Maintaining, Copying, and Destroying Your Patient Records

Medical record laws are continually changing. Federal laws, state laws, and court cases converge in the chiropractic physician's office when dealing with our legal responsibilities and requirements regarding medical records. How long do we keep records? When can a patient request records? Are we obligated to give the records? How long do we have? How much can I charge? These are just a few of the questions our doctors face regularly. This course provides doctors and staff with the information necessary to establish sound policies surrounding our patients' records. This course will cover practice requirements, including HIPAA, state law, and case law, who can request records, Right of Access vs. Authorization, Cures Act basics, appropriate fees and acceptable time for copies, requests for deceased patients, copy requests for workers' compensation, and natural disasters that result in record destruction.

• •Understand federal and state legal requirements for medical record retention, including HIPAA regulations and state-specific timelines
• •Distinguish between Right of Access and Authorization requests and apply appropriate protocols for each scenario
• •Implement compliant procedures for responding to patient record requests, including acceptable timeframes and permissible fees
• •Apply the Cures Act requirements to patient record requests and identify potential compliance risks
• •Develop office policies for handling special circumstances including deceased patient records, workers' compensation requests, and disaster recovery
• •Establish best practices for record destruction that comply with legal requirements while maintaining patient privacy