Mar 3, 2025 Software Development
HIPAA-Compliant App Development: Cost, Features, Benefits and More
Mar 3, 2025 Software Development
Table of Contents
Mar 3, 2025 Software Development
The HIPAA-Compliant app development process ensures the security of data as it is the major asset for the healthcare industry, be it sensitive information or general. For healthcare providers, it is more than important to manage and protect patients’ sensitive information. The recent innovations developed for patient care involve the gathering of data that are ultimately prone to data breach risks. These unfair means of data breach are increasing the need and demands for HIPAA-compliant applications.
Healthcare professionals once in a while surely wonder about developing a HIPAA-compliant app and one question that strikes their head is the cost to build it. The price to develop such healthcare mobile apps ranges from $20,000 to $60,000 and even more, but it depends totally on the functionality and purpose.
As per the reports, in January 2024 alone, a data breach of almost 8.8 million records occurred. Non-compliance can result in heavy financial penalties, with fines reaching up to $68,928 per incident and an annual cap exceeding $2 million. The significance of HIPAA can’t be overstated in today’s digital era for healthcare applications. If you are a healthcare professional and have landed here, then surely you are on the way to building your app, and this blog will be the ideal guide leading your way.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was initiated in 1996 by the U.S. Federal Law. With HIPAA acts in their applications, organizations can ensure the security of sensitive information, especially those handled on medical software platforms.
Understanding the types of data in your healthcare software is crucial. This helps you grasp the importance of HIPAA and integrate it correctly into your application. HIPAA deals with two major types of data:
All the patient information like doctor bills, MRI Scans, emails, and reports are considered Protected Health Information (PHI). The data also includes the geolocation details of the patient.
All the health-related data collected by any medicare application, like walking steps, heart rate, and calories burnt, are considered confidential health information. It can be utilized by the individual to keep track of their health and opt for a better lifestyle.
With a brief understanding of the types of data, you can easily figure out the type of data your app will be storing. This will help you clarify all your confusion around the HIPAA-compliant app development.
It’s more than important to comply with the HIPAA, but who needs to comply still stands as a question. Let’s understand who holds the authority to comply with the act and why:
Various departments of the healthcare sector, including healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare clearinghouses, need to adhere to HIPAA guidelines as they directly handle PHI.
For example, a health insurance mobile app that allows policyholders to view their insurance claims and check coverage details comes under the covered entities. Such apps must comply with HIPAA guidelines to ensure the safety of sensitive PHI.
Professionals working closely with the covered entities are business associates like developers, cloud storage providers, and IT service providers. While handling sensitive information, they must adhere to the guidelines of HIPAA.
For example, healthcare organizations partner with medical coding companies to process patients’ reports. The coding company needs to adhere to HIPAA regulations as a business associate handling the protected health information of the patients.
Since it all revolves around data, it’s important to understand what type of data is managed. This approach significantly impacts the obligation of healthcare sectors to comply with HIPAA regulations. The data falling under the category of PHI (Protected Health Information) requires enhanced privacy and secure industry standards.
For example, mobile app devices continuously monitor patients’ lifestyles to update them with certain insights like glucose level, heart rate, and many such, and are expected to adhere to HIPAA regulations. These applications fetch a large number of personal details that need to be secured and utilized effectively without any data loss.
For safeguarding electronic protected health information (ePHI), it is a must to keep a check on all the security measures. ePHI incorporates various protected sensitive health information that is transmitted, stored, and maintained electronically.
For example, a mental health counselling app serves as a HIPAA-compliant messaging app, allowing users to communicate with therapists via secure messaging and video sessions.
An ideal combination of delivering the best services while ensuring security compliance can help the healthcare business become the top choice. To ensure data security, following HIPAA compliance is a must.
Let’s check out how it is beneficial for patients, doctors, and startup owners.
