Industry guide

Managed IT diligence for medical practices.

Practices hold patient charts, imaging, billing, and everything else HIPAA calls protected health information. A practice answers for its IT vendor's failures: HIPAA holds the covered entity responsible, breach notification runs on a federal clock, and downtime during patient hours is a clinical problem, not just a business one.

What binds you

The frameworks

HIPAA Security RuleThe frameworkAdministrative, physical, and technical safeguards for electronic PHI, including a required risk analysis.

HIPAA Business Associate AgreementThe frameworkA signed BAA before any vendor touches systems holding PHI.

HHS breach notificationThe frameworkFederal reporting duties when PHI is compromised, on defined timelines.

The industry question

Is the EHR itself inside the backup scope, and who coordinates with the EHR vendor?

It belongs on the checklist, in writing, next to the other 18.

The method

The bench, applied

Observe

The tactics

Lock-in contracts, stripped quotes, and exit traps, documented in the industry's own words with checkable sources.

See the tactics Adapt

The standard

Fourteen marks of a fair managed IT agreement, stated plainly and provider-neutral.

See the standard Protect

The benchmark

The four-step method and the 18 questions to ask in writing, with a printable checklist.

Use the benchmark

Your state

Medical Practices, state by state

The same diligence with your state's verification layer: the breach statute, the entity search, the regulator.

Educational reference, not legal advice. Frameworks are summarized at the framework level; confirm specifics for your situation with counsel or the primary source.