Baltimore's biggest employers treat patients, and its federal neighbors pay for their care.
In Baltimore, a large share of the payroll sits in hospitals and universities, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services runs its headquarters just west of the city line. That puts clinical identity, research data access and federal security controls on the same short list for many local IT teams.
- Identity Governance & AdministrationCybersecurity
- Healthcare Provider PlatformsEnterprise Platforms
- Governance, Risk & ComplianceCybersecurity
- Privileged Access ManagementCybersecurity
- Zero Trust ArchitectureCybersecurity
- Data Governance & AccessData & Analytics
- Banking & Capital Markets PlatformsEnterprise Platforms
Our Baltimore work is for hospital systems, academic medical centers, CMS and SSA contractors, asset managers and port and logistics operators.
Typical jobs are clinical and research identity governance, privileged access, controls mapped to the CMS Acceptable Risk Safeguards, and governed data pipelines for Maryland's hospital payment model. Cohash is headquartered in Frisco, Texas; we serve Baltimore remotely and travel in for workshops and launches.
Cohash is based in Frisco, Texas and has no office in Baltimore or Maryland. We work with Baltimore teams remotely and travel to your campus for discovery, design workshops and cutovers.
- rules
- Maryland Personal Information Protection Act, Com. Law §14-3504Maryland Online Data Privacy ActCMS Acceptable Risk Safeguards
What's specific about Baltimore
Each figure comes from a public source, linked on the card.
Johns Hopkins Hospital & Health System (20,845) and Johns Hopkins University (18,600) head Baltimore City's 2023-2024 major employers list in the Maryland Department of Commerce fact sheet, followed by the University of Maryland Medical System at 11,450.
source ↗ 02 103,668Education and health services made up 103,668 of Baltimore City's 348,184 jobs in 2024, or 29.8%, per the same Commerce fact sheet. The sheet also ranks the Port of Baltimore first in the US for roll-on/roll-off cargo.
source ↗ 03 294,700Across the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson metro, the BLS counts 294,700 education and health services jobs out of 1,441,400 nonfarm jobs for September 2026 (preliminary).
source ↗ 04CMS headquarters sits at 7500 Security Boulevard in Woodlawn, in Baltimore County, according to the agency's careers page.
source ↗ 05 $18.2 millionBaltimore's 2019 RobbinHood ransomware attack cost the city at least $18.2 million, including $10 million in direct IT recovery. An Iranian national pleaded guilty in federal court in 2025, GovInfoSecurity reported.
source ↗ 06Maryland is the only state in Cohort 1 of CMS's AHEAD model, under which participating hospitals receive annual, prospective Medicare fee-for-service global budgets covering inpatient and outpatient services.
source ↗Who we work with in Baltimore, and the rules they work under
-
Hospital systems and academic medicine
A faculty physician may hold a hospital EHR account, a university research login and a grant-funded data enclave account at once, each issued by a different office. We link those identities to one person, drive changes from credentialing and HR together, and end research data access when the study or appointment ends.
-
CMS and SSA contractors
Firms that build or run systems for agencies on Security Boulevard inherit federal control baselines. For CMS work that means the Acceptable Risk Safeguards, built on NIST SP 800-53. We implement the access control, audit and identification controls in your system, and we write the evidence your assessors will read.
-
Asset management and banking
Investment managers and banks headquartered downtown hold client and trading data that regulators and institutional clients both audit. We focus on privileged access to portfolio and trading systems, quarterly entitlement reviews business owners can finish, and secrets management for market data and custodian integrations.
-
Port, utilities and logistics
Roll-on/roll-off terminals, rail yards and the regional gas and electric utility depend on contractors who need short, specific access to operational systems. We put that access behind a PAM gateway with approvals and recording, and separate it from the corporate directory.
-
Maryland Personal Information Protection Act, Com. Law §14-3504 ↗
Notify affected residents as soon as reasonably practicable and no later than 45 days after discovering or being notified of a breach. The Attorney General must be notified before the individual notices go out, with the number of Maryland residents affected and a sample notice.
-
Maryland Online Data Privacy Act (MODPA) ↗
Took effect 1 October 2025 but does not apply to processing before 1 April 2026. Covers businesses handling data of 35,000 or more Maryland consumers, or 10,000 if over 20% of gross revenue comes from selling personal data. A discretionary 60-day cure right expires 1 April 2027.
-
CMS Acceptable Risk Safeguards (ARS) ↗
Sets the minimum security and privacy controls for CMS systems, and applies to CMS employees, contractors and subcontractors. ARS 5.2 is current and adds Zero Trust expectations to controls numbered and worded to match NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5.
Most requested in Baltimore
The services clients in Baltimore ask us for most.
- CybersecurityIdentity Governance & Administration
- Enterprise PlatformsHealthcare Provider Platforms
- CybersecurityGovernance, Risk & Compliance
- CybersecurityPrivileged Access Management
- CybersecurityZero Trust Architecture
- Data & AnalyticsData Governance & Access
- Enterprise PlatformsBanking & Capital Markets Platforms
01How fast do we have to notify Maryland residents after a breach?
Within 45 days of discovering the breach or being told about it by a vendor, and the Attorney General's office must hear from you first. Law enforcement can ask for a delay. Build the AG notice into your playbook so it does not hold up the resident letters.
02Does MODPA apply to a hospital that is already under HIPAA?
Protected health information handled under HIPAA is treated differently from other personal data, but hospitals also run websites, apps, marketing lists and research programs that may fall outside it. Map which data sets sit outside HIPAA first, then have counsel apply MODPA to those.
03Can you help us pass a CMS security assessment as a contractor?
We implement and document the identity, access and audit controls from the ARS baseline in your system, and prepare the evidence assessors request. The assessment itself is run by the assessor CMS accepts, and system authorization is CMS's decision.
04Our researchers keep data access long after a study closes. What fixes that?
Tie each research data grant to a protocol or project record with an end date, and feed that record into the identity platform. When the IRB closes the study or the appointment ends, access drops automatically and the PI gets a report of what was removed.
05Will you come to Baltimore?
Yes, for discovery interviews, design workshops and go-live weekends. Most build and configuration work happens remotely from Frisco and our other offices.
aa8b0cb6 - 01Maryland Department of Commerce, Brief Economic Facts, Baltimore City (2025.2)commerce.maryland.gov ↗
- 02BLS, Baltimore-Columbia-Towson economy at a glancebls.gov ↗
- 03CMS, locations and facilitiescms.gov ↗
- 04GovInfoSecurity, RobbinHood ransomware hacker pleads guilty (May 2025)govinfosecurity.com ↗
- 05CMS Innovation Center, AHEAD modelcms.gov ↗
- 06Maryland Code, Commercial Law §14-3504mgaleg.maryland.gov ↗
- 07Cozen O'Connor, Maryland enacts a comprehensive data privacy lawcozen.com ↗
- 08CMS Information Security, Acceptable Risk Safeguardssecurity.cms.gov ↗
Tell us what you're running. We'll tell you what we'd do first.
A 30-minute working session with a senior engineer. No slides.
- The platform and the version you're on
- Where you need to get to, and by when
- What's custom: rules, plugins, integrations
- Any audit finding or deadline driving it