AWS HIPAA Compliance
Complete Implementation Guide
Build HIPAA-compliant healthcare applications on AWS. Learn about BAA signing, eligible services, architecture patterns, and implementation best practices.
How to Sign AWS BAA
AWS offers a Business Associate Addendum (BAA) through AWS Artifact. You must sign this before storing PHI.
Sign into AWS Console
Log in with admin credentials
Navigate to AWS Artifact
Go to AWS Artifact in the console
Download BAA
Download the AWS Business Associate Addendum
Review Terms
Review the BAA terms and conditions
Accept Agreement
Electronically accept the BAA
Verify Coverage
Ensure all services you use are HIPAA-eligible
100+ HIPAA-Eligible AWS Services
AWS offers over 100 HIPAA-eligible services. Here are the most commonly used for healthcare applications:
AWS HealthLake
Healthcare
FHIR-based data store for healthcare data
Amazon S3
Storage
Object storage with encryption at rest
Amazon RDS
Database
Managed relational databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server)
Amazon EC2
Compute
Virtual servers with full control
AWS Lambda
Compute
Serverless compute for PHI processing
Amazon DynamoDB
Database
NoSQL database with encryption
Amazon ECS/EKS
Containers
Container orchestration services
AWS KMS
Security
Key management for encryption
Amazon CloudWatch
Monitoring
Logging and monitoring
AWS CloudTrail
Audit
API activity logging
Amazon VPC
Network
Isolated network environment
AWS Backup
Backup
Centralized backup service
Note: For a complete list of HIPAA-eligible services, visit AWS HIPAA Eligible Services Reference
AWS HIPAA Architecture Best Practices
AWS HIPAA Cost Estimates
Typical monthly costs for a small-to-medium healthcare application on AWS:
| Service | Estimated Cost | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| EC2 (t3.medium) | $30-50/month | Application server |
| RDS (db.t3.medium) | $50-80/month | Database |
| S3 Standard | $23/TB/month | PHI storage |
| CloudTrail | $2/100k events | Audit logging |
| KMS | $1/key/month | Encryption keys |
| AWS Backup | $0.05/GB/month | Backup storage |
Total Estimated Cost: $200-400/month for a basic HIPAA-compliant application. Costs scale with usage, data volume, and additional services.
AWS HIPAA Implementation Timeline
Week 1-2: Planning & BAA
Sign AWS BAA, design architecture, select HIPAA-eligible services
Week 3-4: Infrastructure Setup
Configure VPC, set up encryption, implement IAM policies, enable logging
Week 5-6: Application Deployment
Deploy applications, configure monitoring, set up backups, test disaster recovery
Week 7-8: Security & Compliance
Security assessment, penetration testing, compliance documentation, training
Need Help with AWS HIPAA Compliance?
Our team has extensive experience architecting and securing HIPAA-compliant applications on AWS.