Is it a Federal law that requires us to keep patients records, (Optical) for
seven years?
Is it a Federal law that requires us to keep patients records, (Optical) for
seven years?
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I have always heard seven and it may have more to do with the IRS.
Florida law states that the establishment that fiils the Rx should keep the record for 2 years.
In New York, medical records, including optometrist records, must be kept for seven years, or in the case of a child, until that child reaches the age of 21, or 7 years, whichever is longer.
I believe financial records, according to IRS regulations, have to be kept 7 years.
In the state of California it is actually 3 years.
Title 16 article 3 1399.231
I keep mine for 10, if they haven't been in by then, they are destroyed. My filing cabinets can only hold so much.
According to the CPT, after 3 years with no visit, an established patient becomes a 'new' patient. Coorespondingly, most insurance plans pay more for a new patient exam. Why? A more detailed history must be taken and a new record created because the old one is gone.
So the answer is 3 years.
Your state may have a different time frame.
In Colorado it is 7 years.
In NJ we have to keep the medical records for 7 years. We're not sure though how long we need to keep contact lens invoices. We do keep the product order number and invoice in the record, but do we need to keep the itemized recepit from each shipment? I keep 3 months worth in the office at all times, and everything else goes to my basement waiting for the shredding company to come. It's a lot of of paper, there's no way I could keep copies for every order for 7 years!!!
In NC it's only 7 years when they used Medicare for that pair after Cat. Surg.
I dont think keeping is a problem! Try to find the one that you are looking for after 6 years and 11 month!
BTW Did anyone had to go and find such old records?
In the optical, we keep:
*medicare paper copy for 7 years
*assignment/managed care billing paper copy for 3 years
*regular paper receipts for 3 months
*electronic files until the computer shuts down or the software people try an upgrade on us....and then we may have them or not...
"The Good Lord gave us mountains so we could learn how to climb". ~ Lonestar
We keep absolutely no paper in the office. We scan everything, and shred all the paper. (It works great in the nesting boxes for my son's chickens, as well as bedding for his sheep. We haven't purchased sawdust in over 2 years!)
Of course, we back-up on-line, as well as onto seperate hard drives.
If you are finishing or manufacturing eyewear and I remember correctly, product liability is seven years.
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