The HIPAA Act ensures the safety of sensitive personal and health information shared by patients while accessing any healthcare application. Beyond safeguarding the data, it provides several benefits:
It’s the core responsibility of any healthcare organization to safeguard the PHI, ensuring to build trust with the patients and gain significant impact in the industry. By following the HIPAA regulations, healthcare organizations can witness significant benefits:
As a new name in the industry, early startups need to be a little more active with all the security measures to safeguard patient data. Compliance with HIPAA for startups is beneficial in the following ways:
While confronting many health organizations, they have stated that HIPAA-compliant app development requires expertise to combine design, features, functionality, and, most importantly, security for creating the ready-to-go application.
Businesses here are required to hire an Android app development company specializing in the healthcare sector. Experts have a knack for the right technologies and tools to help businesses get the desired app that complies with the security guidance of HIPAA.
There are four majorly 4 requirements that need to be fulfilled while developing mobile apps for the healthcare sector.
As a healthcare firm, you will surely need to take care of all the above-mentioned points. However, as a developer, our solemn focus is on creating healthcare mobile applications that adhere to the HIPAA rules and regulations, including:
Protecting electronic protected health information (ePHI) is one of the major concerns to be justified while developing a HIPAA-compliant app. Here, technical safeguards play a major role in ensuring that only authorized individuals can access, modify, or view ePHI.
The list of key technical safeguards includes:
Apart from the technical safeguards, protecting the backend, network, and devices is also important for HIPAA healthcare apps. To achieve this, businesses can integrate robust authentication, making unauthorized access impossible. App developers can integrate multi-factor authentication, providing an additional layer of security to safeguard data integrity and remove unauthorized access.
For HIPAA-compliant app development, ensuring administrative safeguards is crucial for managing the conduct of the workforce to protect the Protected Health Information (PHI).
Healthcare organizations need to follow a certain set of unique steps for the HIPAA-compliant mobile app development process. The process involves all the important steps to build an app satisfying both the security perspective and the designer front.
Here are the steps organizations can utilize to create healthcare mobile apps complying with HIPAA guidelines:
First, you must select the right backend services that meet the standards of HIPAA. There are multiple cloud service options like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud that offer features and services to handle PHI data securely. For instance, the services provided by AWS complete the checklist of HIPAA regulations with features like EC2 for computing, S3 for storage purposes, and RDS for database management.
Start designing the unique architecture of your app for making separate storage for both sensitive and non-sensitive data. Ensure the creation of distinct storage locations and databases for securing PHI, separating it from the other general data such as user preferences and analytics. The segregation of data will ensure a centralized depository of all the PHI data minimizing the risk of unauthorized access leading to data breach.
Integration of robust encryption algorithms and protocols for securing the data both at rest and in transit. Healthcare providers can leverage strong integration methods, majorly AES-256 and TLS/SSL, to ensure the safety of PHI throughout its lifecycle within the system.
With regular security checks, you can improve all the loopholes occurring. These steps for security checks involve comprehensive testing, vulnerability scans, and reviewing code for security. You can also coordinate with third-party agents to utilize the automated security testing tools for HIPAA. In addition to this, you can audit data encryption methods, access controls, and transmission of all the protocols.
To keep an eye on all the user activities, system events, and data access attempts, integrate a robust logging system in your healthcare mobile apps. It’s a great idea to use real-time monitoring tools for constantly detecting and alerting you to suspicious activities or anomalies. With this approach, you can build healthcare apps that comply with HIPAA guidelines.
Healthcare providers need to ensure that all the PHI data is only accessed by authorized professionals, and to achieve this, a robust identity and access management policy can be implemented. By doing so, role-based access controls, multi-factor authentication, and regular user access can be easily witnessed. This helps the management to maintain full-fledged control over who can view, modify, or delete sensitive medical data.
To keep PHI accurate and inviolable throughout its life cycle, various techniques can be leveraged, such as data validation. These techniques turn out to be a great help in preventing unauthorized changes and employing security measures like digital signatures or checksums to either delete or block unusual tampering.
As per the guidelines of HIPAA, if the PHI data is not in use, organizations must proceed with secure disposal. You can also set policies to set a timeline for each data ensuring easy removal from the system after completing its life-cycle. By doing so, organizations eliminate the risk of unauthorized access, specifically for data that is no longer in use.
