American medicine is still running on fax machines and you cannot find a clinic or healthcare-related facility without a fax machine in it. On the other side, online fax services have emerged to make the faxing experience much more pleasant and user-friendly.

When it comes to using such online fax services in the healthcare industry, the main concern is about the security and privacy of patients’ data (electronic protected health information, or ePHI) to make sure no sensitive data is leaked and no unauthorized personnel can have access to such private information.

Before getting to the advantages of online faxing for healthcare providers, let’s see what to consider when choosing an online fax service to send and receive ePHI via fax technology.

Things to consider when choosing an online fax service for healthcare providers:

1. It needs to be a HIPAA-Compliant fax service. No sensitive data is allowed to be transmitted via an online fax service unless that service complies with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
2. It needs to be secure enough to protect the confidentiality of customers’ data.
3. It needs to encrypt the fax files to make sure no prying eyes can ever read the fax files without required authorizations.
4. It needs to come with certain procedures for proper disposal of data.
5. It needs to sign BAA (Business Associate Agreement) with the covered entities.

FAX.PLUS is one of the few online fax services that not only covers all the security requirements for complying with HIPAA and protecting patients’ sensitive fax files, it also comes with worldwide coverage, ease of use, and cross-platform features.

What are the advantages of online faxing over traditional fax machines for healthcare providers?

1. When a fax machine receives a new fax, the new document sits in the machine’s tray before someone picks it up. Any unauthorized personnel can easily see the content of such documents during this time. But in the online faxing solution, the fax will be delivered to the authorized personnel account which happens to be protected with username and password.
2. Unlike traditional fax machines, the online faxing enables the users to send and receive fax wherever they are and whenever they want.
3. Online fax solution is a green and eco-friendly technology and documents are printed only when needed
4. In the online fax solution, user’s fax number is always ready and there is no need to worry about running out of toner, paper, or cartridge.
5. Online faxing can manage high-volume faxing and healthcare provides no longer need to worry about receiving huge amounts of documents on a daily basis.
6. Online fax services come with the option to notify users about the delivery status of sent faxes.

In overall, while the need to fax documents is increasing year-by-year, online fax solution facilitates the way to transmit documents over fax, and a HIPAA-Compliant fax service facilitates the way to transmit protected health information without having to worry about unauthorized access or data breach.

Don’t you think it’s the time to say goodbye to the traditional fax machines and switch to a more secure and reliable cloud-based solution? Make sure to stay in touch and let us know about your experiences using online fax services for transmitting documents.