TL;DR — Healthcare IT consulting from EPC Group.
EPC Group is a 29-year Microsoft Solutions Partner that delivers healthcare IT consulting under direct HIPAA Business Associate Agreements with hospitals, health systems, payers, and life-sciences manufacturers. The practice covers eight HIPAA-native Microsoft service areas: Microsoft 365 deployment, Microsoft Purview classification of ePHI, Power BI for clinical analytics, Microsoft Fabric for healthcare data platforms, Microsoft 365 Copilot for clinicians, Microsoft Entra non-human identity for AI agents, Azure for healthcare (including Azure Health Data Services and the FHIR service), and 24/7 Co-Managed Microsoft Healthcare Services. Delivery is senior-architect-led, onshore-only, with documented HIPAA, HITECH, HITRUST CSF, FDA 21 CFR Part 11, and state-law mapping.
EPC Group is a 29-year Microsoft Solutions Partner with a published healthcare Microsoft Fabric reference architecture, direct HIPAA BAAs with hospital and health-system clients, and senior-architect-led delivery across HIPAA-native Microsoft 365, Microsoft Purview ePHI classification, Power BI clinical analytics, Microsoft Fabric clinical data platforms, Microsoft 365 Copilot for clinicians, Microsoft Entra non-human identity for AI agents, Azure Health Data Services and the FHIR service, and 24/7 Co-Managed Microsoft Healthcare Services.
Key Facts
- 29 years of continuous Microsoft consulting (founded 1997) — one of the longest-tenured Microsoft Solutions Partners in the United States
- All six current Microsoft Solutions Partner Designations held under the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program
- 25 named Microsoft consulting engagements in the healthcare and life-sciences vertical — active reference: Palmetto Infusion (ambulatory infusion services)
- Direct HIPAA Business Associate Agreements signed with hospital, health-system, payer, and life-sciences clients in addition to the Microsoft HIPAA BAA umbrella
- Published Microsoft Fabric healthcare reference architecture covering OneLake, Direct Lake, Real-Time Intelligence, and Azure Health Data Services FHIR ingestion
- Power BI, Fabric, Microsoft 365, and Power Platform integrations against Epic Clarity, Cerner / Oracle Health HealtheIntent and Millennium, Meditech Expanse, and Veeva Vault
- FDA 21 CFR Part 11 delivery for pharmaceutical, biotech, medical-device, and CRO clients — IQ / OQ / PQ and GAMP 5-aligned CSV evidence
- Healthcare IT consulting cost range: $40,000 (two-week Healthcare HIPAA Microsoft Health Check) to $1,000,000+ (Fabric-based clinical data platform across an integrated delivery network)
What EPC Group's Healthcare IT Consulting Covers
EPC Group delivers healthcare IT consulting across eight HIPAA-native Microsoft service areas — from initial Microsoft 365 deployment and ePHI classification, through clinical analytics and clinical AI, into long-running 24/7 co-managed services. Every service area is delivered against the HIPAA Privacy + Security Rules, HITECH, HITRUST CSF, and (for life-sciences clients) FDA 21 CFR Part 11. Senior architects own each engagement end-to-end.
HIPAA-native Microsoft 365 deployment
Microsoft 365 tenants configured from day one for the handling of electronic protected health information (ePHI). EPC Group designs the HIPAA control set across Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, Teams, and Purview — sensitivity labels for ePHI, Data Loss Prevention policies that block unauthorized external sharing, Communication Compliance supervision policies for clinical staff, conditional access, audit logging, and BAA-aligned tenant settings. Every healthcare Microsoft 365 deployment EPC Group ships is built to survive an OCR HIPAA audit.
- Microsoft HIPAA Business Associate Agreement (BAA) tenant configuration with documented evidence package
- ePHI sensitivity labels and label-based encryption across Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams
- Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention policies that block unauthorized sharing of ePHI to external recipients
- Communication Compliance supervision policies for clinical workforce — Teams chat, channel messages, email
- Conditional access policies for clinical workforce, contingent staff, and Business Associate vendors
Microsoft Purview classification of ePHI
Microsoft Purview as the enterprise data-governance plane for ePHI — data discovery, classification, records management, retention, eDiscovery (Premium), and Insider Risk Management. EPC Group builds the Purview classifier set against the HIPAA Privacy Rule (45 CFR §164.514) safe-harbor identifiers, trains custom classifiers on hospital-specific ePHI patterns, and operationalizes Content Explorer evidence for compliance teams.
