Yesware is not HIPAA compliant for HIPAA Covered Entities or Business Associates because Yesware does not offer a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement and the platform’s email productivity and tracking functions can create, receive, maintain, or transmit electronic protected health information outside controls required by the HIPAA Privacy Rule, HIPAA Security Rule, and HIPAA Breach Notification Rule.
HIPAA requires a written HIPAA Business Associate Agreement when a vendor performs services for a regulated organization and those services involve protected health information. The agreement must restrict permitted uses and disclosures, require safeguards for electronic protected health information, address reporting of security incidents and breaches of unsecured protected health information, and require the vendor to apply equivalent restrictions to subcontractors. Without a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement that covers the service in scope, a Covered Entity or Business Associate cannot place protected health information into the service.
Yesware is designed to improve email outreach through features such as templates, mail merge, scheduling, tracking pixels, link tracking, engagement analytics, and integrations with customer relationship management systems and email platforms. Those functions can capture and store message metadata, recipient identifiers, engagement events, and related activity logs. If any of that information connects an identifiable individual to treatment, payment, or healthcare operations, it can constitute protected health information. Protected health information can also be introduced through contact fields, notes, tags, custom properties, and email content copied into templates.
Use of Yesware in a healthcare setting creates common exposure points. Email subject lines and preview text can disclose protected health information. Tracking parameters embedded in links can expose regulated context to third-party systems. Automated syncing with customer relationship management platforms can replicate protected health information into additional locations that fall outside controlled access and retention practices. Workforce members may also export lists, reports, and engagement logs that contain protected health information.
Yesware can be used by healthcare organizations only for workflows that exclude protected health information and do not link identifiable individuals to healthcare services or payment. Patient-specific communications that involve protected health information require a vendor that will execute a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement for the exact services used and can support access controls, audit controls, transmission security, and incident response processes aligned to HIPAA requirements.