The only places requiring faxes are hospitals and doctors offices. They tell me they are required by HIPAA to use faxes to protect my information. When I still paid for eFax, I would receive someone else’s medical information at least twice a month. I think the fax “requirement” is a way of saying we don’t want to share your health information with you.
Just the fax - 3 years ago
I’ve had to fax two things in the past month:
1. A vaccinated family member who had other risk factors got COVID and I was trying to orchestrate a Regeneron infusion. The location that was scheduling the infusions only accepted information via fax. If they had a phone number, they refused to release it. Since a primary care physician has to make the referral, we were given a fax number of where the referral should be sent. But due to an increase in cases, the moved the infusion location and we had to ask that the information be faxed to a different fax number. The only way to get in touch with the relevant staff was to send them a fax asking them to call us. I had to create a free eFax account to be able to take care of this from home on the weekend. Fortunately after much confusion and many faxes, the family member got the infusion and is doing well but it was quite cumbersome for us and took the primary doctors office a lot of wasted time.
2. Our hospital has a vaccine mandate and we were told that we had to submit verification of vaccination to HR even if we already submitted verification to employee health. We were informed that a copy of our vaccine card had to either be shown in person to HR or sent by fax. When I emailed HR to find out about sending an image of my card via email, I was informed that only faxes or in person submission (at specified times) was acceptable. The next day, I went to the HR office at the designated day/time, only to find a note saying that the HR office was closed indefinitely and communication should occur by email. I sent a copy of my vaccine card by email and by fax just to be safe…
Most physicians’ offices in the US, including the one in which I work part-time, run on faxes. My (real) mailbox is filled multiple times per day with vomitus from our fax machine, and most of the forms I complete (on paper) need to be faxed back, including those to home care agencies, medical equipment companies and health plans. Even office notes and test results need to be faxed to other physician’s offices. Sadly, that’s the real world of US healthcare. It makes the medical informaticist part of me cringe…
The only places requiring faxes are hospitals and doctors offices. They tell me they are required by HIPAA to use faxes to protect my information. When I still paid for eFax, I would receive someone else’s medical information at least twice a month. I think the fax “requirement” is a way of saying we don’t want to share your health information with you.
I’ve had to fax two things in the past month:
1. A vaccinated family member who had other risk factors got COVID and I was trying to orchestrate a Regeneron infusion. The location that was scheduling the infusions only accepted information via fax. If they had a phone number, they refused to release it. Since a primary care physician has to make the referral, we were given a fax number of where the referral should be sent. But due to an increase in cases, the moved the infusion location and we had to ask that the information be faxed to a different fax number. The only way to get in touch with the relevant staff was to send them a fax asking them to call us. I had to create a free eFax account to be able to take care of this from home on the weekend. Fortunately after much confusion and many faxes, the family member got the infusion and is doing well but it was quite cumbersome for us and took the primary doctors office a lot of wasted time.
2. Our hospital has a vaccine mandate and we were told that we had to submit verification of vaccination to HR even if we already submitted verification to employee health. We were informed that a copy of our vaccine card had to either be shown in person to HR or sent by fax. When I emailed HR to find out about sending an image of my card via email, I was informed that only faxes or in person submission (at specified times) was acceptable. The next day, I went to the HR office at the designated day/time, only to find a note saying that the HR office was closed indefinitely and communication should occur by email. I sent a copy of my vaccine card by email and by fax just to be safe…
Most physicians’ offices in the US, including the one in which I work part-time, run on faxes. My (real) mailbox is filled multiple times per day with vomitus from our fax machine, and most of the forms I complete (on paper) need to be faxed back, including those to home care agencies, medical equipment companies and health plans. Even office notes and test results need to be faxed to other physician’s offices. Sadly, that’s the real world of US healthcare. It makes the medical informaticist part of me cringe…