Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Best Fax options ?

Hello all !

New AC user here ! Would anyone be able to tell me the best FAX software program to use with AC ?

My vote is Updox.

I vote for Updox as well.

Thanks !

In the interest of fairness, you will hear some recommend Paperport and other approaches, but I agree with the above that UpDox is far and away the best.

It also depends on volume. $10/500 pages sending and receiving, I believe. We received about 900 faxes (underestimation) for the month of May, these ranged from 1-51 pages. We used at minimum 900 pages right there (more likely 2000+ pages) just for receiving. This is not including sending. Buying 5 or 6 500 Fax Packs per month isn't very economical for us. We used to print all of these for years and it was getting ridiculous, a ream of paper used in days or less. As of April, I have them come in as PDFs, a nice feature of the Mainpine IQ Express modem. They come in a folder, then the staff imports them to Amazing Charts or moves it a folder. Or you use could SharePoint, but our Staff is reluctant to use new tech :P.

Summary: It all depends on volume. If you receive lots of faxes, you may want to opt for a high quality fax modem in place of UpDox. I use the Mainpine IQ express 1 Port (one of the few modems that I work well with SBS 2008 and SBS 2011). I say we get maybe 3-5 failed for every 1000 faxes.

Updox charges a base fee for 3 users, plus a charge for faxes over 500 a month. They charge nothing for emails. It is simple to configure a conversion program (we use Fax Talk; others use Snappy Fax) to automatically convert all of the incoming faxes to emails. You never even know this is happening...until you get your monthly bill from Updox which shows roughly zero faxes for the month.
The Updox people are fine with this.
Your 2000+ faxes each month would still be covered by your base monthly rate.

I don't see how this is possible unless you have a dedicated fax line. Faxes come in on a regular phone line, then it imports these faxes that come in on a regular phone line and then are uploaded into Updox. In this case, UpDox is essentially a management interface, right?

I had setup a routing rule that sent all faxes to the staff email, but they preferred having it in a folder.

Yes, I have a dedicated fax line. Not sure if you could set it up without one.
When you are in AC, the emails look like (and are viewed like) faxes; it is not like you are seeing them in an email program.

For me, its an easy decision:
Dedicated fax line (AT&T Business) = $65/month
Updox with 2000 faxes a month = $65/month (includes document editing and AC integration)


Updox can electronically markup the received document, & then refax and file it into a designated AC folder with one click. Plus you get a Patient Portal.

Just a bit confused. Are you paying AT&T and Updox? I ported my fax line over to Updox and only pay them for their service. We get billed about 1500 pages/month ($55/mo). How do I get Snappy Fax to convert to email?

As an aside, my patients love the patient portal!!!!! I am working on the website provided to us by Updox to get more forms displayed. My dream would be for Updox to have access to the AC schedule so that the patients could schedule their appts on-line. I am not interested in adding a separate scheduling website (AppointmentQuest) if I could keep it all in-house w/ Updox and AC.

No, just comparing the cost of Updox and a fax line.

One question of updox. Do I have to keep my current fax line. I am thinking about updox but I don't want to change the fax number.

Generally you can keep the same number.

I use Updox. The office has had the same fax # for years and all we did was forward our fax line to our new Updox number.

I like Updox because you can file things directly into AC into custom categories ie Radiology, Old Records, Referrals, Authorizations etc.

You can also use Updox from just about any internet connected computer and file things into AC.

I have been using paperport 9 connected over the local network to a brother MFC-8860DN all in one fax for several years. It worked ok, but I found myself printing out faxes, having the staff manually fax them, then scanning them back into amazing charts (which was tedious). I just didn't find the integration very seamless. The markup function on the paperport software wasn't great.

This past weekend, at ACUC, I signed up for updox and so far I am impressed.

Some notes:
1) my current hard wired fax number was not portable, so updox issued me a toll free fax number. I was under the mistaken impression that a toll free fax number cost extra over a toll number. It doesn't. It's the same first 500 pages included in the $30 monthly fee, then 4 cents a page, or additional "fax pack" 500 pages for $10 (2 cents a page) .

2) I can have my Brother fax machine forward to the toll free number, however currently I am just manually saving the faxes received in paperport to the updox import folder which automatically scoops things up into updox. I just do this a few times a day and it takes less than a minute each. However, I will probably just go with the forward feature, but I will wait to see how many fax pages I consume a month. It will probably be well worth the extra $10 or $20. I could go with the snappy fax forward to email solution, but that is not HIPPA compliant (not that the HIPPA police are on high alert for this activity - they have bigger fish to fry).

