For those who imagine the legacy fax machine has been changed with the EHR and digital types of communication, suppose once more: 70% of health-care organizations nonetheless use paper faxes, in response to the Workplace of the Nationwide Coordinator for Well being Data Expertise. However there are a lot safer and extra environment friendly methods to speak than through the bodily fax machine.

Though HIPAA rules are inclined to favor faxing over electronic mail for transmitting PHI, it’s inaccurate to imagine that faxes are HIPAA compliant. HIPAA tips require a decent chain of custody always, a regular that paper faxes have problem assembly, notably when most fax machines in most workplace settings are in plain view the place unauthorized personnel and the general public are at all times round.

Legacy fax environments have been created with little or no safety precautions in thoughts. For instance, a regular fax transmission over the cellphone community will not be encrypted. An worker making only one mistake keying in a quantity can ship protected well being data (PHI) to the improper recipient—a HIPAA violation. Failure to incorporate a canopy sheet can go away affected person data uncovered on the recipient’s machine. An incoming fax left on a machine in an open space will be picked up by any worker with workplace entry, together with those that aren’t approved to view PHI.

Information Breaches Trigger Catastrophic Hardships for Healthcare Suppliers

A New York-based hospital was fined $387,000 in 2015 for faxing PHI to the improper recipient in simply two situations. In levying the heavy fantastic, the Workplace for Civil Rights, which administers the federal healthcare breach report, pointed to the egregious nature of the disclosures as a result of the hospital cares for sufferers coping with AIDS, HIV and continual situations. Protected well being data PHI was despatched to an workplace the place a affected person volunteered and to a second affected person’s employer with the latter leading to a lawsuit.

Whatever the cause, experiencing an information breach can create a catastrophic hardship for a healthcare supplier—each by way of actual prices and a loss in model worth and affected person belief. It’s well-known that healthcare has the best trade common per-record prices for an information breach with the common whole price for a breach now tops $10 million.

Digital Cloud Fax Expertise is the Manner Ahead

Faxes aren’t going away anytime quickly, however the bodily fax machine’s days are numbered—or must be. Digital cloud fax expertise (DCFT) combines the comfort of faxing with the safety protocols that HIPAA rules and customary sense demand.

A completely HIPAA-compliant, cloud-based, fax-by-email resolution will encrypt transmissions in transit and whereas at relaxation. Fairly than faxes arriving at a bodily machine, faxes arrive immediately within the inbox of the supposed recipient, the place they await the recipient to log in and think about them.

Such an answer permits directors to view and handle fax utilization by a web-based administrative portal. HIPAA compliance is maintained by the safe transmission of messages, mixed with full audit trails of all faxes despatched and obtained.

eFax Company: The Gold Normal

On the subject of faxing important paperwork, eFax Company has reigned because the gold commonplace in digital cloud fax expertise (DCFT) for greater than 20 years and is the primary main cloud fax supplier to realize HITRUST CSF® certification – reflecting the best degree of dedication to safety and compliance in a company.

With eFax Company, organizations can ship faxes on-line by electronic mail with extremely superior TLS 1.2 encryption, the SSL substitute. This ensures fax paperwork are protected in transit from their level of origin to the recipient’s fax. When a fax is shipped to at least one an worker, eFax Safe will ship that worker an electronic mail with a URL to a safe web site. The worker then merely clicks the URL (opening a TLS connection) and enters their eFax Company account data to obtain the fax from a safe HTTPS portal with encrypted storage (AES-256). It’s each secure and easy!

With our resolution, delicate information is protected by bodily datacenter safety and the best encryption requirements. All methods processing information are maintained in safe manufacturing ques, and multi-factor authentication is required for system entry. No buyer fax information is shared with any third events outdoors of our audit capabilities. No extra faxes with delicate data despatched to the improper quantity or affected person information left sitting on an workplace fax machine!

Conclusion

Usually neglected whereas securing PHI is the fax machine, a continued weak spot because it stays a communications workhorse for the healthcare trade. eFax Company, a digital cloud faxing resolution for the enterprise that’s each HIPAA compliant and HITRUST CSF® Licensed, can eradicate the bodily fax machine and its inherent risks, transmitting affected person information utilizing refined encryption that protects this important data.

Partly 5 of this unique weblog collection, we’ll discover how eFax Company helps healthcare, monetary providers, and different closely regulated industries meet and preserve compliance!

For extra data on our digital cloud fax resolution, please go to www.enterprise.efax.com.