- Microsoft Purview Information Protection sensitivity label taxonomy mapped to HIPAA safe-harbor identifiers
- Custom trainable classifiers for hospital-specific document types — face sheets, H&P notes, consult notes, discharge summaries
- Microsoft Purview Records Management retention labels for medical records (state-specific retention schedules)
- Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Premium) workflows for litigation, audit, and OCR investigation response
- Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management policies for departing clinicians and high-risk endpoint activity
Power BI for clinical analytics
Power BI as the clinical and operational analytics surface for hospitals, health systems, and life-sciences manufacturers — row-level security (RLS) for patient cohorts, service lines, and care teams; semantic models grounded in FHIR data sources; integration with Epic, Cerner, Oracle Health, and Meditech data warehouses; and HIPAA-compliant report distribution. EPC Group has delivered 1,500+ Power BI implementations including dozens across hospital systems, academic medical centers, payers, and pharmaceutical manufacturers.
- Row-level security (RLS) for patient cohorts, service lines, care teams, and Business Associate boundaries
- Semantic models grounded in FHIR R4 / R5 data sources via Azure Health Data Services
- Integration with Epic Clarity, Cerner / Oracle Health HealtheIntent, Meditech Expanse, and Veeva data warehouses
- HIPAA-compliant report distribution — Power BI app workspaces with conditional access and audit logging
- Clinical analytics templates — readmission, length of stay, mortality, hospital-acquired conditions, sepsis bundles, throughput
Microsoft Fabric for healthcare data platform
Microsoft Fabric as the unified healthcare data platform — OneLake as the single copy of clinical, claims, and operational data, Direct Lake mode in Power BI for sub-second clinical reporting against the lakehouse, Real-Time Intelligence for streaming HL7 v2 ADT feeds, and Data Activator alerts for clinical operations. EPC Group has published a healthcare Fabric reference architecture and runs Fabric-based clinical data platforms for hospital clients.
- OneLake medallion architecture (bronze / silver / gold) for clinical, claims, and operational data
- Direct Lake mode in Power BI for sub-second clinical analytics against the lakehouse
- Real-Time Intelligence (Eventstream + KQL database) for HL7 v2 ADT, ORU, and SIU feeds
- Data Activator alerts for clinical operations — bed capacity, throughput thresholds, ED LWBS, sepsis bundles
- Fabric Data Engineering pipelines that ingest Epic Clarity, Cerner / Oracle Health, and Veeva extracts on schedule
Microsoft 365 Copilot for clinicians
Microsoft 365 Copilot rolled out to clinicians with HIPAA-aligned governance — Communication Compliance supervision policies that audit both Copilot prompts and Copilot responses, ePHI sensitivity labels enforced inside Copilot grounding, sensitivity-label-aware citations, and Copilot Studio agents grounded in physician-friendly knowledge bases. EPC Group is one of the few Microsoft Solutions Partners with a documented framework for Copilot + ePHI handling.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot tenant configuration — restricted SharePoint Online sites, Copilot semantic index hygiene, prompt-and-response auditing
- Communication Compliance supervision policies that capture Copilot prompts and responses for clinical workforce
- Sensitivity-label enforcement inside Copilot grounding (Copilot will not return ePHI to unauthorized prompts)
- Copilot Studio agents grounded in care-team SharePoint libraries, clinical SOPs, and policy manuals
- Clinician adoption program — prompts library, Tier-1 vs Tier-2 use cases, and Communication Compliance reviewer training
Microsoft Entra non-human identity for AI agents
Microsoft Entra identity governance for the AI agents that hospitals and health systems are now deploying — workload identities for clinical Copilot Studio agents, Conditional Access policies for non-human identities, Privileged Identity Management (PIM) for elevated agent permissions, and ePHI-scoped Graph API permissions. EPC Group designs the agentic-identity control plane that hospital CISOs need before clinical AI agents go to production.
