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reported that Google has offered to sign a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement (BAA) for Google Apps. Google’s BAA agreement covers three Google Apps services (Gmail, Calendar, and Drive), along with the Google Apps Vault service, which archives user data from the other three services.
To register, an Administrator for the Google Apps domain must answer three questions online. From their website, the questions are:
- Are you a Covered Entity (or Business Associate of a Covered Entity) under HIPAA?
- Will you be using Google Apps in connection with Protect Health Information?
- Are you authorized to request and agree to a Business Associate Agreement with Google for your Google Apps domain?
Google’s willingness to good news for organizations unwilling to deploy Google Apps without such an agreement. It is also a smart competitive move, as it matches Microsoft, which offers to sign a BAA for Office365.
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Hats off to Microsoft for creating BAA for Office365. This competition has hopefully created a wave that Google is now riding and others will join soon. The wave provides an avenue of education for mental health providers. It is so important for clinicians to pay attention to the business side of their telemental health work!