If your website has any form that could collect, transmit, or store health information tied to a person, assume it must be HIPAA compliant. Inadequate protections open you to legal, reputational, and financial risk.
This guide explains what “HIPAA-compliant” really entails, common failure points, and how you can adopt a solution that ensures compliance without compromise.
Free-text fields are a liability. Even a generic “message” box can be used by a patient to disclose symptoms, diagnoses, or treatments. Once you receive health details tied to an identifiable individual, that content is PHI and triggers HIPAA obligations.
HIPAA does not provide a “safe” threshold for occasional PHI collection via non-medical forms. The moment PHI is processed, the rules apply.
Any system that creates, receives, maintains, or transmits electronic PHI (ePHI) is in scope of the HIPAA Security Rule.
“Contact” or “feedback” forms in a healthcare context are commonly cited as requiring compliance when used by patients to disclose health issues.
Design all your web forms under HIPAA standards or segregate them so no PHI ever flows through a non-compliant form.
Health-related details (symptoms, diagnoses, treatments, medical history) tied to an individual
Identifiers (name, email, address, DOB, phone, etc.) tied to health data
File uploads of medical records, images, lab reports
Billing or payment information in a medical context
If any field or user upload could cross that threshold, treat the form as regulated.
Encryption in transit and at rest
Strict access control & authentication
Audit logging & monitoring
Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with every vendor
Secure file upload handling (compliant storage vendors, isolated and access restricted storage)
Retention & deletion policies
Risk analysis & periodic security audits
Incident response / breach plan
Any gap is a compliance failure.
Serve form over HTTPS
Submit via secure endpoint
Server verifies, decrypts, sanitizes
Store in encrypted, access-controlled database
Role & audit controls
Secure backups, retention, deletion
Continuous logging & monitoring
Every hop must maintain security and traceability.
Overlooked third parties (hosting, scripts, analytics)
Misconfiguration (e.g. open cloud buckets, unencrypted backups)
Human error (permissions, weak passwords)
Evolving compliance requirements
Maintenance, monitoring, audits, training
You can’t build compliance once and forget it.
A vendor must provide:
End-to-end encryption
Role-based access & audit logs
Secure file upload
A BAA with your organization
Embeddable forms / APIs that don’t leak PHI
Data deletion / retention controls
Transparent security practices and compliance focus
In addition to "checking the boxes" above, we recommend inspecting the tools, dashboards, and data provided by the vendor. Before moving forward with a solution, you should have a solid understanding of how PHI is handled by them.
When dealing with sensitive patient data, you don’t want piecemeal fixes. You need a form system engineered for compliance from the ground up. Form Vessel was designed specifically for this HIPAA compliance.
What sets Form Vessel apart:
Compliance at the core: Encryption, access controls, audit trails, and secure upload handling are built in, not added as optional extras.
Full BAA coverage: Form Vessel provides a Business Associate Agreement that ensures alignment with HIPAA obligations.
Control with flexibility: You define the fields and design while compliance protections stay enforced automatically.
Operational assurance: Security, audits, and monitoring are managed by Form Vessel, which can eliminate burden on your internal team for web forms.
Future-proofed security: As regulations evolve, Form Vessel updates its infrastructure so your forms remain compliant over time without you having to lift a finger.
With Form Vessel, you gain peace of mind that your forms are not just “good enough” but fully aligned with the strictest standards.
Review your current forms
Remove or replace any that are not HIPAA-Compliant
Choose a HIPAA-Compliant solution like Form Vessel or implement your own
Keep an eye on who can access PHI you collect and update access controls regularly