Notion is a popular choice for clinic wikis, SOP libraries, and lightweight task tracking. It is also where a lot of clinical detail ends up — in onboarding docs, patient follow-up lists, and incident notes — because Notion is easy to open and easy to type in. That convenience is the risk.
The BAA Problem
Notion’s BAA is gated to its Enterprise plan, and coverage for AI features has changed over time — confirm current scope with Notion’s security team before assuming a given feature is covered. For a small practice, Enterprise pricing is unrealistic regardless. On top of that: Notion has no HIPAA-scoped audit log, no PHI-aware fields, and no compliance templates.
What Changes With PHIGuard
PHIGuard is purpose-built for covered entities. Every tier — starting at $99/month per clinic — includes a signed BAA at signup. You also get:
- Immutable audit trail on every task action, satisfying HIPAA §164.312(b)
- PHI-aware fields that keep patient data out of notification emails and log sinks
- Compliance templates for annual training, risk analysis, incident response, and policy review
- Role-based access scoped to the roles that exist in a clinic, not generic “members” and “guests”
Pricing Comparison
| Notion | PHIGuard | |
|---|---|---|
| BAA included | Enterprise only | Every tier |
| Pricing model | Per user/month | Per clinic/month |
| HIPAA audit trail | No | Yes, built-in |
| Compliance templates | No | Yes |
| Starting price (with BAA) | Enterprise (custom) | $99/clinic/mo |
Who Should Use PHIGuard Instead of Notion
Keep Notion for SOPs, internal knowledge, and anything without PHI. Move anything that references a patient — tasks, follow-ups, incident logs, credentialing, access reviews — into PHIGuard. A dedicated compliance tool is cheaper, simpler, and defensible under audit.