Healthcare fax solutions for records and referrals

Upload a PDF or a photo from any browser, enter the office’s fax number and pay one flat price per fax: $2.99 for 1–5 pages, with no subscription. Documents are stored encrypted for 365 days on every plan, then deleted automatically, and the HIPAA Business Associate Agreement is free and signed online.

Send referrals, prior authorizations, lab results and records requests without a fax machine, and receive them on a number of your own. For practices in the US and Canada, with 14 international destinations.

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Updated October 2026

Illustrative online fax form with a generic healthcare referral document.

Why does healthcare still use fax?

Despite the move to electronic health records, fax is still the common transport between offices in US healthcare. Specialist referrals, prior authorizations, prescription orders and records requests travel by fax because every provider can receive one, whatever system they run.

The problem is not fax. It is the analog machine, the paper trail, and a page of patient information sitting unattended on an output tray. Sending from a browser keeps the part everyone can receive and drops the rest.

Upload the records. Enter the office’s fax number.

Upload the referral letter and any supporting pages (several files are combined into one fax) and type the receiving office’s fax number. The page count and the price are shown before you send, and you get an email when it is delivered.

PDF, JPG, PNG and GIF up to 25 MB; up to 500 pages per fax (50 for international).
Each fax is logged with the time, the recipient number, the page count and the delivery outcome, and kept in your history.
Nothing is printed on your side, so nothing sits on an output tray.
A cover page with a confidentiality notice is built into the send form, if you want one.

What do practices send by fax?

From solo practices to multi-location clinics, these are the documents that still move by fax. Before the first one goes out, work through the HIPAA checklist for faxing medical records: the BAA, the number check, the cover sheet and the receipt you keep.

Patient referrals: Referral letters and supporting records to specialists, in one fax.
Prior authorizations: Prior auth forms to insurance carriers and pharmacies, with a delivery email for each one.
Lab and imaging results: Received from labs on a dedicated fax number, with an email and a secure link the moment one arrives.
Records requests: Release-of-information requests fulfilled with a delivery email and a logged history entry for each transmission.
Insurance claims: CMS-1500s, supporting documents and appeals, faxed with a delivery receipt.
Discharge summaries: Post-visit summaries to primary care physicians and home health agencies.

How is patient information protected?

The same safeguards apply to every fax from every account. There is no HIPAA tier and no setting to switch on.

At rest: Every stored document is encrypted with AES-256: the stored file, not just the connection.
In transit: TLS 1.2+ from your browser to HelpMeFax, including the upload and the preview, and from HelpMeFax to the fax carrier. The last leg is an ordinary fax call over the phone network, as with any fax machine.
Transmission log: Who sent what, when, to which number, how many pages and whether it was delivered, kept in your fax history.
Retention: Documents are stored encrypted for 365 days on every plan, then deleted automatically. Only the metadata (timestamp, recipient, page count) is kept afterwards.
Receiving: You get an email the moment a fax arrives, with a secure link; the PDF stays encrypted in your HelpMeFax inbox, not in your mailbox.

You will need a signed BAA. Ours is free and signed online.

HIPAA requires a Business Associate Agreement with any vendor that handles PHI on your behalf. HelpMeFax signs one at no charge: request it, read it on screen, sign, and a person at HelpMeFax countersigns. No sales call and no printing.

Several people at the practice? A business account gives each of them their own login under one BAA, with a shared inbox and balance and no per-user fee.

About our BAA

Common questions from healthcare practices

Yes. HelpMeFax uses AES-256 encryption at rest and TLS 1.2+ in transit, keeps a log of every transmission (time, recipient number, page count and delivery outcome), stores documents encrypted for 365 days on every plan, and signs a free HIPAA Business Associate Agreement online, countersigned usually within one business day. Contact support if you need documentation for your compliance review.

The document is encrypted with TLS 1.2+ on its way from your browser to HelpMeFax and from HelpMeFax to our fax carrier, and with AES-256 while it is stored. The final leg is an ordinary fax call to the receiving machine over the telephone network, exactly as with a fax machine. Nothing is printed on your side, so no record sits on an output tray.

Yes. HelpMeFax can send to any traditional fax machine or fax-capable number in the US or Canada, plus 14 international destinations. Most hospitals, specialists, pharmacies, insurance companies, and government agencies still receive faxes.

One flat price per fax: $2.99 for 1–5 pages, $4.99 for 6–10, $8.99 for 11–25, $14.99 for 26–50, $24.99 for 51–100, then $0.15 per page (never less than $24.99). No subscription. Subscribers save 10–30% on every fax. Pay by card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover). International: $5.99 (1–5 pages), $9.99 (6–10), $17.99 (11–25), $29.99 (26–50), max 50 pages.

Documents are stored encrypted for 365 days on every plan, then deleted automatically. Only the metadata (timestamp, recipient, page count) is preserved afterwards for billing and audit purposes.

No. HelpMeFax replaces the fax machine entirely: send from your computer or phone with nothing more than a browser and a PDF or photo. To receive, add a dedicated fax number ($11.99 per month per number plus $0.05 per page received). You get an email the moment a fax arrives, with a secure link; the PDF stays encrypted in your HelpMeFax inbox, not in your mailbox.

Busy or unreachable lines are retried automatically up to 30 times over about 24 hours (3 attempts for international). If it still fails, the failure email lets you request a refund review; refunds are net of card-processing and attempt costs. Faxes rejected by the receiving machine or sent to a non-fax number are not refundable.

Yes, with a business account. Each staff member signs in with their own login, every fax shows who sent it, and the practice shares one inbox, one fax history and one prepaid balance. One BAA covers everyone. There is no per-user fee; you pay per fax. Apply from your HelpMeFax account and we approve each business by hand.

Related guides

How to fax medical records

The HIPAA checklist: the number check, the cover sheet, the BAA and the receipt.

HIPAA-compliant fax

What makes a fax service compliant, and the safeguards that apply to every fax.

Sign a Business Associate Agreement

Free, online, on every plan, countersigned by a person.

Fax records without the machine.

$2.99 for 1–5 pages, no subscription. Plans take 10–30% off every fax, and a dedicated number for receiving is $11.99 a month.

Send a fax See pricing