At a glance
Kareo, now part of Tebra, is a practice management and EHR platform serving small and mid-size medical practices across many specialties. It handles scheduling, clinical documentation, claims, patient billing, and patient engagement. The primary buyer is a practice owner or office manager picking the operational backbone of the clinic. Pricing is generally per provider.
PHIGuard is a HIPAA compliance and task management platform. It is built for the practice administrator who has to maintain a defensible compliance program: risk analyses, policies, training, vendor BAAs, and incident logs. Pricing is published plan details, and BAA details are published on the pricing page. PHIGuard is not a replacement for Tebra; it sits beside it and does the work the EHR was never designed to do.
Where PHIGuard differs from Kareo / Tebra
- Product category. Tebra is practice management plus EHR. PHIGuard is compliance and task management.
- Buyer and user. Tebra is bought by clinical and billing leadership. PHIGuard is bought by the person responsible for HIPAA — usually the practice administrator.
- Pricing axis. Tebra scales with providers. PHIGuard is published plan details regardless of headcount.
- Compliance depth. Tebra signs a BAA for its product scope. PHIGuard treats compliance — policies, training, BAAs, incidents, audit trail — as the entire product.
Pricing model differences
Per-provider pricing follows the revenue logic of an EHR: more providers, more visits, more documentation, more billing. That logic does not transfer to compliance, where the program is one program regardless of provider count. Charging per seat for compliance creates a predictable squeeze: every new hire raises the cost of staying compliant, even though the underlying work is unchanged.
BAA and compliance built-in vs add-on
Tebra signs a BAA for the PHI it processes inside the EHR and practice management product. That is the right scope for an EHR vendor. It does not — and should not be expected to — cover the policies, training records, vendor inventory, and incident log a covered entity must maintain across its whole operation.
PHIGuard publishes BAA details on the pricing page and is built around that broader program. Policies live in versioned form with staff acknowledgments. Training is assigned and tracked. Every vendor BAA is logged with renewal dates. Incidents are logged in an append-only audit trail. The compliance program is the product.
Who Kareo / Tebra is right for
Choose Tebra if your priority is the operational backbone of the clinic — scheduling, charts, claims, statements, patient engagement — across one or more specialties. The decision is primarily about clinical and revenue-cycle fit.
Who PHIGuard is right for
Choose PHIGuard if your priority is a defensible HIPAA compliance program. The administrator wants one place to manage risk analyses, policies, training, BAAs, and incidents — without spreadsheets, shared drives, and email threads. PHIGuard is built for that role and that audience.
How to choose between them
- Define the gap. Is the gap operational (scheduling, charting, billing) or compliance (risk analysis, policies, training, BAAs)? They are different problems with different owners.
- Match the buyer. Tebra answers to clinical and revenue-cycle leaders. PHIGuard answers to the practice administrator.
- Inspect pricing. Per provider scales with revenue. Published plan details does not. Compliance budget should not scale per seat.
- Read each BAA. Confirm what each vendor’s BAA actually covers. EHR BAAs do not cover your full program.
- Plan coexistence. Tebra holds patient and billing data. PHIGuard holds compliance program artifacts. They do not need to share data; they need to coexist cleanly.
For more on building a compliance program around your EHR, see our compliance operations guide. For pricing, see PHIGuard pricing.
FAQ
Does Kareo / Tebra include a HIPAA compliance program? Tebra signs a BAA for the PHI inside its product, which is appropriate. It does not run your overall compliance program — risk analysis, policies, training, vendor BAAs, and incident response live outside the EHR.
Can PHIGuard replace Kareo or Tebra? No. Tebra is practice management plus EHR. PHIGuard is the compliance program layer. Most clinics need both.
How does PHIGuard’s pricing compare? Tebra uses per-provider pricing. PHIGuard uses pricing details published on the pricing page across three tiers, with the BAA details published on the pricing page.
Want pricing details published on the pricing page for your compliance program, with BAA details published on the pricing page? See PHIGuard pricing or learn more about HIPAA at PHIGuard.
Bottom line
PHIGuard wins the compliance-operations part of this decision for clinics that need ownership, evidence, and follow-through outside the EHR. Kareo can stay central for practice management while PHIGuard handles the recurring HIPAA work that otherwise becomes scattered.
Kareo / Tebra still makes sense when the clinic needs EHR and practice management software. If that is the real need, respect it. If the need is running HIPAA week after week inside a clinic, choose PHIGuard.