Informational Overview • ACCA

Modern Fax Solutions
for Healthcare

An educational look at cloud-based fax alternatives for Alaska Center for Children and Adults — exploring options that improve reliability, compliance, and efficiency for large medical records transfers.

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Your Current Setup

The Situation Today

ACCA relies on traditional faxing through a Kyocera MFP connected to a POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) line. This setup works — but it faces real challenges when handling the volume and sensitivity of healthcare records.

300+
Pages per Job
Medical records transfers
POTS
Analog Phone Line
Legacy copper infrastructure
Kyocera
Office MFP
Built-in fax workflows
HIPAA
Compliance Required
Protected Health Information
What Happened

The Scan-to-SMB Problem

ACCA had a working Scan-to-SMB workflow that saved incoming faxes as PDFs to the server — until a Kyocera firmware update broke it. Here's the timeline of what happened and where things stand.

The Firmware Update

A firmware update on the Kyocera MFP caused the existing Scan-to-SMB workflow to intermittently fail. When it fails, the Kyocera falls back to printing the documents instead — sometimes hundreds of pages at a time.

The Temporary Fix

The printer vendor placed a Buffalo NAS on-site to serve as the SMB share target, working around the compatibility issue. This stabilized the workflow — but the vendor now needs the NAS back.

The Decision Point

The NAS is leaving. ACCA needs to decide: replace it with a permanent NAS and keep the SMB workflow, or use this moment to evaluate whether a cloud-based approach solves more problems long-term.

We Can Fix the NAS — But You Should Know the Trade-offs

Vicinity is happy to source and deploy a replacement NAS (e.g. a Synology with encryption at rest serving SMB) to restore the Scan-to-SMB workflow. However, as your technologist, we want to be transparent:

  • Scan-to-SMB workflows are notoriously fragile. SMB protocol changes, Windows security patches, and firmware updates routinely break these connections — often without warning.
  • Microsoft has been progressively tightening SMB security (disabling SMBv1, requiring signing, changing guest access defaults). Each change risks breaking MFP scan workflows that rely on older SMB behavior.
  • A NAS solves today's problem, but this same issue is likely to recur with future firmware or OS updates. It's a band-aid — a reasonable one, but a band-aid.
  • A cloud fax approach removes the SMB dependency entirely. Documents flow over email or API — protocols that are stable, well-maintained, and not subject to the same breakage pattern.
Synology DiskStation DS725+

Budgetary Estimate: NAS Option

Synology DiskStation DS725+ (2-bay, diskless) $520
Synology HAT3300+ 4TB NAS HDD × 2 $310
Vicinity labor (setup, config, encryption, SMB share) TBD
Hardware Total ~$830

2-bay NAS with RAID 1 mirroring (4 TB usable), hardware encryption at rest, Synology DSM for SMB share management. Prices from B&H Photo as of Feb 2026.

Both paths are valid. We can deploy a NAS quickly to keep things running while you evaluate cloud options — or you can move directly to a cloud solution. There's no wrong answer here, just different trade-offs in reliability and long-term maintenance.

The Challenges

Pain Points with Traditional Fax

Analog faxing has served healthcare for decades, but it comes with limitations that grow more painful at scale — especially with large medical records transfers.

Traditional POTS Fax Challenges

What You're Dealing With

  • Busy signals and failed transmissions on large jobs
  • 300+ page jobs can take hours and often fail mid-transfer
  • No automatic retry or confirmation tracking
  • POTS lines being phased out by carriers nationwide
  • Limited audit trail for HIPAA compliance documentation
Cloud Fax Advantages

What Cloud Fax Offers

  • No busy signals — documents queue and send automatically
  • Large jobs handled reliably with automatic retry
  • Real-time delivery confirmation and tracking
  • No dependency on aging copper phone infrastructure
  • Complete audit trail with timestamps and delivery logs
How It Works

What is Cloud Fax?

Cloud fax replaces the analog phone line with internet-based transmission. You keep your fax number and your workflows — just without the POTS line and its limitations.

