Google Apps End of Life
This document is intended to help E-rehab customers that are currently using the free edition of G Suite—also known as the legacy free edition of Google Apps. Here is a Google reference about this: https://support.google.com/a/answer/2855120?hl=en&fl=1
Stay With Google (Easier)
Update to the Paid Version of Google Workspace - Our Recommendation
Google has been sending out notices about this and hopefully you have received a message and are already taking action. Our recommendation is that you do the upgrade with Google to the paid version. Google Workspace is more than just email.
Since we never charged for the setup of G Suite or the support assistance we offered with G Suite, we will not be discounting our prices.
Most of the accounts we set up included a user with an email address of admin@YOURDOMAINNAME.com, this allowed us to login and help if you needed it. Going forward this account will not be needed and you should remove it if you migrate to the paid version at Google, so you do not pay for a mailbox that is not being used.
Google will do a BAA so you can use it for internal communication with PHI but does not have a system to send HIPAA compliant emails to external/patient email addresses.
Google Pricing: https://workspace.google.com/pricing.html Most likely the Business Starter level is good enough.
Here is more information about upgrading to Google Workspace; https://support.google.com/a/answer/60217?fl=1#faq
Google No Cost Option - One email only, no custom domain - Not Recommended
Google is offering a free account, but it is really not much better than just an old-fashioned Gmail account. There also seem to be some points that are not even defined.
https://support.google.com/a/answer/60217?fl=1#nocost
Switch to Another Email Provider (Harder)
Enguard - HIPAA Compliant to Patients and for internal
We have multiple customers that have chosen to use this service. We do NOT use it ourselves so we will not recommend it or against it. This is mostly email, not all the online apps.
Enguard does offer a migration service. This helps move old email messages and contacts from Google to Enguard. You can find out more: https://support.enguard.com/search?q=migration&pid=&type=search&upid=
https://www.enguard.com/Pricing They are a bit cheaper than Google. We have a discount code that you can use: erehab10 Which should get you 10% off the list price.
https://www.enguard.com/ Find out more. They have one of the best descriptions of how HIPAA-compliant email works. https://www.enguard.com/How-Email-Encryption-Works
Microsoft 365 - Outlook
We have also had multiple customers choose to use Microsoft 365. We do NOT use it ourselves so we will not recommend it or against it. This includes a lot more than just email (as did Google Workspace).
Many of the customers that moved to Outlook used a local technical partner. There are a lot of them out there. To the best of our knowledge, Microsoft does not provide a migration service but does have tools that can help with the process. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/mailbox-migration/mailbox-migration
The depth and breadth of Microsoft 365 are big selling points. It also is still a pretty common standard for documents and spreadsheets. You can find out more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365
Outlook is the email client in Microsoft/Office 365 - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/outlook/email-and-calendar-software-microsoft-outlook
Outlook and HIPAA compliancy is not 100% clear to us. It looks like you can get a BAA and there might be a secure gateway, but we are not sure what level of service you need in order to it. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/compliance/regulatory/offering-hipaa-hitech
Microsoft Pricing: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/compare-all-microsoft-365-business-products?&activetab=tab:primaryr2 Once again you can use Standard if you are okay with using the browser versions of their software. Basically the same cost as Google.
GoDaddy Workspace Email - least stable solution (lowest cost), Hardest to Implement
We have used GoDaddy Workspace email for customers. It is pretty bare-bones, but also pretty affordable. We can help set this up for your domain, but we have a couple of warnings and conditions.
No HIPAA support at all, no BAA.
Warning: No guarantee that GoDaddy will continue to provide this service in the future. We have seen hints that they want to migrate users to Microsoft 365.
Warning: Neither we nor GoDaddy provides a migration service for free or at a cost for moving to GoDaddy Workspace email. This includes both emails and contacts.
Warning: E-rehab may be forced to adjust pricing on this service due to costs that we incur facilitating these mailboxes
Pricing: For customers that are paying current list prices with E-rehab we have included some of these mailboxes and have offered more mailboxes on a year-by-year basis. We expect to phase out the year-by-year pricing within the next year. New customers or customers getting new mailboxes will be charged monthly a fee of $2 per mailbox for mailboxes that are not included in their monthly fee.
Pick Your Own Provider
There are many other options/choices for email services.