Hoala Greevy
We sometimes get asked about Adobe Campaign and an organization's ability to use it in a HIPAA compliant manner. We know the HIPAA industry is vast so we can empathize with just how many people need to use cloud services in this sector. Today we will determine if Adobe Campaign offers HIPAA compliant email for marketing or not.
Adobe Campaign
Adobe Campaign gives customers a single place to manage and automate email, ads, and campaigns. With access to audience profiles and analytics, it aims to drive better customer engagement. Adobe Campaign is split into two services: Cloud and on-premises (on-prem). Adobe Campaign for the cloud (simply called Adobe Campaign) is part of the Adobe Marketing Cloud. The on-prem version is called Adobe Campaign Classic.
Adobe and the business associate agreement
We’ve previously talked about how a business associate agreement (BAA) is a written contract between a covered entity and a business associate. It is required by law for HIPAA compliance. We checked Adobe's site and found a PDF called Adobe Compliance Certifications, Standards, and Regulations. In that document, we can see in the notes that Adobe Campaign is considered to be part of Adobe Experience Cloud. When we inspect the Adobe Experience Cloud row, we see that it's not deemed to be HIPAA compliant:
In other words, Adobe Campaign for the cloud is not HIPAA compliant. It should be noted Adobe Campaign Classic is not a cloud solution and is therefore not applicable to this chart.
Adobe Campaign Classic (on-prem solution)
We can look at two high level aspects of HIPAA compliance when it comes to on-prem software solutions:
- Is the data at-rest on the server encrypted?
- Is the data in motion that's sent by the server encrypted?
As for the underlying server, Adobe Campaign Classic can run on either Windows or Linux operating systems. It's fairly straightforward to encrypt the entire disk drives of both platforms. This would effectively cover the first aspect - encrypting data at-rest on the server.
SEE ALSO: Free Windows Encryption tools for HIPAA Compliance
As for the data in motion as it applies to Adobe Campaign Classic, it does not offer encryption in transit for all email recipients. This is where solutions like the Paubox Email API come in.
In a nutshell, Adobe Campaign Classic can leverage the Paubox Email API to gain HIPAA compliance.
Does Adobe Campaign offer HIPAA compliant service?
The business associate agreement is a key component to HIPAA compliance between a covered entity and a business associate. We saw that Adobe Campaign is actually composed of two solutions: Adobe Campaign, which is cloud-based, and Adobe Campaign Classic, which is software that must be installed on a customer's server (on-prem).
Conclusion:
Adobe will not sign a BAA for Adobe Campaign. It is therefore not HIPAA compliant. Adobe Campaign Classic however, can be configured for HIPAA compliance.
At a high level, here's what needed:
- The data at-rest on the server is encrypted
- The data in-motion is encrypted
HIPAA email marketing tools comparison
To meet the unmet need for HIPAA compliant email marketing, we created Paubox Marketing. It is the only solution that will:
- Sign a BAA
- Provide military-grade encryption
- Allow you to include PHI in your marketing emails
- Allow patients to read your emails directly from their inbox with no extra steps
In addition, Paubox Marketing is HITRUST CSF certified. Compared to the standard marketing tools, Paubox Marketing is the best option for maintaining HIPAA compliance while harnessing the power of personalized email marketing.
SEE ALSO: Why Paubox Marketing is the Best HIPAA Email Marketing Solution Available
| Company | Will they sign a BAA? | Can you send PHI? |
| Adobe Campaign | NO | NO |
| Blue Orchid Marketing | NO | NO |
| Campaign Monitor | NO | NO |
| Campaigner | NO | NO |
| Drip | NO | NO |
| Emma | NO | NO |
| GetResponse | NO | NO |
| Hubspot | NO | NO |
| L-Soft | NO | NO |
| Mad Mimi (GoDaddy) | NO | NO |
| Mailchimp | NO | NO |
| MailerLite | NO | NO |
| Marketo (Adobe) | NO | NO |
| Salesforce Pardot | NO | NO |
| SendGrid (Twilio) | NO | NO |
| Yesware | NO | NO |
| ActiveCampaign | YES | NO |
| Constant Contact | YES | NO |
| Infusionsoft by Keap | YES | NO |
| Salesforce Marketing Cloud | YES | NO |
| Eloqua (Oracle) | YES | YES ** |
| Paubox Marketing | YES | YES |
(** To use Oracle Eloqua in a HIPAA compliant manner, recipients receive two emails for every message you send. Patients must also log into a secure message center to view your message— it does not appear in their inboxes. This creates friction and makes it less likely that your patients will read your marketing email.)
