Top 9 HIPAA Compliant Survey Tools: Safeguarding Your Health Data

Did you know that 93% of healthcare companies have suffered data breaches in the past three years? Shocking, right?

In this digital world where scams are increasing day by day, ensuring data privacy and security is not just an additional matter, it is essential. For businesses gathering private data from their patients via surveys in the healthcare sector, ensuring HIPAA compliance is not just a legal obligation anymore – it’s essential for protecting patient’s trust and maintaining reputation.

But how do you ensure data safety when using multiple tools or software for designing, launching, gathering, and analyzing feedback? 

With the right customer feedback tool that adheres to HIPAA rules and regulations and ensures a streamlined experience for both you and your patients where you don’t have to switch between different tools for different tasks.

So, let’s see what are the best HIPAA compliant survey tools that are currently trending.

What is HIPAA?

HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, of 1996, establishes national standards for the protection of sensitive patient health information. The primary goal of this act is to ensure that the individual’s data is safeguarded from unauthorized access while still allowing healthcare companies to function efficiently. 

The HIPAA Act set out strict guidelines on who can access, share, and store protected health information (PHI), with severe penalties for violations. There are majorly two main rules of the HIPAA Act,

• Privacy Rule: This defines what constitutes PHI and limits the access, use, and disclosure of the data without the patient’s consent.
• Security Rule: This lays out the rules for safeguarding electronic PHI (ePHI).

So, when you send surveys to gather information on your patients, ensure that you comply with the HIPAA Act to foster trust among your patients and maintain your reputation in the industry, or get a survey tool that does that for you. 

But why do surveys need to be HIPSS compliant?

Why Do Surveys Need to Be HIPAA Compliant?

The most obvious question by now should be why surveys need to be HIPAA compliant, right? So, let’s understand that.

Handling Protected Health Information (PHI)

Protected health information refers to an individual’s health data such as name, age, contact information, medical history, diagnoses, treatments, and insurance information. Suppose any organization is collecting sensitive information like PHI through surveys, in that case, it is the responsibility of the organization to ensure that data is handled with the utmost security and care. 

HIPAA compliant survey tools are equipped with features like data encryption to safeguard information during storage and transmission. Additionally, they use access controls to restrict sensitive data to authorized personnel and maintain audit trails to track who accesses or modifies the information. 

Risks of Non-Compliance

Failing to comply with the HIPAA rules when conducting HIPAA surveys can expose the organization to some serious penalties. As of 2024, failing to follow the HIPAA rules can cost organizations penalties ranging from $141 to $2134,831, per violation, depending on the nature of the HIPAA violation, and jail time up to 5 years. Hence, by prioritizing HIPAA compliance, organizations can mitigate these risks while fostering a secure and trustworthy environment for collecting and utilizing healthcare feedback.

But what makes a survey tool HIPAA compliant?

What Makes a Survey Tool HIPAA Compliant?

For starters, HIPAA-compliant survey tools should meet the requirements of both Privacy and Security rules defined under the HIPAA Act, along with some other requirements.

1. Data Encryption

The tool should have strong encryption methods to protect sensitive information, both during transit and at rest when the data is stored to ensure unauthorized access in the event of a data breach.

2. Access Controls

To ensure that only authorized personnel can access the PHI, HIPAA compliant survey software tools must implement strict access controls that involve multi-factor authentication and role-based access.

3. Audit Controls

The tool must maintain detailed audit logs of who accesses, manages, modifies, or shares PHI which will help in investigating potential breaches.

4. Secure Data Disposal

The tool must have the right protocols in place to ensure secure disposal of PHI when it is no longer needed, ensuring that the data is permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.

5. Business Associate Agreement (BAA)

BAA is a legally binding agreement required by HIPAA when any healthcare company engages with a third-party service provider, legally binding the provider with HIPAA’s guidelines to ensure the safeguarding of PHI.

