HIPAA compliant fax for a dental office: BAA and price from $4.99

A dental office of 3 people sending and receiving 200 pages a month pays $4.99 a month billed annually for HIPAA fax with a signed BAA on Fax Pigeon Basic, against $10.70 at SRFax, $33.33 at eFax Business and $66.65 at iFax; a 5-person office pays the same $4.99.

What is the best HIPAA compliant fax for a dental office?

Fax Pigeon is the lowest-priced HIPAA compliant fax with a BAA for a dental office among SRFax, eFax, iFax, Fax.Plus, WestFax and Sfax, with Basic at 200 pages a month and Standard at 500. The front desk, the clinical team and billing share one plan at one price, since every Fax Pigeon plan includes unlimited people. An office reads the BAA at faxpigeon.com/baa before it pays and signs it at sign-up. Its paid plan sends and receives from the office's own number.

General offices, oral surgeons, endodontists, periodontists, orthodontists and the dental billing services that work for them choose from the same six plans, because Fax Pigeon sells no team plans. Fax Pigeon is HIPAA-compliant online fax for practices of any size, from solo practices to teams of 100 or more.

Does a fax machine make a dental office a HIPAA covered entity?

A paper-to-paper fax machine does not by itself make a dental office a HIPAA covered entity, the American Dental Association says, and a computerized or digital fax used for a HIPAA standard transaction can. The ADA's fax guidance quotes OCR's 2013 clarification that a fax machine accepting a hardcopy document is not a covered transmission, even when the document was printed from an electronic file.

A dental practice must comply with HIPAA once it has conducted one or more HIPAA standard transactions electronically, or once a billing firm has done so for it. HIPAA also reaches an entirely paper office that sends paper claims to a billing service that converts them to electronic form. HHS lists dentists among covered entities only if they transmit health information electronically in a transaction for which HHS has adopted a standard, the test set out in what a covered entity is under HIPAA.

A covered office needs a compliant business associate agreement before a business associate creates, receives, maintains or transmits patient information, the ADA says, and HHS counts a cloud service that stores ePHI for a covered entity as a business associate. Every Fax Pigeon plan includes a signed BAA.

What does a dental office fax, and to whom?

A dental office faxes referrals, records, lab prescriptions, controlled-substance prescriptions and payer paperwork, and each one follows HIPAA as HHS and the American Dental Association explain it, a DEA rule or the payer's own rule.

The table lists each document, who receives it and the rule behind it.

HIPAA requires no consent form to send records to another healthcare provider, the ADA says, though some states may require consent in certain situations. The DEA's definition of an individual practitioner names physicians and dentists together (21 CFR 1300.01), so the rules for faxing a prescription to a pharmacy reach a dentist's prescriptions.

HHS's March 24, 2026 final rule on claims attachments says providers have frequently sent claim support by paper mail, fax and phone because no HIPAA standard existed, and it requires its electronic standards by May 26, 2028. The rule covers attachments to health care claims and equivalent encounters only. HHS did not finalize a prior authorization attachments standard in it.

How should a dental office protect what it faxes?

A dental office protects what it faxes with the American Dental Association's safeguards: confirm the number, use a cover sheet, skip the redial key for sensitive faxes, and encrypt computer fax.

The ADA suggests confirming a number before sending by double-checking it, calling the recipient, or sending a test fax that asks the recipient to confirm its identity. Its suggested cover sheet says the fax may be confidential and asks the recipient of a misdirected fax to destroy it and notify the sender immediately, and what a HIPAA fax cover sheet needs covers the wording. The ADA also suggests leaving the redial key unused for sensitive faxes unless the sender is certain no one else has used the machine since the last transmission. For computer fax, the ADA says to choose an encryption method that renders the information secure under the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule.

A misdirected fax may be a breach of unsecured PHI that requires notification, the ADA says, and state law may require notice for a Social Security, credit card or driver's license number whether or not the information is PHI. What to do when a fax goes to the wrong number has the steps. The ADA advises keeping each HIPAA compliance document, signed business associate agreements included, for at least six years.

What does HIPAA fax cost a dental office?

A dental office's HIPAA fax bill on Fax Pigeon is $4.99 a month billed annually for 200 pages on Basic or $9.99 for 500 pages on Standard, and it stays there whether 3 people or 5 share the account.

The table shows the cheapest plan with a BAA for 3 people, as a price a month, at 200 and 500 pages sent and received.

Billed annually, a 3-person office at 200 pages spends $59.88 a year on Fax Pigeon, $128.40 on SRFax, $399.96 on eFax and $799.80 on iFax.

The table shows the cheapest plan with a BAA for 5 people, as a price a month, at 200 and 500 pages sent and received.

iFax prices a team on Pro with a license for each added user, so 5 people pay $93.29 a month billed annually. eFax Business includes 5 users and charges $10 a month for each one after, and WestFax bills month to month only.

Pages past the allowance cost 10 cents each on Basic and 5 cents on Standard. eFax Business bills 7 cents for the same page and Sfax 10 cents. iFax handles overage with credits, and by default its Terms of Use add credits and charge the payment method once usage reaches 95% of the plan limit.

Can the whole dental office share one fax number?

One Fax Pigeon number can serve the whole dental office, front desk to billing, and adding a person costs nothing because each plan includes unlimited people. The office works one inbox against one page allowance, and roles and assignment let each fax be assigned to the person who handles it. AI summaries and e-signatures come on every plan, and a delivered fax comes with delivery proof. A PDF, a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file, or a phone photo uploads as it is, and a cover sheet is optional.

A dental office keeps the number printed on its referral forms by porting it in, free on every paid plan, from sign-up or from Settings. Most ports take 5 to 15 business days, and the number keeps working with the current provider in the meantime. SRFax charges $25 to port in a local number and $4.95 for each additional number, and eFax's Customer Agreement lists $40 a number to port in and $40 to port out.

Who should switch, and to what?

A dental office that pays per user, needs a pricier plan to get a BAA, or has credits added automatically should switch to Fax Pigeon Basic or Standard. At 200 pages billed annually, a 5-person office pays $1,059.60 a year more on iFax than on Fax Pigeon Basic. eFax Personal carries no BAA, Fax.Plus includes one on Enterprise only, and Sfax's Standard card does not carry the BAA Available line.

* Prices last verified October 19, 2026, at each provider's own site. Fax Pigeon is not affiliated with SRFax, eFax, iFax, Fax.Plus, WestFax or Sfax.