Healthcare Marketing Analytics: HIPAA Compliant Tools 2025

In healthcare marketing, the same data that powers effective campaign optimization often carries significant regulatory risks. Running campaigns that involve patient interactions, referral sources, or engagement data means every click and conversion has the potential to expose protected health information (PHI).

Running campaigns that involve patient interactions, referral sources, or engagement data means every click and conversion has the potential to expose protected health information (PHI). This article highlights HIPAA-compliant marketing automation and analytics platforms designed to support data-driven healthcare campaigns without compromising security. 

Key Takeaways

• HIPAA is a U.S. federal law designed to protect sensitive patient data from unauthorized use, fraud, and abuse. The law applies to healthcare providers, health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, and any external vendors collaborating with these entities.
• When it comes to marketing, HIPAA strictly governs the use of Protected Health Information (PHI), like email, IP address, name, or phone number, in every activity, including paid campaigns, marketing analytics, or messaging personalization.
• To maintain compliance and avoid severe penalties, healthcare businesses must utilize HIPAA-compliant marketing analytics platforms.
• Improvado is a HIPAA-compliant marketing analytics solution, automating the entire marketing reporting and serving as a centerpiece for robust and secure data management in healthcare marketing. 

What Is HIPAA and Who Does It Apply To?

HIPAA is a U.S. federal law that regulates how healthcare data—specifically protected health information (PHI) and electronic PHI (ePHI)—is collected, stored, and shared. It applies to healthcare providers, insurers, and clearinghouses (“covered entities”), as well as any vendors handling data on their behalf (“business associates”).

PHI includes any data tied to a patient’s identity and medical history, while ePHI covers that same information in digital form—such as records, IP addresses, or contact details. Any organization handling this data must comply with HIPAA regulations and, when relevant, sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA).

How HIPAA Impacts Healthcare Marketing?

HIPAA restricts the use of PHI, such as names, emails, IP addresses, and medical record numbers, in marketing without patient authorization. This applies to both direct outreach and analytics tied to identifiable data. Non-compliance risks fines ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars per HIPAA violation.

To execute campaigns legally, all marketing automation and analytics tools must be HIPAA-compliant. This includes having proper data safeguards, audit controls, and a signed BAA. Tools that don’t meet these standards can’t be used to process or analyze PHI in any form.

Best Tools For Your Healthcare Marketing Analytics Stack

Choosing a HIPAA-compliant marketing automation and analytics tool isn’t just about checking a box—it directly impacts how safely and effectively your team can run data-informed campaigns. 

To fast-track your search, we’ve outlined five of the best HIPAA-compliant marketing analytics solutions you can start using today.

But first, let's revise some concepts related to HIPAA-compliant data management – data controller and data processor.

• In HIPAA terms, your organization acts as the data controller, deciding how and why patient data is used.
• The analytics platform functions as the data processor, executing those instructions.

Even if a tool claims HIPAA compliance, it's your responsibility to vet it, establish safeguards, and define how data is handled under your oversight.

1. Improvado

Improvado is a HIPAA-compliant marketing intelligence platform that automates data collection, transformation, and reporting across channels. It enables healthcare organizations to centralize marketing data, ensure compliance, monitor campaigns, and scale marketing efforts without relying on manual processes or breaching patient privacy.

• Improvado centralizes data from over 500 data sources, including other HIPAA-compliant tools mentioned later in the article.
• The platform then brings data to analysis-ready condition by applying data transformations (no-code and easy-to-use for non-technical marketers) and pushes it to a desired destination. For example, Improvado can load your data to Tableau where your team can further analyze the performance and what drives conversions. 
• AI-powered tools like Marketing Data Governance and AI Agent can automate campaign monitoring and metric pacing and streamline insight discovery. 
• Improvado can run marketing intelligence on top of your data warehouse so that no data is moved or replicated outside your environment. Learn more about running Improvado intelligence in your DWH.

Improvado HIPAA compliance

On a high level, Improvado's role in HIPAA compliance focuses on maintaining privacy and protecting patient information from unauthorized access and usage. This is achieved by giving admin users full control over who gets access to patient data and what they can do with the data accessible to them.