- Microsoft Entra workload identities for Copilot Studio agents, Power Automate flows, and Azure Functions
- Conditional Access policies that gate agent access by network location, device compliance, and risk signals
- Privileged Identity Management (PIM) eligible assignments for elevated agent permissions
- Least-privilege Microsoft Graph API permission scoping per agent — Sites.Selected, Files.Selected, ChannelMessage.Send.Group
- Agent-identity inventory, lifecycle, and offboarding governance integrated with the Microsoft Entra Identity Governance suite
Azure for healthcare
Azure for healthcare — Azure Health Data Services (FHIR service, DICOM service, MedTech service), Azure API for FHIR, HL7 v2 to FHIR translation, Azure Health Insights (medical text analytics, clinical concept extraction), and Azure OpenAI in Foundry deployed inside the HIPAA-eligible Azure boundary. EPC Group architects Azure landing zones that meet HIPAA, HITRUST CSF, and (where applicable) FedRAMP requirements for hospital systems and life-sciences manufacturers.
- Azure Health Data Services — FHIR service R4 / R5, DICOM service, MedTech service for medical-device telemetry
- HL7 v2 to FHIR translation pipelines via the Azure FHIR Converter and the MedTech service
- Azure Health Insights — medical text analytics, clinical concept extraction, radiology and onco-phenotype models
- Azure OpenAI in Azure AI Foundry — HIPAA-eligible deployments with private endpoints and customer-managed keys
- HIPAA / HITRUST CSF-aligned Azure landing zones with policy-as-code (Azure Policy + Defender for Cloud)
24/7 Co-Managed Microsoft Healthcare Services
A senior-architect-led co-managed services tier for hospital and health-system Microsoft estates — 24/7 incident response with one-hour clinical-critical SLAs, Microsoft release-wave change management aligned to the clinical change-control calendar, quarterly HIPAA control reviews, Communication Compliance reviewer support, Fabric and Power BI workspace operations, and continuous optimization. Onshore-only delivery, named architects, no juniors on client work.
- 24/7 incident response with one-hour clinical-critical SLAs and named senior-architect escalation
- Microsoft release-wave change management synchronized to the hospital change-control calendar
- Quarterly HIPAA control reviews and OCR-ready evidence packages (Purview audit logs + Defender for Cloud)
- Communication Compliance reviewer assistance — case triage, escalation, and reviewer training
- Fabric workspace, Power BI semantic model, and Azure Health Data Services operations and tuning
EPC Group's Healthcare Credentials
Most Microsoft consultancies discovered the healthcare vertical when Microsoft 365 Copilot launched. EPC Group has been delivering Microsoft inside hospital and health-system control boundaries for two decades — long enough to have a documented HIPAA evidence package, a published healthcare Fabric reference architecture, and direct BAA experience with hospital privacy and compliance officers.
HIPAA Business Associate Agreement (BAA) experience
EPC Group operates under the Microsoft HIPAA Business Associate Agreement and signs direct BAAs with hospital systems, integrated delivery networks, payers, and life-sciences clients. Every healthcare engagement includes a documented HIPAA control set, evidence package, and audit-ready posture for OCR investigations and HITRUST assessments.
Existing healthcare clients
Active healthcare engagements include Palmetto Infusion — an ambulatory infusion services organization — across revenue-cycle, cash-application, and Microsoft 365 / Power BI modernization. Prior healthcare references span academic medical centers, integrated delivery networks, ambulatory surgery centers, behavioral health, and life-sciences manufacturers (covered under NDA on the reference call).
Integration with Epic, Cerner / Oracle Health, and Meditech
Power BI and Microsoft Fabric integrations against Epic Clarity, Cerner / Oracle Health HealtheIntent and Millennium, Meditech Expanse, and Veeva Vault. HL7 v2 ADT, ORU, and SIU feeds processed via Azure Health Data Services MedTech service. Read-only clinical reporting layers are the most common scope — write-back integrations are scoped only after a documented patient-safety and clinical-change-control review.
