Is Calendly HIPAA Compliant?
Calendly is not HIPAA compliant and cannot be used to create, collect, maintain, or transmit Protected Health Information as these uses would be violations of Calendly’s terms of service. Calendly also refuses to enter into Business Associate Agreements with covered entities and upstream business associates.
Businesses can waste a considerable amount of time scheduling appointments and meetings. Lengthy email exchanges and phone tag are commonplace. Calendly aims to eliminate the time wasted attempting to connect with others and the platform can reduce no-show rates through automated email and text reminders. The solution integrates with Google Calendar, iCloud calendar, Office 365, Salesforce, and GoToMeeting and other popular software platforms and can also be integrated directly into business websites to allow customers to schedule appointments directly.
The platform is used by healthcare organizations for scheduling internal meetings, but in order to use Calendly with any electronic protected health information, healthcare organizations would first need to enter into a HIPAA-compliant business associate agreement with Calendly.
Is Calendly HIPAA Compliant?
Calendly explains on its website that the platform is secure and all data uploaded is protected. Data sent to and stored by the scheduling tool is protected by 256-bit encryption and Calendly is hosted on Amazon Web Services, which is a HIPAA-compliant hosting solution. Calendly cannot read medical charts and other private information as it only reads the busy/free status of calendar events to avoid double bookings.
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While secure, Calendly explains in the help section of its website that “Calendly should not be used for collecting Protected Health Information” and that the solution should not be used for asking “any personal or medical questions in the question form invitees complete when scheduling.” Calendly also does not sign business associates with HIPAA covered entities.
As such, Calendly is not a HIPAA-compliant scheduling tool. The tool can be used by healthcare organizations, just not in connection with any ePHI. Healthcare organizations should ensure that only HIPAA-compliant scheduling tools are used for booking patient appointments.