While working with any third-party vendors, ensure that a HIPAA-compliant Business Associate Agreement (BAA) is in place. The agreement must include all the provisions for data security, breach notification, and adherence to HIPAA guidelines.
The agreement helps both parties to stay compliant with all the associated guidelines in order to maintain the privacy and security of sensitive information, safeguarding the rights of your patient.
When developing a HIPAA-compliant healthcare app, it’s crucial to focus on features that ensure patient data security while managing costs effectively. Instead of trying to include every possible feature, organizations can prioritize those basic features that align with the core functionality of their app without increasing the cost bracket.
Some of the common features are listed below, from which you can select the ideal one that suits your HIPAA-compliant app’s architecture
Features | Description | Purpose |
Data Encryption | Both the data at rest and in transit are encrypted to protect PHI from unauthorized access. | Provides top-notch security and the data |
Secure User Authentication | Implementing mechanisms like usernames, passwords, 2FA, and biometric identification for verifying authorized users. | Prevents unauthorized access to PHI |
Role-Based Access Control | Provides role-based access to PHI, ensuring only necessary personnel can view sensitive information | It is useful in reducing the risk of internal data breaches |
Audit Controls | Tracks and logs all access and actions taken within the app to monitor and detect unauthorized access. | Ensures compliance with HIPAA regulations |
Automatic Logoff | In order to prevent unauthorized access, it automatically logs users out after a certain time of inactivity | Enhances security on shared or unsecured devices |
Data Backup and Recovery | Regularly backup PHI securely to ensure data recovery in case of loss or failure. | Protects against data loss scenarios |
Data Anonymization | Removes or masks personally identifiable information to protect patient privacy. | Allows safe use of PHI for research and analysis |
Secure Messaging | Enables secure communication between healthcare providers and patients. | Protects PHI during communication |
Emergency Access Procedures | Allows authorized personnel to access PHI quickly in emergency situations. | Ensures timely access to critical information |
Vulnerability Scanning | Regularly scan for potential security vulnerabilities to identify and address risks. | Maintains app security and compliance |
Breach Notification | Instantly detects and notifies users of PHI for breaches in compliance with HIPAA regulations | Alters the organization and users with timely responses regarding security incidents |
Consent Management | Provides mechanisms for users to manage consent for data use and sharing. | Supports patient rights under HIPAA |
Security Incident Response | Equips the app with tools to detect, respond to, and recover from security incidents. | Ensures prompt action in case of breaches |
A HIPAA-compliant phone app for therapists or healthcare providers to ensure the safety of PHI requires a powerful backend and a user-friendly interface for easy navigation.
Here’s a list of tech stacks, along with their features and applications, that mobile app developers can bring into use for HIPAA-compliant app development:
Component | Description | Features | Relevant Technologies |
Frontend | User interface for healthcare professionals | User-friendly design, role-based access | HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, React.js, Angular, Vue.js |
Backend | Handles business logic, data processing, and storage | Security protocols, encryption, audit trails | Node.js, Python, Ruby on Rails, Java, .NET |
Database | Stores sensitive patient information | Data encryption, access control | MongoDB, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle DB |
API | Facilitates communication between frontend and backend | Secure endpoints, data validation | RESTful API, GraphQL, OAuth 2.0 |
Authentication | Verifies user identity and controls access | Multi-factor authentication, session management | OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, SAML, JWT |
Encryption | Protects data during transmission and storage | AES encryption, TLS/SSL | OpenSSL, Bcrypt, CryptoJS, TLS/SSL protocols |
Auditing | Tracks and logs user actions for compliance monitoring | Activity logging, access control | Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana, AWS CloudTrail |
Monitoring | Monitors system performance and detects anomalies | Real-time alerts, performance metrics | Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, Nagios |
Compliance Tools | Ensures adherence to HIPAA | Automated compliance checks, policy enforcement | HIPAA Secure Messaging, Compliance Tracking Tools |
Cloud Services | Hosts and manages application infrastructure | Scalability, data redundancy | AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure |
In January 2025, there were 66 large healthcare data breaches reported. This resulted in affecting over 2.7 million individuals, increasing ongoing threats to the privacy of patient’s information.
