Best FREE Option – Best ONLINE Fax Service
I help a lot of physical therapists and occupational therapists start private practices and mobile businesses. They are usually bootstrapping their NEW business venture and need to keep costs down.
Fax Burner is a free online fax service for low volume physical therapy practices.
As of today March 29, 2022 the free Fax Burner plan offers:
- A free fax number
- Receive 25 inbound pages per month
- Send 5 outbound pages per month
- Email to fax support
- Fax to email support
* Side Note: I have emailed the support team at Fax Burner to determine if they are able to sign a business associates agreement (BAA) for their free level plan. Their website indicates they offer “FaxBurner can provide you with peace of mind thanks to our TLS (Transport Layer Security) protocols which keep your faxes secure.”
I will update this article as soon as I hear back from their customer service department.
Is faxing the best way to send/receive a physical therapy plan of care?
Medicare requires a physical therapy, occupational therapy, or speech language pathology plan of care be signed / certified by a physician or non-physician practitioner.
Most medical offices are equipped to accept faxed plans of care. They are not equipped to accept mailed plans of care or hand delivered plans of care.
If you want your therapy plan of care certified, you best option is to fax it to the referring physician’s office and be able to receive it returned by fax.
Does A Faxing Service Need to be HIPAA Compliant?
“To ensure the individual’s information is secure and protected, check that your IP fax solution has real-time data transfer, page-by-page confirmation, data encryption, and scalability.” – Medical Economics
Most online fax services will provide you a signed business associates agreement with paid plans. This in addition to appropriate encryption should deliver the PHI protection required by HIPAA complaince.
My process for faxing physical therapy plan of care:
What is a fax tracker for PT plans of care?
One of the most common deficiencies I find in documentation is the lack of a signature on a plan of care from the physician of non-physician practitioner.
Using a simple fax tracker may help eliminate this program.
A fax tracker might simply be an electronic spread sheet showing when a fax goes out and when it comes back signed and returned. This may be done on paper or electronically.
A backup system to reduce the chances a claim is sent to Medicare without a signed plan of care in the medical record would be to create an internal policy that requires a patient’s claim never be submitted for reimbursement until proof of a certified plan of care may has been attained.
More articles about therapy Plan of Care requirements:
Does my plan of care need to indicate that I am treating my patient in my patient’s home?
Anthony Maritato, PT
Private Practice Owner / Physical Therapist
After starting a private practice physical therapy clinic in 2022 with his wife Kathy Maritato, PT, Tony and Kathy grew their practice to five locations across two states.
Now, Tony and Kathy enjoy spending time treating patients in the morning, coaching therapists in the evening, and being home to play with their dog Tucker and 4 boys.