HIPAA Q&A: Faxing records
HIPAA Weekly Advisor, August 23, 2010
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Q. Is it permissible to fax patient medical records between physicians without patient authorization?
A. Yes. Because the records are presumably needed for ongoing patient care, patient authorization is not required. Faxing the records is acceptable as long as you take reasonable precautions to ensure that you send the records to the correct number.
Editor’s note: Mary D. Brandt, president of Brandt & Associates, Inc., a healthcare consulting firm in Bellaire, TX, answered this question. She is a nationally recognized expert on patient privacy, information security, and regulatory compliance, and her publications provided some of the basis for HIPAA’s privacy regulations.
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