Is SharePoint HIPAA Compliant?
(Short answer: yes—when you set it up the right way. Read on for the details.)
Digital transformation is sweeping healthcare—but compliance risk is sweeping right alongside it. Tools like Microsoft 365 and SharePoint promise smoother collaboration, richer analytics, and lower overhead. Yet one wrong configuration can turn a time-saver into a HIPAA headache, and regulators are writing bigger checks than ever: the Office for Civil Rights has collected nearly $144 million in settlements to date 1 —and 2024 saw 725 large breaches that exposed 275 million patient records, a 60.5 % jump in people affected year-over-year 2.
Below is what every Chicago-area provider should know before dropping sensitive files into SharePoint—plus how Hudson Sky keeps you on the right side of the law while you reap the tech dividends.
Microsoft 365 & SharePoint: Great Platforms, Not “Turn-Key” Compliance
Microsoft explicitly states that its cloud services enable HIPAA compliance and that it will sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA)—but it stops short of certifying the environment as “HIPAA compliant out of the box.” 3 Think of SharePoint like a sports car: it can fly, but the speed-limit ticket is on you.
The Three Pillars HIPAA Auditors Care About
- Technical safeguards – access control, data encryption, secure transmission, and audit logging.
- Administrative safeguards – written policies, user training, role-based permissions, and incident-response plans.
- Physical safeguards – locked server rooms, screened visitor access, device tracking, and media disposal.
Fail one pillar and the whole structure wobbles.
What “Reasonable & Appropriate” Looks Like Inside SharePoint
| Safeguard | What It Means in Practice |
|---|---|
| Access Control | Conditional Access policies, MFA everywhere, role-based SharePoint groups so only clinicians see ePHI. |
| Data in Motion | TLS 1.2+, automatic sensitivity-label encryption, and Data Loss Prevention policies that block unencrypted downloads. |
| Data at Rest | Microsoft’s transparent database encryption + your own Information Protection labels; retention policies that keep but don’t over-expose records. |
| Audit & Alerting | Microsoft Purview audit logging plus SIEM rules that alert Hudson Sky if anyone pokes around files they shouldn’t. |
Do You Need That BAA With Microsoft?
Yes. A BAA legally binds Microsoft as your Business Associate. The process isn’t automatic—you (or your IT partner) must request and countersign it in the Microsoft 365 admin portal. Without it, regulators could argue you never had HIPAA authorization to store ePHI in the cloud.
Where Hudson Sky Comes In
- Design & Deployment – We build a SharePoint architecture that isolates ePHI libraries, applies least-privilege access, and encrypts everything—before a single chart migrates.
- Security Layers – We overlay next-gen endpoint detection, email isolation, and 24×7 SOC monitoring so attacks are spotted in minutes, not months.
- Risk Assessments & Ongoing Audits – Annual HIPAA risk analyses, quarterly permissions reviews, and continuous compliance dashboards keep you “audit-ready” year-round.
- Local Advantage – Need boots-on-the-ground in Chicago? Hudson Sky’s engineers can be in your server room before lunch.
Bottom Line
Microsoft 365 and SharePoint can absolutely live in a HIPAA-compliant environment—but only when you combine Microsoft’s BAA with the right safeguards and continuous monitoring. Skip a step and you’re rolling the dice with six-figure penalties and patient trust.
Ready to modernize your workflows without triggering the OCR’s radar? Call +1 312 561 0000, email hello@hudsonsky.com, or schedule your free consultation today. Hudson Sky will handle the compliance heavy lifting so you can focus on patient care.
Footnotes
- HHS OCR Enforcement Highlights, September 2024 – https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/compliance-enforcement/data/enforcement-highlights/2024-september/index.html hhs.gov ↩
- HIPAA Journal, 2024 Healthcare Data Breach Report – https://www.hipaajournal.com/2024-healthcare-data-breach-report/ hipaajournal.com ↩
- Microsoft Learn, HIPAA/HITECH Act Offerings – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/compliance/regulatory/offering-hipaa-hitech learn.microsoft.com ↩
