How long do you have to keep physical therapy records?
Plan on keeping physical therapy records for at least six to seven years after the last visit, and longer for minors; the binding number comes from your state law, not HIPAA. New York, for example, requires PT patient records be kept at least six years unless another law provides otherwise, and records of minors for at least six years and until one year after the patient turns 21. Medicare adds its own floor: APTA notes that ordering and referring documentation must be maintained for seven years from the date of service. That duty survives an EHR switch, so historical charts must stay retrievable after your old system goes dark; Orion migrates them in stages with a final backfill so nothing is left behind.
The single number everyone wants does not exist. APTA’s risk-management guidance puts it plainly: “state laws generally govern how long medical records are to be retained,” so the binding answer comes from your state licensing board. New York, for example, requires that “unless otherwise provided by law, all patient/client records must be retained for at least six years,” and that records of minors be retained “for at least six years, and until one year after the minor patient/client reaches the age of 21 years.”
HIPAA is the common misconception here. It sets no retention period for the medical record itself. Its six-year rule covers HIPAA compliance documentation, which APTA describes as the requirement “to retain required documentation for six years from the date of its creation or the date when it last was in effect, whichever is later.” Two more floors sit on top: Medicare’s seven years for ordering and referring documentation, and your state’s malpractice statute of limitations. That is why APTA tells practices to ensure retention periods exceed statutes of limitations, which typically run differently for minors than for adults.
Retention is also a hidden line item in every EHR switch. Charts you are required to keep for seven more years cannot vanish with the old login, which is why so many clinics end up paying for read-only access to software they left. The real cost of switching EHRs covers what that clause looks like in a contract. Orion handles it the other way: your current EHR stays the system of record during the parallel run, and when you commit, your historical data migrates in stages with a final backfill.
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