How to Fax a Home Health Order — Certification and Plan of Care
A home health certification and plan of care is the document a certifying provider signs to establish that a patient qualifies for home health services and to set the ordered care — skilled nursing, therapy, aide visits, and their frequency. Home health agencies rely on fax to move the signed plan of care between the physician and the agency because the certification and the ordered services must be documented and signed to support the episode of care. A faxed plan of care arrives as one document the agency can file against the patient's episode.
Why this form is faxed
The agency cannot bill an episode without a plan of care that the certifying provider has signed, and faxing moves the document between the physician's office and the agency without the delay of mail. Because the plan describes the patient's condition and the ordered care, sending it through a channel that confirms delivery documents when the signed certification changed hands.
Where it goes
The plan of care travels between the certifying provider's office and the home health agency, and the correct fax number is the one the receiving office designates for plan-of-care documents. Confirm it with the agency's clinical records team or the physician's office rather than a general number, since these documents are meant to reach the staff who manage the patient's episode.
How to fax Home Health Certification and Plan of Care
- 1Complete the certification and plan of care with the patient's information, diagnoses, and the ordered services and frequency
- 2Confirm the homebound status and eligibility details the plan requires are documented
- 3Route the plan for the certifying provider's signature and date so it supports the episode
- 4Confirm the receiving office's fax number for plan-of-care documents
- 5Upload the signed plan of care to Send FAX Mail, enter the confirmed fax number, and send
- 6Save the confirmation as your record of when the signed certification was exchanged
Handling sensitive information
A plan of care details the patient's diagnoses, functional status, and the care ordered in their home, all protected health information under HIPAA. Send it only to the clinical records number you have confirmed for the agency or physician; a plan of care sent to the wrong line can expose sensitive details about a patient's condition and home situation.
What’s current · as of July 2026
- HIPAA large-breach reporting threshold
- 500+ individuals — reported to HHS OCR without unreasonable delay Source: HHS Office for Civil Rights
- HIPAA documentation retention period
- 6 years from creation or last-effective date Source: HHS — HIPAA Administrative Requirements (45 CFR 164.316)
Recent updates
Federal interoperability rules keep pushing healthcare past the fax machine
CMS has advanced a series of interoperability rules that press hospitals, payers, and providers toward electronic data exchange and standardized claims attachments. The direction of travel is clear: paper and analog fax workflows are being replaced by digital transmission that carries an auditable record — which is exactly what a cloud fax with delivery confirmation provides for offices not yet on a full EHR pipeline.
CMS →Healthcare breach reporting keeps document handling under scrutiny
Ongoing reporting on HIPAA breaches and OCR settlements underscores how much scrutiny falls on how medical documents are stored, sent, and received. Sending records through a controlled, access-logged channel rather than an unmanaged machine reduces the mishandling risks that show up repeatedly in breach analyses.
HIPAA Journal →HHS OCR continues enforcing HIPAA safeguards on how PHI is transmitted
The HHS Office for Civil Rights enforces the HIPAA Security Rule's requirement that covered entities apply administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to protected health information in transit. Faxing PHI is permitted, but the sending practice is responsible for confirming the destination and controlling access — the reason healthcare senders favor a channel that logs each transmission and its recipient.
HHS Office for Civil Rights →
Faxing Home Health Certification and Plan of Care — FAQ
Home health services are furnished under a plan of care that a certifying provider establishes and signs, and the agency generally cannot bill the episode without it. Faxing the signed document between the physician's office and the agency keeps the certification moving, and the confirmation records when the signed copy was exchanged.
Beyond the ordered nursing, therapy, or aide visits and their frequency, the plan documents the patient's diagnoses and the eligibility details the payer requires, such as homebound status. Confirming those sections are complete before you fax the plan helps the agency support the episode without sending it back for more information.
The certifying provider — the physician or allowed practitioner overseeing the patient's care — signs and dates the certification and plan of care, since the episode rests on their certification of eligibility. The agency completes the clinical detail, but the provider's signature is what makes the plan actionable.
Send FAX Mail returns a confirmation with the date and time the plan reached the receiving line. Keeping that record lets the agency or physician's office document when the signed certification changed hands, which matters for supporting the timing of the episode.
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