Why Faxing Is Critical for Secure Communication in the Insurance Industry

An increasingly complex regulatory landscape means insurance firms must tackle multiple overlapping privacy and security regulations. Companies must securely receive, share and store vast quantities of sensitive data to prevent revealing an individual’s identity without their consent.

Read on to discover why faxing is still important for insurance companies.

Why Secure Communication is Non-Negotiable in Insurance

Faxing is essential for secure communications in insurance, protecting critical data and documents at all times. The insurance industry deals with highly sensitive information, including data that may contain personal identifiable information (PII), protected health information (PHI) and customers’ financial details. Protecting this information is not optional; it’s a compliance and reputational requirement to keep it safe when stored on file and in transit.

The Compliance-Heavy Landscape of the Insurance Industry

However, those requirements can be made more challenging by the rules and regulations that insurance firms are bound by. For example, insurance firms’ activities are regulated by strict laws like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which protects health insurance data, and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), which safeguards financial information, and the industry-specific National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Model Security Law and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS). They may also be bound by state-specific laws like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), New York SHIELD and NAIC’s Model Security Law, and the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) if they have European customers.

Suffering data breaches due to failing to comply with these stringent regulations can have severe consequences, including:

• Fines, lawsuits and and potentially criminal charges.
• A loss of customer trust.
• Reputational damage that could be difficult to rebuild.

Organizations must understand what data they collect and process, and the specific regulations that apply to them. Sharing sensitive data puts security and compliance at risk if malicious actors intercept messages sent via email or social messaging tools. However, online faxing provides insurance firms with a more secure alternative. 

HIPAA compliant faxing for insurance companies protects sensitive information using encryption, which ensures a message can only be read by the intended recipient, even if an unauthorized individual manages to intercept it.

Why Faxing Remains a Trusted Communication Method for Insurance Agencies

Sharing sensitive information, such as PHI and PII, via email or social messaging tools can leave insurance firms vulnerable to security risks like data theft, phishing and spam. So they need an alternative that’s secure by design and automatically protects their sensitive data. 

Online faxing provides a wide range of benefits for insurance firms, including:

Boost Security and Compliance

Online faxing provides enterprise-grade end-to-end encryption, which ensures secure communication in insurance. Digital faxing services meet the relevant compliance requirements of regulations like GLBA, HIPAA and PCI-DSS, and log every sent and received fax message for auditing purposes. Online faxing also allows insurance firms to take control of which individuals have access to fax messages and customer data and helps them better monitor access and permission rights.

Enhanced Productivity

Online faxing makes it easy for insurance firm employees to send and receive faxes at any time and on any device. It removes the need for people to rely on physical fax machines, which are prone to time-consuming errors like paper jams or running out of paper, ink and toner. Instead, users can easily send and receive faxes via an online faxing service’s web browser and mobile app or integrated third-party tools.

Cost-Saving

Online faxing eliminates the costs associated with traditional faxing. It removes the need to purchase fax machines, keep them stocked up with office supplies like paper, ink and toner and shell out for costly equipment maintenance. Taking faxing online also reduces the time employees spend waiting for faxes, freeing up employees to be more efficient and spend more time on tasks that add business value.

Better Customer Experiences

In addition to benefiting insurance firms and their agents, online faxing in insurance enhances their customer experience. Insurance agents can send and receive documents more quickly, avoiding errors, downtime between messages and gradually speed up the process of handling customer queries. Furthermore, customers no longer require access to a fax machine, which ensures smoother interactions and increased customer satisfaction.

Common Use Cases of Faxing in Insurance Companies

Insurance companies use online faxing in various situations, from customer inquiries to submitting legal documentation. Fax compliance insurance use cases include: 

Claims Submissions

Insurance agents often use faxing to carry out claims submissions on behalf of clients. This process includes gathering and verifying data from multiple sources, including images of damaged items, medical information and police reports to investigate and process claims. 

Medical Exchanges

Online faxing enables insurance agents to efficiently communicate with healthcare providers regarding medical claims. It allows them to quickly exchange details, such as claim forms and medical reports, with healthcare professionals to verify a patient’s claim.

Sharing Financial Information

Insurance agents can use fax to securely transmit documents containing financial details, submit international transactions and request customer signatures.

