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Practice Management Alert

You Be the Billing Expert:

Electronic Vs. Paper Record Retention

Published on Fri Jul 24, 2009

Question: My practice is running out of space for storing our paper records. How long do we actually need to keep them? We're also moving to electronic records and are not sure if there are different record retentions rules for paper versus electronic records. Can you explain record retention rules? Alaska Subscriber Answer: Storing billing and medical records -- whether paper or electronic -- safely and for the legallyappropriate length of time is important for two reasons. Past records ensure your practice has all necessary information in the event of a lawsuit or payer issue, and past records provide historical information to help with current patient care. The general rule is that you should retain all medical and billing records for about seven years because that is how long the audit process can be in some instances. Many experts suggest mirroring your record retention policy with whatever the statute of limitations is [...]
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