FDA 21 CFR Part 11 for life sciences
For pharmaceutical, biotech, medical-device, and clinical research organization (CRO) clients, EPC Group delivers Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Power BI, and Power Platform inside FDA 21 CFR Part 11 control boundaries — electronic records, electronic signatures, audit trails, validation evidence (IQ / OQ / PQ), and computer system validation (CSV) deliverables aligned to GAMP 5.
25 Microsoft healthcare engagements
Twenty-five named Microsoft consulting engagements completed within the healthcare and life-sciences vertical — spanning Microsoft 365 deployment, SharePoint Online intranet and ECM, Power BI clinical analytics, Microsoft Fabric data platforms, Copilot governance, and Azure Health Data Services. Reference calls available under NDA.
Published healthcare Fabric reference architecture
EPC Group has published a healthcare-specific Microsoft Fabric reference architecture covering OneLake, Direct Lake, Real-Time Intelligence, and HIPAA-aligned governance — the technical foundation behind our hospital-system Fabric implementations. Read the playbook in the EPC Group resource library.
29 years of continuous Microsoft consulting
EPC Group has been a continuously operating Microsoft consulting firm since 1997 — one of the longest-tenured Microsoft Solutions Partners in the United States and the original Microsoft SharePoint consultancy. Healthcare engagements have been part of the practice for two decades.
Read the EPC Group healthcare Fabric playbook: Healthcare Analytics on Microsoft Fabric — HIPAA Reference Architecture. OneLake medallion architecture, Direct Lake Power BI semantic models, Real-Time Intelligence for HL7 v2 streaming, and the HIPAA control set documented end-to-end.
Healthcare Regulatory Coverage
Healthcare IT consulting begins and ends with regulatory mapping. EPC Group maps Microsoft platforms across five regulatory regimes — the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules, the HITECH Act, the FDA's 21 CFR Part 11 (for life-sciences clients), HITRUST CSF, and state-specific health-data laws. Each engagement ships with documented control mapping and an OCR-investigation-ready evidence package.
HIPAA Privacy + Security Rules
45 CFR Parts 160 + 164
EPC Group maps Microsoft 365, Power BI, Fabric, Copilot, and Azure controls to the HIPAA Privacy Rule (45 CFR §164.500–§164.534) and Security Rule (45 CFR §164.302–§164.318). Deliverables include the Notice of Privacy Practices alignment, minimum-necessary access enforcement, administrative-physical-technical safeguard documentation, and an OCR-investigation-ready evidence package built from Microsoft Purview audit logs and Microsoft Defender for Cloud compliance reports.
HITECH Act
Breach Notification Rule + meaningful use legacy
The HITECH Act amendments to HIPAA — including the Breach Notification Rule (45 CFR §164.400–§164.414) — drive incident-response design. EPC Group implements Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Defender for Cloud playbooks that detect unauthorized ePHI access, scope the breach (500-individual threshold for OCR notification), and produce the documentation packet for HHS, state attorneys general, and affected individuals.
FDA 21 CFR Part 11
Electronic records + electronic signatures (life sciences)
For pharmaceutical, biotech, medical-device, and CRO clients, Microsoft platforms deployed for GxP-regulated processes are configured for 21 CFR Part 11 — electronic record integrity, electronic signature workflows, audit trails, and validation evidence. EPC Group delivers IQ / OQ / PQ documentation, GAMP 5 categorization, and CSV deliverables aligned to FDA expectations.
HITRUST CSF
Common Security Framework (r2 + e1 + i1 assessments)
EPC Group prepares hospital and payer clients for HITRUST CSF r2, e1, and i1 assessments — mapping Microsoft 365, Azure, and Microsoft Defender XDR controls to the HITRUST control library, supporting external assessor evidence requests, and remediating gaps prior to validation. Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager assessments accelerate the HITRUST evidence-gathering cycle.
State-specific (NY SHIELD, CA CMIA, TX HB300)
State health-data and breach-notification laws
Beyond federal HIPAA, EPC Group maps controls to state-specific requirements — New York SHIELD Act (data security and breach notification), California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) and CCPA / CPRA health-data carve-outs, Texas Medical Records Privacy Act (HB 300), Illinois Personal Information Protection Act, and Massachusetts 201 CMR 17. State carve-outs add to the federal floor — they do not replace it.
