HIPAA-Compliant Software Development

Ortem Technologies is a US-based HIPAA-compliant software development company that builds healthcare applications with compliance designed in from the beginning — not added as a layer afterward. We sign Business Associate Agreements (BAAs), architect for encrypted PHI storage, implement FHIR and HL7 integrations, and deliver audit-ready systems for hospitals, telehealth companies, digital health startups, and healthcare SaaS providers.

HIPAA compliance in software is not a checkbox or a certification you purchase. It is a set of technical and administrative safeguards that must be implemented correctly in your infrastructure, your application code, and your operational processes. Most developers who claim to be "HIPAA-compliant" have configured encryption at rest and in transit and stopped there. That is necessary but not sufficient. True HIPAA compliance requires access controls, audit logging, breach notification procedures, workforce training documentation, and risk assessments — and all of these must be tied to how your specific application handles PHI.

We have built healthcare applications since 2012. We understand the difference between what HIPAA requires and what auditors actually look for. We have worked with covered entities and business associates across hospital networks, group practices, telehealth platforms, medical device companies, and health insurance organizations.

What HIPAA-compliant development actually involves

BAA signing: Before any work begins on a project involving PHI, we execute a Business Associate Agreement that defines our obligations under HIPAA and your rights as the covered entity. This is not optional — operating as a business associate without a BAA is a HIPAA violation.

PHI classification and data mapping: We start every healthcare engagement with a PHI inventory — identifying what data your application collects, where it is stored, how it flows between systems, and who can access it. This data map becomes the foundation of your compliance documentation and your security architecture.

Encryption: PHI must be encrypted at rest (using AES-256 or equivalent) and in transit (TLS 1.2 minimum, TLS 1.3 preferred). We implement encryption at the database level (column-level encryption for high-sensitivity fields, full-disk encryption for storage volumes) and enforce encrypted connections throughout the application stack.

Access controls and minimum necessary: Role-based access control (RBAC) is implemented so that every user only sees PHI they are authorized to access. A billing coordinator sees billing data. A nurse sees clinical data for their patients. An administrator sees what they need to manage the system. Access is provisioned explicitly, not by default.

Audit logging: HIPAA requires that you can reconstruct who accessed what PHI, when, from where, and what they did with it. We implement comprehensive audit logs for every PHI access and modification event, stored in a tamper-evident log system that your compliance team can query during audits or incident investigations.

Breach notification readiness: We build incident response tooling into every HIPAA application — automated alerts for anomalous access patterns, log-based detection for potential breaches, and documented procedures for the 60-day HIPAA breach notification timeline.

Healthcare integrations we build regularly

FHIR R4: The current standard for healthcare data exchange. We build FHIR-compliant APIs that allow your application to connect to EHR systems, payer networks, and health information exchanges. FHIR R4 support is a requirement for ONC certification and CMS interoperability rules.

HL7 v2: Still the dominant messaging standard in hospital systems. We parse and generate HL7 v2 messages (ADT, ORU, ORM, DFT) for integrations with legacy hospital systems, lab platforms, and radiology systems.

EHR integrations: Epic (via MyChart and SMART on FHIR), Cerner (via HealtheIntent and FHIR R4), Athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, and Allscripts. Each EHR has its own integration quirks — we have navigated all of them.

Telehealth infrastructure: WebRTC-based video consultation platforms with HIPAA-compliant media handling. We do not use commercial video SDKs that are not HIPAA-eligible — we build on platforms with appropriate BAAs (Daily.co, Twilio Video with BAA, Vonage).

What we deliver and what it costs

A focused HIPAA-compliant telemedicine or patient portal application runs $80,000–$180,000 over 12–20 weeks, depending on the number of EHR integrations and the complexity of the clinical workflow. A full enterprise healthcare platform — multi-tenant, SOC 2-ready, with comprehensive EHR connectivity — runs $200,000–$500,000+ over 5–12 months.

Every engagement includes a signed BAA, a HIPAA technical safeguards document (suitable for your compliance audit), architecture documentation, and handoff of all infrastructure credentials and source code. We do not retain access to PHI after project completion.

We also work with healthcare organizations that have an existing application and need a HIPAA security assessment — a review of their current implementation against HIPAA technical safeguards, with a gap analysis and remediation roadmap.

SOC 2 and HITRUST readiness

Many of our healthcare clients are pursuing SOC 2 Type II or HITRUST CSF certification alongside HIPAA compliance. These frameworks overlap significantly with HIPAA's technical safeguards — encryption, access controls, audit logging — but have additional requirements around availability, processing integrity, and organizational controls.

We build applications with SOC 2 readiness in mind: infrastructure-as-code (so your auditor can review your configuration), automated security scanning in CI/CD pipelines, dependency vulnerability monitoring, and separation of environments (development, staging, production). If you are working toward SOC 2 certification, we can provide the technical evidence your auditors will ask for.

Working with our team

Healthcare software projects start with a compliance scoping session where we document what PHI your application will handle, what systems it will integrate with, and what compliance requirements apply (HIPAA, state privacy laws, ONC certification, CMS interoperability rules). This session produces a compliance architecture document that guides technical decisions throughout the project.

Development follows a sprint cadence with demos every two weeks. You see working software, not status reports. Every sprint has defined acceptance criteria — including compliance criteria (e.g., "audit log entries generated for all PHI access events") alongside functional criteria.

At project completion, we deliver: the signed BAA, source code, infrastructure credentials, HIPAA technical safeguards documentation, and a handoff session with your team. If your internal engineers or a future vendor needs to understand what was built and why, the documentation supports that.

Common questions from healthcare software buyers

Do I need a BAA with my cloud provider? Yes. AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure all offer HIPAA-eligible services and will sign BAAs. Not all services within those platforms are HIPAA-eligible — we know which ones are and architect accordingly.

Is my existing application HIPAA-compliant? If it handles PHI, probably not fully — and the gap is often larger than the original development team realized. We offer HIPAA security assessments that review your current implementation against the required technical safeguards and give you a prioritized remediation plan.

What about state-level privacy laws? California (CMIA), New York (SHIELD Act), and several other states have healthcare privacy requirements beyond HIPAA. We advise on applicable state requirements during the compliance scoping session.

Book a free HIPAA consultation → Tell us what you are building, what PHI it handles, and what integrations you need. We will give you a straight assessment of what compliant implementation requires and what it will cost.

Also see: Healthcare Software Development · Custom Software Development · Case Studies