What an audit would find
Most practices fail on operational evidence.
OCR checks whether your staff follows the policies in the binder. Patient Protect tracks the operational behaviors that actually get audited.
$9.8M
What a breach costs when compliance is documentation, not infrastructure.1
This is what it costs when compliance is just a checkbox.
Built for independent practices: dental, medical, behavioral health, specialty.
Compliance software is built for audits. Patient Protect is built for breaches.
Patient Protect — Compliance Scoreboard
Breach Intel — Live
Change Healthcare · 190,000,000 records · TN · Hacking/IT Incident●Kaiser Foundation Health Plan · 13,400,000 records · CA · Unauthorized Access●Ascension Health · 5,599,699 records · WI · Hacking/IT Incident●WebTPA Employer Services · 2,429,175 records · TX · Hacking/IT Incident●MedStar Health · 183,079 records · MD · Hacking/IT Incident●
Showing recent breach data — live feed loading
The breach surface
Independent practices are the most exposed segment in healthcare.
Small practices carry hospital-grade obligations without hospital-grade staffing, tooling, or visibility. The exposure compounds every day it goes unaddressed.
Live tracking of breach reports, enforcement actions, and compliance updates is published in HIPAA Pulse — our editorial publication.
Where patient data leaks
Three blind spots. Every practice. Right now.
Breaches start in the gaps no one is watching — staff workflows, vendor relationships, communication habits.
8–15 unmonitored channels are leaking ePHI.
Staff inboxes, personal phones, unvetted SaaS vendors, paper intake, fax. Each one is a separate HIPAA exposure. Attackers have already mapped them.
- 58% of healthcare breaches originate from internal actors (Verizon DBIR)
Patient Protect maps every channel before OCR has to.
The security-first layer
Compliance documentation tells you what to do. Patient Protect does it.
01
The moment
A login from an unrecognized device.
Documentation says
Restrict access to authorized devices.
~/patient-protect.system
live
23:47:18›enforced
01Triggers MFA challenge.
02Captures device fingerprint.
03Notifies the security officer.
02
The moment
A vendor's BAA expires.
Documentation says
Maintain current BAAs.
~/patient-protect.system
live
T-60d 02:00:00›enforced
01Flags expiry 60 days out.
02Gates ePHI on day one.
03
The moment
New hire gets full admin.
Documentation says
Apply minimum necessary access.
~/patient-protect.system
live
08:14:33›enforced
01Provisions role-based access on login.
04
The moment
Workflow drifts mid-quarter.
Documentation says
Reassess annually.
~/patient-protect.system
live
14:22:09›enforced
01Detects the change.
02Logs it.
03Notifies the security officer.
The architecture advantage
You're 70% covered before you write a single policy.
Most HIPAA platforms hand you a blank slate and a checklist. Patient Protect's architecture enforces ~25 requirements the moment you sign up. One hour of guided setup brings you to ~53 of 75 — roughly 70% — before you write your first policy.
The hard work isn't gone. It's just no longer the first thing standing between you and coverage.
See the full first-hour breakdownBased on internal review of platform architecture and guided onboarding. Full breakdown: 75 distinct HIPAA requirements mapped to platform controls.
Minute zero
~25 / 75
Enforced at minute zero
Architecture alone — no clicks.
First hour
~53 / 75
Covered in your first hour
Guided setup + acknowledgments.
≈ 70% of HIPAA
How it works
You can use Patient Protect before you pay for it.
Steps 1–3 are free tools on this site. Steps 4–5 begin once you join the platform.
1Free
See your risk
Take the free assessment and get a real compliance score.
Five minutes. No login required. You will see exactly where your practice stands — and where it does not.
2FreeUnderstand your exposure
Map how patient data moves across your practice.
The ePHI Data Flow Mapper traces every vendor, device, and workflow that touches patient information.
3FreeQuantify the cost
See what a breach would actually cost you.
The Risk Calculator converts practice size, record volume, and operational complexity into dollar exposure.
4PlatformFix it
Move to the platform and close the gaps at the system level.
Secure messaging, access management, audit trails, training, and daily compliance tasks — all in one place.
5PlatformStay protected
Continuous monitoring keeps compliance current as the office changes.
Live scoring, daily diagnostics, breach intelligence, and automated task generation keep you ahead of drift.
The 10 questions
Patient Protect answers yes to all ten.
Ask every vendor on your list. Then compare.
What to ask
Patient Protect
01
Risk assessment that satisfies §164.308(a)(1)
A readiness quiz is not a risk analysis.
Full SRA wizard mapped to NIST CSF with live scoring
02
Auto-generated policies with workforce acknowledgment
HIPAA requires documented proof your staff reviewed them.
48 policies from your risk profile, versioned acknowledgment
03
Staff training with delivery tracking
§164.308(a)(5) — sending a PDF is not sufficient.
80+ modules, completion tracking, audit-ready records
04
Full BAA lifecycle management
Expired BAAs are a top enforcement target.
E-signature, renewal alerts, Vendor Risk Scanner
Yes on all 10. Now run the checklist on the rest.
From $39/mo · No long-term contracts.
Compare directly
What's included
Twenty modules. Five layers. One operating system.
Every compliance function your practice needs — risk intelligence, secure messaging, workforce training, breach monitoring, audit trails — running as one system.
Your SRA generates your risk queue. Your risk queue gates your BAAs. Your BAAs control your messaging. Your messaging generates your audit trail. Your audit trail feeds your next SRA. Compliance, as a closed loop.