Comparison: EPC Group vs Major Healthcare Microsoft Competitors
Hospital and health-system buyers regularly evaluate EPC Group alongside Slalom, Accenture, Deloitte, and Avanade. The five-criterion comparison below is built from public data — Microsoft Partner status, years of healthcare consulting, named hospital references, HIPAA BAA scale, and Microsoft Fabric healthcare implementations. We say where each firm legitimately wins; buyers detect shilling.
| Criterion | EPC Group | Slalom (Healthcare practice) | Accenture (Health practice) | Deloitte (Health practice) | Avanade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Solutions Partner designations | All 6 Microsoft Solutions Partner designations | Multiple Microsoft designations — full enumeration not public | Microsoft Solutions Partner with all designations (global) | Microsoft Solutions Partner with all designations (global) | Microsoft Solutions Partner — Microsoft-and-Accenture joint venture |
| Years in Microsoft healthcare | 20+ years (within 29-year firm history) | 20+ years (firm founded 2001) | 30+ years (firm founded 1989 as a separate entity) | 40+ years across health sector consulting | 20+ years (firm founded 2000) |
| Named hospital clients | Palmetto Infusion (active) + 24 additional engagements under NDA | Public references include Providence, Atrium, and large academic medical centers | Global health systems, payer references, and PBM clients | Hundreds of health-system, payer, life-sciences, and federal health references | Public health-system and life-sciences references |
| HIPAA BAA scale | Direct BAA with every healthcare client + Microsoft HIPAA BAA umbrella | BAA-capable — scale not enumerated publicly | Large-scale BAA operations across thousands of health-system relationships | Enterprise BAA scale across the Deloitte Health Care practice | BAA-capable with documented healthcare practice |
| Healthcare Fabric implementations | Published healthcare Fabric reference architecture + live hospital implementations | Active Fabric practice — healthcare-specific public reference architecture limited | Global Fabric practice within the broader Accenture Cloud First / Data + AI practice | Active Fabric practice within Deloitte Engineering, AI, and Data | Active Microsoft Fabric practice with healthcare collateral |
EPC Group — where they legitimately win
Senior-architect-led delivery, deepest HIPAA + 21 CFR Part 11 + HITRUST + state-law mapping, published Microsoft Fabric healthcare reference architecture, original Microsoft SharePoint consultancy (founder on the Project Tahoe Beta Team), no juniors or offshore on client work.
Slalom (Healthcare practice) — where they legitimately win
Strong U.S. local-market presence with 40+ city offices, broader management-and-technology consulting positioning, and large public healthcare references. Strong fit when the buyer wants a metro-area generalist consulting partner alongside Microsoft technology.
Accenture (Health practice) — where they legitimately win
Global delivery scale, offshore-blended rate cards, and the ability to absorb very large multi-year transformation programs ($50M+). Strong fit when the buyer needs global staff augmentation, BPO blending, or a single firm spanning consulting + IT outsourcing + managed services.
Deloitte (Health practice) — where they legitimately win
Audit-firm parentage, deep regulatory advisory bench (especially HHS, CMS, and state Medicaid program advisory), and the ability to wrap technology delivery with strategy, regulatory, and operations consulting. Strong fit when the buyer needs Big Four advisory plus delivery.
Avanade — where they legitimately win
Microsoft-exclusive delivery firm (joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture) with deep Microsoft product engineering relationships and global scale. Strong fit when the buyer wants a Microsoft-only firm with Accenture-grade staff and processes.
Public data sources: firm websites, Microsoft AppSource / Marketplace partner listings, Microsoft Solutions Partner Designation directory, and published case-study libraries. EPC Group does not make claims on behalf of competing firms beyond what they publish publicly.
Engagement Models
EPC Group offers four named healthcare Microsoft engagement models. Each is sized to a buyer profile and a budget envelope. We provide transparent fixed-fee pricing after a one-hour scoping call with a senior architect — not after a multi-stage discovery and SOW negotiation cycle.
