How Long Are Doctors Or Hospitals Required To Keep My Medical Records?

Clients commonly want to know how long a doctor or hospital is legally obligated to keep their medical records for. This is especially important in "Date Last Insured" cases, when the person may not have seen a particular doctor who has relevant medical records in quite some time.

The law varies by state, so depending on where your doctor's office or the hospital is located, there may be a different length of time that source is required by law to keep the records.

In New Jersey according to Consumer Affairs:

A doctor has to keep a patient’s medical records for seven years. After that, the physician can destroy them. There is no requirement in the law that requires the physician to notify a patient prior to destroying the records. It is recommended that you request a copy of your medical records when you are changing physicians.

Meanwhile, in New York:

Physicians must keep patient records for six years after the last visit. Records for children are kept for one year after the child's 18th birthday.

In saying this, I would not assume just because it is beyond that amount of time that the records have been destroyed. In my experience, often hospitals are more likely to destroy records as soon as they are legally able to. Meanwhile, small doctor's offices are more likely to be less organized with their destruction of documents and may have medical records for several decades still in their filing cabinets.

Since medical records are crucial when applying for Social Security Disability, it is my recommendation to routinely ask doctors or hospitals for a copy of your medical records. It is not always easy to distinguish "important" medical records from the irrelevant records, so if at all possible, you should keep copies of all medical records.