re: Sending and receiving faxes without a fax machine

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Can people please stop using faxes

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Just as soon as you convince the federal government that email is an acceptable alternative for disclosing patient records.

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When you get right down to it, it's nothing more than a bunch of dots on a piece of paper. The feds let you use a digitized photo (once again - dots on a piece of paper) on your passport photo. How about the .GOV domain? Inconsistent. Even the old-time darkroom photos are a bunch of dots... more correctly, grains. If you send/receive PDFs, I really don't see the difference between that and a fax, presuming they're both eventually going to be turned into PDFs anyway on the receiving end and archived. What about the dots you're looking at right now on your monitor? Why is it ok to look at dots on your monitor, but paper is required with faxes (presuming that's what they're doing)?? Very inconsistent document handling that needs to be standardized, IMHO. On those instances where you need a printed copy, just print the PDF. I realize that they who have the gold make the rules (compliance with certain entities upstream from you), but it still makes my head hurt. Is it the equipment cost or training issues that's holding back a more efficient process?

This is reminiscent of Barney picking up the phone and saying, "Sarah.... get me Thelma Lou", except that chore is now handled by a telcom switch.