Healthcare Fax Statistics for 2026

The sending and receiving tables describe different parts of the same handoff. For sending, 40% reported using mail or fax often and another 34% sometimes. For receiving, 35% reported using it often and another 46% sometimes. Adding the rounded frequency categories gives approximately 74% for sending and 81% for receiving at least sometimes.

The unit is the hospital. One hospital can report several channels because a partner may accept a record through an electronic health record network while another office asks for fax or mail. The figures cover summaries of care sent outside a hospital system. They leave out the volume of documents, the frequency of fax by itself and the methods used for every other type of paperwork.

The reported share often using mail or fax to send outside records was 40% in 2018, 35% in the survey fielded in 2021, 30% in 2023 and 40% in 2025. The latest increase was 10 percentage points from the 2023 reading, and the first and last observations are equal. The intermediate readings matter because a comparison of only the endpoints would miss the dip.

On the receiving side, frequent use moved from 47% in 2018 to 42% in 2021 and 35% in both 2023 and 2025. The decline was 12 percentage points over the period. By 2025, sending and receiving had moved in different directions relative to 2023. The published percentages describe survey estimates across waves. They do not identify which individual hospitals changed their practices.

In 2025, 59% of hospitals often received outside summaries of care through an EHR vendor network. National cross-vendor networks reached 54%, and regional or local health information exchange networks reached 53%. Direct messaging through a health information service provider was at 38%, followed by mail or fax at 35%.

The 24-point gap between EHR vendor networks and mail or fax reflects how often hospitals said they used each method. The values overlap and should not be added into a market-share total. They also provide no reason to rank the channels for a specific document. The correct destination and accepted method still come from the office receiving the packet.

In a separate ASTP measure, 76% of hospitals participated in all four electronic exchange domains in 2025. Those activities are sending, receiving, finding and integrating outside information. In the same release, 96% engaged in electronic sending and 93% in receiving. Finding reached 94%, while integrating reached 79%.

The all-four measure was 23% in 2014 and 70% in 2023. Together, the measures describe a mixed environment. Hospitals can add a network for one partner or clinical workflow while keeping another channel available for a different recipient. The published totals do not show how many hospitals used both methods for the same patient or document.

A separate 2021 data brief reported that 67% of hospitals often or sometimes sent summaries of care using eFax through an EHR, while 62% received them that way. That question names a specific implementation. It describes fax initiated or received through an electronic health record system.

Keep those 2021 figures separate from the 2025 mail-or-fax estimates. The year, wording and scope differ, and the eFax item combines two frequency responses. You can use the eFax figures to see that some hospitals used fax within an EHR workflow. You cannot connect the two estimates into a single fax adoption trend.

Start with the destination. Ask the records office which channel it accepts for your request, which form it wants and how it will return the records. If the office accepts fax, get the number for the right department from its own instructions or confirm it with staff. A fax number listed for a different service may reach the same organization without reaching the right team.

Gather the signed request and any pages the office specifically asks for. In the final PDF, check signatures, dates, identifiers and page order at a readable size. Use the recipient’s directions for any cover page. Keep a copy of what you sent and follow the office’s instructions for acknowledgment. A recorded delivery event tells you about the transmission. The recipient can tell you when the request was processed.

Teams handling patient records should follow their organization’s approved channels, access rules and retention procedures. The national survey is useful for understanding channel adoption. It gives no approval for a particular product, account or workflow to handle patient information.

• Guide to faxing a medical records request
• How to review a fax PDF before sending

This report reads ASTP Quick Stat #70 for methods used to send and receive summaries of care and Quick Stat #66 for participation in four exchange domains. The hospital population is U.S. non-federal acute care hospitals. The 2025 AHA IT survey included 2,351 responding hospitals. The historical method table lists 2021 as the fielding year for its 2020 survey.

The report uses the published whole percentages and subtracts them when giving percentage-point changes. It labels sums of rounded frequency categories as approximate. The method bars use the often response only. The lines connect selected survey observations, including uneven intervals, with no estimates between the plotted years.

The charts describe methods and reported participation. They cannot establish a count of faxes, a fax-only adoption rate, the cause of a change or the success rate of a specific recipient’s workflow. For an individual handoff, rely on that recipient’s current instructions.