As of Oct. 1, health care providers in Maryland must maintain patient medical records and laboratory and X-ray reports for at least seven years after the records and reports are created. The new law increases the record-retention requirement from five years. For a minor patient, records and reports must be maintained until the minor patient reaches the age of majority plus seven years, which for most patients will be when they are 25 years old.
Health care providers, which include hospitals and individual licensed health care professionals, may destroy records earlier than seven years (or for minors, earlier than the age of majority plus seven years) only after notice is made by both first-class mail and email to the last known address of the patient or the parent or guardian of the minor patient. The notice of destruction must include the date when the record will be destroyed and a statement that the record or synopsis of the record, if wanted, must be retrieved at a designated location. The health care provider must make the record or report available for retrieval by the patient or the parent or guardian of the minor patient within 60 days before the date of destruction and at the location designated in the notice of destruction.
If a health care provider destroys records before the end of the retention period without providing the required notice, the health care provider is liable for actual damages and could be subject to administrative fines.
In the event of the death, retirement, surrender of the license or discontinuance of the practice or business of a health care provider, the same notice requirements now apply. Health care providers no longer need to publish notice for consecutive weeks in a daily newspaper that is circulated locally.
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