If you work in healthcare, you may not be aware that you can use email and be HIPAA compliant. 

What's happening: A few days ago, a Silicon Valley tech executive shared a story with me: He was recently unable get access to his lab results because they had not been faxed over yet. Flummoxed, he stood in his doctor's office thinking, "why can't they just use email?"

Even in Silicon Valley, the world's heartbeat of technology, the fax machine continues to reign supreme as the backbone of communication in healthcare. 

I can use HIPAA compliant email?

It's not common knowledge healthcare workers can use email in their everyday workflows.

For example, many hospitals rely solely on phone calls to communicate with patients and their loved ones. With features like the Verizon Call Filter however, incoming calls from numbers not in a recipient's address book get sent directly to voicemail. The smartphone won't ring or vibrate.

Here's another example: When a patient asks for a copy of their medical records, the reply at the doctor's office is something to the effect of, "what's your fax number?"

Who still has a fax machine in their house? 

I can tell you what everyone has though, it's an email address. Why not use HIPAA compliant email to send the medical record?

Yes, you can use HIPAA compliant email at your job. Properly done, it's safe to do and it's legal under HIPAA regulations. It's also faster and cheaper than sending a fax or making a phone call.

Paubox is easy to use

In the case of Paubox, our solutions remove the friction typically associated with sending secure, HIPAA compliant email while maintaining compliance. In fact, Paubox solutions have been HITRUST certified since 2019. 

According to Dr. David Ho, owner of Van Ness Dental Care in San Francisco, his experience with Paubox is that, "it’s so easy to use, you don’t have to think about anything.”

Dr. David Ho, Van Ness Dental Care

HIPAA compliant email is relevant to your job

For healthcare professionals, here's how HIPAA compliant email is relevant to your job:

• Provider to patient communication. The most obvious use case for a HIPAA compliant email solution like Paubox is that it can be used to communicate with your patients. For example, you can use Paubox Email Suite to email patients directly from your work email address, either via Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. If you want to send transactional emails that contain PHI from your application or website, you can use Paubox Email API. If you need to send personalized marketing campaigns, either via email or HIPAA compliant text, you can use Paubox Marketing. 
• Provider to provider communication. If you need to refer a patient to another provider for treatment, rather than send a cumbersome fax, you can use HIPAA compliant email. For example, most of Dr. David Ho's peers use Paubox for patient referrals. If his practice needs to send someone to a specialist for wisdom tooth removal or a root canal, his office will simply send an email to the other practice with relevant information. 
• Provider to payer communication. Payers in the healthcare industry are organizations that collect payments, process claims, and pay provider claims. Seeing as how every business needs to get paid on a timely basis, submitting a claim via email secured by Paubox is much faster than sending a fax. 

Conclusion: You can indeed use HIPAA compliant email

Healthcare may be the last industry in the United States to adopt email as an everyday workflow. Although HIPAA regulates its use, a common misconception is that only a fax machine is HIPAA compliant. Solutions like Paubox however, make HIPAA compliant email easy to use and compliant.

In a nutshell, yes,  you can and should use HIPAA compliant email if you work in healthcare. Your patients expect it, providers need it, and you can get paid faster from payers.