Is your Google Workspace actually HIPAA compliant? Get a 50+ point compliance audit that checks BAA status, ePHI protections, and every security setting that matters for HIPAA.
Is Google Workspace HIPAA compliant? Google Workspace can be HIPAA compliant, but only when configured correctly. Google will sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA), but the BAA alone doesn’t make you compliant. You’re responsible for configuring Google Workspace to meet HIPAA requirements, including access controls, audit logging, email encryption, Drive sharing restrictions, and more.
Our Google Workspace security audit includes a HIPAA compliance review that checks whether your environment meets the HIPAA Security Rule requirements for electronic protected health information (ePHI). We verify BAA status, DLP rules for ePHI, sharing restrictions, mobile device policies, and audit log configurations.
Adelia Risk set up our HIPAA-compliant Google Workspace to protect PHI.
What I like the most about Adelia Risk is their wonderful customer service.
They respond promptly and patiently answer all of my questions. I appreciate how they guided me through the setup process and made me feel like they value my business.
Maurizio E., Google Workspace Client
Therapy Practice in Indiana
Adelia Risk is exactly what we needed for our business.
We’re in healthcare and protecting PHI is critical.
We’ve been using Google Workspace for a while now, but we weren’t sure if it was set up properly. Adelia Risk made it so we don’t have to worry.
They took care of our email security, made sure our computers were set up the right way, and even took the time to train our staff on how to be safe, secure, and HIPAA-compliant.
Mark L., Google Workspace Client
Nursing Home in Rhode Island
Adelia Risk’s service is perfect for our business.
As a firm that services multiple health and social care companies and handles PHI, we take cybersecurity just as seriously as our clients.
Adelia configured our Google Workspace to be HIPAA compliant, and helps with ongoing security and HIPAA questions.
Their team is quick to respond and very helpful when we have questions about HIPAA or cybersecurity.
Juliette P., Google Workspace Client
Healthcare Services Company, New York
Signing a BAA covers Google’s obligations, not yours. It doesn’t address sharing settings, admin configurations, or whether staff can forward patient emails to personal accounts. The BAA is the starting line, not the finish.
At Adelia Risk, we audit dozens of healthcare environments a year. The most common gap we find? Organizations signed the BAA and assumed everything else was handled.
Google manages the infrastructure. You manage the configuration. Sharing settings, admin permissions, audit logs, email forwarding rules, and third-party app access are all your responsibility under HIPAA. Google provides the tools, but you have to configure them correctly.
This catches a lot of healthcare organizations off guard. Google’s marketing makes it sound like they handle everything. They don’t.
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) enforces HIPAA against practices of all sizes. Small practices appear in HHS enforcement actions regularly. If you handle patient records in Google Workspace, you’re in scope.
OCR doesn’t just go after large hospital systems. Solo practitioners and small group practices have faced penalties for HIPAA violations. The size of your practice doesn’t determine your compliance obligations.
Encryption is one of many HIPAA technical safeguard requirements. Are audit logs capturing ePHI access events? Do DLP rules block patient data from leaving your domain? Can users share records externally? Can staff forward emails with patient information to personal accounts?
During a Google Workspace HIPAA audit, we regularly find organizations with encryption enabled but everything else wide open.
Adelia Risk audits Google Workspace environments for HIPAA compliance regularly. The most common pattern we see: organizations signed a BAA, turned on 2-step verification, and assumed the rest was handled. Google’s defaults prioritize convenience, meaning external sharing is enabled, ePHI can leave the domain, and DLP rules are off.
We see this constantly during HIPAA compliance reviews. Healthcare practices assume the BAA has them covered, then we find a long list of configuration gaps that need to be closed before they’re actually compliant.
With Adelia Risk’s audit, you get everything you need to close your Google Workspace HIPAA compliance gaps.
Every critical security setting in your Google Workspace, checked and documented against HIPAA technical safeguard requirements. Our process goes well beyond a quick scan. This audit is a thorough review by security professionals who know what HIPAA requires.
We’ve found this is the most useful part for clients. Instead of a list of 50 problems, you know exactly where to start. HIPAA gaps get flagged separately from general security recommendations. Your report organizes findings into four priority levels:
You won’t be guessing where to find settings. Every recommendation includes screenshots and step-by-step instructions for how to make the fix. Hand it to your IT team or follow along yourself.
You’ll set up a temporary and free admin account in the Google Admin Console for us. It will take you 5 minutes. We can’t see your patient records or any ePHI!
Our security team reviews all 50+ checkpoints, documents current configurations, and flags anything that doesn’t meet HIPAA technical safeguard requirements. Typical turnaround: 2-4 weeks.
You’ll get a full detailed report, including screenshots, paths to find the settings, and specific recommendations about what to implement customized to your practice. A lot of our healthcare clients don’t have dedicated IT staff, so we handle implementation for them.
A one-time HIPAA compliance audit is a great start. But Google changes settings, new features roll out, employees make mistakes, and HIPAA requirements evolve. We’ve seen healthcare clients who fixed everything, then six months later found new compliance gaps from configuration drift and feature updates they didn’t know about.
Adelia Risk’s Google Workspace HIPAA compliance monitoring keeps your environment compliant continuously.
Google Workspace can be HIPAA compliant, but only when configured correctly. Google will sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA), but the BAA alone doesn’t make you compliant. You’re responsible for configuring Google Workspace to meet HIPAA requirements, including access controls, audit logging, email encryption, Drive sharing restrictions, and more.
Our Google Workspace HIPAA compliance audit checks whether your environment meets the HIPAA Security Rule requirements for electronic protected health information (ePHI). We verify BAA status, DLP rules for ePHI, sharing restrictions, mobile device policies, and audit log configurations.
Yes. As part of our Google Workspace security audit, we verify whether a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) has been executed with Google. A BAA is required under HIPAA before storing or processing protected health information (ePHI) in Google Workspace. We also check that your Google Workspace edition supports BAA coverage (Business Plus, Enterprise, or Education Plus) and that covered services are configured correctly. Many organizations assume a BAA is in place when it hasn’t actually been signed. Our audit catches this.
Google will sign a BAA for Google Workspace Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, and Education Plus editions. The BAA covers core services like Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Google Meet, and Google Chat. If you’re on Business Starter or Business Standard, you’ll need to upgrade before you can achieve HIPAA compliance with Google Workspace. Our audit includes verifying your edition and BAA coverage.
The audit is focused on HIPAA technical safeguard requirements for Google Workspace. The findings also align with security controls relevant to SOC 2, and we note those overlaps in the report. If you’re pursuing SOC 2 alongside HIPAA, the Workspace audit is a useful starting point. For a full SOC 2 readiness assessment, we can scope that separately.
Absolutely not. The Global Reader role we use gives us access to settings only. We cannot read your emails, view your documents, or access any patient records or ePHI. We see configuration options, but not the content. This is the first question every healthcare client asks, and the answer is always the same: your data stays private.
Typically 2-4 weeks from when you grant us access. The timeline depends on how quickly you can set up our admin account and schedule the findings review. Most clients have their HIPAA compliance report within two weeks.
That’s exactly why you’re getting the audit. Most healthcare organizations we audit aren’t fully compliant when we start. Our report tells you exactly what needs to change, prioritized by risk level, with screenshots and step-by-step instructions. If you don’t have IT staff to implement the fixes, we offer implementation services and ongoing HIPAA compliance management to keep you covered.
Find out whether your configuration meets HIPAA requirements before an audit or a breach does. Get your 50+ point HIPAA compliance audit and a clear path to closing the gaps.
