Doctor wants fax, not email

My doctor needs some paperwork signed and faxed back to the office. I told them I don’t have a fax machine, but they won’t let me scan and email the documents. What is the difference?


You’ll find this problem a lot with major institutions such as universities, healthcare professionals, banks, and legal firms. There are a number of reasons why they only take faxes instead of emails. Some possibilities include:

– To ensure a paper trail without having the additional step of printing the document.
– Prioritizing security of sensitive information.
– They have a working system and don’t want to lose information from outliers.

The latter is probably the most likely. If you don’t follow their steps, they might lose your information. It’s not a problem, though. You can still scan your document and send it from your computer as a fax by using FaxZero.com. It’s totally free to upload and fax three pages plus a cover sheet, or $1.99 to send more. If you’re faxing sensitive information to your doctor, you can find HIPAA-related fax cover sheets at FreeFaxCoverSheets.net.

Do you have a question about faxing? Send me your fax question.