Regulatory pressure is rising.
OCR enforcement keeps climbing, state privacy laws are layering on top of HIPAA, and BAA obligations are tightening across the ecosystem.
Healthcare Governance, Risk & Compliance
A healthcare GRC program that runs every day, not just at audit time.
A menu of bundled GRC services, from a single assessment to named officers to a fully operated program. Pick the level that fits your organization today and move up as you grow.
Why now
The bar for healthcare compliance keeps moving.
Four forces are raising what payers, partners, and regulators expect from your program.
Payers and partners want to see a program running.
"Show us your program" is now standard. A point-in-time snapshot increasingly isn't enough.
Cyber pressure is climbing too.
Ransomware on clinical systems, third-party breach exposure, and AI-driven threats aren't slowing down, and cyber insurance underwriting is hardening.
Continuous compliance is the new normal.
The market is moving from a once-a-year check to always-on monitoring.
The gap
Most healthcare teams were never built to run a full GRC program.
That is not a knock on your team. It is how the model has traditionally worked, and where it leaves you exposed.
A single hire can't cover it.
Compliance, Privacy, Security, the GRC platform, risk, vendors, business continuity, and annual assurance are more than one role.
Annual assessments go quiet between cycles.
You get a snapshot at audit time, then the program sits idle until the next one.
Evidence is still collected by hand.
Pulling screenshots before each audit takes weeks and proves little about how the program runs day to day.
How we're different
Healthcare GRC, engineered to run continuously.
You get named leadership and a program that keeps working between audits, not a one-time deliverable.
Named officers on your team.
Compliance, Privacy, and Security leadership, accountable and reachable.
An engineered program.
Automated evidence, continuous monitoring, and AI-assisted workflows doing the work between audits.
Assessments funded and on cadence.
Your HIPAA assessment, security risk assessment, penetration test, and continuity planning bundled in and scheduled, not scrambled for.
Board-ready visibility.
Reporting your leadership, payers, and partners can actually see.
What we offer
Twelve services. Three tiers. One coherent practice.
Start where you are. Each service works independently, and as your program matures, they build on each other, from good to better to best.
Tier 1 — Recurring
Subscription Services
Ongoing, named-officer programs
GRC for Healthcare Flagship
For healthcare organizations of 99 employees and up. Named Compliance, Privacy, and Security officers, a full GRC program, four bundled annual assessments, and continuous monitoring. The complete healthcare GRC function, operated for you.
GRC for Small Business
The same program, scoped and priced for organizations under 99 employees. Named officers, bundled annual assessments, and continuous monitoring.
vCISO
A named Security Officer on your team: risk management, the security program, security policies, and incident response planning.
vCPO
A named Privacy Officer for the organization that already has security covered and needs the privacy and compliance side run properly. Everything a vCISO covers, pointed at privacy.
Healthcare Assurance Subscription
Every Tier 2 assessment, delivered on an annual cadence and billed monthly:
- Full-scope HIPAA assessment
- Security risk assessment
- Penetration test
- Business continuity planning
Assurance without a full managed program.
Vulnerability Management Program
Ongoing discovery, prioritization, and tracking of vulnerabilities across your environment.
*Available on request.
Tier 2 — Fixed-Scope
Standalone Assessments
One-time, defined-scope engagements
Full Scope HIPAA Assessment
A defensible HIPAA Security, Privacy, and Breach assessment with onsite clinic visits, detailed findings, prioritized remediation, and a Letter of Attestation.
Security Risk Assessment
A NIST CSF aligned assessment that goes beyond the HIPAA Security Rule to show you where your security program actually stands.
Full Scope Penetration Test
A five-vector adversarial test across external, cloud, internal, wireless, and social engineering.
Tabletop Exercise
A facilitated incident response and business continuity exercise built on a BIA-driven scenario, with documentation you keep.
Tier 3 — Readiness
Certification Support
Framework readiness and audit support
HITRUST Navigator
End-to-end HITRUST readiness, remediation, and audit support, from gap assessment through certification.
SOC 2 Navigator
End-to-end SOC 2 readiness across the Trust Services Criteria, from gap assessment through audit.
How a Navigator works
- 01Understand the business
- 02Gap assessment
- 03Remediation plan
- 04Project-managed remediation
- 05Readiness assessment
- 06Auditor selection and audit facilitation
Find the best option for you
How it fits together
Three tiers of services, designed to meet you where you are today and grow with you.
