Paper is Out, and That’s the Fax: New CMS Guidelines Spell the End for Traditional Mail and Fax Machines
A rule change from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will phase out physical mail and faxing for health care claims documents over the next two years.
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The world may be increasingly paperless, but when it comes to healthcare, the revolution hasn’t yet fully taken hold. Despite digital advances, practices across many disciplines are still relying upon both the U.S. Postal Service and their own battle-tested fax machines to share paper records with other providers and healthcare entities. Now, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) means to thrust traditionalists into the future…eventually.
In a press release publicized on March 20, CMS announced that it has promulgated a new rule, The Administrative Simplification; Adoption of Standards for Health Care Claims Attachments Transactions and Electronic Signatures Final Rule, designed to further remove physical paperwork from the documentation process.
The rule established national standards for the “electronic exchange of clinical documentation used to support health care claims” as well as for e-signatures to assure secure transmission of that information. So while future rules may address other administrative areas where paper persists, for now, CMS is just updating its guidelines around health care claims attachments—albeit for all providers covered under HIPAA.
In its fact sheet on the rule, CMS claims that eliminating faxing and mailing will end up saving the healthcare industry $781 annually, as well as reduce administrative burden, speed up claims decisions, and increase security.
If you’re still using paper faxes or standard mail, there’s no need to panic just yet; while the rule goes into effect on May 26, 2026, covered entities aren’t required to be in compliance until May 26, 2028.
Get ahead of the curve with Direct Secure Messaging (DSM).
If you’ve been holding onto that fax machine, there’s no better time than now to start making the switch to digital fax and DSM. While we can’t speak to the exact $781 million in industrywide savings, we can definitely say that dropping paper for WebPT Message Manager will help your bottom line and save your staff time, increase your admin efficiency, speed up care, and improve your interconnectivity with other providers.