Source: hipaajournal
Several other HIPAA violations have occurred in recent years, due to which organizations were heavily fined. Reportedly, Anthem Inc. paid approximately $16 million in the year 2018 and $6.85 million was paid by Premera Blue Cross in the year 2020. The penalties imposed on the organizations raise a significant concern regarding the HIPAA guidelines.
To prevent the risk of data breaches and massive penalties, healthcare organisations must abide by HIPAA regulations while developing healthcare apps. Some of the immediate tips that you can keep with you while going ahead with our development process are listed below:
HIPAA guidelines and implementing them in your healthcare applications can be a challenging task to achieve as a healthcare provider. It is always advisable to seek the advice of legal experts or IT consultants who specialize in healthcare privacy law for proper interpretation of the new standards.
Healthcare practitioners can also consider partnering with IT consultants or firms having specialise in HIPAA compliance. The officials ensure to conduct of a comprehensive risk management strategy while developing customized solutions and providing top-tier training and support for your team.
Invest your time in analyzing the type of data your app is fetching and storing. Separate the PHI from the general data to create a separate and secure database for easy management, providing access to only authorized users.
If your healthcare app deals with any third-party entities for performing functions like cloud management, payment processing, or data, then you must ensure they are HIPAA compliant. Since the third-party vendors will be accessing the data or your clientele, it becomes your responsibility to keep a check on whether they comply with HIPAA or not, ensuring the safety of your PHI.
Ensuring robust security measures to protect PHI throughout its lifecycle within your system is a must. Practice encrypting data at rest and in transit while following industry-standard encryption algorithms like AES-256.
Enhance security with strong access controls by implementing mechanisms like multi-factor authentication, role-based permissions, and regular password changes to limit access to sensitive data.
Without an audit mechanism, tracking all logging of all the activities related to PHI within your application can be challenging. The audit mechanism helps in monitoring when your PHI is accessed, modified, and transmitted and by whom.
Leverage centralized logging and monitoring solutions for collecting and analyzing audit logs from various sources, including applications, databases, and network devices. Keeping a check on regular audit reports can help healthcare firms reduce the risk of data breaches.
It’s always suggested to remove PHI from any emails and notifications unless required and secured. In rare cases where including PHI is mandatory, ensure you communicate and share data on end-to-end encrypted channels that comply with HIPAA guidelines.
Switching to a different application comes with a lot of misconceptions and myths. However, with a thorough understanding and expertise, you can escape the trap of myths.
Here are some of the major myths and misconceptions associated with the development of HIPAA-compliant healthcare apps.
Myth/Misconception | Reality |
HIPAA only applies to healthcare apps | Any app handling PHI must comply with HIPAA |
Using encryption makes an app HIPAA-compliant | Encryption is just one aspect; many other requirements must be met |
Storing data on devices is HIPAA-compliant | Storing PHI on devices poses risks unless strict security measures are implemented |
Third-party tools handle HIPAA compliance | Responsibility for compliance lies with the app developer, not third-party tools |
Compliance is a one-time effort | Regular assessments and updates are necessary to maintain compliance |
Mobile apps are exempt from HIPAAHIPAA only applies to medical records | Mobile apps for healthcare handling PHI must comply with HIPAA regulations HIPAA covers any individually identifiable health information |
HIPAA compliance is too expensive | You can manage costs through risk-based compliance strategies |
Since every mobile application comes with different functionality and purpose, it makes it challenging to determine the exact cost bracket of developing an HIPAA-compliant application. Partnering with an app development firm for HIPAA-compliant app development can cost somewhere between $15,000 and $50,000+.
The factors that majorly affect the development cost of healthcare mobile apps include:
Basic-level HIPAA compliance has less or no complexity, basic data storage and limited user roles, such as only for patients and providers. This is the most suitable app for freelancers or small agencies with a development cost ranging from $20,000 to $25,000+.
