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HIPAA-compliant fax is a relative newcomer to the world of healthcare communications and uses a digital platform to send and receive faxes through a secure online portal. Newly integrated into TheraPlatform’s therapy practice management and EMR software, the fax can bring your private practice communications into compliance with HIPAA’s security rules, and who doesn’t want that peace of mind?
Sure, you’ve been using traditional fax for years, but is that the best method? Let’s take a look at why HIPAA-compliant fax may be a better option. First up, fax machines …
Traditional fax machines
For decades, fax machines have been a private practice workhorse. They provided next-generation, an electronic transmission that shaved days, even weeks, off of labor-intensive snail mail or even overnight express. They require just a little (paper) feeding to run like champs all day (and sometimes all night) and many of us enjoy a certain level of comfort in the fax machine dial-up and whirring noises which means ‘work’ is being done. Best part? A confirmation notice. Yup, everything worked according to plan. Message received. Not bad for a technology patented in the 1840s.
As much as we love our fax machines, though, they aren’t without issues. Compared to newer technologies like HIPAA-compliant fax, fax machines suffer certain inadequacies and create expenses and headaches – so much so that Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, called upon doctors’ offices to eliminate fax machine usage by 2020.
While this vision hasn’t been fully realized, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is pushing for nationwide EHR interoperability or strong, flexible health IT ecosystem by 2024 which could render fax machines obsolete.
Why the federal fax backlash – especially as a recent survey showed that 89% of healthcare providers still rely on fax machines? Turns out there are plenty of issues with faxing (along with plenty of benefits of alternate technologies.) Let’s take a look.
Issues with traditional faxing
Speed: Let’s face it. Speed is a big one for a clinician trying to provide excellent client service and manage a private therapy practice. Who hasn’t stood at a fax machine to ensure all of the sheets were properly transmitted promptly? Or refaxed a document because the paper stuck together? Or we couldn’t determine whether the fax machine on the other side had a heartbeat?
We have all babysat a fax machine and it’s a giant time suck.
The thing is, fax machine speed is based on several factors that are out of our control including:
- The connection
- The distance between the sender and recipient
- The recipient’s fax machine (Read: Even if you invested in a top-of-the-line fax machine set at a stellar transmission speed for your private practice if the recipient’s machine is less technologically advanced, the transmission drops to accommodate the slower technology. (Insert facepalm emoji here.)
Paper costs: While we love a good confirmation notice, it does require paper. The whole faxing process requires a lot of paper. Each client document requires the wrangling and printing of documents from a platform, writing a cover sheet, and faxing the information to the ‘other side,’ which also generates its level of paper waste. According to the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance, the average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper each year with copiers, printers, and fax machines responsible for the bulk of the use.
While your private practice may not generate those levels of paper waste, efficiencies could likely be created in your office which is where HIPAA-compliant fax could help.
Additionally, with paper use comes paper storage and shredding … and more costs.
Readability: Sometimes, fax transmissions are too dark or too light and page content like graphics can make faxes difficult to read and interpret. Not ideal in a clinical setting. For the best client outcomes, all parties need access to the best information delivered in the most ideal format. HIPAA-compliant fax provides for the crisp transmission needed to assess documents properly.
What’s the solution to faxing challenges?
Watch this quick video below to see how TheraPlatform (EMR for therapists) solved their customers’ faxing pain points.
HIPAA-compliant fax
HIPAA-compliant fax is a secure, convenient, low-cost solution that can be utilized in place of traditional faxing. Through therapy practice management and EMR software like TheraPlatform, incoming and outgoing documents like progress notes, treatment plans and discharge notes, and other documents are sent via fax and stored digitally.
“We are thrilled to offer HIPAA-compliant efax integrated into TheraPlatform (EMR, practice management and teletherapy all-in-one software). This was one of the most frequently reported pain points by our customers and we listened. I can easily relate to our customers as I experienced faxing challenges when I worked in the medical setting. I “babysat” the fax machine on a daily basis. When you accept insurance, you fax all the time: MDs’ orders, treatment plans, authorizations, etc., and I wish I had an EMR that would allow me to just click a button to fax back then … I’m happy that TheraPlatform could do something about it and we are thankful to our customers, who reported this pain point,” said Beata Klarowska, M.S. CCC-SLP, co-founder of TheraPlatform.
In addition to saving time and money and using less paper, HIPAA-compliant fax offers other benefits.
- Enhanced security
HIPAA-compliant fax provides a secure gateway to ensure that data is communicated securely and safely. Because client data, record-keeping, and reporting are subject to ever-changing federal laws, HIPAA-compliant faxing can comply with strict federal mandates. Additionally, fax machines built since 2004 include a hard drive that can store thousands of pages of data. If the machine is not sanitized, that data could walk out the door unencrypted to be resold.
- Improved document management
With a few clicks in HIPAA-compliant fax, you can locate SOAP notes, treatment plans, or other materials. Not the case with traditional faxes, which along with cover sheets and confirmation pages, may need to be stored and retrieved in other locations and sometimes other buildings. Lost client data with faxing is real. Skip piecing together client health information based on missing or lost data compiled from piles of paper. Having everything at your fingertips with HIPAA-compliant fax also helps you build a clean audit trail. Your future self will thank you.
- Better client service
Transforming paper-based faxing into a cloud-based, HIPAA-compliant fax experience can help build better client relationships as well. Improved documentation management and accessibility can help you answer client questions more easily. They’ll also have better access to their records, one of the goals of the federal interoperability plan.
- Mobility
With fax machines, you need to be in the same location as the machine. With cloud-based, HIPAA-compliant fax, you only need access to your computer or a similar device. Top-of-the-line security through HIPAA-compliant fax is always available even for those times you may need to work from home or as a digital nomad.
- All-in-one access
While stand-alone, third-party fax services are available, they don’t solve the time problem many clinicians encounter. When a fax is not integrated with an EMR, providers spend extra time maneuvering between two services uploading received faxes from fax to EMR and vice versa. Having fax integrated into an EMR such as TheraPlatfrom eliminates these steps, saves time, and lowers cost.
EHRs like TheraPlatform can help therapists securely streamline communication tasks through HIPAA-compliant fax technology and help save time and money.
