Is Claude HIPAA compliant?

HIPAA does not certify software. A practice can send PHI to an AI vendor when the vendor has a BAA with the practice, the plan is eligible, and the feature is covered. This page covers Anthropic's products. Is AI HIPAA compliant? covers every tool.

Which Anthropic products can be covered

• Claude Enterprise, self-serve or sales-assisted. The Primary Owner activates HIPAA under Organization settings > Data and privacy and accepts the BAA; a standard Enterprise plan has no coverage until then.
• The first-party Claude API. The Primary Owner signs the BAA, then asks Anthropic sales to enable it. Covered models need 30-day retention unless Anthropic authorizes otherwise.
• Claude in Microsoft Foundry, subject to Anthropic’s listed feature limits.

Covered plans still have uncovered features

Anthropic lists chat, projects, artifacts, voice, web search and research as covered in Enterprise. Connectors, MCP servers, Enterprise Search, Claude in Chrome, Console, Cowork in the cloud, and listed beta products are outside the BAA. On the API, Batch, Files, code execution, computer use and web fetch are excluded.

Claude Code is covered in the terminal and Code tab of Claude Desktop after the HIPAA configuration is applied and members sign in with Enterprise accounts. Anthropic says routes through Bedrock, Google Cloud, Microsoft Foundry, an LLM gateway or a custom base URL are outside that configuration. Read the secure Claude Code guide.

What to verify before PHI goes in

1. Hold a dated copy of the BAA accepted by the Primary Owner.
2. For the API, obtain confirmation that Anthropic sales enabled the organization.
3. Confirm every feature staff use is covered; turn connectors and beta features off.
4. Train staff and include the tool in the practice’s risk analysis and AI use policy.
5. Review audit records on a schedule; Anthropic lists its Compliance API among covered services.

Claude API, retention, and zero data retention

On the first-party Claude API, covered models need 30-day retention unless Anthropic authorizes otherwise. Zero data retention is a separate agreement under which a vendor keeps no copy of prompts and outputs for the products it names. Ask Anthropic in writing which products a zero data retention agreement covers and whether it changes the retention the HIPAA configuration requires. See Is Claude safe to use at work? and the zero data retention glossary entry.

Clinical documentation and PHI

Clinical documentation such as visit notes, referral letters, and discharge summaries contains PHI. A healthcare organization can draft it in Claude only on Claude Enterprise with HIPAA activated or on the Claude API with a signed BAA, using covered features. On a plan with no BAA, limit staff to work with no PHI, such as policy drafts and template letters.

Audit logging

Audit logging belongs in the practice's scheduled review. Anthropic lists its Compliance API among covered services. Use it, with the audit records the plan provides, for the review described above, and keep the review record with the dated BAA. See proving who did what.

When the plan has no BAA

Staff can use Claude for work carrying no PHI. Safe Harbor requires removal of all 18 identifiers for the patient and relatives, employer and household. Removing only some identifiers leaves PHI.

Keep patient work on a model you control

SUPERWISE® BAA details. Hosted by SUPERWISE in a secure cage at 365 Data Centers, Nashville, Tennessee. The model is gpt-oss-120b. Subject to change as models advance.

• Any covered entity can sign, including practices, hospitals, and health systems.
• Covered: Chat on the hosted model under a custom contract; Sentinel routing to the hosted model.
• Not covered: Self-serve Chat plans; The platform (AMP); Outside models a customer chooses; Web search.
• If we confirm a security incident that affects your data, we notify you within 72 hours.
• The BAA carries the same 72-hour notice.
• We sign a BAA with healthcare customers; ask for our template. Request the BAA template. Trust center.

Sentinel replaces the identifiers it recognizes before a prompt leaves the PC and records only check metadata for each inspected interaction. Names and most dates reach the AI tool as written, so keep patient work on a covered plan or on the hosted model. It can backstop a no-PHI policy. Each organization determines its own HIPAA compliance, a BAA for an outside tool comes from that tool's vendor, and Safe Harbor de-identification follows its own HHS method. Sentinel is one safeguard inside that program. Sentinel replaces email addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers in the 123-45-6789 format, credit card numbers, IBANs, IP and MAC addresses, full-length OpenAI keys, and AWS secret keys when labeled. Bank account numbers, tax IDs and EINs, national IDs, VINs, dates of birth, and medical record numbers are replaced only in the labeled formats the gateway recognizes.

For Claude’s training, retention, and connector terms outside healthcare, see Is Claude safe to use at work?