Federal Mandate Aims to Eliminate Medical Faxes by 2028

Doctors and health IT experts say the 2-year timeline is ambitious and could create more problems than it solves.

Mar. 30, 2026 at 12:19pm

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The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has finalized plans to phase out fax machines and snail mail from medical offices over the next 2 years, aiming to save taxpayers an estimated $782 million annually. However, physicians who study medical office technology warn that getting rid of faxes quickly is a big ask, as the fax machine remains the primary means of securely transferring clinical information between healthcare providers.

Why it matters

The continued reliance on fax machines in healthcare highlights the industry's struggle to modernize its communication systems. While faxing is widely seen as an outdated and inefficient technology, it persists due to the challenges of implementing new electronic systems that can reliably and securely exchange patient data across different healthcare organizations and electronic health record (EHR) platforms.

The details

A single patient visit can generate multiple incoming faxes - lab results, specialist notes, insurance denials, prior authorization requests - that arrive in unpredictable formats and timeframes, requiring manual processing by staff. This fax-handling workload can consume hours of time per day, even in smaller medical practices. The fax machine also fails at inopportune moments, leading to missing information that can impact patient care. One healthcare system studied receives up to 3,000 faxes per week, with an employee dedicated solely to opening, reading, renaming, and storing the faxed documents.

  • The new CMS regulations require compliance by May 28, 2028.
  • The 2-year timeline for implementation is considered 'really quick' and 'ambitious' by healthcare IT experts.

The players

N. Lance Downing, MD

An internal medicine and clinical informatics physician, and clinical assistant professor at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Mehmet Oz, MD

The administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

Seppo Rinne, MD

An associate professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine.

Ted Melnick, MD

An associate professor of emergency medicine and biostatistics at Yale School of Medicine, who studies electronic health records and clinician workflow.

Shawn Ong, MD

An assistant clinical professor of general internal medicine and biomedical informatics at Yale School of Medicine.

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What they’re saying

“The fax machine is medicine's broken window. Everyone sees it, knows it shouldn't be there, and has learned to walk past it.”

— N. Lance Downing, MD, Internal medicine and clinical informatics physician

“The 1980s called, and they want their fax machines back.”

— Mehmet Oz, MD, Administrator, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)

“Fax is the primary means by which clinical information is transferred from one institution to another, unless those two institutions share the same electronic health record (EHR).”

— Seppo Rinne, MD, Associate professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine

“When getting outside data is too burdensome, clinicians may not pursue it. That has real implications for decision-making and patient safety.”

— Ted Melnick, MD, Associate professor of emergency medicine and biostatistics

“Two years is really quick. It's ambitious. I would love to see it happen, but I can imagine it will require a heavy lift from IT teams, not just in the initial build and implementation and all the testing, but in the subsequent maintenance.”

— Shawn Ong, MD, Assistant clinical professor of general internal medicine and biomedical informatics

What’s next

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The takeaway

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