What Is a HIPAA Email Disclaimer and Why Is It Important?

Sending emails that involve protected health information? Then you're probably already aware of how unforgiving HIPAA can be. One wrong move—and one email to the wrong recipient—can expose your organization to audits, fines, and legal headaches you don’t want.

This article breaks down exactly what a HIPAA disclaimer for email should include, who’s legally required to use it, and how to apply it across your organization—whether you're in healthcare, insurance, HR, or legal. You'll get detailed guidance on different email HIPAA disclaimer formats, when to use each, and a set of real-world, copy-ready HIPAA disclaimer example templates you can adapt to fit your team.

1. Who Needs to Use a HIPAA Email Disclaimer?
2. Common Types of HIPAA Email Disclaimers (With HIPAA Disclaimer Examples)
3. How to Add a HIPAA Email Disclaimer to Your Organization’s Emails
4. Frequently Asked Questions About HIPAA Email Disclaimers

Who Needs to Use a HIPAA Email Disclaimer?

Before we start pointing fingers at who must use a HIPAA email disclaimer, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page about what this thing actually is—and why it exists.

What Is A HIPAA Email Disclaimer?

A HIPAA email disclaimer is a short, standardized statement usually placed at the bottom of an email. It alerts the recipient that the message may include protected health information and that the email and any attachments are meant only for the intended individual. It also makes it clear that viewing, sharing, or forwarding the content of email without authorization is strictly prohibited.

This type of disclaimer acts as a guardrail in your email communication practices. If a message ends up with the wrong recipient, it can help demonstrate that your organization took reasonable steps to protect confidential information.

That said, it’s not a substitute for email encryption or a solid privacy policy. A disclaimer won’t fix missteps involving unencrypted email, and it certainly won’t patch over broader security gaps. What it does offer is reinforcement: a clear sign of your commitment to HIPAA regulations, an added layer of integrity control, and a practical safeguard that can support your position during email audits, investigations, or compliance for email breach reviews.

So, Who Needs a HIPAA Compliant Email Disclaimer?

If your organization sends medical information via email, even occasionally, using a HIPAA compliant email disclaimer isn’t optional. It’s part of meeting your legal requirements under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

​​This applies to any healthcare provider or business handling disclosure of PHI, including:

• Hospitals and health systems
• Private practices and medical specialists
• Dental clinics
• Chiropractic and physical therapy offices
• Mental health professionals
• Pharmacies and prescription services
• Diagnostic labs and testing facilities
• Health insurers and claims administrators

It also extends to internal teams and organizations supporting healthcare delivery. That includes HR professionals handling employee health records, legal teams, billing services, IT consultants, software vendors, and marketing agencies operating under a business associate agreement.

A common example of an email containing PHI (and, therefore, requiring an email HIPAA disclaimer) would be…

• A receptionist emails a patient a copy of their appointment summary
• A doctor follows up with lab results via email
• A health insurance provider sends a claim status update
• A medical software company emails a support ticket that includes patient data
• An HR rep emails a manager about an employee’s medical leave documentation

You might also like: Doctor Email Signatures Done Right (with Examples!)

Are There Any Exceptions?

What’s important to understand is that not every person or business that uses email needs a HIPAA disclaimer. Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, it’s only required when a message includes—or could reasonably include—disclosures of protected health information.

If your organization isn’t subject to HIPAA, doesn’t handle PHI, and doesn’t work with covered entities, there’s no obligation. The same applies to external messages like vendor invoices or general inquiries, and internal communication by email that doesn’t involve PHI.

That said, many covered organizations choose to include the disclaimer in every message they send via email—merely because it…

• Minimizes the risk of human error and ensures employees never forget to include the HIPAA disclaimer for email when it’s needed
• Enforces a consistent email policy
• Shows an organization-wide focus on compliance
• Helps your legal team respond quickly when something goes wrong

Common Types of HIPAA Email Disclaimers (With HIPAA Disclaimer Examples)

As we covered earlier, HIPAA compliance isn’t limited to doctors and hospitals. With so many teams handling sensitive health data—marketing, HR, legal, IT—there’s no single email HIPAA disclaimer that works for everyone.

Different messages, different risks, different rules. That’s why HIPAA email disclaimers fall into several categories, each tailored to specific scenarios. 

Let’s look at the most common types of a HIPAA disclaimer for email, along with email disclaimer examples you can apply directly to your outbound messages.

Concise HIPAA Email Disclaimer

This type of disclaimer delivers the essentials briefly. It’s designed for organizations that want to stay compliant without overwhelming recipients with legal language. 

Typically, it warns that the email may contain confidential health information, that it’s intended only for the specified recipient, and that any misdelivery should be reported and resolved.

Best for:

• Day-to-day messages
• High-volume outbound teams
• Organizations that send limited PHI, but still fall under HIPAA
  

Key characteristics:

• Short, no-frills format
• Focus on recipient responsibility
• Clear language around misdirected delivery

Concise HIPAA email disclaimer examples:

1. This email may contain confidential health information intended only for the individual addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender and delete this email immediately.
2. This email and any attachments may contain protected health information intended only for the person listed as the recipient. If you receive the message in error, you are not authorized to read, disclose, or use its contents. Please delete this email and contact the sender immediately.
3. This message is intended solely for the correct email address listed above and may include protected health information. If you received the email by mistake, delete it and notify the sender immediately.

