Every day, healthcare providers and staff members send thousands of emails containing sensitive patient records. Despite training and careful procedures, human error is inevitable. A mistyped address, an autocomplete suggestion gone wrong, or a momentary lapse in concentration—and suddenly, PHI is headed to an unauthorized recipient. Then, you have an accidental breach on your hands.
The Point of No Return: What Happens After You Hit “Send?”
Under HIPAA regulations, sending protected health information (PHI) to an unauthorized recipient constitutes a breach—even if it was clearly accidental disclosure. That hastily typed email with lab results sent to the wrong patient, the referral with clinical notes that autocompleted to the wrong doctor's address—these simple human errors create technical violations that can't be undone, regardless of the nature of the breach.
Then, because of the HIPAA breach notification rule, covered entities and business associates are required to notify affected individuals and the HHS about the instance of unauthorized access.
But there's a critical distinction in the regulations that many healthcare organizations miss. HIPAA's Breach Notification Rule specifically defines a breach as an impermissible disclosure of PHI that "compromises the security or privacy." This subtle but powerful language creates an important compliance pathway: if you can prove the information wasn't actually compromised, you have a stronger case for your risk assessment.
The question becomes: how do you prove what happens to patient data after it left your inbox?
Recommended Watch: HIPAA for the Rest of Us: Compliance Beyond Healthcare
Beyond "Recall": True Data Control After Unauthorized Disclosure
Traditional TLS email protection offers a limited course of action when PHI goes astray. Basic "recall" features typically only work if the message hasn't been opened and usually only function within your own email system — for example, an email shared with another colleague at the same organization. Once that sensitive information is delivered, you lose both control and visibility.
Virtru encrypted email for Gmail or Outlook fundamentally changes this equation with two powerful capabilities working in tandem:
Real Revocation: Unlike basic recall features, Virtru's revocation works anywhere, any time—even after an email has been read. When you realize PHI went to the wrong recipient, one click immediately cuts off access to that information, whether it was sent five minutes or five months ago.
Comprehensive Audit Trails: Equally important, Virtru provides detailed access logs showing exactly what happened with your data breach. Was the message opened? When? By whom? Was it downloaded before you revoked access? These audit trails provide crucial documentation for your incident response team to demonstrate in good faith that there was an unintentional HIPAA violation.
What makes this possible is Virtru's Trusted Data Format (TDF), which follows your data wherever it travels to support HIPAA compliance. This persistent protection ensures you maintain control over your data even after it leaves your organization—allowing you to implement granular access controls like preventing downloads, disabling forwards, or revoking access entirely with a single click.
Together, these capabilities transform an accidental HIPAA violation scenario. Instead of simply hoping the unintended recipient will cooperate, you can take decisive action and document exactly what happened—powerful evidence for your risk assessment and any regulatory inquiries.
Recommended Reading: How to Recall an Email in Outlook
Preventing Human Error In the First Place: The Data Protection Gateway
Remediation is helpful during a PHI fire drill, but prevention is the best medicine. This is where the Virtru Data Protection Gateway provides an additional layer of security that basic encrypted email can't match.
The Gateway sits at your network's edge, automatically securing sensitive data shared via email and SaaS applications—without disrupting workflows. It scans both outbound and inbound communications, providing comprehensive protection for your organization's data ecosystem.
For outbound communications, the Gateway automatically identifies PHI, medical records, and other sensitive medical information by applying security rules to data moving in and out of your perimeter. You can leverage ready-made or custom regex pattern detectors to identify consistent data patterns like patient identifiers, billing codes, or other regulated information. This prevents the common pitfalls of under-encryption (missing sensitive data) or over-encryption (unnecessarily encrypting non-sensitive communications).
When unsecured PHI is detected, the Gateway automatically applies TDF protection, and you can designate the appropriate additional controls depending on your needs:
- Prevent forwarding
- Restrict downloading of sensitive attachments
- Apply watermarks to document the source of information
- Set automatic expiration dates for time-sensitive data
- Enable the crucial revocation capabilities that protect against human error
The Gateway also includes robust archiving capabilities for eDiscovery and compliance requirements, ensuring protected communications remain accessible for authorized review. Advanced analytics give administrators clear visibility into data sharing trends across the organization, enabling informed security decisions based on actual usage patterns.
This comprehensive approach means your PHI travels with protection that allows for both tracking and revocation—critical safeguards when addressing inevitable human errors.
Virtru Reviews: How Healthcare Organizations Solve the "Oops" Problem
Healthcare organizations across the spectrum have discovered that advanced email controls that protect patient privacy when human error inevitably occurs. Their experiences validate the importance of going beyond basic encryption.
When Prevention Fails, Revocation Saves the Day
"Just having data encrypted point-to-point doesn't solve the problem," explains Jason Karn, Chief Compliance Officer at Total HIPAA. "The real issue is, 'What do you do when you send PHI to the wrong person?'"
Karn shares a compelling real-world example: "We had a client going through a major breach because of social engineering: Someone spoofed a member of upper management, and a healthcare employee sent out a file with names and PHI. It became a real issue—we had to report it as a breach to The Department of Health and Human Services. If they'd had Virtru, they could have just denied access to the email and this entire crisis could have been averted. The impact would have been limited, it would have had tracking, and they could have changed the access controls. Now, the horse is out of the barn. The barn is on fire."
Recommended Reading: Total HIPAA Uses Virtru for Proven, Persistent Control of PHI
Audit Trails as Evidence in Compliance Reviews
The ability to demonstrate what happened with PHI proves crucial during regulatory reviews and audits.
"With HIPAA, if you have a breach, you have to prove that patient information was not released, so you have that burden of proof," explains Karn. "With Virtru, you're able to show that, 'Yes, this was sent, but then we were able to revoke access.'"
Tessa Pope, Director of Operations at Total HIPAA, adds: "A big thing that they're looking for when you get audited is forensic analysis. HHS wants you to document exactly what happened in an event, how you mitigated it, how you learned about it, and then what you did. Being able to use a service like Virtru and be able to document those things is huge. It's a very low effort on the client's part to say, 'All I had to do is click a button, and that's the forensic analysis I need to provide to the auditor.'"
Recommended Reading: Bennie Automates HIPAA Compliant Data Workflows in Gmail and Zendesk
Balancing Security with Workflow Efficiency
Organizations have found that the right security measures enhance, rather than impede, productivity.
"The Gateway is there to constantly analyze, scan, and do its job to protect us, because humans make mistakes," says Daniel Brundige, VP of Information Technology at Bennie, highlighting the value of automated protection.
Bill Dougherty, VP of IT and Security at Omada Health notes the operational impact: "Virtru simplified our workflow around protecting and sharing sensitive information. Previously, we would have to block it. No sensitive information could go out via email. It just wasn't secure enough to use." Now they can share necessary information while maintaining HIPAA compliance.
Karn from Total HIPAA sums up the return on investment: "Virtru is a minimal expense for the security and safety it provides. It's having that backstop, being able to say, 'I've got a program where I can deny access to this information that I've errantly granted to somebody,' and knowing that we can go into the logs, we can see that the person didn't download this, or did not open this. I mean, those are huge, huge benefits."
Recommended Reading: Omada Health Relies on Virtru to Easily Share PHI while Complying with HIPAA
Prevention is the Best Medicine
The healthcare industry deserves better than binary thinking about compliance.
When evaluating your approach to HIPAA-compliant communication, look beyond basic encryption to solutions that provide the complete package: prevention, control, visibility, and documentation. Your patients, staff, and compliance officers will thank you.
