Not being in the industry, but interested observer, I think the reason FAXs are so prevalent in the health industry is because printed documents transferred in "modern" protocols fall within HIPPA, and FAX's are preexisting tech and don't have all those silly data protection rules attached.
I've heard of medical billing outfits in the US that emulate 1,000's of concurrent online FAXs machines at a time so all those medical billings can go back and forth on paper, bypassing HIPPA rules.
I've had so many of my customers that have to process PHI billing just how they can do email with PHI and still be HIPPA. My answer of you can't just pissed them off all to no end. I think this is the industry's end-run to still have paper record shuffle.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
