If you run a medical practice, "HIPAA compliant" gets thrown around a lot, usually by vendors selling something. Underneath the label, HIPAA's Security Rule is pretty specific about what your IT has to do. Here's the practical version, without the legal reading.
What the Security Rule expects from your systems
Access controls. Not everyone on staff needs access to every record. HIPAA expects role-based access, unique logins for every user, and a way to shut off access immediately when someone leaves.
Encryption. Patient data should be encrypted both at rest (sitting on a server or drive) and in transit (moving through email, a patient portal, or between systems). If a laptop gets stolen and the drive was encrypted, that's a very different conversation with regulators than an unencrypted one.
Audit logs. You need a record of who accessed what patient data, and when. This has less to do with catching staff than with what happens after a breach: you need to know exactly what was touched and by whom, and the log is the only way to find out.
Backup and recovery. A practice needs a tested plan for restoring patient data after a ransomware attack, a hardware failure, or plain human error. "We have backups" only counts if you've confirmed they restore correctly.
Breach response. If patient data is exposed, HIPAA has specific notification timelines and requirements. Having a plan before an incident happens is the difference between a controlled response and a scramble.
None of this is exotic. It's the baseline most healthcare IT should already be doing. In our experience, the gap is rarely that a practice doesn't know these things. The gap is that nobody has implemented them, tested them, and written them down.
How this plays out for practices in San Marcos and Hays County
At safemode IT, we support medical practices across Hays County, and San Marcos specifically has more healthcare-focused competition in the IT space than it used to. That's a good thing for practices shopping around, but it also means "we do HIPAA compliance" doesn't set anyone apart anymore. What matters is whether a provider can show you the access logs, the backup test results, and the incident response plan instead of telling you they exist.
We recently walked a San Marcos medical practice through exactly this after a business email compromise knocked out their patient communications for part of a day. We wrote up what happened and how it got resolved in a separate post. The technical response mattered, but so did having a plan already in place for what to do next.
Where TAC 202 overlaps with HIPAA
If your practice also does any work with a Texas state entity, a university health system, or a county appraisal district, you may run into TAC 202 as well. It's a separate requirement from HIPAA, aimed at Texas state agencies and their vendors rather than healthcare specifically, but the overlap is real: multi-factor authentication, documented risk assessments, incident response planning, and annual security training show up in both. Practices that get one right are usually most of the way to the other.
What to do next
If you manage a medical practice and you're not sure whether your current IT setup would hold up under a real HIPAA audit, or under a breach, that's worth a straight answer, not a sales pitch.
We put together a HIPAA compliance checklist built for practice managers, not compliance attorneys. It's free to download. Or if you'd rather have someone walk your systems directly, we offer a free 10-minute discovery call for medical practices in San Marcos and Hays County.
This post describes current, settled HIPAA Security Rule requirements. It is not legal advice; a healthcare compliance attorney should review your specific situation.
Not sure your IT is as solid as it should be? Take 10 minutes and tell us about your setup. No pressure, no obligation.
Book a 10-Minute Discovery Call →Frequently asked questions
What does HIPAA require from a medical practice's IT?
The HIPAA Security Rule requires administrative, physical, and technical safeguards. In practice, that means role-based access controls, encryption of patient data at rest and in transit, audit logs of who accessed what, a tested backup and recovery plan, and a documented breach response process.
Is TAC 202 the same thing as HIPAA?
No. TAC 202 is a separate Texas state requirement aimed at state agencies, universities, and their vendors, including county appraisal districts. It doesn't apply to every medical practice. But the security controls it requires, like multi-factor authentication and documented risk assessments, overlap heavily with what HIPAA already expects.
Is the HIPAA Security Rule changing?
A stricter update has been proposed at the federal level, including mandatory multi-factor authentication and tighter encryption requirements, but so far it is only a proposed rule and has not become final law. It's worth watching, but not yet something to build a compliance plan around.
Can safemode IT handle HIPAA compliance for our practice?
Yes. We support medical practices across San Marcos and Hays County, and we can show you the access logs, backup test results, and incident response plan instead of only telling you they exist. Learn more about our cybersecurity services or book a 10-minute discovery call for your practice.
Last updated: September 18, 2026
