> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.voxhealth.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Fax & email

> The inbound document inbox.

Documents that arrive at your practice by fax or email land here: referrals, records requests, completed forms, insurance correspondence.

**Front Desk → Fax & Email.** Available when the `REFERRALS` feature is enabled.

## What happens to an inbound document

<Steps>
  <Step title="It arrives">
    A fax to your practice fax number, or an email to your intake address. The document is stored as it arrived. The original is never modified.
  </Step>

  <Step title="It is read">
    Faxes are scanned images, so they are put through OCR. Emails have their attachments extracted.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Referrals are extracted">
    If the document is a referral, the patient details, referring practice and provider, reason, and any codes are pulled out and a referral record is created. See [Referrals](/front-desk/referrals).
  </Step>

  <Step title="It waits in the inbox">
    Everything is here regardless of what was extracted, so a document the system did not recognize is still visible rather than silently dropped.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Note>
  Extraction takes a few moments after arrival. A document that appears in the inbox with nothing extracted yet is normal; one that still has nothing after a few minutes is worth opening.
</Note>

## Working the inbox

Open a document to see the original alongside whatever was extracted from it. Duplicates of a document you already received are recognized and grouped rather than creating a second referral.

Documents that are not referrals stay here as a searchable record. This is your fax archive.

## Setting it up

Your practice gets a fax number and an intake email address during onboarding. Point your existing fax line at the VoxHealth number, or publish the new one to referring practices.

<Tip>
  Most inbound referrals arrive by **email**, not fax. A referring office's system emails a PDF. Make sure the intake email address is the one you actually give out.
</Tip>

## Related

* [Referrals](/front-desk/referrals): what gets built out of these documents
* [Reports](/reports/overview): the Referrals report, for volume and sources