Detailed HIPAA Email Disclaimer

If the concise HIPAA email disclaimer covers the basics, this version goes several steps further—as the name suggests. It includes more detailed legal language, spells out HIPAA protections, and often references internal policy or regulatory language. 

These disclaimers are longer by design, offering broader coverage for messages that frequently involve protected health information or sensitive attachments. They’re especially useful when there’s little room for ambiguity.

Best for:

• Legal departments
• Health systems with stricter enforcement
• Sensitive or multi-party communications involving PHI

Key characteristics:

• Legal references to HIPAA or privacy statutes
• Instructions for incorrect recipients
• Broader disclaimers around misuse or misdelivery

Detailed HIPAA email disclaimer examples:

• This email and any attachments may contain confidential health information protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any review, dissemination, or use of this information is strictly prohibited. If you received this in error, please notify the sender and delete this email.

• Under HIPAA regulations, the content of this email is confidential and intended solely for the designated recipient. If this message was sent to the wrong email address, please notify our team and delete this message without reading further.

• IMPORTANT: This email may contain information protected under federal and state laws. If you are not the intended recipient or authorized to act on their behalf, you must not read, copy, or distribute this email. Please delete this email and notify our compliance office immediately.

Confidentiality Notice

A general confidentiality notice doesn’t mention HIPAA outright, but it still alerts recipients that the email contains sensitive information. While it’s not enough on its own to ensure compliance, pairing it with proper safeguards can help reduce the risk of impermissible disclosure and support your efforts to avoid legal consequences.

Best for:

• Non-clinical departments within HIPAA-covered entities
• External vendors under business associate agreements
• Emails where PHI is unlikely but not impossible

Key characteristics:

• Emphasizes privacy, not regulation
• General-purpose disclaimer
• Can apply to non-health-related confidential information

Confidentiality notice email disclaimer examples:

• Confidentiality Notice: This message is for the use of the named recipient and may contain protected health information. If you aren’t the intended recipient, you must delete it and alert us right away.
• This message was sent in confidence and may include sensitive or proprietary information. If it reached you by mistake, do not read or distribute it. Delete the message and alert the sender immediately.

Email Security and Privacy Statement

This disclaimer goes a step further by addressing both the confidentiality of the message and the organization’s broader stance on email security. It often includes references to encryption, transmission risks, or external access limitations.

Best for:

• Organizations using encrypted platforms
• Teams handling PHI across external networks
• Recipients unfamiliar with email security protocols

Key characteristics:

• Mentions of encryption and transmission risks
• Framing around email as a communication channel
• Focus on data privacy

Email security and privacy statement HIPAA disclaimer examples:

• This message and any attachments may include protected health information. While transmitted under our organization's security protocols, email communication may still involve risks. If you are not the intended recipient, you must delete this email and notify the sender immediately.
• This email is intended solely for the designated recipient and may contain confidential or legally protected health information. Although transmitted through secure systems, email communication may involve inherent security risks. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any review, dissemination, or use of this message is strictly prohibited. Please delete the email and report the incident to the sender immediately.

Tip: If you're using a compliant email provider, avoid language that highlights unencrypted transmission—it can create confusion or suggest weak safeguards. In formal messages, especially those with a clickable link or sensitive data, overly casual disclaimers may imply you're not properly protecting PHI.

Confidential Communication Policy

Rather than a legal disclaimer designed for external legal protection, this format reinforces your internal or organizational email policy. It sets expectations for how employees handle communication by email, particularly when protected health information is involved, and clarifies what to do when messages are sent to the wrong recipient.

Best for:

• Internal communications across departments
• HIPAA-covered entities with detailed internal compliance frameworks
• Organizations that regularly send or receive PHI within internal systems
  

Key characteristics:

• Emphasizes employee responsibility under internal policies
• Aligns with HIPAA training and enforcement procedures
• Encourages consistent, policy-driven email behavior
  

Confidential communication policy HIPAA disclaimer examples:

1. Employees are required to follow internal protocols when handling email that may contain PHI. If you received this message in error, report the incident according to our privacy and security guidelines.
   
   
2. Internal messages must comply with our confidentiality standards and data handling policies. If you are not the correct recipient, you are not authorized to access this email. Please delete it and escalate per internal procedure.

How to Add a HIPAA Email Disclaimer to Your Organization’s Emails

There’s more than one way to add a HIPAA disclaimer to your emails. And not all of them are created equal.

The most basic option is to have each employee manually paste the disclaimer into every email they send. While technically compliant, this approach is error-prone, impossible to enforce, and virtually guaranteed to break down in a real-world setting.

A step up from that is inserting the disclaimer into a standard email signature via your email service provider’s settings. This works reasonably well for smaller teams and ensures the message is at least consistent—assuming every employee configures their signature correctly and doesn’t modify or delete it. It still puts the burden on individuals, though, and limits your ability to manage or audit changes centrally.

