Does HIPAA apply to your business — and what does it ask of you?
HIPAA reaches more businesses than people expect — the billing company and the IT provider as well as the dental office — and fewer than others fear. Answer a few questions to see whether you're a covered entity, a business associate or neither, then what the rule in force today asks of you. Two minutes; runs in your browser, nothing stored.
Checked October 7, 2026. Not legal advice.
Do you provide health care — as a doctor, dentist, therapist, chiropractor, pharmacy, clinic, lab or home-health service?
Anyone who diagnoses, treats or cares for patients, or dispenses to them.
Are you a health plan or a health care clearinghouse?
Insurers, HMOs, and the companies that convert billing data between formats for providers and plans.
Do you handle patient information FOR a practice, pharmacy or health plan — billing, IT support, cloud hosting, transcription, shredding, consulting?
If a covered business shares patient information with you so you can do a job for them, you're probably their business associate.
Do you collect health information directly from consumers — a health or fitness app, a wearable, a wellness platform?
Only matters if HIPAA doesn't reach you otherwise — other rules can.
Answer each question to see where you stand.
A free guide to help you work out where you stand — not legal advice and not an HHS determination. Whether HIPAA covers you depends on details this page can't check (hybrid entities, employer health plans, research arrangements, what a vendor actually does with the data). If the answer matters, confirm it with a lawyer.