3) The updox annotations are really slick and uploading into amazing charts is very easy.

4) I have already shared a few radiology reports with patients through the portal (included/ no extra charge) - nice.

5) I wish I could just dump the old hard wired fax line all together, but we still occasionally would like to send a manual fax. Plus the fax line is used as a call out line for my burglar alarm and refrigerator temperature alarms. And last but not least, there are probably hundreds of fax senders with my current fax # scribbled on a fax list on the wall and/or programmed into speed dial buttons. It would be a PAIN to change our fax number unless we absolutely have too.

I am a huge fan of UPDOX!!! The ability to access my faxes and my patients' phone numbers from off-site is just the tip of my joy. We have been actively using the patient portal with excellent results. The patients can receive receipts, results, and messages all through a protected system. The more advanced patients are now sending us messages through the portal for referral/renewal/appointment requests. It frees up the phones for the other patients and allows communication of patients who are in their work environment and do not want co-workers to overhear their conversations with the doctor. Today we even received a photo of a rash on a patient recently admitted to Hospice. This was easily imported into her chart in AC.

My wish is that Updox could get access to the AC schedule and allow the patients to schedule appointments on-line. I spoke to Updox at the ACUC and they feel they can make it happen, as long as AC gives the OK. Anyone else interested?

Updox is a big help around here. I've just signed up with Appointment Quest but would be delighted to try any internet scheduling program the Updox people come up with. Their support is superb.

I guess I'm too cheap. My Business DSL internet/phone package came with a dedicated fax line so that is essentially "free". So Brother/Paperport work fine for free. Updox is somewhere between $35-65/month, i.e. $420-780/year. Not much but my fax system isn't overwhelming the office.

One day, maybe I'll actually buy a good fax machine that faxes directly to .pdf files instead of .tif files like Brother but converting them doesn't take that much effort. That's really the big pain. But I've grown addicted/dependent on the Brother e-fax machine/address book.

Updox does look great and I'm sure a lot easier.

I'm with Scalpel on this one. Flat rate for the line. Part of a bundle, gets us some nice savings. I get direct to PDF and Adobe Reader even has built in mark up tools. We also have paperport, but no one uses it.

I just have the Brother MFC as above. It has a fax-to-PC option and all the faxes just come into a folder. We also use a Fujitsu Scan Snap so have Adobe Acrobat installed (the complete version came with it for no extra charge). You can right-click the fax to convert it to a .pdf, and just drag it onto the patient chart. I don't see what all the trouble is...

You are referring only to the fax part of the picture. Updox provides a fax but also has a patient portal. There are no separate charges for the portal and that is what provides the most pt satisfaction. It widely expands communication ability and reduces phone calls and use of paper. You do not realize how many copies of reports/labs you are processing until the day you stop buying cases of paper. Not to mention that the future of this whole EMR mandate is that the patients must have access to their records. Here the problem is already addressed. I already can print a summary of the visit to the Updox printer and then send it to the portal and the patient has access to it.

I too am using a Brother fax, similar to Sandeep, but then AT&T came up with a unified messaging system that they converted my voicemail into. It also handles faxes and they are automatically converted to PDF.

While my system seems a little clunky,it is very efficient.

You go to the next message screen click on open the PDF and it opens in adobe acrobat (I have a scan snap which included full Acrobat) I can mark it up there (usually if I want to mark it up I go to paperport, it is easier to mark up there). If it is just a lab, I print it (cute PDF) to a shared folder for my receptionist. While I can extract individual pages in acrobat, it is easier to print the page or 2 pages of labs in cutePDF than use Adobe.

If it is a form that I have signed (in Paperport) I will then print to fax from the Brother and fax it straight out.

I find it interesting that the third party apps like Paperport and CutePDF have found the correct niches that Adobe has left wide open.

While this sounds clunky, it moves quite quickly. I can do about 20 faxes reviewed, signed and put into the correct place in about 15 minutes.

Voice messages are played over the computer and she listens to them with headphones. I can select to only see faxes. The system includes email (I now have another email account) and I can send it from one office to the other easily.

Oh yeah, there is NO additional charge from what I was paying for voicemail (~$8/mo) so can I say it is FREE? (Not quite but next best thing, no more cost)

AT&T must charge for use of the line. Verizon charged me per call, whether phone or fax.

And what do you do for a patient portal?

