Sending medical reports by fax

Q: After I see a patient who's been referred to me, I fax my report back to the referring physician. Is there anything wrong with that?

A: There's nothing illegal about faxing reports between physician's offices. But the law does require you to take appropriate precautions to safeguard protected health information. So call those offices to which you plan to fax reports on a regular basis to confirm that they have policies in place to protect patient confidentiality.