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A fax machine can be HIPAA compliant, with your personal info just sitting in the output tray for anyone to take.

(and that is how many doctors transfer your info around)

HIPAA doesn't mean anything in reality, it is just a false sense of security.

HIPAA means a little more than that. I spent years as a pharmacy technician and can attest to all the shredding, blacking out of names, etc. Disclosing PHI (Personal Health Information) without a reasonable need for it was a very serious offense. HIPAA also forces providers to give you access to all of the PHI related to you that they maintain. Obviously HIPAA doesn't solve patient privacy entirely, as in your fax tray example, but I like to think it does help.

I think regardless of the actual security HIPAA brings, it's a very good thing so that interesting services like remote psychotherapy can be performed without doctors risking themselves from a regulatory perspective.

None of that messy actually interacting with a human being in person eh?

Well, more like none of that messy traveling, possibly across the country (or countries) if, say, you're on a trip and want to have a session with a therapist you've had for years.

For what it's worth, I imagine that there are some people that have particular social aversions that might benefit from a remote session.

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