Send via Internet

Documents are transmitted over your internet connection instead of a phone line — faster, more reliable, and no busy signals.

Email Integration

Send and receive faxes from your email. Incoming faxes arrive as secure PDF attachments in your inbox.

Encrypted Transit

Documents are encrypted during transmission and at rest, meeting HIPAA requirements for protecting PHI.

Keep Your Number

Your existing fax number stays the same. Whether through a direct port or call forwarding, external parties won't notice any difference.

What About Your Kyocera MFP?

This is a key question. MFP integration varies significantly by provider and is not universal. Documo offers a FaxBridge ATA device that replaces the POTS line with an internet connection, which may allow the Kyocera's built-in fax to continue working. Their native MFP connector app is Xerox-only. SRFax and others offer desktop print drivers (Windows PC, not the MFP itself). Most providers support a scan-to-email workflow: scan at the Kyocera, email to the fax service. Kyocera-specific integration would need to be confirmed directly with each vendor.

Number Portability in Alaska

Number porting can be problematic in Alaska, especially in the Fairbanks area, where legacy carrier infrastructure doesn't always support standard port requests. Here's how we handle it:

First, we attempt a standard number port — moving your existing fax number directly to the cloud fax provider. When this works, it's the simplest path.

If porting isn't possible, we place a Remote Call Forward (RCF) order with the local exchange carrier (LEC). This tells the carrier to automatically forward all calls to your original fax number to a new cloud-based number — still a 907 area code.

The result is the same either way — anyone who has your current fax number on file continues to dial it as usual. They'll never know the difference. The original number stays in place, and other providers or contacts who reference it are not disrupted.

Options to Consider

Cloud Fax Providers at a Glance

Here are four HIPAA-compliant cloud fax services worth evaluating. Each has different strengths depending on your priorities.

Documo

mFax Cloud Fax Platform
HIPAA BAA Available API
Key Features
  • Fax-to-email and email-to-fax workflows
  • FaxBridge ATA connects analog fax devices to internet
  • Print-to-Fax Windows desktop driver (not MFP-native)
  • EHR/EMR integration via REST API
  • Intelligent Document Processing (data extraction)
  • SOC 2, FIPS compliant infrastructure
  • Electronic signature integration
300+ Page Fax Capability
  • No documented per-fax page limit — constrained by file size only
  • Web portal: 500 MB total / 100 MB per attachment (up to 10 files)
  • Email-to-fax limited to 25 MB
  • 7 automatic retries on exponential schedule
Pricing
Consumption-based (pay per page)
Contact sales for healthcare pricing

iFax

HIPAA Online Fax Service
HIPAA Verified BAA Available API
Key Features
  • Seal of Compliance™ from Compliancy Group
  • Mobile and desktop apps for on-the-go access
  • Team inbox for collaborative fax management
  • Fax OCR and AI-powered document features
  • Integrates with Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Zapier
  • Broadcast fax for sending to multiple recipients
  • Number porting and virtual fax numbers
300+ Page Fax Capability
Pricing
Tiered plans available
Free trial • 5M+ customers • Professional plan required for 300+ pages

SRFax

Healthcare Fax Solutions
HIPAA + PHIPA BAA Available
Key Features
  • Purpose-built for healthcare (hospitals, clinics, physicians)
  • Optional PGP encryption for extra security
  • Secure downloader and printer driver
  • Unlimited authorized email addresses
  • Optional OCR functionality
  • API integration capabilities
  • Phone support (Canada-based agents)
300+ Page Fax Capability
  • No documented per-fax page limit — constrained by 50 MB file size
  • No limit on received pages (overage charges apply)
  • Partial resend on retry — resumes from last successful page
  • Configurable retries (up to 6 attempts)
Pricing
$12.60 – $551.55/mo
200 to 20,000 pages/mo • Overage $0.04–$0.05/pg • 15% off annual

eFax

HIPAA Healthcare Fax & Data Solutions
HIPAA BAA Available
Key Features
  • One of the largest and most established cloud fax providers
  • HIPAA-compliant fax with signed BAA
  • Fax from email, web portal, or mobile app
  • Secure document storage and archiving
  • International faxing to 200+ countries
  • Enterprise plans with admin controls
  • Well-known brand with broad healthcare adoption
300+ Page Fax Capability
Pricing
Custom healthcare pricing
Contact eFax Corporate for HIPAA plans
Quick Reference

Feature Comparison

A side-by-side look at what each provider offers across the features that matter most for ACCA.

