Many clinics land on Microsoft Planner because it is bundled with Microsoft 365. The BAA question is handled at the tenant level: if your clinic has a Microsoft 365 Business Associate Agreement, Planner sits under that umbrella. The harder question is whether Planner is actually a compliance tool. It is not.
The BAA Is Real, The Tool Is Generic
Planner is a lightweight task board. It has no HIPAA-specific audit trail, no PHI-aware fields, no incident response workflow, no compliance templates. A Microsoft BAA covers the platform; it does not turn Planner into a compliance program. If OCR asks for your incident register, access review log, or annual training records, Planner cannot produce them cleanly.
What Changes With PHIGuard
PHIGuard is purpose-built for covered entities. Every tier — starting at $99/month per clinic — includes a signed BAA, and the product is designed around compliance-specific workflows:
- Immutable audit trail satisfying HIPAA §164.312(b), queryable per user and per record
- PHI-aware fields that keep patient data out of notification emails and log sinks
- Compliance templates for HIPAA annual training, risk analysis, incident response, and policy reviews
- Role-based access scoped to clinic roles — not generic Microsoft 365 groups
Pricing Comparison
| Microsoft Planner | PHIGuard | |
|---|---|---|
| BAA | Covered via Microsoft 365 BAA | Yes, every tier (product-specific) |
| Pricing model | Bundled with M365 per user | Per clinic/month |
| HIPAA audit trail | Generic M365 audit logs | Purpose-built, HIPAA-scoped |
| Compliance templates | No | Yes |
| Starting price | M365 subscription | $99/clinic/mo |
Who Should Use PHIGuard Alongside Microsoft Planner
You do not need to rip out Microsoft 365 to use PHIGuard. Keep Planner for generic team coordination. Use PHIGuard for the clinical and compliance workflows — incident tracking, credentialing, annual training, access reviews — where you need purpose-built tooling and a clean audit story.