Does a Therapist Need a Fax Number?

When you can skip it

You can go without a number when these describe your practice:

• Clients pay you directly, and you share documents with them through your client portal or EHR.
• No referring clinician or insurer asks you for a fax number.
• Your insurers take requests by portal, phone or email. Evernorth’s network exception form, for example, prefers email.
• You send a fax only now and then. Sending needs no number of your own. FaxTerra’s free plan sends 10 pages a month, though it carries no BAA, so a covered practice cannot use it for PHI.

When you need one

You need a number when paper has to come back to you:

• A form asks for it. Evernorth’s Outpatient Behavioral Network Exception Request Form has a fax number field for the provider.
• A referring office or hospital faxes records. Some send only to a fax line, and a number is what gets the referral packet to you.
• You prescribe. Payers’ prior authorization forms ask for the office fax: CVS Caremark asks for a secure office fax and Humana for the prescriber’s fax, and Cigna’s medication form says Cigna responds by fax only when its required fields are complete.
• You print one. A number on your letterhead or release form has to answer for as long as those forms circulate.

What a number costs at FaxTerra

Starter includes a dedicated number and 50 pages a month, sent and received combined, for $4.99 a month. If your practice is a HIPAA covered entity, HIPAA compliance adds a signed BAA for $4.99 a month, which brings Starter to $9.98 a month.

Received faxes wait in an inbox on the web and in the mobile app. With HIPAA compliance added, arrival notices carry no document detail and the fax stays in the inbox.

If you already have a number

You can keep the number already on your referral pads and forms. Porting moves a US or Canada local number to a new service, and switching fax providers sets out the order of steps. Transferring a number into FaxTerra is free on every paid plan.