The most reliable approach is integrating your HIPAA disclaimer into a centrally managed, professionally designed signature using a dedicated email signature solution like Newoldstamp. This method gives you full administrative control, allowing you to standardize disclaimers across the company, customize them by department, and protect them from being altered by individual users.

Here’s why this approach matters for HIPAA compliance:

• Centralized updates ensure that when your disclaimer language needs to change—whether due to policy revisions or updated legal guidance—it’s done once and reflected across the organization instantly.
• Department-specific segmentation allows you to tailor disclaimers for HR, legal, or clinical teams, each of whom may handle different types of protected health information.
• Signature locking helps prevent manual edits that could lead to inconsistencies—or worse, omissions that open you up to legal consequences.

Newoldstamp also integrates directly with Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and Exchange, making deployment seamless, whether you’re using Gmail, Outlook, or another business email service provider. 

Step-by-Step Guide for Gmail

If you're using Google Workspace, here’s how to add a HIPAA email disclaimer across your team using Gmail’s built-in tools.

Step 1: Access Admin Console

Log into admin.google.com using your Google Workspace admin credentials.

Step 2: Access Compliance Settings

From the Admin Console dashboard, go to Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Compliance. Select the organizational unit you want to apply the disclaimer to.

Step 3: Create a New Content Compliance Rule

Under Content Compliance, click Add Rule. Set the rule name (e.g., “HIPAA Email Disclaimer”).

Step 4: Configure Conditions

Under “Email messages to affect,” choose Outbound. You can also add filters to apply the rule to specific departments or user groups if needed.

Step 5: Add Disclaimer

Scroll to the “Add Disclaimer” section. Paste your HIPAA disclaimer text. Keep it short if possible—Gmail supports plain text and simple HTML but may truncate long disclaimers in replies or forwards.

Step 6: Set Append Position

Choose Append Footer to add the disclaimer at the bottom of outgoing emails. Check the box to ensure disclaimers are applied only once per thread (to prevent duplication).

Step 7: Save and Apply

Click Add Setting, then Save. Your disclaimer is now applied across the selected users’ outbound messages.

Step-by-Step Guide for Outlook

If your organization is using Microsoft 365, follow these steps to apply a HIPAA disclaimer to all outgoing emails via Exchange Admin Center.

Step 1: Open Microsoft 365 Admin Center

Head to admin.microsoft.com and log in with your administrator credentials.

Step 2: Go to Exchange Admin Center

Navigate to Admin Centers > Exchange. This will open a new window.

Step 3: Create a New Mail Flow Rule

In the left sidebar, select Mail Flow > Rules. Click + Add a Rule, then choose Create a new rule.

Step 4: Configure the Rule

Name the rule (e.g., “HIPAA Disclaimer for Outbound Emails”). Under “Apply this rule if,” select The sender is located… → Inside the organization, and The recipient is located… → Outside the organization. These conditions ensure it only affects external email recipients.

Step 5: Add Disclaimer

Under “Do the following,” select Apply a disclaimer to the message… → Append a disclaimer. Paste your HIPAA disclaimer into the box. You can use HTML to format the text if needed.

Step 6: Choose Fallback Action

Set the fallback action to Wrap if the disclaimer can’t be added due to formatting issues.

Step 7: Save and Activate

Click Next, review your settings, and Enable the rule. Save and exit—the disclaimer will now be appended to all applicable outbound messages.

If you’re aiming for consistency, auditability, and full control—admin-level footer settings are the safer choice. But if you want a cleaner presentation, the ability to tailor disclaimers by department, and centralized updates with no user involvement, managing them via a locked, centrally designed email signature (using a tool like Newoldstamp) gives you the best of both worlds!

Give Newoldstamp a try and create HIPAA compliant email signatures with relevant, professional-looking disclaimers. 

Frequently Asked Questions About HIPAA Email Disclaimers

What Should Be Included in a HIPAA Email Disclaimer?

A HIPAA email disclaimer should…

• Clearly state that the message may contain protected health information (PHI)
• Identify the intended recipient, prohibit unauthorized access or use
• Provide instructions for what to do if the email is received in error 

It’s also smart to reference confidentiality and the recipient’s obligation to respect the rights of the individual whose data may be included.

Can One Disclaimer Be Used for All Emails?

Yes—but only if it's carefully written. A single, well-structured disclaimer can cover most HIPAA-related scenarios, provided it’s broad enough to address PHI, confidentiality, and misdelivery. 

If different teams (like HR, legal, or clinical) handle distinct data types, consider segmentation for more accurate messaging. Either way, consistency is critical for audit control and reducing liability.

How to Prevent Employees from Removing the Disclaimer?

Use a centralized email signature solution like Newoldstamp or enforce disclaimers through your admin console’s footer settings. These methods prevent users from deleting or altering the legal language. 

What Are the Risks of Omitting the Disclaimer?

While a HIPAA disclaimer alone won’t make your email compliant, omitting it weakens your legal position and may be seen as a failure to safeguard PHI. If an email reaches the wrong person, the absence of a disclaimer could increase exposure to civil penalties, massive fines, or even a severe penalty under HIPAA. It also creates gaps in your audit control—something regulators take seriously.