Confidential & Medical Deliveries

Sealed packages, reference-only bookings, a driver who sees only the addresses and the signature — and a written policy your compliance team can read. Same day across Washington DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia.

Read how it works

Some packages should be seen by one person: the one who opens them. Signed originals, sealed court filings, lab specimens, prescriptions, records, bank instruments, personnel files. We built our confidential handling for those runs. This page says exactly what we do, what we ask of you, and what we deliberately never take into our systems — so that a law firm, a clinic or a bank can decide in five minutes whether we fit.

What we are

DC Courier Services is a courier. We carry your sealed package from your door to the recipient’s door and bring back proof that it arrived. We do not open, read, copy or photograph what is inside. In the language of the federal health-privacy rules we act as a conduit — the same role as the postal service or a parcel carrier — and we keep our systems built that way on purpose: the less we hold, the less there is to protect. We describe our handling as HIPAA-aware. We do not claim to be “HIPAA certified,” because no courier can be; the agency that enforces HIPAA says it certifies no one.

What we need from you — and nothing more

We need

Pickup and drop-off addresses.
A contact name and phone number at each end — the office or department contact, not a patient or a case party.
Your reference number (a case number, requisition number or your own file reference), so both sides can match the delivery to the file.
The package type — "sealed envelope," "cooler, 1 unit" — and any handling note that does not describe the contents.
Who may sign for it, if not anyone at the desk.

We never need — keep it out of the booking

Patient names, dates of birth, medical record numbers, diagnoses or test names.
Case parties' names, account numbers, card numbers, Social Security numbers.
Anything that describes what the documents say.

If something like this is typed into our booking form by mistake, the form warns you before you send it, and our dispatcher never adds it to the driver’s task.

What happens on our side

Marked on every task.

Every confidential order carries one line on the driver's task, in our dispatch email and in our admin system: CONFIDENTIAL — sealed package, do not open, signature required.

You confirm, we hold you to it.

When you tick "Confidential delivery," you confirm the package is sealed and the booking describes it by reference only. That confirmation is recorded with the order.

Bonded, trained drivers.

Our drivers are bonded and background-checked and trained to carry sealed packages without opening or photographing them. Proof-of-delivery photos show the package at a door or a desk, never an open document.

Private recipients, seen by two people.

If the receiver is a private individual — a patient at home, a client at a residence — tell us when you book. Their name, phone and email are shown only to the dispatcher and the assigned driver, kept out of emails and lists, never added to our customer database, and removed from our records 90 days after delivery. Our dispatch platform sends them no automatic emails.

A handoff record for every run.

Pickup time and package count, each handoff, delivery time and the name of the person who signed. Inside our system, opening a private recipient's full details is itself logged.

Same-day word if anything goes wrong.

A lost, delayed or misdelivered package is reported to you by phone the same day and noted on the order.

Sealed court filings

Courts set their own rules for paper filed under seal: the DC Superior Court takes sealed materials that are not e-filed at the clerk’s office during business hours and prohibits filing at the security desk; the U.S. District Court for DC requires a motion to seal and a sealed envelope marked DOCUMENT UNDER SEAL, filed in the Clerk’s Office between 9 and 4. You prepare the envelope the court’s way; we deliver it to the clerk’s counter inside the window and bring back the stamped copy. Details, including the Supreme Court’s delivery rules, are in our article on confidential courier service in Washington DC. For routine filings see legal and court filing courier.

Medical runs

Specimens travel in the lab’s own kit — a closed, leakproof, labelled container inside a rigid outer box, the way the federal transport rules and OSHA’s bloodborne pathogens standard describe — and we keep them upright, sealed and at temperature: cold packs, an insulated carrier, the cabin rather than the trunk. Prescriptions travel sealed with the pharmacist’s label and notice inside. What “HIPAA-compliant courier” really means, and why we say HIPAA-aware instead, is explained in our HIPAA article; deliveries to patients at home are covered in delivering to patients at home. Services: medical courier, STAT medical courier, pharmacy courier, temperature-controlled delivery.

For compliance teams

Because we never take patient or case information into our systems, we operate as a conduit rather than a business associate, and we do not sign Business Associate Agreements; most carriers work the same way. If your team needs something in writing, we sign a short courier handling attestation confirming the practices on this page, we answer vendor security questionnaires with specifics, and we are happy to show how the confidential flag works in our system on a call. We sign reasonable non-disclosure agreements.

Request the handling attestation

FAQ

What does "confidential delivery" change about a normal run?+

Three things: the package is sealed and nobody on our side opens it; the booking describes it by reference, not by contents or the people it concerns; and we limit who can see the delivery details and for how long. The driver sees addresses, your reference and the signature, and every handoff is logged.

Who sees the recipient's name?+

For a standard confidential delivery, the dispatcher, the assigned driver and the people who need it for billing and proof of delivery. If you mark the receiver as a private individual, the name, phone and email are visible only on the dispatcher's order page and the driver's task, kept out of emails and lists, and removed from our records 90 days after delivery.

Are you HIPAA compliant?+

We are a conduit under HIPAA — we carry sealed packages and keep patient information out of our systems — and we describe our handling as HIPAA-aware. The agency that enforces HIPAA does not certify any person or product as HIPAA compliant, so we do not use that phrase. Our article explains the conduit rule and the questions worth asking any medical courier.

Will you sign a Business Associate Agreement?+

No, because a conduit does not need one and we hold no patient information for you. We sign a courier handling attestation instead and can walk your compliance team through our system.

Can you deliver a filing under seal?+

Yes. You prepare the envelope the way the court requires; we deliver it to the clerk's counter inside the court's filing window — never a security desk or a drop box — and bring back the stamped copy or receipt.

What if the recipient is not there?+

The driver does not leave a sealed package with an unauthorized person. Dispatch calls you with the options — wait, retry, deliver to a named alternate, or return — and you decide.

How do I book one?+

On the booking form, tick "Confidential delivery," confirm the sealed-and-reference-only line, and describe the package by type and reference. If the receiver is a private individual, tick that box too.

Have something that should stay sealed?

Book it as a confidential delivery, or call dispatch and we will set it up with you.