Healthcare HIPAA Microsoft Health Check
Two weeksFixed-fee assessment
A two-week fixed-fee assessment of the hospital or health-system Microsoft estate against the HIPAA Privacy + Security Rules, HITECH, HITRUST CSF, and state-specific requirements. EPC Group senior architects review the Microsoft 365 tenant configuration, sensitivity-label coverage of ePHI, DLP policy posture, Communication Compliance configuration, Microsoft Purview audit log retention, Conditional Access posture, and Power BI / Fabric workspace security. Delivered as a costed remediation roadmap with senior-architect readout.
Best for: Hospital and health-system CIOs, CISOs, Privacy Officers, and Compliance Officers who need an objective HIPAA + Microsoft posture read — typically before an OCR follow-up audit, a HITRUST validation, a payer due-diligence review, or a multi-year Microsoft modernization SOW.
Deliverables
- HIPAA Security Rule control map across Microsoft 365, Azure, Defender, and Purview
- ePHI sensitivity-label coverage report from Microsoft Purview Content Explorer
- Microsoft 365 tenant configuration audit and drift report
- Prioritized HIPAA remediation backlog with effort estimates
- Senior-architect roadmap readout (90 minutes) with CIO / CISO / Compliance leadership
Microsoft 365 Healthcare Migration Accelerator
90 daysFixed-fee migration
A 90-day fixed-fee Microsoft 365 program for hospital and health-system tenants — Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, Teams, and Purview rolled out (or remediated) inside a HIPAA control set. Includes BAA configuration, ePHI sensitivity labels, DLP, Communication Compliance, conditional access, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, and clinical-workforce adoption. Sized per accelerator to a defined seat band and a defined content footprint.
Best for: Hospital and health-system organizations migrating off legacy on-premises Exchange, file servers, or legacy collaboration platforms — or remediating an inherited Microsoft 365 tenant that was deployed without HIPAA controls in mind.
Deliverables
- BAA-aligned tenant baseline configuration with documented evidence package
- Migration plan with HIPAA control mapping and rollback playbook
- ePHI sensitivity labels, DLP policies, and Communication Compliance supervision deployment
- Microsoft Defender for Office 365 and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps configuration
- Clinical-workforce adoption program, prompt library, and 30-day post-migration stabilization
Fabric-Based Clinical Data Platform
Four to six monthsMulti-phase fixed-fee
A four-to-six-month Microsoft Fabric clinical data platform — OneLake medallion architecture, Direct Lake mode Power BI semantic models, Real-Time Intelligence for HL7 v2 streaming, Azure Health Data Services FHIR service ingestion of Epic / Cerner / Oracle Health / Meditech data, and Data Activator alerts for clinical operations. Delivered against the published EPC Group healthcare Fabric reference architecture.
Best for: Hospitals, integrated delivery networks, and academic medical centers replacing legacy enterprise data warehouses (Cogito, HealtheIntent, MicroStrategy, IBM, Cloudera) with a Microsoft-aligned clinical and operational data platform — and reporting against Epic Clarity / Cerner / Oracle Health source systems on top of OneLake.
Deliverables
- OneLake medallion architecture (bronze / silver / gold) with ePHI sensitivity-label propagation
- Direct Lake Power BI semantic models with row-level security for patient cohorts and service lines
- Real-Time Intelligence pipelines for HL7 v2 ADT, ORU, and SIU feeds via Azure Health Data Services
- Clinical analytics report pack — readmission, mortality, length of stay, throughput, sepsis bundles
- HIPAA + HITRUST control documentation across the Fabric workspace, Azure subscription, and Power BI tenant
24/7 Co-Managed Healthcare Microsoft Services
Monthly retainerMonthly retainer (24/7)
A senior-architect-led monthly retainer covering 24/7 incident response, Microsoft release-wave change management aligned to the clinical change-control calendar, quarterly HIPAA control reviews, Communication Compliance reviewer support, Fabric and Power BI workspace operations, Azure Health Data Services operations, and continuous optimization. Onshore-only with named architects per retainer.