Feature Documo iFax SRFax eFax
HIPAA Compliant Yes Verified Yes Yes
BAA Available Yes Yes Yes Yes
300+ Page Fax Likely (500 MB cap) Yes (Pro plan) Likely (50 MB cap) No (20 pg/doc cap)
Email-to-Fax
MFP / Printer Integration ATA bridge + Xerox-only MFP app Via email workflow Desktop driver only Via email workflow
API Access REST API API + Zapier API Enterprise only
OCR / Data Extraction AI-powered Fax OCR Optional Not listed
Mobile App Web-based iOS & Android Web-based iOS & Android
Healthcare Focus Strong Moderate Primary focus Dedicated plans
Number Porting Port or RCF* Port or RCF* Port or RCF* Port or RCF*
Pricing Model Per-page (usage) Tiered plans Tiered (200–20K pgs) Custom enterprise

* RCF = Remote Call Forward. In areas like Fairbanks where standard number porting may not be available, a Remote Call Forward order is placed with the local carrier to forward the original number to a new cloud-based number. Either way, the original fax number continues to work for anyone who dials it.

Things to Think About

Key Considerations for ACCA

Every organization's needs are different. Here are the factors that matter most when evaluating a cloud fax solution for your practice.

HIPAA & BAA

Any cloud fax provider handling PHI must sign a Business Associate Agreement. All four providers listed here offer BAAs, but you'll want to review the specific terms and coverage.

Large Job Handling

This is critical for ACCA's 300+ page jobs. eFax is not viable — it caps documents at 20 pages per file. iFax Professional explicitly supports unlimited pages. Documo and SRFax have no documented page limits but would need vendor confirmation. SRFax notably resumes retries from the last successful page.

Kyocera Compatibility

Your staff is used to scanning at the Kyocera MFP. None of these providers advertise native Kyocera integration. Documo's FaxBridge ATA may work with the built-in fax module, but this would need to be confirmed. Scan-to-email workflows are the most universal option.

Cost Structure

Consider your monthly fax volume. SRFax's tiered plans give clear per-page costs, while Documo's consumption model may flex better if your volume varies month to month.

POTS Line Sunset

Major carriers are actively retiring copper POTS lines. Cloud fax eliminates this dependency entirely, future-proofing your fax capability regardless of carrier decisions.

Staff Transition

Change management matters. The best solution is one your team will actually use. Providers with simpler interfaces and familiar workflows (email, MFP scanning) ease adoption.

Important Context

Understanding This Page

What This Is

  • An educational overview of cloud fax options
  • A starting point for evaluating what might work for ACCA
  • An honest look at pros and cons of each approach
  • Prepared by Vicinity as a resource — not a sales pitch

What This Isn't

  • A recommendation for a specific provider
  • A binding quote or proposal
  • An exhaustive list of every cloud fax service available
  • A suggestion that your current setup is broken
If You're Interested

Possible Next Steps

If any of this resonates, here's how we'd suggest thinking about the path forward — at whatever pace makes sense for your team.

1

Discuss Needs

Talk through your fax volume, workflows, and pain points

2

Demo Providers

Request demos or trials from the providers that interest you

3

Pilot Test

Run a small pilot alongside your existing setup to validate

4

Transition

Port your number (or set up remote call forwarding if porting isn't available) and migrate at a pace your team is comfortable with

Questions?

We're Happy to Help

Your Point of Contact

For questions, demos, or to explore any of these options further

Erika Baldiviez

erikab@vicinity.team

(907) 885-2599