HIPAA-Compliant Fax for Illinois Healthcare Providers
Northwestern Medicine, Rush University Medical Center, and the University of Chicago Medicine sit at the center of a large Illinois provider network that sends enormous volumes of fax every year for patient records, specialist referrals, and pharmacy orders. Protected health information moving through that network has to stay secure under HIPAA and under the facility standards the Illinois Department of Public Health enforces.
Regulations & Compliance
Illinois providers operate under federal HIPAA and the state's Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Confidentiality Act at 740 ILCS 110, which holds mental health records to an especially strict standard. The Illinois Department of Public Health licenses facilities and enforces the Medical Patient Rights Act, while the Illinois Medical Practice Act sets physician recordkeeping duties. Encrypted transmission with a documented delivery trail supports all of these obligations, and a signed Business Associate Agreement is available where a covered entity needs one.
Key Institutions
- • Illinois Department of Public Health
- • Illinois State Medical Society
- • Northwestern Medicine
- • Rush University Medical Center
Healthcare Fax in Illinois — FAQ
Yes. Transmission runs over TLS and stored documents are encrypted with AES-256, which fits both HIPAA and the tighter handling that 740 ILCS 110 imposes on mental health records. A Business Associate Agreement is available for covered entities. The Business plan at $79.99 per month is the right tier for practices that need the HIPAA-supporting features.
Referrals, lab orders, prescription and prior authorization requests, and patient consent forms are the routine ones. Across institutions like Northwestern Medicine and Rush, fax stays in use where a documented delivery trail matters. Send FAX Mail attaches that confirmation to every send.
The Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Confidentiality Act sets a stricter bar than general medical records, so transmission and storage need to hold up to closer scrutiny. Encrypted handling and a complete delivery log give a provider the documentation to show a record was sent securely and on time.
Pricing starts at $12.99 per month for an individual provider and runs up to higher-volume tiers for larger systems like Northwestern Medicine or Rush. Each plan carries a monthly page allowance, so a practice whose referral and order volume grows simply moves to the next tier rather than paying anything per page. HIPAA-supporting transmission and delivery confirmation are included, generally well below the cost of maintaining legacy fax hardware.
Why this matters
The HIPAA Security Rule requires technical safeguards to protect electronic protected health information when it is transmitted over a network.
Source: U.S. HHS — 45 CFR § 164.312(e)(1)HIPAA requires covered entities to obtain satisfactory assurances — typically a Business Associate Agreement — from vendors that handle protected health information on their behalf.
Source: U.S. HHS — 45 CFR § 164.308(b)As of 2021, most U.S. non-federal acute care hospitals still used mail or fax to exchange summary-of-care records with outside organizations — 69% to send and 78% to receive.
Source: ONC Data Brief No. 64 (Jan 2023), AHA Annual Survey IT SupplementStart faxing for healthcare in Illinois
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