Now that we understand what makes a tool HIPAA compliant, let’s see some top HIPAA compliant survey tools

Top 9 HIPAA Compliant Survey Tools To Ensure Data Security

1. SurveySensum

SurveySensum is an AI-enabled customer experience management tool that stands out for its data security and privacy and strict adherence to the HIPAA Act of 1996. The tool offers robust data encryption, ensuring confidentiality and protection of patient’s sensitive information. 

The tool sets up a well-managed patient feedback system with customization surveys, different question types, real-time analytics and reporting, and seamless integrations with your existing healthcare systems. Moreover, the tool also helps you with detailed analysis and reporting of your feedback with the help of AI capabilities like text and sentiment analysis, cross-tab analysis, etc, automating and optimizing your workflow. 

Best Features:

• The tools provide a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) which ensures that all parties involved in handling PHI understand their obligation to maintain and safeguard the security and confidentiality of the sensitive information. 
• It offers multi-layered access control which ensures that only authorized personnel gain access to sensitive information.
• If you have an existing Electronic Health Records system, SurveySensum can seamlessly integrate with the EHS system, allowing for a streamlined workflow.
• The tool provides best-in-industry authentication protocols with regular vulnerability assessment and penetration tests to ensure personalized data moats.
• The tool’s private server backs up your data in a virtually unlimited storage space, all the while following cloud security best practices.
• You can set up a defined process for verifying the identity of users to ensure safe and secure access to ePHI.
• The tool provides comprehensive audit logs for tracking data access.
• You can send different types of healthcare surveys like patient satisfaction surveys, post-visit feedback surveys, health service quality surveys, patient follow-up surveys, etc. And the best part? The tool has industry-specific customizable survey templates so you don’t have to start from scratch.

Other Features:

• Closed-loop capabilities 
• CX Consultation
• Text analytics software
• 2-hour SLA support guaranteed
• Advanced Reporting
• Integrations (along with data import)
• On-site support
• Unlimited survey templates
• Real-time feedback management with real-time ticketing system
• Detailed and analytical survey dashboards and reports

Pricing:

The pricing for SurveySensum starts at $99/year and goes up to $599/month for the enterprise plan.

Your patients trust you with their private information so safeguarding them shouldn’t just be about legal obligation, but should be your moral duty. With SurveySensum, you can launch, gather, and analyze surveys, and share data in a safe and secure environment, all the while adhering to the HIPAA Act.

2. SurveySparrow

SurveySparrow is a popular customer feedback tool that stands out for its compliance with the HIPAA Act. The tool ensures the secure handling of patients’ health-related information. The tool’s user-friendly and intuitive user interface allows you to create and launch surveys in a matter of minutes, all the while maintaining the safety and security of the data.

Best Features:

• This HIPAA-compliant survey tool provides you with multi-layered access control that ensures that only authorized personnel can handle sensitive data.
• It guarantees data security with advanced encryption standards with 265-bit keys for data encryption.
• The tool ensures that your data travels safely to the destination with a unique security code.

Pricing:

The pricing for SurveySparrow starts at $19/month and goes up to $249/month for the professional plan.

G2 Rating: 4.4/5

3. Medallia

Medallia is another HIPAA-compliant survey tool that ensures safe and secure capturing and analysis of patient feedback. It provides a robust survey-builder that allows you to create, launch, and gather feedback via multiple channels, all the while adhering to the guidelines of the HIPAA Act.

Best Features:

• It provides secure data encryption in both transit and at rest.
• The tool has a Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) field-level data encryption.
• It also integrates seamlessly with Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems.

Pricing:

Please contact the Medallia team for information on pricing.

G2 Rating: 4.7/5

4. Alchemer

Alchemer, previously known as SurveyGizmo, is another customer feedback tool that is both HIPAA and FERPA-compliant. The tool is easy to use and set up and integrate into your current workflow. 

Best Features:

• The tool enables you to create complex surveys with conditional survey logic and piping, very easily.
• It also supports image upload surveys.
• Alchemer University where you can learn about the tool’s features and settings via a video educational library.

