Is MetroFax HIPAA compliant?

On MetroFax's own terms, its three plans, $9.96 to $31.63 a month billed annually, are not for patient information: none names a Business Associate Agreement (BAA), and its Customer Agreement has customers agree not to store protected health information (PHI) with the service. The clause makes no exception for a signed BAA. Fax Pigeon sells HIPAA fax, so read this as a seller's comparison. Every Fax Pigeon plan includes a signed BAA, executed at signup.

Which MetroFax plan comes with a BAA?

None of the three. MetroFax's pricing page lists Essential, Best Value and Professional with no BAA line and no HIPAA line, and its support FAQ answers the privacy question with encrypted delivery and says nothing about an agreement. The Sales page asks healthcare providers who need HIPAA-compliant options to fill in a form so a specialist can build a package. No plan, price or agreement text for those options is posted, so a practice cannot read what it would sign before it talks to a salesperson.

MetroFax's blog and its contract point different ways. A post on whether faxing is obsolete says online faxing carries health information "while still adhering to HIPAA standards." The Customer Agreement tells customers not to store PHI with the service.

What would change the answer: a written BAA from MetroFax that names the plan, and a Customer Agreement without the storage bar.

What does MetroFax's Customer Agreement say about patient information?

MetroFax's Terms of Service page holds its Customer Agreement, a contract with Consensus Cloud Solutions, effective October 7, 2021 for current users. Under Customer Responsibilities you agree not to use the service to store PHI or any other information that puts independent obligations on the company. MyFax, a sister brand under the same parent, carries the same sentence in its terms with one more clause: PHI is barred only until you have executed a BAA with the company for that service. MetroFax's sentence has no such clause.

The agreement also describes stored faxes. Received faxes are kept in your account while it is active, the company can change how many days it retains them, and it runs optical character recognition on them and indexes the text for search. The How It Works page calls the stored fax history cloud storage, and the cancel page says you lose access to your fax documents once the account closes.

Is MetroFax a conduit, so no BAA is needed?

The agreement calls MetroFax a passive conduit for what you send and receive, and its other pages describe stored, searchable fax history. HHS's cloud computing guidance limits the conduit exception to transmission-only services, with at most temporary storage incident to the transmission. It treats a provider that maintains electronic PHI for storage as a business associate even when the provider cannot view the data.

The regulation defines a business associate by what it does with PHI for a covered entity: it creates, receives, maintains or transmits it (45 CFR 160.103). A covered entity may allow that if it obtains satisfactory assurance, and the assurance must be documented in a written contract or other written agreement (45 CFR 164.502(e)). HHS's guidance adds that a covered entity using a cloud provider to maintain electronic PHI without a BAA is in violation of the HIPAA Rules.

What do MetroFax's plans cost, and which carry a BAA?

For a 500-page month, MetroFax Essential and Fax Pigeon Standard sit within 4 cents of each other: $11.95 and $11.99 month to month, $9.96 and $9.99 billed annually. Only Fax Pigeon Standard comes with a signed BAA. MetroFax's sister brand eFax prints a BAA beside a price on its Business plan, $39.99 a month for 500 pages, on eFax's pricing page.

What do MetroFax's terms say about the number, security and refunds?

• The number is a revocable permission. MetroFax is the customer of record. A number it issued may not be ported out, and porting one anyway carries $500 in liquidated damages. After cancellation the number may be reassigned at once. A number you ported in can leave only on conditions that include written notice no later than 30 days after the account ends and a $40 fee per number.
• Security is disclaimed. The agreement disclaims implied warranties, security among them, and caps liability at the lesser of what you paid in the three months before a claim or $500.
• Fees are not refundable. Service fees are payable in advance and are non-refundable.

Who should switch from MetroFax?

• A practice that sends or receives patient records through MetroFax. Every Fax Pigeon plan includes a signed BAA, executed at signup, and the free first fax is covered by the same agreement.
• A team of more than 5. MetroFax's Features page lists up to 5 email addresses per account at no extra charge. Fax Pigeon includes unlimited people at no extra cost, on one number with a shared inbox that has roles and assignment.
• A practice that wants its number to stay its own. Fax Pigeon ports numbers in and out free, and every paid plan includes your own dedicated fax number.
• A practice that wants a refund path. Fax Pigeon refunds in full within 72 hours of the first payment (once per customer), and you cancel anytime in Settings and keep service to the end of the paid period.

Move the number in this order. If you ported it into MetroFax, start the port at Fax Pigeon from Settings while the MetroFax account is open. MetroFax's agreement asks for written notice no later than 30 days after cancellation and a $40 fee per number, and says to keep the account active until the port finishes if you want service to continue. If MetroFax issued the number, its agreement bars porting it out, so your Fax Pigeon plan gives you a new dedicated number. Porting in to Fax Pigeon is free on a paid plan, and MetroFax keeps the number working while most transfers finish in 5 to 15 business days. Download your stored faxes before you close the account. How to port a fax number before you cancel lays out the order.

The pricing page lists all six Fax Pigeon plans. MetroFax's sister brand is covered in Is eFax HIPAA compliant?, and online fax services that sign a BAA lists the services that do.

* Prices last verified October 7, 2026, at each provider's own site. Fax Pigeon is not affiliated with MetroFax, MyFax, eFax or Consensus Cloud Solutions.