Legal Notices

Communication between lawyers, courtroom staff and insurers can be slow and time-consuming. But online faxing speeds up the process, allowing all parties to easily share and sign legal documentation.

Policy Underwriting

Digital faxing solutions are crucial to making policy underwriting more efficient. Insurance firms can securely and quickly share confidential information with brokers and customers.

How Modern Cloud Faxing Enhances Security and Efficiency

Modern faxing solutions have brought the security and efficiency of traditional faxing, which is heavily relied on by highly-regulated industries like the insurance sector, into the world of digital communication. Cloud-based faxing enables insurance firms to send and receive faxes anytime, anywhere and on any device. As a result, it combines old-school security with the modern convenience of online messaging.

Cloud faxing benefits insurance firms with solutions like:

Secure Cloud Storage

Online faxing solutions provide secure cloud storage for insurance firms to store all their sent and received fax messages. Safe storage is crucial for auditing purposes and helping insurance agents quickly find and share data with customers, law firms, medical professionals and law enforcement.

Regulatory Compliance

Online faxing services make it easier for insurance professionals to securely send and receive fax messages anytime, ensuring they comply with necessary data privacy and security regulations. They boost compliance with regulations like HIPAA and Systems and Organization Controls 2 (SOC2), empowering employees to share sensitive data without concerns around legal repercussions.

Platform Integration

Online faxing solutions are easily integrated with existing technology infrastructure, such as customer relationship management systems (CRMs), document management platforms and email systems. This helps insurance companies to streamline workflow efficiency, improve employee productivity and better manage the flow of information across the organization.

Mobile Faxing

A significant hindrance of traditional faxing was that employees had to go into the office to share sensitive documents. Online faxing solutions provide mobile apps that allow users to send and receive faxes on any device at any time. Now, entire teams can work remotely and better serve the needs of their customers. 

eFax: The Secure and Compliant Faxing Solution for Insurance Professionals

eFax provides a complete secure communication in insurance solution that helps users send and receive sensitive data whenever and wherever they need to. The benefits of eFax for fax compliance insurance include:

Regulatory Compliance: eFax was designed to meet the most stringent rules and standards set out by regulations like HIPAA and GLBA. The online faxing service guarantees the highest protection of insurance firms’ client data and business communications.

Enterprise Security: Security is at the forefront of the eFax solution, providing enterprise-grade encryption, authentication and access control to protect sensitive insurance information. 

Cost Reduction: eFax removes the need to purchase and maintain physical fax machines and keep them stocked with office supplies. It also provides flexible, transparent plans free of hidden fees or unexpected charges, allowing insurance firms to enjoy predictable cost structures.

Unlimited Cloud Storage: With eFax, insurance firms can store unlimited amounts of sent and received faxes in the cloud. The system enables agents to quickly discover the information they need to deal with claims as efficiently as possible.

Tech Interoperability: eFax is easy to integrate with insurance firms’ existing tech stacks, including CRMs, email systems and collaboration tools. This makes it easy for agents to securely share sensitive data with clients and colleagues.

Employee Productivity: eFax enhances collaboration and productivity with near-instant data sharing, meaning no more long queues to send a fax. The solution enables insurance agents to send and receive fax messages and review, sign and respond to claims regardless of their location.

FAQs Around Faxing for Insurance Industry

What types of insurance documents are typically faxed?

Insurance firms typically share documents like claims forms, policy declarations, medical notes and police reports via fax. These documents are used to quickly assess and verify claims.

How does faxing help insurance companies stay compliant with regulations like HIPAA and GLBA?

Faxing in insurance is crucial to compliance with regulations like HIPAA and GLBA by protecting sensitive data with security tools like encryption, access controls and authentication. 

Can faxing be integrated into digital workflows for insurance agencies?

Yes, fax compliance insurance can be integrated into companies’ existing tech stacks, including tools like CRMs, email systems and other collaboration platforms. 

Is mobile faxing secure enough for insurance operations?

Yes, messages sent via mobile faxing are protected by enterprise-grade encryption. This ensures HIPAA compliant faxing for insurance companies.

How can faxing increase efficiency in insurance claim processing?

Online faxing enables insurance firms to speed up claims processing, enabling agents to send and receive faxes at any time and on any device. In addition to improving secure communication in insurance, online faxing services help employees be more productive and efficient.