Pricing:

The pricing for Alchemer starts at $55/month and for its enterprise plan, you have to contact the team.

G2 Rating: 4.4/5

5. Typeform

This HIPAA-compliant survey tool ensures data security and adheres to the HIPPA rules and regulations. The tool is easy to use and you can create customizable surveys with its highly customizable and intuitive survey builder. The tool also ensures that you meet your patients where they are by enabling survey sharing via multiple channels.

Best Features:

• The tool is compatible with all types of devices so you can create and share surveys safely with any device, including phones, laptops, tablets, etc
• By adding Google Tag Manager or Facebook Pixel ID code snippets, you can set up conversion tracking.
• The tool allows you to have video and media interactions for faster collection of feedback.

Pricing:

The pricing for Typeform starts at $99/month and goes up to $199/month for its growth plans.

G2 Rating: 4.5/5

6. SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is a HIPAA-compliant survey tool that enables users to create customizable surveys for the healthcare industry. It is also suited for beginners with no experience with survey creation and distribution. The tool also offers a detailed analysis of the feedback received.

Best Features:

• The tool provides role-based access controls and user authentication to avoid unauthorized access.
• It also allows for a smooth and seamless integration with your existing health systems.
• The tool also provides HIPAA-compliant data storage solutions.

Pricing:

Please contact the SurveyMonkey team for information on pricing.

G2 Rating: 4.4/5

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7. Zoho Survey

Zoho Survey is an online survey tool, a part of the Zoho ecosystem, which includes various productivity and business management tools, offering seamless integration with tools like Zoho CRM, Zoho Campaigns, and more. The tool provides an easy-to-use platform for creating, distributing, and analyzing surveys while also providing a safe and secure user experience.

Best Features

• The user interface of the tool is very easy to use, robust, and secure. 
• The tool comes under the Zoho One platform and offers seamless integration with other Zoho tools like Zoho CRM, Zoho Campaigns, Zoho Forms, Zoho Social, etc.
• The tool ensures data privacy with features aligned with GDPR and other privacy regulations, giving users peace of mind.

Pricing

The pricing plans start at $20/month.

G2 Review: 4.4/5

8. Jotform

Jotform’s HIPAA-compliance tool gives healthcare providers the power and flexibility to manage their customer data securely and with sensitivity. It offers unlimited customization, data collection, conditional survey logic, reports, and automated workflows.

Best Features

• The survey submissions are encrypted with the RSA-2048.
• It provides industry-specific customizable survey templates like patient feedback forms, health assessments, etc.
• It offers integration with 30+ payment gateways like PayPal, Square, and Stripe.

Pricing

The pricing plans start at $20/month.

G2 Review: 4.4/5

9. BlockSurvey

BlockSurvey is a privacy-focused HIPAA compliant survey tool, designed for healthcare professionals looking to prioritize data privacy and security. It ensures safe and secure collection and analysis of sensitive healthcare data while adhering to the HIPPA rules and regulations.

Best Features

• It provides users with end-to-end encryption for data security, both in transit and at rest.
• It has a privacy-first architecture with decentralized ownership of data.
• The tool goes through regular security audits by internal and external parties.

Pricing

The pricing plans start at $690/year.

G2 Review: 4.8/5

Take your surveys to the next level with SurveySensum’s advanced branching capabilities and deliver personalized experiences by guiding your respondents down paths tailored to their answers!

Let’s now uncover some key benefits of using HIPAA compliant survey tools.

Benefits of Using HIPAA Compliant Survey Tools 

Here are some benefits for you to consider when it comes to using HIPAA compliant survey tools. 

1. Trust and Credibility

Using HIPAA-compliant survey tools fosters trust between healthcare providers and patients. When patients have an assurance that their sensitive information, such as medical records or personal data is securely and sensitively handled, it builds confidence in the organization. 