If we dig deeper, Improvado has a robust framework for protecting sensitive information, that includes the following data privacy and security standards: 

• Robust encryption: Improvado incorporates solid encryption measures to protect health information, both during transfer and while at rest, which ensures that even if the data is intercepted or accessed without authorization, it will be unreadable and therefore useless to the intruder. 
• Business Associate Agreements (BAAs): When a HIPAA-covered organization  works with  solutions like Improvado, they usually need to have a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) in place. This is a legally binding document that spells out the responsibilities of each party, data controller and data processor,  when it comes to protecting PHI. The outline of the agreement is usually coming from a client, but in case you need assistance, the Improvado information security and privacy  team can provide a template.   
• Regular audits and risk assessments: Compliance isn't a one-time deal. Improvado conducts regular audits and risk evaluations to identify and address system vulnerabilities, ensuring ongoing adherence to HIPAA regulations.
• Staff training and policies: At Improvado, team members are well-versed in policies and procedures for handling PHI, which is a critical component of maintaining compliance.
• Secure data disposal: Once data is no longer needed, Improvado ensures it's securely disposed of, preventing any potential recovery and misuse.
• Breach Notification Procedures: Although Improvado takes every step to avoid breaches, there's a robust plan in place to promptly notify clients of any instances and mitigate any potential damage, should a breach occur.

As mentioned above, HIPAA compliance is maintained by both parties. In the case of Improvado, a marketing analytics tool with over 500 data connectors, staying compliant from its own end is not enough.

To ensure that your entire healthcare marketing stack is HIPAA-compliant, you must ensure that all of your data sources comply with established privacy and security rules. This is because if one of your data sources falls short in security, accountability, and privacy, your entire marketing stack will be affected, and it can lead to penalties for compliance violations.

Improvado pricing

Improvado offers custom pricing based on factors like data volume, customization requirements, and support needs. 

HIPAA compliance is available across all pricing tiers, provided a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) is executed. This ensures healthcare organizations can maintain regulatory alignment regardless of plan size.

All plans include access to the full connector library, unlimited data destinations, and customization credits. For organizations handling PHI, Improvado provides the necessary infrastructure, security protocols, data deletion option, and documentation to meet HIPAA standards. 

Talk to the Improvado sales team to scope the solution and finalize a pricing package aligned with compliance needs.

2. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is the most widely-used analytics platform in the health industry.

But here’s the kicker: Google Analytics is not compliant right out of the box. To make the platform fit for use within the rules of HIPAA, you must make some adjustments (more on that soon).

Google is well-known across all industries because it offers high-quality functionalities at zero cost. But here’s why you can’t use it to collect PHI:

1. Google stores all tracked data in databases located across the world and offers neither on-premise hosting nor bespoke data residency services. Thus, covered entities have no control over where their patient data will be stored. HIPAA sees this as a breach of accountability.
2. Google uses all data within its systems to create new services, improve existing offerings, and create personalized advertising experiences. Using a covered entity’s PHI for Google’s scale of operations can cause a serious violation of HIPAA regulations.

3. Zendesk

Zendesk is a customer service and marketing automation platform designed to help organizations manage communications across email, chat, phone, and social channels from a centralized workspace. It includes tools for support ticketing, customer data management, workflow automation, and campaign engagement.

With Zendesk, healthcare organizations can streamline onboarding journeys, automate patient outreach and engagement, manage support and marketing messages in one place, and ensure compliance when PHI is involved.

Zendesk HIPAA compliance

By subscribing to a HIPAA-enabled Zendesk Suite plan or purchasing the Advanced Compliance add-on, organizations can enter into a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with Zendesk. This agreement covers services such as Support, Guide, Chat, and Talk, excluding certain features like Zendesk Explore and Text and third-party apps in the marketplace..

Zendesk provides technical capabilities required under HIPAA, but customers must configure and maintain them:

• Data encryption: Zendesk encrypts data in transit (TLS 1.2+) and at rest using modern encryption standards.
• Access controls: Admins can enforce role-based permissions, session timeouts, and IP restrictions to manage access to PHI.
• Audit logging: Zendesk maintains logs of platform activity, which are essential for monitoring unauthorized access.‍
• Two-factor authentication (2FA): Strong password policies and 2FA should be enabled for all users with access to PHI.

Zendesk pricing 

​For organizations seeking HIPAA-compliant solutions, Zendesk offers specific plans and add-ons.

