Healthcare cybersecurity is changing; for years, HIPAA-covered entities and business associates have been required to protect electronic protected health information, using administrative, physical, and technical safeguards. But ransomware attacks, cloud adoption, remote work, telehealth, connected medical devices, and increasingly complex vendor platforms have stretched the original HIPAA Security Rule far beyond the environment for which it was created.

That is why the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights proposed major updates to the HIPAA Security Rule. The proposal was designed to strengthen the cybersecurity requirements for health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, most healthcare providers, and their business associates. While the rule is not yet final as of this writing, the direction is clear: healthcare organizations will be expected to demonstrate that ePHI is protected by modern, documented, and tested security controls.

What Is Changing In The Proposed HIPAA Security Rule?

The proposed rule would make HIPAA security requirements more specific and measurable. One of the biggest changes is the proposed removal of the distinction between “required” and “addressable” specifications. In practice, this means safeguards that some organizations previously treated as optional or flexible could become mandatory, subject only to limited exceptions.

HHS has also proposed written documentation for Security Rule policies, procedures, plans, and analyses; annual technology asset inventories and network maps; more detailed risk analysis requirements; annual compliance audits; stronger contingency planning; and more rigorous business associate oversight.

The technical requirements are especially important for organizations that host, store, process, or transmit ePHI. The proposal includes encryption of ePHI at rest and in transit, multi-factor authentication, vulnerability scanning at least every six months, penetration testing at least once every 12 months, network segmentation, anti-malware protection, backup and recovery controls, and periodic testing of security measures.

Even before a final rule is published, OCR’s January 2026 cybersecurity guidance shows where enforcement attention is already focused. OCR emphasized system hardening, patching known vulnerabilities, removing unnecessary software and services, changing default passwords, using security baselines, and conducting risk analysis that identifies vulnerabilities such as unpatched software.

Why Hosting Is Central To HIPAA Readiness

Many healthcare organizations think of HIPAA compliance as a policy exercise. Policies matter, but modern HIPAA readiness also depends on the infrastructure where ePHI lives.

If your EHR, patient portal, billing platform, healthcare SaaS application, analytics system, telehealth service, or backup environment touches ePHI, your hosting environment becomes part of your compliance story. You need to know where the data is stored, how it is encrypted, who can access it, how activity is logged, how systems are patched, how backups are protected, and how quickly services can be restored during an incident.

HHS guidance is clear that covered entities and business associates may use cloud services for ePHI. Still, they must enter into a HIPAA-compliant Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with the cloud service provider and must conduct appropriate risk analysis and risk management. A cloud provider is a business associate. Making your hosting provider one of the most important vendors in your HIPAA program.

How Atlantic.Net HIPAA Hosting Helps Close The Gap

Atlantic.Net HIPAA-compliant hosting is designed for organizations that need secure, compliant-ready infrastructure for healthcare workloads. Atlantic.Net offers a BAA as a standard part of its HIPAA hosting offering, helping define responsibilities between the healthcare organization and Atlantic.Net as a business associate.

Atlantic.Net’s HIPAA hosting platform includes a wide array of optional security features that align closely with the proposed Security Rule update, including multi-factor authentication, managed firewalls, intrusion prevention, vulnerability scanning, encrypted storage, encrypted backups, encrypted VPN connections, log management, anti-malware protection, off-site backups, and disaster recovery services.

Compliance matters because the proposed rule is pushing healthcare organizations toward documented, repeatable, testable safeguards. A hosting environment with built-in security services, managed support, and clear BAA coverage can reduce the operational burden on internal IT teams.

Remember, a HIPAA server alone does not make an organization HIPAA-compliant. Compliance depends on the organization’s adherence to HIPAA’s Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification requirements.

That is exactly why choosing the right hosting partner matters. Atlantic.Net provides the secure infrastructure layer, but your organization still needs appropriate policies, workforce training, access controls, risk analysis, application security, vendor management, business continuity, disaster recovery, and breach response procedures.

Preparing Now Is The Smart Move

Waiting for the final rule may feel safer, but it creates risk. Many of the proposed requirements, including encryption, MFA, vulnerability scanning, asset inventories, backups, and network segmentation, take time to implement properly. They also require documentation and testing.

Healthcare organizations should start with a hosting and infrastructure review:

  • Identify every system that stores, processes, or transmits ePHI.
  • Confirm whether ePHI is encrypted at rest and in transit.
  • Review MFA coverage for administrators, users, VPN access, and remote access.
  • Check whether backups are encrypted, tested, and stored securely.
  • Verify that logs are collected and reviewed.
  • Review firewall, segmentation, vulnerability scanning, and disaster recovery capabilities.
  • Most importantly, confirm that every vendor handling ePHI has a signed BAA.

Atlantic.Net HIPAA Hosting gives healthcare organizations a stronger foundation for this work. Whether you are a medical practice, hospital, healthcare SaaS provider, billing company, telehealth platform, or business associate, Atlantic.Net can help you host sensitive workloads in an environment built around HIPAA security expectations.

The proposed 2026 HIPAA Security Rule update sends a clear message: healthcare cybersecurity must be proactive, documented, and resilient. Atlantic.Net helps healthcare organizations move in that direction with HIPAA-compliant hosting, managed security services, encrypted infrastructure, disaster recovery, and BAA-backed support.

Reach out to the team today.