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 customers, we’ve been wondering if they are able to use GetResponse 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 GetResponse offers HIPAA compliant email for marketing or not.
GetResponse
GetResponse markets itself as the world’s easiest email marketing platform. It has 350,000 customers in 183 countries.
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.
Since GetResponse is a cloud-based service, if it stores protected health information (PHI) on behalf of a covered entity, it is certainly 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 business associate agreement contains 10 provisions.
Read full article: Business Associate Agreement Provisions
GetResponse and the business associate agreement
We checked the GetResponse site for mention of their ability to sign a business associate agreement.
We could not find any mention of a BAA, PHI, or HIPAA on their Privacy Policy or Terms of Service pages.
The closest thing we were able to find was a Prohibitive Practices popup page that says:
Our Customers are not allowed to use the Service to stream, disclose, engage, offer to sell, and promote, either directly or indirectly, any goods or services that market for medical services, medical aid, medical assistance, medicines.
Although it’s not quite the information we were looking for, it’s certainly indicative of a company that isn’t focused on HIPAA compliant email.
Does GetResponse offer HIPAA compliant service?
We were able to learn the following about GetResponse and its stance on HIPAA compliance:
- GetResponse does not mention any ability to service the US Healthcare market.
- GetResponse will not sign a BAA.
Conclusion: GetResponse is not a HIPAA compliant email solution.
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.)
