Technology for Medical Practices: Websites, Accessibility, Phones and Scheduling
The front door of a practice is its phone line and its website. Canis Computer Laboratories, the engineering company behind CCL Billing, builds and runs both for practices, with the HIPAA and accessibility decisions put in writing.
Three Things We Do for Practices
Websites and HIPAA-Aware Hosting
- Fast, static-first practice websites with no plugin stack to patch
- Appointment and intake forms that are encrypted and never delivered as plain email
- Hosting under a business associate agreement when a site handles patient information
- Structured data so search engines and AI assistants describe the practice correctly
Accessibility Audits and Repair
- A free scan of your site against the automated WCAG 2.1 AA checks, with findings in writing
- A full audit that adds keyboard and screen reader testing
- Repair quoted at a fixed scope: templates fixed, not pages one at a time
- An accessibility statement, and re-testing after content changes
Phones, Reminders and Scheduling
- A practice phone system with call routing built around your schedule
- Appointment reminders by voice and text that patients can confirm or change
- Scheduling workflows that connect to the record and to billing
The Accessibility Deadline
If your practice receives HHS financial assistance, which includes most practices that bill Medicaid, the HHS Section 504 rule requires your website and mobile apps to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA by May 11, 2027 if you have 15 or more employees and by May 10, 2028 if you have fewer. HHS set those dates in an interim final rule published on May 11, 2026, one year later than the original rule. A lawsuit filed in May 2026 asks a federal court to restore the original dates, so treat the extension as time to do the work, not as a reason to wait. Private lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act do not depend on either date.
Most practice websites fail the same handful of checks: images without text alternatives, low-contrast text, form fields without labels, headings used for size instead of structure, and PDF intake forms a screen reader cannot read.
- Run the free accessibility checker in your own browser. Nothing is uploaded.
- Read what the Section 504 rule requires, who is covered, and a 90-day plan.
- Check whether your website falls under HIPAA, feature by feature.
Sources: HHS interim final rule, 91 FR 25496 (May 11, 2026); 45 CFR 84.84; Seyfarth Shaw on National Federation of the Blind v. Department of Justice, No. 1:26-cv-02007 (D. Md., filed May 21, 2026). Status as of November 12, 2026: the case is pending and no ruling has changed the dates.
Free Tools
Medical Website Accessibility Checker
WCAG 2.1 AA checks for any page of your site, in the browser, with each finding mapped to the criterion it fails.
Medical Billing Calculators
Denial rate, clean claim rate, net collection rate, days in A/R, timely filing deadlines and no-show cost, each set against a benchmark.
Practice Technology FAQ
When does a medical practice website have to meet WCAG 2.1 AA?
Under the HHS Section 504 rule, practices that receive HHS financial assistance, which includes most practices that bill Medicaid, must meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA by May 11, 2027 if they have 15 or more employees and by May 10, 2028 if they have fewer. HHS set those dates in an interim final rule published May 11, 2026, and a lawsuit filed that month asks a court to restore the original, earlier dates. Private lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act do not depend on either date.
What do we get from the free accessibility scan?
We run the automated WCAG 2.1 AA checks on your practice website and send you the findings in writing, each mapped to the success criterion it fails, with a fixed-scope quote for the repair if you want one. Automated checks do not catch everything, so a full audit adds keyboard and screen reader testing.
Does a practice website need to be HIPAA compliant?
A site that collects nothing is a brochure and HIPAA does not regulate it. Once the site takes appointment requests with a reason for the visit, intake forms or uploads, or runs tracking tools on pages that touch patient information, the practice needs a business associate agreement with every vendor in that path. Our guide goes feature by feature.
Who does the work?
The engineering team at Canis Computer Laboratories, the sister company of CCL Billing. It is the same team that builds the Cannect™ EHR and builds and runs this website.
Contact Us
Request a Free Accessibility Scan or a Quote
Send us your practice website address and what you need: a new site, an accessibility scan, HIPAA-aware forms and hosting, phones, reminders or scheduling.
Give us a call
Office location
99 Washington Avenue, Suite 1008, Albany, New York, 12210