HIPAA compliant fax for therapists

A therapist's fax service has to do three things: carry a signed Business Associate Agreement on the plan you actually buy, give you your own number that receives, and let you take that number with you. Fax Pigeon's 200-page plan does all three for $4.99 a month billed annually with 200 pages. Here is why each one matters, what the other providers charge for the same thing, and how the day-to-day works beside SimplePractice or TherapyNotes.

Why a private practice still faxes

Even a fully digital practice gets fax requests from the outside:

• Records requests from primary care, psychiatry, and other therapists
• Releases of information routed to and from other offices
• Insurance and prior authorization paperwork that payers still process by fax
• Court and attorney requests, which often specify fax delivery
• E-prescribing enrollment, which asks for a fax number as the backup channel (see Do I need a fax number for e-prescribing?)

None of it needs a machine. It needs a number that is yours, that receives, and that is covered by a BAA.

The three checks

1. The BAA is on the plan you buy, and you can read it first. A fax vendor that transmits protected health information for you is your business associate, and the agreement is what makes that lawful. The trap in this category is plan-gating: the cheapest plan carries a HIPAA badge and no agreement. eFax's $18.99 plan is labeled "HIPAA Compliant" and, in eFax's own words, only the $39.99 Business plan "includes the signed BAA." Fax.Plus sells the same transport at $6.99 without a BAA and $79.99 with one. SRFax makes you request the agreement by contact form. Fax Pigeon includes the BAA on every plan, free send included, and the full text is public at faxpigeon.com/baa before you create an account.

2. Your own inbound number. A send-only tool covers half the job. Records and referrals come to you, so you need a dedicated local number that lands incoming faxes in a secure inbox. Every paid Fax Pigeon plan includes one, and every inbound fax arrives with an AI summary so you know what it is before you open it.

3. Porting freedom, both directions. Your number ends up on letterhead, in payer files, and in referring offices' address books. Check what it costs to bring it in and, just as important, to take it out. eFax charges $40 per number to release it; WestFax charges $20 to port one in; SRFax's terms say you do not own the number at all. Fax Pigeon ports free in and free out.

What 200 pages a month costs, with the BAA

About the free physician line

Doximity's free fax line is limited to licensed physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and pharmacists. Therapists, counselors, social workers and psychologists are not eligible, and Doximity's own documentation states that medical assistants, front desk staff, and billing and care coordinators cannot create accounts. It is also a personal line, not a practice number: it cannot be shared with staff and it does not move with the practice. A Fax Pigeon plan gives the practice a number it owns, shares, and can port anywhere, with the BAA signed at signup.

Beside your EHR

There is no integration to configure, and none is needed.

• SimplePractice states in its help center that it does not support eFaxing and recommends a third-party HIPAA compliant fax service. Export the PDF from SimplePractice, upload it to Fax Pigeon, enter the number, send. Inbound faxes arrive as PDFs; download and attach them to the client's chart. More in Does SimplePractice have fax?
• TherapyNotes requires a fax number to enroll in ePrescribe. Enter your Fax Pigeon number the day you activate.

Two browser tabs, no hardware, no phone line.

What else comes with every plan

E-signatures, so a release can be signed and sent without printing. Cover sheets, generated for you. Contact management with the numbers you fax most. A delivery certificate on every fax with date, time, page count and a confirmation ID, which is what you hand a court or a payer that says nothing arrived. Records kept for the life of your account, encrypted, deleted only when you ask. Sessions that time out, an append-only audit trail, and our own fax servers carrying every call.

Page math for a practice

A paneled solo practice sends and receives somewhere between 20 and 120 pages a month. Basic covers it with room; overage is 10¢ a page on the next invoice, the page meter in your account shows where the month stands, and past 250 pages Standard costs less. A testing psychologist sending 30-page reports sends each one as a single fax; every paid plan allows 250 pages in one fax. A group practice puts every clinician on one number and one inbox on Plus, $16.99 a month billed annually with 1,000 pages and no per-seat fees.

The first fax is free, no card, covered by the same BAA. Plans are on the plans section.

* Prices, plan terms and quoted policies last verified September 2, 2026, at each provider's own site. Fax Pigeon is not affiliated with SimplePractice, TherapyNotes, Doximity, or any fax provider named above.