PHI, plus a mandatory risk analysis. There is no HIPAA certification, covered entities and business associates must demonstrate ongoing compliance and be ready for an OCR investigation.
What is a HIPAA risk analysis, and why does it matter?
A risk analysis (§164.308(a)(1)) identifies risks and vulnerabilities to ePHI across your environment and drives a remediation plan. It is the Security Rule’s foundation and the failure OCR cites most often, so it must be thorough, current, and continuous, not a one-time document.
Do I need a Business Associate Agreement (BAA)?
Yes. Any vendor that creates, receives, maintains, or transmits ePHI on your behalf needs a signed BAA. Compyl helps you track which vendors handle ePHI and whether each has a current agreement, so a vendor breach doesn’t become an unmanaged liability.
How does Compyl automate HIPAA compliance?
Compyl connects to your stack, runs the risk analysis continuously, collects evidence for every administrative, physical, and technical safeguard, tracks BAAs, scores evidence health, and flags drift, a live, OCR-ready posture instead of a once-a-year scramble.
How does Compyl score evidence quality?
Compyl 26.2 introduced Evidence Health, which continuously scores every piece of evidence on relevance, freshness, and completeness. Scoring runs automatically whenever evidence changes and summarizes what is missing, so safeguard gaps surface before an investigation, not during one.
Can one HIPAA control satisfy other frameworks?
Yes. Compyl cross-maps each control so a single control and its evidence can satisfy HIPAA alongside SOC 2, ISO 27001, NIST CSF, and 70+ other frameworks. Collect the evidence once and reuse it everywhere it applies.
Who is Compyl’s HIPAA solution designed for?
Security and GRC teams at healthcare organizations, payers, and the SaaS vendors that serve them, CISOs, compliance officers, and IT leaders who need to keep ePHI safeguarded and stay OCR-ready without adding headcount.
Has the new HIPAA Security Rule been finalized?
No. HHS proposed major Security Rule changes in December 2024, including mandatory MFA, encryption, asset inventories and removing “addressable” specifications. As of September 2026 the rule is not final, and the federal regulatory agenda targets July 2027. Today’s Security Rule still applies, and the final rule may differ from the proposal.
Is MFA required under HIPAA?
The current Security Rule does not name MFA. It requires person or entity authentication and a risk-based approach, and OCR expects your risk analysis to drive controls like MFA. The December 2024 proposed rule would make MFA mandatory with limited exceptions, but it is not final.
What are the HIPAA breach notification deadlines?
Notify affected individuals without unreasonable delay and no later than 60 days after discovery. Breaches affecting 500 or more people must also be reported to HHS within 60 days, and to the media when more than 500 residents of a state are affected. Smaller breaches go in a log reported to HHS within 60 days after the end of the calendar year.
Why does OCR focus on risk analysis?
OCR runs a Risk Analysis Initiative targeting organizations without an accurate, enterprise-wide risk analysis, and by mid-2026 it had produced 14 enforcement actions, many following ransomware attacks. Settlements typically require a new risk analysis under a corrective action plan.
