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How to fax medical records to a doctor's office, and how long it takes

A new doctor asks for your records. A specialist wants your test results before your visit. Most doctor’s offices still take these by fax, and many still prefer it. Here is who sends what, where the fax number comes from, what goes on the cover sheet and how long it takes. If you are sending your own signed forms, our page on faxing a doctor’s office walks through it step by step.

Who sends the records

There are two ways records move, and they work differently.

The office that holds your records sends them. This is the usual way. Your old doctor, the hospital or the lab faxes your chart straight to the new office. A doctor can send records to another doctor who is treating you without your written permission. In practice, many offices still ask you to sign a release form first, often called an authorization to release health information. Ask the office that holds your records whether they need one. If they do, sign it, then fax it to their records department.

You send them yourself. You can ask any doctor, hospital or lab for a copy of your own records. You can also ask in writing for a copy to go to someone else. The request needs your signature, and it has to name who gets the copy and where to send it. The office has up to 30 days to respond and can take up to 30 more if it tells you why in writing. Many offices answer much sooner.

Once you have the copy, you can fax it wherever it needs to go. For lab results from Quest, the request goes on Quest’s own form, and our Quest Diagnostics fax number page has the number and what to include.

How to get the fax number

Get the number from the office that is receiving the records. Do not guess it, and do not use a number from a search result. A fax sent to the wrong number cannot be called back.

  1. Ask the office. Call the front desk and ask for the fax number for medical records. Many offices have more than one fax line. The records department and the front desk often have different numbers.
  2. Check your paperwork. A referral letter, an appointment reminder or an intake packet often prints the office’s fax number. So does the office’s page in your patient portal.
  3. For a government agency, use a verified number. Sometimes records go to an agency instead of a doctor, such as Social Security for a disability claim or a state Medicaid office. Use the number printed on the agency’s letter to you. If you do not have one, our government fax page lists agencies by type, and our fax number lookup shows each number with the official page it came from and the date we last checked it.

What to put on the cover sheet

A cover sheet tells the receiving office whose records these are and who should get them. Keep it short and put it on top.

  • The patient’s full name and date of birth
  • Who the fax is for, by name or department, such as “Medical records” or the doctor’s name
  • The name of the office sending it, or your name if you are sending it
  • A phone number to call if a page is missing
  • The number of pages, including the cover sheet
  • One line on what is enclosed, such as “Records request, signed release” or “Lab results for new patient visit”

Leave out details the office does not need. The cover sheet is the page everyone at the fax machine sees first.

How long a fax takes to arrive

A fax arrives in minutes, not days. A few pages usually go through in a few minutes. A long document takes longer, because the machine sends one page at a time. If the line is busy, the fax waits. With ProntoFax we redial up to three more times over about 20 minutes before we give up, and you are not charged if it is never delivered.

Arriving is not the same as being read. Your delivery confirmation proves the pages reached a fax machine at that number. It does not prove someone has filed them in your chart.

Call the office to confirm when:

  • You have an appointment in the next day or two
  • The records are for a deadline, such as an insurance claim or a disability application
  • A day has passed and nobody has called you back about something you asked for

When you call, give the date and time from your delivery confirmation and the number of pages. That makes the fax easy to find in their tray.

How to send it from your phone

You do not need a fax machine. You need your phone and the pages.

  1. Lay each page flat in good light. Photograph one page at a time, straight down, with the whole page in the frame. A printed form photographed at an angle is harder to read on the other end.
  2. Or upload a PDF. If the office gave you the records as a PDF, upload that instead.
  3. Add a cover page. You can type one in the app, or photograph your own cover sheet as the first page.
  4. Check every page in the preview. Retake any page that is blurry, dark or cut off.
  5. Enter the fax number. We check that the line can receive a fax before you pay.
  6. Pay $2.99 and send. It is one flat price for up to 25 pages. Your card is held, not charged, until the receiving machine confirms delivery.

You get an email receipt with the delivery time, the page count and the number it went to. Keep it until the office confirms they have your records.

If you are worried about how a photographed page will look on the other end, a test fax sends your own pages to a ProntoFax test line and shows you what came through.

This note explains how to get your records where they need to go. It is not legal advice about your rights to your records. For that, the pages from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services below are the place to start.

Sources

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