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Enabling HIPAA support for your account

Enabling HIPAA support for your account

If you're the account owner, you can enable your IBM Cloud® account to be HIPAA supported. HIPAA support can be useful if you plan to include Protected Health Information (PHI) in HIPAA-enabled services.

The US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act define standards for handling electronic healthcare transactions and information. If you or your company is a covered entity as defined by HIPAA, you must enable the HIPAA Supported setting if you run sensitive workloads that are regulated under HIPAA and the HITECH Act. Learn more about IBM Cloud compliance in Compliance on the IBM Cloud.

Enabling this setting has the following effects:

  • Enables you to filter on HIPAA Enabled services in the catalog
  • Indicates to IBM that your account stores protected health information (PHI)
  • Digitally accepts the IBM Business Associate Addendum (BAA) for covered entities

Enable this setting only if you or your company is a covered entity as defined by HIPAA. If you or your company is a business associate of a covered entity, contact IBM Cloud Sales to accept the applicable BAA. For more information about HIPAA definitions of covered entities and business associates, see the US Department of Health & Human Services website.

Accounts that enable the HIPAA Supported setting still have access to the full catalog of services. IBM Cloud services typically offer multiple plans. The HIPAA Enabled label on a service can apply to all available plans or be limited to specific plans or configurations. You as the client are solely responsible for limiting PHI to HIPAA Enabled product plans and architecting in accordance with HIPAA and HITECH.

  1. In the IBM Cloud console, go to Manage > Account, and select Account setting in the console.

  2. For the HIPAA Supported option, click On.

  3. Read the information about enabling this setting.

    You can't disable the setting after you enable it.

  4. Select Accept, and click Submit.

    After you enable the HIPAA Supported setting, you can use the HIPAA Enabled filter to find products that are HIPAA enabled. In the IBM Cloud catalog, expand the Compliance section and select HIPAA Enabled.