Best HIPAA Compliant Telehealth Platforms for Clinics

What makes a telehealth platform HIPAA compliant

Every video session for clinical care involves PHI — the patient’s identity, the reason for the visit, and anything the provider and patient discuss. The telehealth vendor processes that data on your behalf, which creates a business associate relationship and a requirement for a signed BAA.

Beyond the BAA, HIPAA-compliant telehealth requires encryption of video and audio in transit, access controls that prevent unauthorized parties from joining sessions, and audit logging of session events. Virtual waiting rooms are a practical control that reduces the risk of one patient overhearing another’s session.

The critical distinction for small clinics: enforcement discretion issued by HHS during the public health emergency that permitted use of non-HIPAA-compliant video tools for telehealth has ended. Covered entities must use HIPAA-compliant platforms with BAAs in place. Any clinic still using consumer video tools for clinical visits is exposed.

Our picks

Doxy.me

BAA status: paid plans only. The free plan does not include a BAA.

Doxy.me is purpose-built for healthcare video visits. The interface is intentionally simple — providers share a room link, patients click to enter the virtual waiting room, and the provider admits them when ready. No patient app download is required.

The free plan offers the basic video interface but explicitly excludes a BAA. That makes the free tier appropriate only for testing the product, not for actual clinical use. The Pro plan ($35/provider/month) and Clinic plan (custom pricing) include BAA coverage.

Features on paid plans include session recording, multi-participant calls, screen sharing, and customizable waiting room branding. The session recording feature creates PHI — confirm that the BAA explicitly covers recording storage.

Clinic fit: solo providers and small practices that want a low-friction, purpose-built telehealth tool without the overhead of a full practice management platform.

Zoom for Healthcare

BAA status: available under the Zoom for Healthcare plan specifically. Standard Zoom accounts do not carry healthcare BAA coverage.

This distinction is the most frequently misunderstood point in telehealth compliance. Many clinics use standard Zoom for meetings and assume their existing account covers clinical visits. Zoom’s standard Terms of Service explicitly exclude HIPAA compliance. You must purchase Zoom for Healthcare — a separate product — and execute the Zoom BAA before any clinical use.

Once the BAA is in place, Zoom for Healthcare supports all the features clinicians expect: video visits, screen sharing, session recording, and breakout rooms. The platform is familiar to patients, which helps with adoption.

Pricing for Zoom for Healthcare is separate from standard Zoom licensing. Clinics already paying for standard Zoom will pay additionally for the healthcare-specific tier.

Clinic fit: practices that want a familiar video platform for telehealth and are willing to manage the additional licensing step for the healthcare-specific plan.

SimplePractice Telehealth

BAA status: included at all paid tiers.

SimplePractice includes telehealth video as part of its practice management platform. The BAA covers the full SimplePractice platform including video sessions — there is no additional tier required for HIPAA coverage.

The telehealth feature is integrated with SimplePractice scheduling and billing. Patients receive a session link automatically when an appointment is confirmed. No separate video platform account is required.

SimplePractice is primarily designed for behavioral health, therapy, and mental health practices. The telehealth feature fits naturally into a workflow where video is the primary care modality rather than a supplement to in-office visits.

Pricing is per provider per month. For a solo or small-group practice, SimplePractice covers telehealth, scheduling, intake forms, billing, and the patient portal in one subscription.

Clinic fit: behavioral health and mental health practices seeking an all-in-one platform where telehealth is the primary care delivery model.

Spruce Health

BAA status: included.

Spruce Health approaches clinical communication as a unified layer — combining telehealth video, secure messaging, phone calls, and patient intake in a single platform under a single BAA. Rather than purchasing separate tools for video visits and secure messaging, Spruce provides both under one agreement.

For small clinics managing multiple communication channels (phone, text, video), Spruce reduces the number of vendor BAAs to maintain. That operational simplification is meaningful for practices without a dedicated compliance coordinator.

Features include video visits, HIPAA-compliant text messaging, automated appointment reminders, digital intake forms, and a team inbox for front-desk staff. The platform has a patient mobile app with above-average adoption rates.

Pricing is per clinic per month, not per user — a structural advantage for growing clinic teams.

Clinic fit: small primary care and multi-specialty clinics that want to consolidate patient communication under one HIPAA-covered platform.

Updox

BAA status: included.

Updox is a multi-function clinical communication platform covering telehealth, secure messaging, electronic fax, and patient reminders. For a small clinic that currently uses separate tools for each of those functions, Updox consolidates them under a single BAA.

The telehealth component is solid but not the most feature-rich on this list. Updox’s strength is breadth — the combination of video visits, fax, and secure messaging in one platform with one vendor agreement is operationally simpler than managing three separate contracts.

Pricing is per provider per month. Request BAA documentation during the sales process and confirm that each communication channel is covered explicitly.

Clinic fit: small clinics looking to consolidate multiple communication tools under one platform and one BAA.

How to evaluate telehealth platforms for HIPAA compliance

Confirm BAA coverage at your plan tier. Free tiers almost never include BAA coverage. Confirm that the BAA applies to the specific plan you are purchasing before conducting any clinical visits.

Review session recording policies. If your clinicians record sessions, confirm that recording storage is covered under the BAA and that you understand where recordings are stored and for how long.

Assess virtual waiting room controls. The platform must prevent patients from joining before the provider is ready and must support one-on-one sessions that cannot be accessed by other patients.

Test patient onboarding. Patients who cannot connect to a video visit are not receiving care. Test the patient-side experience on mobile and desktop before full deployment.

Document the BAA in your vendor inventory. Your risk analysis should reference the telehealth vendor, the BAA effective date, and the features covered.

PHIGuard as your compliance operations layer

PHIGuard tracks your telehealth vendor BAA alongside every other business associate agreement your clinic maintains. When a BAA nears renewal, PHIGuard assigns the review task to the appropriate staff member. When a new telehealth feature is enabled, PHIGuard provides the task template to document the BAA scope review.

Compliance for telehealth is not a one-time setup. It is ongoing tracking — and that is what PHIGuard handles.