Good
Healthcare Assurance Subscription
Full-scope HIPAA assessment
Security risk assessment (NIST CSF)
Full-scope penetration testing
Business continuity planning and annual tabletop
Better
Assurance + vCISO or *vCPO
Everything in Good, plus:
vCISO (Security Officer), security leadership and roadmap
Cybersecurity risk management
Security program management
Security policy management
Incident response planning
Executive reporting and advisory
GRC platform
Best
GRC for Healthcare / GRC for Small Business
Everything in Better, plus:
Privacy and Compliance Officer, compliance leadership and roadmap
Enterprise risk management
Third-party risk management
Compliance program management
Enterprise policy management
Enterprise security and compliance monitoring and reporting
*The vCPO is the same tier pointed at privacy: the same seniority as a vCISO, running the privacy and compliance half for organizations that already have a security officer in place. Both are contained in GRC for Healthcare and GRC for Small Business.
Tier 1 — Assurance
How the Healthcare Assurance Subscription works.
Every assessment in Tier 2, scheduled and funded on an annual cadence and billed monthly across a multi-year commitment.
What runs every year
- 01
Full-scope HIPAA assessment
Security, privacy, and breach notification, with onsite clinic visits and a Letter of Attestation.
- 02
Security risk assessment
NIST-based, so it shows where your security program stands rather than only whether HIPAA is met.
- 03
Penetration test
An adversarial test of the environment, validated by a third party rather than run in-house.
- 04
Business continuity planning and tabletop
A continuity plan built from a business impact analysis, then exercised with your team.
Each of the four is also available a la carte as a standalone, fixed-scope engagement.
Full scope, not just the Security Rule.
Most firms assess the HIPAA Security Rule and stop there. We cover security, privacy, and breach notification.
Billed monthly, not once a year.
The work is funded across a multi-year commitment, so assurance is a predictable monthly cost instead of a large annual capital expense.
A different pen test partner every year.
A returning tester already knows how to get into your environment, so fresh eyes each year is the point. We rotate partners and only come back around after three years, once that knowledge has gone stale.
How we fit into your business
You decide how much we take on.
In-house or outsourced, your IT team knows your systems. We know the standards. We work through the details together, so compliance gets built into how you already operate.
Co-Managed
Your team and ours. We bring the named officers, the framework, and the platforms. You keep visibility and decision rights.
Best when you already have some internal expertise.
Fully Outsourced
We own it end to end. Officers, framework, platforms, vendors, assessments, and reporting, all run by us with executive visibility back to you.
Best when you don't have internal GRC capacity.
Staff Augmentation
Our experts embedded in your team and reporting structure, with you setting direction.
Best when an established program needs specific senior expertise.
Why Path Forward
What you'd otherwise be choosing between.
| Alternative | Where it breaks | Where Path Forward wins |
|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself internally | Standing up platforms, integrations, evidence, and assessments on top of everyone's day job. | We engineer the program and produce the evidence a payer, auditor, or BAA actually wants to see. |
| Hire a full-time officer | One person can't realistically cover Compliance, Privacy, Security, platform, risk, vendors, BCP, and assurance. | Named officers and a bundled program for less than one fully loaded senior hire. |
| Generic MSSP or "we have a guy" | Healthcare GRC isn't generic. HIPAA, BAAs, PHI, OCR, and clinic operations aren't checkbox items. | Healthcare GRC, engineered. We operate in those rules every day. |
| Big-4 or national consulting firm | Project work, rotating staff, and a deliverable that ages fast. Great slides, no accountability between visits. | A named team that stays, and a program built to run between their visits, not just during them. |
The standards we live in
Our assessments, policies, and monitoring map to the standards your payers, partners, and auditors care about.
Regulatory
- HIPAASecurity, Privacy, and Breach Notification
- Texas HB 300Healthcare-specific privacy and breach notification
- State privacy lawsCCPA/CPRA, Texas Data Privacy and Security Act, and others
Frameworks and standards
- HITRUST CSF
- SOC 2
- NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF 2.0)
- NIST SP 800-53
- NIST Privacy Framework
- NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0)
- ISO/IEC 42001
- HHS 405(d) HICP
- CIS Controls
- ISO/IEC 27001
- PCI DSS
Let’s talk it through
Whether you need an assessment, ongoing support, or just a second opinion, we're happy to help.