2. Improved Data Security

HIPAA-compliant survey tools are designed with robust security measures, such as encryption, access controls, and secure servers, to protect sensitive data from breaches or unauthorized access. These features minimize the risk of data theft, ensuring that protected health information (PHI) is stored and transmitted securely. 

3. Enhanced Patient Engagement

When patients feel confident that their privacy is respected, they are more likely to participate in surveys and provide honest, actionable feedback. HIPAA-compliant tools facilitate seamless feedback collection across multiple channels while maintaining privacy, encouraging higher response rates. This engagement is critical for gaining valuable insights into patient satisfaction, identifying areas for improvement, and ultimately enhancing the quality of care provided.

Let’s now understand the process of choosing the right HIPAA-compliant survey tool.

Choosing the Right HIPAA-Compliant Survey Tool 

Choosing the right HIPAA-compliant survey tool can be challenging but we have got you covered by listing down the key features to look for in the right tool.

1. Assessing Your Needs

The first step of choosing the right HIPAA compliant survey tool starts by identifying the purpose of your surveys and the type of data you want to collect. By determining your goal, you can prioritize features. Whether real-time feedback collection or multi-channel feedback collection or integration with your existing systems like EHRs or CRMs is more important to you. After understanding your purpose you want to narrow down your needs and focus on the tools that provide features to fulfill your needs.

2. Comparing Features

Not all tools are created equally and the same goes for HIPAA compliant survey tools. Compare plans and features such as data encryption, audit trails, access controls, and customization options. Look for tools that offer analytics and reporting capabilities to generate actionable insights. If your audience includes non-English speakers, ensure the platform supports multilingual surveys.

3. Considering Costs

Cost is a crucial factor when choosing a HIPAA-compliant survey tool. Compare pricing plans and features to find the best value for your budget. Keep in mind that while some tools may have lower upfront costs, they may lack essential features or scalability. Look for transparent pricing structures that align with your financial capabilities without compromising compliance.

4. Evaluating Customer Support

When it comes to dealing with sensitive customer data and HIPAA compliance, reliable customer support is an important factor. Go for a tool that offers an omnichannel customer service including channels like live chat support, 24*7 support, dedicated account managers, etc. Timely and knowledgeable support can help resolve issues quickly, ensuring smooth operation and adherence to HIPAA standards.

Choosing SurveySensum as the Best HIPAA Compliant Survey Tool

Your patients trust you with their personal data, it is not just a legal obligation but your moral duty to ensure data safety to protect your patient’s privacy. This is why acts like the HIPAA Act exist to ensure that healthcare companies are not playing fast and loose with patients’ information and feedback. Also, with the technological advancement, HIPAA-compliant survey tools allow companies to create, share, gather, and analyze patient data and feedback all the while safeguarding the data and adhering to the Act.

However, choosing the right one is also crucial so that you can experience a streamlined process. This is where SurveySensum comes in. This HIPAA-compliant survey tool offers a secure, intuitive platform that ensures HIPAA compliance while delivering detailed and analytical reports on the survey results.

Frequently Asked Questions on HIPAA Compliant Survey Tools

The primary purpose of HIPAA in surveys is to secure and protect individuals’ sensitive healthcare information and data like name, age, medical conditions, insurance information, etc known as protected health information (PHI).

No, not all survey tools are HIPAA-compliant with features like data encryption, secure data storage, access controls, and a signed BAA and survey tools need to be HIPAA-compliant in order to gather sensitive healthcare data.

If your survey tool is not HIPAA compliant and you gather healthcare information from individuals then you breach HIPAA rules and regulations and risk data breaches, legal penalties, and reputational damage.

Not necessarily. Many providers like SurveySensum offer scalable plans that cater to small practices, large healthcare systems, and everything in between.

To verify a survey tool’s HIPAA compliance, check for the following:

• A signed Business Associate Agreement (BAA).
• Clear information about encryption, secure data storage, and access controls.
• Documentation or certifications proving compliance with HIPAA guidelines.
• Reviews or recommendations from other healthcare organizations.