Due to broad usage within the industry, fax is still the most common way of exchanging information between practices. Monthly costs for a medical fax system can be expensive. Hence, choosing a cost-effective solution is important.
Types of Machines
Broadly there are two types of fax machines to choose from
- Traditional fax machines
- Online/ Electronic fax vendors
Traditional
Traditional fax machines use physical paper and they are well on their way out with the shift to EMRs.
Advantages
- You get unlimited faxes at a fixed monthly cost
- Transmittals are secured as they are sent by sound signals
Disadvantages
- Scan paper into EMR can take up a lot of time
- You are back to dealing with paper and toner
- Involves a lot of paper
- Requires daily maintenance checks
- Requires a dedicated line
Online/ Electronic
The online solution is fully digital and does not require any printing or scanning back into EMR. However, most vendors charge a per page fee and this can be quite expensive.
Advantages
- Integrated EMR solutions reduce overhead
- can print the document or save it in the cloud
- Can be paperless
- Low maintenance
Disadvantages
- Most vendors price per page and will end up costing a lot
- You will see duplicate faxes
EMR Vendor Solutions
As the healthcare sectors in the USA are moving towards digitalization, EMR has become a vital part of digital healthcare. Some of the most popular EMR vendor solutions include:
eClinicalWorks
eClinicalWorks is one of the best solutions for your clinic’s IT needs, providing a Revenue Cycle Management and cloud-based EHR designed specifically for value-based care. eClinicalWorks provides data analytics and electronic health records so that healthcare providers can optimize their resources and reduce ownership costs.
Faxes are directly integrated with eClinicalWorks, but you will need to get a third-party VOIP vendor to forward faxes into their EMR, making it easy to attach to a patient. You can also easily medical fax documents out from the document. If you like eClinicalWorks, their integrated system is the right solution to go with.
Kareo
Designed by doctors, Kareo is perfect for independent practices. Kareo has all the key features you will need, along with the ease of use. Writing a note to the patients, prescribing a medicine, and creating a superbill is just a matter of time. Kareo has integrated faxes with its Document management module. An integrated solution makes it easy to attach the incoming faxes to the patient charts. If you select Kareo, their system is the right solution to go with.
athenahealth
Athenahealth offers medical practice management products and cloud electronic health records. AthenaHealth services come with a toll-free medical fax number. You would forward calls from the local line to the AthenaHealth solution. Again, as an integrated solution, you want to use AthenaHealth’s solution if you are using their EMR.
AdvancedMD
AdvancedMD is another cloud billing and practice management software designed to help small healthcare practices. AdvancedMD comes with billing, coding, front-office functionality, and reporting. AdvancedMD has integrated faxes with its Document management module. An integrated solution makes it easy to attach the incoming faxes to the patient charts. If you select AdvancedMD, their integrated option is the right solution to go with.
Electronic Medical Fax Vendors
If your EMR vendor does not have an integrated solution, then you want to consider an external solution. Electronic vendors are here to stay and they are more beneficial and convenient than traditional ones. The top 5 electronic vendors are
Fax.plus
Fax.plus is a premium and established vendor with a good solution. It allows businesses and individuals to use supported platforms and devices to send and receive faxes online. They are reasonably priced if you don’t expect too many pages. However, it can become costly if you expect to get over 1000 pages/month. Go to the Official Fax.plus website to know more.
SRFax
SRFax touts their solution as HIPAA compliant and SSL and PGP encrypted to differentiate from their competitors. With the ability to schedule up to 50 recipients at a time, you can send and receive faxes irrespective of device and location. Their online email-to-fax / fax-to-email service is provided as a safe and secure PDF to medical fax for healthcare clinics. If you exceed their monthly page limit, they will end up being expensive.
RingCentral
RingCentral is one of the earliest and largest players in the VOIP market and has bundled unlimited plans with their voice plans. RingCentral provides numerous functions such as sending a single medical fax to multiple people which cannot be done in traditional machines. They have a Fax 3000 solution for smaller organizations and an Unlimited plan for high-volume clinics. To see their plans go to www.ringcentral.com
Humblefax
Humblefax Is one of two unlimited solutions and can be an inexpensive option. However, I am not familiar enough with the company to give any opinion on this vendor.
Updox
If your EMR does not have an integrated solution, then Updox integration can be a good option. Updix is the only platform where you can manage all of your communications and work outside of the EHR to ensure efficient and safe care. However, their pricing is more opaque and their per-page pricing is expensive.
External Vendor Comparison
| Plan | Price | Integration | Pages | Overage | ||
| fax.plus | Business | $27.99/m | No | 1000/m | $0.05/p |  |
| fax.plus | Enterprise | $79.99/m | No | 4000/m | $0.03/p | |
| SRFax | Std Plus | $28.10/m | No | 1500/m | $0.07/p | |
| Ringcentral | Fax 3000 | $22.99/m | No | 3000/m | $0.05/p | |
| Ringcentral | Advanced | $25.00/m | No | Unlimited | n/a | |
| Updox | Custom | Custom | PracticeFusionDrChrono… | Custom | n/a | |
| HumbleFax | Standard | $10.00/m | No | Unlimited | n/a |
