We've been getting asked by customers and prospects about Campaigner and whether they can use it in a HIPAA compliant manner. We know the HIPAA industry is vast so we can empathize with just how many people need to use cloud-based services in this sector.
Today we will determine if Campaigner offers HIPAA compliant email for marketing or not.
About Campaigner
Campaigner is a marketing automation platform. It has been around for nearly two decades and has over 100,000 customers.
Campaigner and the business associate agreement
We’ve previously talked about how a business associate agreement (BAA) is a written contract between a covered entity and a business associate. It is required by law for HIPAA compliance. We checked Campaigner's website and saw no mention of signing a BAA.
Campaigner and storing protected health information
Protected health information (PHI) is any information that can reasonably be used to identify an individual and is used during the course of care. It is information about a patient which is protected by HIPAA. We found a relevant passage for covered entities on the company's terms of use page regarding PHI. It states:
9. No Unlawful or Prohibited Use You shall not use the Services to store:
- Any “protected health information” (as such term is used in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-191)
Does Campaigner offer HIPAA compliant email service?
We found no evidence that Campaigner will sign a BAA. Furthermore, the company expressly states that you cannot use its platform to store PHI. According to HIPAA, even just a name is PHI if it is in any way associated with a healthcare provider—such as in a marketing email coming from your practice. Any marketing email you send contains both a name and an email address in the header, so really, you can’t send any emails via Campaigner in a HIPAA compliant manner.Conclusion
Campaigner is not a HIPAA compliant email solution.
HIPAA email marketing tools comparison
To meet the unmet need for HIPAA compliant email marketing, we created Paubox Marketing. It is the only solution that will:- Sign a BAA
- Provide military-grade encryption
- Allow you to include PHI in your marketing emails
- Allow patients to read your emails directly from their inbox with no extra steps
In addition, Paubox Marketing is HITRUST CSF certified. Compared to the standard marketing tools, Paubox Marketing is the best option for maintaining HIPAA compliance while harnessing the power of personalized email marketing.
SEE ALSO: Why Paubox Marketing is the Best HIPAA Email Marketing Solution Available
| Company | Will they sign a BAA? | Can you send PHI? |
| Adobe Campaign | NO | NO |
| Blue Orchid Marketing | NO | NO |
| Campaign Monitor | NO | NO |
| Campaigner | NO | NO |
| Drip | NO | NO |
| Emma | NO | NO |
| GetResponse | NO | NO |
| Hubspot | NO | NO |
| L-Soft | NO | NO |
| Mad Mimi (GoDaddy) | NO | NO |
| Mailchimp | NO | NO |
| MailerLite | NO | NO |
| Marketo (Adobe) | NO | NO |
| Salesforce Pardot | NO | NO |
| SendGrid (Twilio) | NO | NO |
| Yesware | NO | NO |
| ActiveCampaign | YES | NO |
| Constant Contact | YES | NO |
| Infusionsoft by Keap | YES | NO |
| Salesforce Marketing Cloud | YES | NO |
| Eloqua (Oracle) | YES | YES ** |
| Paubox Marketing | YES | YES |
(** To use Oracle Eloqua in a HIPAA compliant manner, recipients receive two emails for every message you send. Patients must also log into a secure message center to view your message— it does not appear in their inboxes. This creates friction and makes it less likely that your patients will read your marketing email.)