Medium complexity within healthcare organizations comprises a variety of capabilities such as appointment scheduling, secure communication, and integration with basic electronic health records (EHR).To avoid data loss, the application incorporates enhanced encryption, secure authentication, and regular audits. With a medium complexity level, the cost bracket required to develop such applications ranges from $25,000 to $35,000+.
Advanced level healthcare applications are designed with a range of top-notch features like Electronic Health Record (EHR) integration, telemedicine capabilities, and user access for multiple roles like patients, providers, vendors, and administrators. With high complexity, it employs advanced encryption, multi-factor authentication, and continuous compliance monitoring. The development of such apps requires specialized healthcare app developers. The estimated cost bracket for developing highly complex apps starts from $50,000 and can exceed.
Organizations looking to develop a HIPAA compliance application for their organization must have a clear understanding of all the core features. This approach will help them to create the right budget bracket and roadmap to develop and launch their own application.
In certain confrontations by healthcare professionals, it has been found that they face challenges while finding the right team with deep knowledge and understanding. For them, here are a few points to consider while initiating the HIPAA mobile app development process.
It’s a great idea to develop an in-house team of healthcare rather than hire mobile app developers, but only if you have an unlimited budget and a lot of time to develop, employ, and train your in-house teams. In-house teams undoubtedly come with ease of communication but often lack business analysis, project management, and development expertise. It becomes the responsibility of the organization to ensure that the allocated team is equipped with the right tech stack, expertise, and skills to complete the development process.
The idea of hiring freelancers for developing healthcare mobile applications can be the cheapest option. However, businesses might have to face the consequences of a lack of awareness, expertise, and inability to manage the project efficiently. It is possible that working with freelancers can bring a lot of challenges in terms of communications, working functionalities, and developing an app with the right adherence to HIPAA guidelines.
As a healthcare professional, if you have a fixed budget, then outsourcing the project can be the right choice. Businesses can ensure control over the cost of a HIPAA-compliant app development process with a dedicated healthcare app development company, leveraging their exceptional expertise and skill set to drive growth.
Hiring Option | Pros | Cons | Cost |
In-House Team | Full control, seamless communication | High cost, time-consuming hiring, lacks expertise | $500,000 (Annually) |
Freelancers | Cost-effective, flexible hiring | Communication issues, low accountability, HIPAA risks | $20-$50 (Hourly) |
Outsourcing Company | Expert team, HIPAA compliance, faster delivery | Less direct control, dependency on an external team | $20,000-$50,000+ |
At Xicom Technologies, we help businesses switch to digital solutions. Our expertise lies in creating services across various platforms and navigating the ever-changing world of technology. Over two decades, we have helped businesses unlock the full potential of digital technologies for driving growth.
What makes us the right choice for the industries is our comprehensive suite of services and features like:
With all the stats and facts, it’s right that HIPAA-compliant app development is not merely a regulatory requirement but a crucial step toward safeguarding sensitive patient information. However, navigating the right path for developing a robust healthcare mobile app can be challenging without hiring an experienced mobile app developer.
At Xicom, a leading mobile app development company, we help businesses develop a HIPAA-compliant app for efficient management of PHI, safeguarding you from being a victim of any ransomware activities.
The time taken to build healthcare apps depends on the intricacy of the application. An estimate to develop healthcare applications adhering to HIPAA requires 4-18 months, depending on the complexity.
Healthcare service-providing applications help patients to directly communicate with doctors by fetching PHI. So analyzing for features like encryption and security measures can help you identify if it complies with HIPAA or not.
Validation of critical elements such as data encryption, access controls, audit trails, and secure data transmission would be most appropriate. We can assist you in completing your software checklist based on HIPAA standards.
While talking about the HIPAA compliance checklist, it is mandatory to appoint a HIPAA compliance expert, thoroughly understanding the HIPAA’s privacy, security, and Breach notification rules.
Developing a healthcare app compliant with HIPAA utilizes a certain cost bracket that small businesses may or may not be able to approve. A healthcare app with less functionality can be developed within small budget estimations.