We've been seeing more vendors, customers, and prospects asking about HIPAA compliant email marketing services. Since Paubox is a business associate to thousands of companies, we’ve been wondering if our customers are able to use TowerData 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 TowerData offers HIPAA compliant email for marketing or not.
TowerData
TowerData positions itself as making it easy for marketers to access the data they need to better engage the customer behind the email address. Their suite of email services allows customers to enrich, clean and expand email lists via a real-time API or automated file processing.
What is a business associate?
A business associate is a person or company that performs certain functions or activities that involve the use or disclosure of protected health information (PHI) for a covered entity. In a nutshell, the role of a business associate is to help covered entities comply with the HIPAA Privacy Rule. If TowerData is storing or transmitting protected health information (PHI) on behalf of a covered entity, they are definitely considered a business associate.
Business associate agreement provisions
If a business associate provides services to a covered entity, then a business associate agreement (BAA) must be in place. A BAA is a written contract between a covered entity and a business associate and is required by law for HIPAA compliance. At a minimum, a BAA contains 10 provisions.
Read full article: Business Associate Agreement Provisions
TowerData and the business associate agreement
We checked the TowerData site for mention of their ability to sign a BAA. We could not find any meaningful information about HIPAA or a BAA in their Terms of Service or Privacy Policy pages.
Does TowerData offer HIPAA compliant service?
The BAA is a key component to HIPAA compliance between a covered entity and a business associate. We were able to learn the following about TowerData and its stance on HIPAA compliance:
- We could not find any mention of HIPAA or a BAA on their Terms of Service page.
- We also could not find any mention of HIPAA or a BAA in their Privacy Policy.
Conclusion: TowerData makes no mention of their ability to sign a BAA. We therefore conclude they should not be used as a HIPAA compliant email service.
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
(** 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 inbox. This creates friction and makes it less likely that your patients will read your marketing email.)
Try Paubox Marketing for free and make your email marketing HIPAA compliant today.
Hoala Greevy