Yes, but these were charges we already had been incurring. We have 2 lines and a fax line. The cost for the fax line was small, $10-15 after all the fees. While AT&T does charge by the call, (inTRA state is more expensive than inTER state in IL)this is only for outgoing, not incoming and that is the same whether it is 2 lines or 3

This line can now be used for outgoing calls, because we never have to pick it up and faxes are automatically routed (they do get a brief voicemail on the fax for about 3 seconds and then it picks up)

The addition of another line was worth the continued cost. We could have changed our fax number to our rollover number but you really need a line you don't answer. If you pick up the phone, the fax will not connect. Besides, we do not have to change all of our information sheets with a "new" fax number.

We do not have a patient portal. Many of my parents do not have regular internet service. It might be a good thing to have one, but I am in no hurry.

I don't knock Updox. A lot of people here are very happy with it. Can't be that bad. But then, I don't use it so I can't comment.

When you factor the lack of cost for a fax line Updox is not really all that much. I have been very happy with FREE* solutions that work well. *No additional cost being free, not quite true but ....

This is simply another way to skin the FAX option. The "Brother" way worked well before, this one works well now.

Also it is easier to check faxes from either office. Before, we had to log in with logmein. Now we can check messages and faxes easily.

We actually use TimeWarner digital phone. Unlimited calling in the US, flat rate. Discounted too because we have 4 lines as well as internet plan with them.

What's your cost for paper? The savings in paper alone will pay for our monthly Updox fee. And since we are keeping a dedicated fax machine that saves faxes as pdf files, which are then imported into Updox, we won't use Updox to send/receive faxes keeping our Updox cost at the absolute minimum.

NeuroDawg has that exactly right! If you could calculate the actual cost of UpDox, including the supplies dollars saved, you would find that it is extremely small. And if you factor in money for time savings (e.g. a very rough estimate of an hour a week of staff time) then you come out ahead. That doesn't include the benefit of increased staff satisfaction.

But with the Brother fax and Paperport we don't do paper either. So there are no real savings. Staff time is fairly minimal.

I'm not knocking Updox, I haven't used it. There are things like a patient portal that have no comparison.

But cost savings on supplies is not an advantage over Brother/Paperport.

(While I use hybrid combinations of systems, I have certainly used Brother/Paperport enough to reply to this)

I echo Wendell. For the number of faxes I receive daily, Updox cannot compete with Paperport as far as price....Paperport was free. And, like Wendell, I like free.

I still don't understand how Paperport is free. Is your fax line free?

Paperport is "free" with the purchase of Brother Fax machine. Fax line is not free (about $10/mo) but that has been forever and there would be a cost to change all the stationary over to a "virtual fax."

UpDox works quite well for us, other than the cost. We could decrease the number of incoming faxes by asking the hospital to send us all Dictated and lab reports to a UpDox folder, these are not counted for billing purposes. The UpDox connector at times shuts down for no particular reason and can be a bit annoyoing

My Brother shares it's fax line with my credit card reader so it was a necessary expense anyway.

I don't use paper. The only paper in my office is a paper superbill and the new patients fill out a history intake form. My biller/coder has to print things off sometimes as well.

My set-up is very similar to Leslie's and it works great. I wish the Brother would have the incoming fax in .pdf format like most fax machines but I'm sure that has to do with a deal with Paperport. If it did that, it would be perfect.

My fax line is my credit card machine line as well so I have to have it. It's almost free with my bundled internet/phone.

for us it is the combination of paperport and SnappyFax Server that makes almost everything paperless. We love the solution.

Our Mainpine Fax Modem has that. We have Paperport but don't use it. It was bundled with our document scanners. I find Paperport to be a bit slow on our 5/6 year old P4 machines. But then again, that's not surprising. If you get a high amount of faxes and are looking for a compatible fax modem for SBS 2008/Server 2008, check out the mainpine IQ express. It blows our previos US Robotics modem out of the water.

Sandeep

The Mainpine Fax modem looks really expensive. At $400 it better be good compared to $40 modems.

- srini

In my opinion, it definitely was. Like I said earlier, we had a US Robotics Fax modem. Received complaints daily about faxes not being received or faxes not being sent or duplicate faxes being sent. Failure rate was around 30%, incompatible with a lot of newer machines. It was pricey, but given we've eliminated paper and actually are receiving faxes steadily. Failure rate is 1% or less, about 3 every 1000. The Mainpine Driver has direct to PDF feature built in as well. No external software necessary. I would definitely make the purchase again.

What is the print quality like after converted to a pdf with the Brother MFC and paperport? We have paperport currently and have tried to convert faxes from the tif format (using the Windows fax built in software) and the quality is horrible, almost unreadable, in fact. If we leave them as tif and print them, they look great. After converting them, however, not so much.