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Fax modernization is a term that gets used in two completely different ways, and which definition an organization is working from shapes every decision that follows. The first definition treats modernization as a path to elimination: the goal is to replace fax with something else, and modernization is the transition process. The second definition treats […]

Yes, you can send large documents over fax, and how reliably that works depends heavily on the platform and network handling the transmission. Traditional fax has always been theoretically capable of sending multi-page documents, but anyone who has tried to fax a lengthy contract, a thick medical record, or a multi-section report over a standard

Most healthcare organizations know their fax infrastructure is aging. The server is running a version of software that is no longer actively supported. The hardware is past its warranty period. The maintenance contract expired and was not renewed because the cost was hard to justify for a system that mostly still works. And because it

HIPAA’s requirements for transmitting protected health information are specific, but they are frequently misunderstood in ways that create both compliance gaps and unnecessary complexity for healthcare organizations. The most common misunderstandings are that HIPAA prohibits fax, that email is an acceptable alternative as long as it is encrypted, and that any encryption is sufficient to

The prediction that healthcare would eliminate fax has been made with confidence at regular intervals since the early 2000s. Each wave of digital health investment, from EHR adoption under HITECH to health information exchange expansion to FHIR-based interoperability mandates, has been accompanied by predictions that fax would finally be displaced. Those predictions have not been

Every few years, an article circulates declaring that fax in healthcare is finally dying. The EHR will replace it. Secure messaging will replace it. HL7 and FHIR will replace it. Direct Trust will replace it. And every few years, the fax machines keep running, the fax servers keep processing, and the volume of faxes transmitted

A busy receiving line is the most common reason a fax does not go through on the first attempt. It is also the easiest failure to resolve, as long as the fax platform handles it automatically rather than dropping the transmission and waiting for someone to notice. Passport handles a busy receiving line through automatic

Healthcare CIOs manage portfolios of technology infrastructure that range from the genuinely cutting-edge to the critically important but chronically underinvested. Fax tends to fall into the latter category. It is not strategically interesting. It is not the subject of board presentations or vendor pitches at major health IT conferences. It works well enough that it

If your organization is a HIPAA covered entity or a business associate, and you use a fax platform that transmits or stores protected health information, you are required to have a signed Business Associate Agreement with the fax vendor. This is not a best practice. It is a regulatory requirement, and operating without one is

Fax compliance and fax security are terms that are often used interchangeably in healthcare IT conversations, and the conflation creates real problems. An organization can have a fax platform that is technically secure but not operationally compliant. It can also have a platform that checks the compliance documentation boxes but has meaningful security gaps. Understanding