Best for: Hospital and health-system organizations that completed Microsoft migration or modernization and need ongoing senior-architect-led operations — without staffing a Microsoft Center of Excellence internally and without rotating offshore Tier-1 / Tier-2 contractors through ePHI-bearing systems.
Deliverables
- 24/7 incident response with one-hour clinical-critical SLAs and named senior-architect escalation
- Microsoft release-wave change management synchronized to the hospital change-control calendar
- Quarterly HIPAA control reviews and OCR-ready evidence packages
- Communication Compliance reviewer assistance and reviewer training
- Monthly clinical analytics, Fabric, Power BI, and Azure Health Data Services performance reporting
IT consulting healthcare — what hospitals actually buy
IT consulting in healthcare — and conversely IT healthcare consulting — is the practice of advising hospitals, health systems, payers, and life-sciences manufacturers on the technology platforms that operate care delivery, revenue cycle, regulatory compliance, and clinical analytics. The buyer set is concentrated: a hospital CIO, CISO, Chief Medical Information Officer, Privacy Officer, or Vice President of Revenue Cycle is typically the engagement sponsor. The work itself spans Microsoft 365 collaboration platforms, electronic health record (EHR) integrations against Epic, Cerner / Oracle Health, and Meditech, Power BI clinical analytics, Microsoft Fabric data platforms, Microsoft 365 Copilot for clinicians, Azure Health Data Services and the FHIR service, and 24/7 co-managed operations.
EPC Group's healthcare IT consulting practice runs against this exact buyer set. The firm signs direct Business Associate Agreements with hospital clients in addition to operating under the Microsoft HIPAA BAA. Engagements are senior-architect-led — no associates, no juniors, no offshore on client work — which is the only operating model that aligns with the OCR audit risk profile that hospital privacy and compliance teams carry. Twenty-five Microsoft healthcare engagements have been delivered to date, including the active Palmetto Infusion ambulatory infusion services engagement (revenue cycle, cash application, and Microsoft 365 / Power BI modernization).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is healthcare IT consulting?
Healthcare IT consulting is the planning, design, deployment, governance, and operation of the information-technology platforms that hospitals, health systems, payers, and life-sciences manufacturers use to deliver care, manage operations, and meet regulatory obligations — HIPAA, HITECH, HITRUST CSF, FDA 21 CFR Part 11, and state-specific health-data laws. EPC Group delivers healthcare IT consulting across eight Microsoft-aligned service areas: HIPAA-native Microsoft 365 deployment, Microsoft Purview classification of ePHI, Power BI for clinical analytics, Microsoft Fabric for healthcare data platforms, Microsoft 365 Copilot for clinicians, Microsoft Entra non-human identity for AI agents, Azure for healthcare (including Azure Health Data Services and the FHIR service), and 24/7 Co-Managed Microsoft Healthcare Services. The firm has been operating since 1997 and runs healthcare-specific engagements under direct Business Associate Agreements with hospital and health-system clients.
Is Microsoft 365 HIPAA-compliant?
Microsoft 365 is HIPAA-eligible — Microsoft will sign a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with any covered entity or business associate that subscribes to in-scope Microsoft 365 services. HIPAA compliance, however, is the customer's responsibility: a tenant is not HIPAA-compliant simply because Microsoft signed the BAA. The customer must configure sensitivity labels for ePHI, Data Loss Prevention policies, Communication Compliance supervision, Microsoft Purview audit logging, conditional access, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, and tenant sharing settings. EPC Group delivers the documented HIPAA control set, evidence package, and ongoing operational posture that turns HIPAA eligibility into HIPAA compliance.
What does a HIPAA-compliant Microsoft deployment look like?
A HIPAA-compliant Microsoft 365 deployment is built on a signed Microsoft HIPAA BAA, an ePHI sensitivity label schema mapped to HIPAA safe-harbor identifiers (45 CFR §164.514), Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention policies that block unauthorized external sharing, Communication Compliance supervision policies for clinical staff, conditional access policies for workforce and Business Associate vendors, Microsoft Defender for Office 365 and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, audit log retention sized to state-specific medical-records retention requirements, and a documented Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager assessment. Power BI, Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and Azure Health Data Services each inherit those controls when deployed correctly. EPC Group delivers the entire control set as a fixed-fee package and produces the OCR-investigation-ready evidence binder.
