Marketo can be HIPAA compliant when a HIPAA Covered Entity or Business Associate uses the platform through Adobe’s healthcare offering, obtains an executed Business Associate Agreement from Adobe that covers the applicable services, and configures and operates the environment to meet HIPAA Privacy Rule, HIPAA Security Rule, and HIPAA Breach Notification Rule requirements for electronic protected health information.
Marketo is a marketing automation and lead management platform that can process identifiers, contact records, segmentation attributes, behavioral data, and message content. When those data elements relate to an individual’s past, present, or future health condition, care, or payment for care, they can constitute protected health information. A Business Associate Agreement is required when a vendor creates, receives, maintains, or transmits protected health information on behalf of a Covered Entity or Business Associate, and the agreement must define permitted uses and disclosures, safeguards, breach reporting, and downstream subcontractor obligations.
HIPAA compliance for Marketo is not automatic based on account creation or use of standard commercial plans. Adobe’s willingness to support regulated use depends on the specific healthcare-focused offering and the scope of services covered under the Business Associate Agreement. Covered Entities and Business Associates remain responsible for configuring access controls, role-based permissions, authentication, audit controls, data retention, and integration pathways so that electronic protected health information is restricted to authorized workforce members and systems. Configuration decisions that expand data collection, enrichment, or sharing can create unauthorized disclosures and increase breach exposure.
Use of protected health information in outreach campaigns requires alignment with HIPAA Privacy Rule limits on marketing. Communications that encourage purchase or use of a product or service can require an individual authorization when protected health information is used or disclosed outside a permitted purpose, and authorizations must meet required content and revocation standards. Operational controls should restrict protected health information from being placed in email subject lines, dynamic fields, landing pages, form responses, and tracking parameters unless the use and disclosure are permitted and the necessary agreements and safeguards are in place.
Organizations evaluating Marketo should treat HIPAA compliance as an enabled and governed use case that depends on the executed Business Associate Agreement, the subscribed healthcare service scope, and the organization’s administrative and technical controls across data ingestion, campaign design, integrations, and user access.