There's no certification — HIPAA compliance is a set of safeguards you can demonstrate, not a badge you receive. In practice: data encrypted at rest and in transit, access limited by role, an audit log of who saw what, a documented breach procedure, and a signed BAA with every vendor that touches patient data. Software isn't compliant on its own — the way it's built and operated is.

Only if you handle data about people in the US. A European clinic falls under GDPR instead, which overlaps on encryption, access control and breach notification but differs on consent and data subject rights. If you serve both markets, build to the stricter of the two per requirement rather than picking one.

More than the same product without compliance, because access control, audit logging and documentation are built rather than added afterwards. The bigger variable is integrations — connecting to an EHR or a lab system is often the largest single line in an estimate. We scope after discovery and give a fixed number.

A focused first version — one workflow, one user group — usually takes three to four months. Integrations extend that, and so does anything involving migration of existing clinical data. You get the timeline with the estimate, before development starts.

Yes. If our team touches protected health information, a Business Associate Agreement is required by HIPAA, and we sign one before any access is granted. It isn't a formality — it makes us directly liable for how that data is handled.

Usually yes. Most clinics already run a booking system, a lab interface and a billing tool, and replacing all of them is rarely the right project. We connect to what exists — HL7, FHIR or a plain API — and replace only what's actually holding you back.

That's the more common request. We start with an audit of what the system does, where the data lives and what the current compliance posture is. Then we change it in pieces, keeping the compliant path working while the new one is built beside it. Big-bang rewrites are where compliance usually breaks.