SystemDefenseOperationsNetworkIntelligence
See the platform in action — 5 min
$1.5M
Maximum OCR penalty per violation category per year
The evidence
Compliance is an operating state you can measure.
Common failures we fix
The four most common HIPAA violations in independent practices.
Texting patients. Shared logins. Missing BAAs. Stale training records. The platform addresses each with automated workflows and continuous monitoring.
Before and after
From 'we think we are compliant' to 'we can prove it.'
The shift is operational: continuous scoring replaces annual guesswork, audit trails replace memory, and daily tasks replace quarterly panic.
“
Exactly what small clinics like ours need to stay safe without hiring an IT team.
Dr. Thomas E MurrayD.D.S. · Patient Protect Member Since 2017
Free tools
We give away what others charge for.
No login, no credit card, no trial timer. If independent practices can't see their risk, they can't fix it.
These tools will show you exactly where your practice is exposed. Some of what you find will be uncomfortable. That's the point.
When you're ready for the full platform — continuous monitoring, automated evidence, secure messaging — Patient Protect starts at $39/month.
Free
AI
Ask PIPAA
An AI HIPAA compliance assistant that answers your questions about the Security Rule, Privacy Rule, breach response, risk analysis, and more — free, instant, no login required.
Open tool
FreeDiagnostics
HIPAA Readiness Scan
See what an OCR investigator would see when they look at your practice website. Checks for tracking pixels, security gaps, email vulnerabilities, and missing HIPAA documents — in 30 seconds.
Open tool
FreeAssessment
Unified Risk Assessment
A comprehensive HIPAA risk analysis combining compliance readiness, entity classification, practice profile, and ePHI data flow into a single risk score.
Open tool
FreeAssessment
HIPAA Self-Assessment
A seven-question readiness check with action-oriented guidance and clear next steps.
Open tool
FreeGovernance
Entity Determination Tool
Determine whether you operate as a covered entity, business associate, hybrid entity, or vendor.
Open tool
FreeVisibility
ePHI Data Flow Mapper
Map how patient data moves across vendors, devices, staff, and systems before something leaks.
Open tool
Free iOS App
Download on the App StorePatient Protect Signal
Breach alerts, compliance tools, and risk intelligence — in your pocket. Free, no account required.
From the blog
What independent practices are reading right now.
Breach IntelligenceNovember 4, 2025
Healthcare Data Breach Statistics 2026: 190M Patients, $9.8M Per Breach
276 million Americans had health data exposed in 2024. Medical records sell for 10x the value of credit cards. AI amplified exploit value by up to 30%. Here are the numbers — and what they mean.
Product & PlatformOctober 27, 2025
Top HIPAA Compliance Software for Independent Practices — Honest Comparison (2026)
Most HIPAA compliance software is designed for hospitals and large healthcare systems — not independent practitioners. This comparison analyzes 19 platforms to help you find a solution that actually fits your practice.
Product & PlatformMarch 3, 2026
What HIPAA Compliance Actually Costs Small Practices ($39–$1,500/mo, 2026)
Search for 'HIPAA compliance cost' and you'll find estimates ranging from $5,000 to $150,000. Neither is particularly useful if you're an independent practitioner trying to figure out what you actually need to spend.
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Secure Care Research Institute
The evidence base behind everything we build.
SSRN
The Economics of ePHI Exposure
Long-tail breach economics for healthcare organizations, with emphasis on the compounding cost structure that hits small practices hardest.
Read on SSRNSSRN
The Cyber-Economic Stack
Research referenced throughout the site’s AI-risk argument, focused on how healthcare data becomes a financialized attack asset.
Read on SSRNCommon questions
Six questions we get a lot.
01
What is Patient Protect?
Patient Protect is a security-first HIPAA compliance platform built for independent healthcare providers. It provides automated security risk assessments, real-time threat monitoring, policy management, staff training, and secure communication tools — without enterprise pricing or complexity.
02
How much does Patient Protect cost?
Patient Protect offers two plans: Core at $39/month for essential SaaS compliance, and Pro at $99/month for complete operational visibility including advanced monitoring, training, and secure messaging. Both include a 14-day free trial (credit card required for identity verification — no charge until trial ends). A free risk assessment is also available with no account required.
03
Who is Patient Protect designed for?
Independent healthcare providers including dental practices, medical offices, behavioral health and therapy practices, chiropractic offices, physical therapy centers, optometry practices, and dermatology clinics. It is not designed for large hospital systems or enterprise organizations with dedicated IT departments.
04
Does Patient Protect help with the HIPAA Security Risk Assessment?
Yes. Patient Protect includes an automated Security Risk Assessment (SRA) tool mapped to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. It identifies vulnerabilities, scores risk, and generates documentation required by the HIPAA Security Rule.
05
What free HIPAA tools does Patient Protect offer?
Several free tools with no login required: a real-time HIPAA Breach Dashboard tracking all OCR-reported U.S. breaches, an abbreviated HIPAA Risk Assessment, a comprehensive HIPAA Compliance Roadmap and Checklist, an ePHI Flow Risk Mapper, and a HIPAA Risk Calculator.
06
How is Patient Protect different from other HIPAA compliance platforms?
Patient Protect provides continuous real-time security monitoring and active breach prevention. Most compliance platforms focus primarily on generating documentation and policies. Patient Protect starts at $39–$99/month with no contracts — built specifically for independent practices.
Next step
Start free. See your compliance score in 10 minutes.
14-day free trial — credit card required for verification, no charge until it ends. Or start with the free risk assessment — no account needed.