• Zendesk Suite Professional Plan ($115 per agent/month billed annually) includes advanced reporting and analytics, live analytics, side conversations, and data location options.​ This plan supports HIPAA compliance when configured correctly and used in conjunction with a signed Business Associate Agreement (BAA). ​
• Zendesk Suite Enterprise Plan (custom pricing) offers all functionalities of the Professional plan, plus enhanced customization options, sandbox testing environments, and AI-powered tools.​ It supports HIPAA compliance with proper configuration and a signed BAA. ​
• The Advanced Data Privacy and Protection add-on provides advanced encryption, data masking, and enhanced data retention policies to further safeguard PHI.
• The Advanced Compliance Add-On allows eligible Zendesk accounts to sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) and access features required for regulatory alignment, such as restricted data handling, enhanced audit controls, and account isolation.

4. Tableau

Tableau is a powerful business intelligence and data visualization platform. For healthcare organizations, it enables advanced marketing analytics without compromising security. Teams can build interactive dashboards to track campaign performance, patient acquisition cost, engagement trends, and conversion rates across channels. 

Tableau connects to a wide range of data sources, including HIPAA-compliant CRMs, EMRs, and cloud data warehouses. This allows for centralized, real-time reporting without exposing PHI in unsecured environments. 

Role-based access controls, audit logging, and custom user permissions support internal compliance policies, while calculated fields and segmentation features allow marketers to break down performance by audience, campaign, or referral source. 

Tableau HIPAA compliance

Tableau clearly admits on its resources page that it is not HIPAA-compliant right out of the box. However, it can be made HIPAA-compliant.

Tableau, in itself, is a reporting and query tool, not a database. Thus, its compliance is dependent on the end-user and the database governance in place.

Tableau can be used in HIPAA-regulated environments when deployed within a compliant infrastructure—such as on-premises servers or a HIPAA-eligible cloud environment like AWS or Azure—where proper access controls, encryption, and audit logging are enforced.

Here are some additional security features that Tableau users can leverage to stay compliant while using the platform for marketing analytics:

1. User Filter for Row Level Security—This allows you to control how much data each user sees at a row level. 
2. Column Exclusion—This allows you to clean your data source of information that a third party should not see.
3. Hide Underlying Data—This feature enables you to toggle off the “view underlying data” in a Tableau Server View. That way, your visualizations will make the underlying data anonymous, ensuring extra security.

Tableau pricing 

Tableau offers two primary deployment options for healthcare organizations requiring HIPAA compliance:​

• Tableau Cloud incorporates features like data encryption in transit and at rest, robust audit logging, and stringent access controls. 
• Tableau Server suits organizations looking for an on-premises solution. Tableau Server can be configured to meet HIPAA standards by implementing appropriate security measures and governance policies.  Pricing for Tableau Server is typically based on a combination of user licenses and core-based licensing, tailored to the organization's size and needs.​

In both scenarios, achieving HIPAA compliance requires not only selecting the appropriate Tableau product but also ensuring that the deployment environment and organizational policies align with HIPAA's stringent data protection requirements.​

5. CallRail

​CallRail is a call tracking and analytics platform that offers a specialized Healthcare Plan.

Key features of CallRail's Healthcare Plan include end-to-end encryption of data both in transit and at rest, automatic user logouts after periods of inactivity, and stringent access controls requiring individual logins for call recordings.
Additionally, CallRail signs a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with each healthcare client, formalizing its commitment to safeguarding Protected Health Information (PHI) and supporting HIPAA compliance. ​

By integrating CallRail into their marketing stack, healthcare providers can gain valuable insights into patient engagement and campaign performance without compromising sensitive data security or regulatory compliance.​

CallRail HIPAA compliance

CallRail takes HIPAA compliance seriously and offers dedicated tools to help its healthcare clients protect their patients’ data, as directed by HIPAA.

This is because, to help healthcare organizations properly track call data, CallRail stores two kinds of PHI: call recordings and caller ID information.

To ensure its clients don’t violate any rules, here’s a list of measures CallRail has put in place:

1. CallRail signs a BAA with clients on its health plan.
2. All data is encrypted both “in transit” and “in storage.”
3. All call details are protected from external systems.
4. CallRail provides unique login details for users and automatically logs them off after a period of inactivity.
5. CallRail offers a full audit history for maximum transparency.
6. The platform uses firewalls and private network gaps to make its systems inaccessible via the public internet.

The platform also encourages its users to take extra caution to ensure they don’t violate regulations by oversight.

