I have a question We are in the process of trying to clean up some papers we have stored. A denial can happen for several reasons. They will be able to help you understand your coverage and what you are entitled to. When sending medical records due you send the superbill or just the electronic record? We are resellers for the only HIPAA-compliant (they sign a BAA) cloud product that allows practices to purge records to a file for any future need. Its a good thing to get legal advice before doing anything! Thank you. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. The first, and easiest, is to simply rent an offsite storage unit. If your state doesnt have a requirement, I suggest defaulting to the 10-year rule. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. Once scanned and saved, shred the hard copy EOBs. How long should medical providers office keep EOBs on? You still only need to keep the EOBs for as long as your state mandates. You can perform your own risk assessment and determine what method of storage is right for your practice. Then, plan to pass them down to your beneficiary after your own death. If you do not keep the record you can be liable for spoilage. If you use a file cabinet for your taxes, maybe do the same for your medical records. What does compliance look like? Insurance payers expect the patient and the practice to maintain copies of EOBs for their records. For example, the Florida Board of Medicine requires providers to hold medical records for at least 5 years. For 3 years after the April 15 deadline, keep tax return forms, schedules, and all information that supports your tax forms. If daysheets are the document of origination for patient charges and payments (just like superbills), they must be kept for 7 years. EOB Denials. Dont ever leave your patients records vulnerable to a hackers attack. 2. Hard Copy Records Here's how to get electronic EOB statements and payments. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. These are the documents that show what services were performed and how much was paid by the insurance company. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. The dental office may also need to refer to them if there are any questions about the treatment that was received. Keeping the EOBs for a longer period of time is always better, just in case they are needed. and the date or revision level (number or letter) identifying the current version of the document. This is true even if the patient whose records youre getting rid of is deceased. The EOB explains the benefits paid in detail by procedure. However, they must be stored in a secure location. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Some home printers have document scanner options. Section 123145 of the California Health and Safety Code states that the minimum retention time of patient records is seven years only if the dentist ceases operation. The right protocol will ensure that you dont open your dental practice up to problems with privacy concerns. SURF: This identifies the surface of the tooth that was treated. Rose. The dental office should keep the EOBs for at least three years. Do you know of a law that requires that blank forms and their numerous revisions be kept for that long? Even if youre in good health and do not have pressing concerns, you should always keep your medical records and share them with at least one person in your trusted circle of family, friends, or caretakers. If you do, the company you use may have different requirements for how long they need EOBs on file. The law ( HB 1524) also indicates that providers are not required to maintain health records for longer than 12 years from the date of . Both medical and legal experts say you should keep personal and generational medical history documentation for your whole life. If you've registered . You can, however, scan them and keep them electronically, shredding the paper copy after it has been scanned. You work for a 575 bed acute care level 1 research center, this hospital is also a teaching hospital that is connected to a university. Required fields are marked *. Patients may need these documents for their own records or to provide them to another healthcare provider. How do you describe the shape of a molecule? hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(5825755, '80875678-f2da-4098-96b9-721be335a03d', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"}); hbspt.cta.load(5825755, '4862a8d6-93ce-469b-be6c-8e595b3d1e6b', {"region":"na1"}); Revenue cycle management that ensures dental teams thrive. Your email address will not be published. How Long Should I Keep Medicare Summary Notices Holding on to your MSNs for at least 12 months is a good rule of thumb. That includes advance directives such as a living will and healthcare proxy. With that in mind, make sure your firewalls, data encryption, and antivirus software are updated and consider adding additional protective measures like intrusion detection software. Your State may require a longer retention period. The standard protocol is to have the patient sign a release approving a copy of their record to go to their new doctor/the doctor leaving or to themselves. EOBs, unlike medical bills, should be preserved for three to eight years following your surgery, or forever if you have a recurring problem. Hi Mary, All Rights Reserved. My theory is that CMS wants the option to audit Medicare Advantage plans down the road. Additionally, having up-to-date medical records can help you avoid billing errors. There are 2 years of paper on the self. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Some states say you cant be penalized for a set amount of time after a bill. Dont forget to check out the rest of our blog for more great tips and tricks for running the best dental practice possible! One way to store your medical bills and EOBs is to digitize them. Its important for the office to provide this information, accurately. For 6 years, keep your W-2 and any 1099 . By keeping your Explanation of Benefit reports on file in your home, you can keep track of your prescription drug benefits, changes, and charges on a monthly basis. Many dental offices are scanning hard copy EOBs into patient charts for easy accessibility and reference. What are your options? A complete and accurate dental record is very beneficial to the patient. This is another reason solo practitioners are a dying breed. The EOBs are an important part of the dental offices records. HIPAA requirements preempt State laws if they require shorter periods. Once the patient record is shared and it contains other patients PHI, such as found on a bulk EOB, a breach has just occurred. Keep your EOB someplace easily accessible until you match it with its corresponding hospital or doctors bill; then file the two together (and keep for a year). Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. If you do not retain a record and you are audited, you will not be able to substantiate that the service was provided and that could initiate a full-blown investigation that other payers could jump on. I am not a lawyer so this is not legal advice, but I would not expect that recorded conversations would constitute part of the medical record, and thereby be required to be kept. Another way to save space is to convert records to microfilm. State recording keeping laws require dental records be kept for a specified number of years. Time is money, and time is wasted scanning EOBs into patient charts. This can be true especially when you are no longer in-network with a payer as you may lose access to some information via the payer website. However, the actual requirement can be as little as 2 years up to 10. you may begin to run out of storage space. How do you store them? document.write('