Can Microsoft Copilot be used with PHI?
Yes — Microsoft 365 Copilot is covered under the Microsoft HIPAA Business Associate Agreement and can be used with electronic protected health information (ePHI) when the tenant is configured correctly. Required controls include ePHI sensitivity labels enforced against the Copilot grounding surface, Communication Compliance supervision policies that audit both Copilot prompts and Copilot responses, restricted SharePoint Online sites that exclude unlabeled documents from the Copilot semantic index, conditional access policies for Copilot-licensed users, and documented clinician adoption guidance. EPC Group has a documented framework for Microsoft 365 Copilot rollouts to clinicians inside a HIPAA control boundary — including a prompts library, Communication Compliance reviewer training, and a Copilot Studio agent governance model for clinical knowledge bases.
How does Microsoft Fabric work with FHIR data?
Microsoft Fabric works with FHIR data through Azure Health Data Services — the Azure FHIR service (R4 / R5) acts as the canonical FHIR repository, and Microsoft Fabric ingests FHIR resources into OneLake using Data Engineering pipelines, Real-Time Intelligence Eventstreams (for HL7 v2 to FHIR streaming), or the MedTech service (for device-telemetry streams). Once landed in OneLake, FHIR data is modeled into bronze / silver / gold medallion lakehouses, surfaced through Power BI semantic models in Direct Lake mode for sub-second clinical reporting, and protected with sensitivity labels for ePHI. EPC Group has published a healthcare-specific Microsoft Fabric reference architecture covering exactly this integration pattern and delivers Fabric-based clinical data platforms for hospital clients.
How much does healthcare IT consulting cost?
Healthcare IT consulting from EPC Group ranges from $40,000 for a two-week Healthcare HIPAA Microsoft Health Check up to $1,000,000+ for a multi-quarter Fabric-based clinical data platform across an integrated delivery network. A 90-day Microsoft 365 Healthcare Migration Accelerator typically runs $150,000–$350,000 depending on seat count, content footprint, and existing HIPAA posture. A Fabric-Based Clinical Data Platform engagement runs $300,000–$1,000,000+ depending on the number of source systems (Epic Clarity, Cerner / Oracle Health, Meditech, Veeva), service-line scope, and FHIR ingestion volume. 24/7 Co-Managed Healthcare Microsoft Services are priced as a monthly retainer scaled to seat band and workload count. All EPC Group healthcare engagements are quoted as fixed-fee after a one-hour scoping call with a senior architect.
Why choose EPC Group for healthcare Microsoft consulting?
EPC Group has been a continuously operating Microsoft consulting firm since 1997 — 29 years — and holds all six current Microsoft Solutions Partner designations. The firm operates under the Microsoft HIPAA BAA and signs direct BAAs with hospital, health-system, payer, and life-sciences clients. EPC Group has published a healthcare-specific Microsoft Fabric reference architecture and runs live Fabric-based clinical data platforms. Healthcare expertise spans HIPAA, HITECH, HITRUST CSF, FDA 21 CFR Part 11, and state-specific health-data laws (NY SHIELD, CA CMIA, TX HB 300). Delivery is senior-architect-led, onshore-only — no juniors and no offshore on client engagements — which matters especially for ePHI-bearing systems where rotating offshore Tier-1 contractors through Communication Compliance reviewer pools, Microsoft Purview audit logs, and Microsoft Defender for Cloud is the wrong operating model.
Related Resources
Talk to a Senior Healthcare Microsoft Architect
A 60-minute scoping call with a senior architect — no sales lead, no associate. Bring your tenant, your HIPAA control gaps, your Epic / Cerner / Oracle Health source systems, or your clinical Copilot rollout. We will give you a straight read on scope, sequencing, fixed-fee pricing, and HIPAA control mapping.
Errin O'Connor, CEO and Chief AI Architect · EPC Group · 4900 Woodway Drive, Suite 830, Houston, TX 77056 · contact@epcgroup.net · 888-381-9725