What to do with your fax number when you close a practice

Port the number to your records custodian or the buyer (porting out of Fax Pigeon is free), or keep Basic at $4.99 a month billed annually ($59.88 a year) until they take over. Port when someone is ready to receive faxes at the number. Keep the plan while no one is. Cancel anytime in Settings once the handover is done, and service runs to the end of the paid period.

Which choice fits your situation?

How long should the number stay live?

Any office that has your fax number on file can keep sending to it after you close, so keep it live for as long as someone has to answer what arrives. HIPAA sets no period for medical records. HHS says in FAQ 580 that the Privacy Rule has no retention requirement for them and that state laws generally govern the length. The six years in 45 CFR 164.530(j)(2) belong to HIPAA's own paperwork, meaning policies and the records the rule requires. They do not set how long a chart is kept.

The period comes from your state, and your licensing board can tell you which rule applies to your profession. The Washington Medical Commission publishes one example for physicians and physician assistants, guideline GUI2024-01. No general Washington law fixes a period, it says. It concurs, when appropriate, with the state medical association's recommendation of at least ten years from a patient's last contact. The same guideline says a practitioner still has to make records available after the practice closes. In Washington a patient's written request carries a deadline of fifteen working days (RCW 70.02.080), and HIPAA sets 30 days to act on a request for access (45 CFR 164.524(b)(2)(i)). A faxed request sits in the inbox from the day it arrives.

Two closing guides cover the phone and the mailbox. AAFP's checklist lists phone service, mail forwarding and a mailing address for record requests. Washington's notice guidance asks for a telephone number and a mailing address for the contact. Neither mentions fax.

Who takes the number when you sell or hand over?

The custodian takes it: whoever holds the records and answers requests for them. Washington's guideline lets a practitioner contract with an outside custodian. AAFP's guidance on selling a family practice keeps the records out of the sale, and the buyer takes custody and answers requests. HIPAA lists the sale, transfer or merger of a practice with another covered entity among its health care operations (45 CFR 164.501). The number goes where the requests are answered.

A port starts at the provider receiving the number, and leaving Fax Pigeon costs nothing. A buyer or custodian who picks Fax Pigeon ports in free on any paid plan. Most transfers finish in 5 to 15 business days, which is three weeks at the long end, and the number keeps working with its current provider until then. Each HIPAA-covered practice needs its own Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with the service that holds its faxes (45 CFR 164.502(e)), and at Fax Pigeon that BAA is signed at signup on every plan. The order for a port is in Port your fax number before you cancel. A buyer without a fax service yet can start with HIPAA compliant fax number for private practice.

What does keeping the number cost?

Basic is $4.99 a month billed annually, which is $59.88 a year, or $5.99 paid month to month. Both carry 200 pages a month, sent plus received, and a signed BAA. If the handover is nine months away or less, month to month costs less ($53.91 for nine months). From ten months, annual billing costs less ($59.88 against $59.90). Holding the number yourself for a ten-year period is $598.80 on annual billing. On a larger plan, a downgrade to Basic takes effect at the next renewal. The pricing page lists all six plans.

Pages count both ways: a 3-page request in and a 40-page chart out is 43 pages. Basic's 200 pages cover four of those a month, and a fifth adds 15 extra pages at 10¢, or $1.50, on a separate invoice. Faxes keep arriving past the page budget.

What should the inbox do while you wind down?

These come with every plan, and each one helps during a wind-down:

• Email notifications, per fax or daily. One daily message tells a retired practitioner whether anything came in.
• An AI summary of every inbound fax, so each one says what it is before anyone opens it.
• Unlimited people at no extra cost. A custodian or records clerk can join the shared inbox, take a role and have requests assigned to them.
• A delivery certificate for every delivered fax, which records that a reply went out.
• Access from any web browser, on a computer or a phone.

In what order do you end the service?

1. Name the contact for records requests, and add a fax number if the custodian takes requests by fax.
2. Time the patient notice to your state's rule. Washington's guideline puts the floor at 30 days ahead and the best practice at 90, for active patients and patients seen in the previous three years.
3. Start the port, or keep the plan if no one is ready. Keep the account open until the port lands.
4. Tell the offices that send to the number. AAFP's checklist lists payers, hospitals, labs and imaging centers, colleagues and the state board.
5. Read the termination terms in the BAA. HIPAA requires a BAA to cover protected health information (PHI) at termination, with return or destruction if feasible (45 CFR 164.504(e)(2)(ii)(J)).
6. Cancel in Settings after the handover.
7. File the BAA. The Security Rule sets six years for required documentation, counted from the date a document was created or last was in effect, whichever is later (45 CFR 164.316(b)(2)(i)).

* Fax Pigeon prices and plan terms as of October 13, 2026.