Telemedicine lets a patient consult a doctor by video or phone instead of visiting an office in person, and its use has leveled off at roughly six to seven percent of primary care visits since mid-2023 after the pandemic-era surge subsided. A telemedicine visit still generates referrals, lab orders, and prior authorizations that must move between providers, so most health systems rely on HIPAA compliant fax over IP, not email, to exchange that protected health information securely and keep required documentation intact.
Telemedicine use among office-based physicians fell from 86.5 percent in 2021 to 80.0 percent in 2024, according to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, while an earlier federal data brief found that about one-third of physicians still relied only on fax, mail, or fax over IP to exchange patient records with providers outside their own organization, a sign that virtual care and paper-era document exchange continue to run side by side in daily practice.
The Internet has forever changed just about every industry’s business model. Everything from shopping to banking and advertising has had a major overhaul in the last few years, with digital resources allowing for a more convenient and efficient way of making money. However, it wasn’t until recently that the medical industry began to move online.
Telemedicine is a new concept that is sweeping across health care. This is where patients use the camera on their smartphone or computer to basically have a digital conference with a doctor in lieu of a physical examination. Many diseases don’t actually require the doctor to be in the room for a diagnosis, and services like fax and telemedicine are meant to allow medical professionals to cut down on wasted time while also ensuring patient care doesn’t suffer. But just how popular is the idea of communicating with doctors via a video chat, and what does this mean for the industry as a whole?
“Telemedicine has already proven itself to be popular.”
Telemedicine is revolutionizing the industry
Although this is a relatively new trend, telemedicine has already proven itself to be popular among the average health care patient. A study conducted by the University of Missouri School of Medicine found that 83 percent of respondents who had used these services believed that they had “received skilled care” through their telemedicine examinations. What’s more, a report from Software Advice found that 75 percent of those who had never utilized telemedicine were interested in going through such an examination.
Clearly, both the idea and the practice of telemedicine are popular among most people. There have been many theories behind why this is, with the most popular one having to do with convenience. Many Americans live in rural communities, which generally equates to limited access to health care facilities. Telemedicine allows these people to quickly and effectively diagnose less serious diseases without having to drive 45 minutes to the nearest doctor’s office.
Another area of convenience within telemedicine has to do with minor injuries. A small cut may not need stitches from a professional, but someone with no medical training might not know what to do without going to the emergency room. Such an event could be solved by simply calling up a doctor via telemedicine services and asking what the next step should be. In fact, the same Software Advice study found that 84 percent of respondents would rather use telemedicine to solve a minor ailment over going to the emergency room.
Telemedicine is changing health care.Might cause problems for HIPAA
Despite the fact that telemedicine obviously has a lot of support and possible use cases, there is a bit of a problem here concerning the transfer of sensitive patient information, also known as ePHI. Depending on how a particular telemedicine service is set up, doctors may not be able to access patient medical records due to the strict regulatory rules within the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act.
HIPAA has some pretty tight compliance standards surrounding the transfer of medical information, with hefty fines levied against those who ignore them. This means that certain doctors may not be able to access patient history via fax, thereby decreasing their ability to fully diagnose a particular problem.
FoIP can help
Thankfully, there’s a simple answer to HIPAA compliant telemedicine platforms in the form of Fax over IP. Legacy fax systems are widely used throughout medicine in order to safely transport patient information from one doctor to another. Fax over IP (FoIP) uses a similarly HIPAA compliant and healthcare secure fax transfer process that has the added bonus of working over the Internet. Rather than printing out a fax, doctors can access medical records right on their smartphone or computer.
This could help to improve telemedicine’s effectiveness as a medical tool. With the ability to quickly transfer medical data in a digital context, doctors would have more information about the patient they are currently video chatting with, thereby allowing them to make a more informed decision.
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Telemedicine and HIPAA Compliant Fax for Healthcare Providers: Frequently Asked Questions
What is telemedicine and how does it work?
Telemedicine lets a patient and a provider meet by secure video call, phone, or messaging instead of an in-person office visit, using a computer, tablet, or smartphone with an internet connection. A provider can diagnose common conditions, manage chronic care, and prescribe medication in many cases during the visit itself. The appointment still generates the same documentation, referrals, and billing records as an in-person visit, so that paperwork has to move between systems and providers afterward.
Why does telemedicine create extra HIPAA compliance risk?
A telemedicine visit relies on a video platform, an internet connection, and often a separate scheduling or billing system, so protected health information passes through more digital touchpoints than an in-person appointment. Each platform used to transmit or store that information needs its own business associate agreement and security safeguards under HIPAA. If a video vendor, a messaging app, or a document transfer step anywhere in that chain is not secured, the practice carries the compliance risk.
How has telemedicine use changed since the pandemic?
Telemedicine use has leveled off after its 2020 surge, holding at roughly six to seven percent of primary care visit bookings since mid-2023, according to Epic health system research. CDC data show telemedicine use among office-based physicians actually declined from 86.5 percent in 2021 to 80.0 percent in 2024, with the sharpest drops among surgical specialists and physicians outside major metro areas. Telemedicine remains a normal part of care, but it is no longer growing at pandemic speed.
Why do healthcare providers still use fax alongside telemedicine?
A federal data brief found that about one-third of physicians relied only on fax, mail, or e-fax to send patient records to providers outside their organization, and that pattern persists because fax integrates with older intake systems many specialists, labs, and insurers still use. A telemedicine visit generates referrals, lab orders, and prior authorization requests that often need to reach one of those offices, so fax and virtual care end up working side by side rather than replacing each other.
Is fax still considered HIPAA compliant for sending patient records?
Fax can satisfy HIPAA requirements when the sender takes reasonable precautions, such as confirming the recipient’s number, using a cover sheet that limits visible patient detail, and keeping a record of each transmission. Fax over IP, or FoIP, adds encryption and produces a digital audit trail of every send and receive attempt, something a traditional analog machine cannot generate on its own. That audit trail makes it easier to show HIPAA compliance during an audit or after a misdirected fax.
What is fax over IP and how does it support telemedicine workflows?
Fax over IP, or FoIP, sends and receives fax documents over an internet connection instead of a dedicated analog phone line, while still using the same fax number recipients already have on file. For a telemedicine practice, FoIP lets staff send and receive referrals, lab results, and prior authorization paperwork from a computer rather than a physical machine, so documentation generated during a virtual visit can reach an outside provider without a separate scanning or mailing step.
