Compliance
HIPAA mail, Certified Mail and USPS meter rules, handled
Some mail has rules attached. A medical practice cannot let a statement with one patient's information end up in another patient's envelope. A law office needs to prove a notice was mailed on one date and signed for on another. Every office that meters postage has to use a meter USPS still recognizes. None of this is exotic; it is a matter of using the right process and keeping the record it produces.
This section covers the three we are asked about most: protected health information under HIPAA, Certified Mail with electronic return receipt, and the USPS switch from IBI to IMI postage meters. Each page says what the requirement is, what equipment or software meets it, and what the paper trail looks like.
HIPAA mail
Protected health information, folded and sealed by machine.
View →Certified Mail & ERR
Electronic return receipts without the green cards.
View →
IMI postage meters
USPS retired IBI meters. Here is what that means.
View →Who this is for
- Healthcare: statements, claim forms and results that carry protected health information and must reach the right patient without staff reading them.
- Legal: demand letters, notices, contracts and filings that need dated proof of mailing and a signature on delivery.
- Financial and accounting: statements, tax documents and checks, sealed the moment they are printed, in envelopes or one-piece pressure-sealed mailers.
- Any office with a postage meter: it has to be IMI-compliant, and every FP PostBase is.
The paper trail
Each process leaves a record you can produce later. FlexStream keeps a job summary and datasheet for every run, and its secure email service records when each document was sent, delivered and opened. FlexVision time-stamps every piece that passes its camera and can keep an image of it. CertifiedMailStream stores electronic return receipts for ten years and prints USPS Form 3877 for the postmark. An IMI meter reports each transaction to USPS as it happens.
Questions we get asked
Does buying a folder inserter make us HIPAA compliant?
No product does that on its own. What a folder inserter does, with FlexStream telling it which pages belong together, is take the reading, folding and stuffing out of human hands and confirm that each set went into its own envelope. That closes the most common gap in a mailroom process. Your compliance officer decides what your policy requires; we build the process to match it.
What is an electronic return receipt?
The signed proof of delivery for Certified Mail, returned to you as a PDF instead of the green card coming back by post. It is stored online, for ten years with CertifiedMailStream and seven with Insert Ready Mail, and can be downloaded whenever you need it.
Is my postage meter still allowed?
If it is a PostBase, yes: every model is IMI-compliant. USPS decertified older IBI meters on June 30, 2024 and stopped accepting mail from them at the end of that year. If you are still running a meter of another make, read our IMI page or call us with the model number.
Related
- Folder insertersFP FPi 2300 to 5700 for office and departmental mail.
- FlexStream & FlexMailDocument automation for inserters, and variable-data printing for address printers.
- Postage metersFP PostBase meters for every volume, from a desk drawer to a mailroom.
- MailONEDesktop postage and account management for PostBase.
Tell us what you send and who regulates it
Healthcare, legal and financial mail each need a different paper trail. Describe the job and we will show you the process, the equipment and the records it produces, then quote it.