American Health Information Management Association. Position Statement. Issue: retention of health information.

Patient health information must be available to meet the needs of continued patient care, legal requirements, research, education, and other legitimate uses. While there are no federal laws currently that outline time frames for the retention of health information, many states do have specific requirements with which providers must comply. Each healthcare provider should develop a retention schedule for patient health information that meets the needs of its patients, physicians, researchers, and other legitimate users and complies with legal, regulatory, and accreditation requirements. Providers should develop guidelines that specify what information should be kept, the time period for which it should be kept, and the storage medium (paper, microfilm, optical disk, magnetic tape, or other).