CallRail pricing 

While specific pricing for the Healthcare Plan isn't publicly detailed, CallRail's standard plans begin at $45 per month, which includes 5 local numbers and 250 local minutes.  Given the enhanced security features and compliance measures required for HIPAA adherence, the Healthcare Plan is likely priced higher.

Bottom Line

Healthcare marketing demands more than performance—it demands precision, control, and full compliance. Every tool handling patient data must meet HIPAA standards, not just in theory, but in daily practice across your entire stack.

If your team is looking to centralize marketing data, automate reporting, and maintain full HIPAA compliance, Improvado can help. Connect with our experts to explore how the platform supports secure, scalable analytics tailored to healthcare environments.

FAQ

What is HIPAA-compliant marketing?

HIPAA-compliant marketing covers all marketing activities in the healthcare and wellness industry, which respect the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996, a U.S. law designed to provide privacy standards that protect patients' medical records and other health information. It ensures that Protected Health Information (PHI) is not used in marketing without the explicit consent of the patient. In other words, any marketing communications, from email campaigns to social media ads, that would involve the use or disclosure of PHI to encourage the use or purchase of a product or service must first have the individual's authorization.

What is healthcare marketing automation?

Healthcare marketing automation refers to tools that manage patient or lead engagement across channels (email, ads, web, and more) while adhering to privacy regulations. These systems automate outreach, segmentation, and performance tracking using healthcare-specific rules and workflows.

Can HIPAA be used for marketing purposes?

HIPAA allows marketing activities only with prior patient authorization when PHI is involved. Some communications like appointment reminders or treatment follow-ups may be exempt, but marketing emails using identifiable data require explicit consent.

How can I ensure my marketing automation is HIPAA compliant?

To ensure your marketing automation is HIPAA compliant, you need to:

1. Choose a platform that explicitly supports HIPAA compliance and will sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA).
2. Limit the use of PHI in campaigns and de-identify data whenever possible.
3. Implement access control through role-based permissions and session controls.
4. Encrypt all stored and transmitted data using HIPAA-compliant standards.
5. Avoid placing PHI in subject lines, URLs, or tracking parameters.
6. Maintain detailed audit logs of data access and user activity.
7. Configure systems to log and monitor all changes to PHI-related workflows.
8. Establish internal policies for how marketing teams can collect and use PHI.
9. Provide HIPAA training to all staff involved in marketing automation.
10. Conduct regular audits and document your compliance procedures.

Is Google Analytics HIPAA compliant?

On its own, Google Analytics isn't HIPAA compliant. That's because it's designed to track user behavior and can potentially collect Protected Health Information (PHI), which is a big no-no under HIPAA. However, with some tweaks, you can make your Google Analytics HIPAA-compliant. Make sure to turn off data-sharing settings and disable all data collection for advertising features. Then, anonymize IP addresses and don't send any PHI to Google Analytics. Be careful about what data you track and avoid using identifiable information.

Is Tableau HIPAA-compliant?

Similar to Google Analytics, Tableau isn't a HIPAA-compliant tool out-of-the-box but can be tweaked to be used in a HIPAA-compliant manner. Tableau, in itself, is a data visualization and query solution, its compliance is dependent on the end user and the governance settings of the database that feeds data to Tableau. Improvado is a HIPAA-compliant marketing analytics solution, that can aggregate data from all your marketing channels, prepare it for analysis, and push it to Tableau for visualization and further analysis while keeping you safe under HIPAA law.

Does my CRM need to be HIPAA-compliant?

If you're a healthcare organization in the U.S., and your CRM is used to store, process, or transmit any Protected Health Information (PHI), then yes, it must be HIPAA-compliant. Additionally, other marketing tools and analytics solutions must comply with HIPAA regulations. Any minor oversights can cost you between $100 and $50,000 in penalties for each violation. 

What CRM is HIPAA compliant?

HIPAA-compliant CRMs include Salesforce Health Cloud, HubSpot (Enterprise with a signed BAA), and Zoho CRM (Enterprise tier with HIPAA add-on). Compliance depends not just on the platform but on signing a BAA and configuring data handling according to HIPAA standards.

How does Improvado ensure HIPAA compliance?

Improvado takes a firm stance on HIPAA compliance and protects patient information from unauthorized access and usage by giving admin users full control over who gets access to data and what they can do with it. Important to note: Improvado can pull data from 500+ platforms, so you must make sure that all of your data sources comply with established privacy and security rules. Improvado Solution Engineers can assist you with making sure your marketing analytics stay HIPAA-compliant.