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Medical record retention in Massachusetts
By Ahmed Jemaa · Reviewed 2026-09-09
Massachusetts requires hospitals to keep a record for 20 years after discharge or final treatment, before the record may be destroyed. The rule is Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 111, Sec. 70, quoted below with a link to the source. Retention is a floor, not a promise the record still exists.
How long records must be kept in Massachusetts
| Who holds the record | Adult patients | Minor patients | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hospitals and licensed facilities | 20 years after discharge or final treatment, before the record may be destroyed | No separate rule stated | Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 111, Sec. 70 |
The rule text, quoted
Compilations of this data disagree with each other, so here is the operative language itself. If a chart you are reading gives a different number, this is what it needs to be checked against.
Any such record or any part or portion thereof may be destroyed 20 years after the discharge or the final treatment therein of the patient to whom it relates.
Which rule applies to the record you want
The period turns on who held the record, not on what the record says. A hospital chart, a private practice chart and a nursing facility chart can sit under three different rules in the same state, with three different clocks.
- ›Hospital or licensed facility: the state hospital licensure regulation, usually written by the health department.
- ›Physician practice: the medical board rule, which is a separate chapter and often a different number of years.
- ›Anything billed to Medicare: the federal condition of participation applies as a floor underneath the state rule.
- ›Where a state publishes no rule for a setting, providers generally default to the longest applicable period they can identify. That is a practice, not a legal requirement, so do not assume the record exists.
The federal layer sits on top of this
State law sets how long the record itself must be kept. Federal rules add separate duties that people routinely confuse with it, and none of them replace the state period. The longer duty always governs.
| Rule | Period | Citation |
|---|---|---|
| Medicare-participating hospitals | At least 5 years | 42 CFR 482.24(b)(1) |
| HIPAA compliance documentation (not the medical record) | 6 years from creation or last effective date, whichever is later | 45 CFR 164.530(j)(2) |
The one that causes the most trouble is the HIPAA six year rule. It applies to a covered entity's own compliance documentation, such as policies, notices and signed authorizations. It does not set a retention period for the medical record.
Retention is not the same as your filing deadline
A retention period tells a provider how long to keep a chart. It does not tell you how long you have to bring a claim, and the two rarely match. A state can require seven years of retention while its limitation period for a minor runs years longer, which is how records get destroyed on schedule while a claim is still live. If a matter is reasonably anticipated, a litigation hold overrides the routine destruction schedule regardless of what the retention rule permits.
Requesting the record before the clock runs out
If you are building a case file, the practical risk is not the retention rule. It is that the record was purged on schedule while the claim was still open, or that it sits with a provider nobody on the file thought to ask.
- ›Ask for the retention schedule in writing when a provider says a record is gone. A destruction certificate is a document, and its absence is worth noting.
- ›Send the hold before the period expires, not after. Once a chart is destroyed on a lawful schedule there is usually no remedy and no adverse inference.
- ›Request by facility, not by episode. The hospital, the practice and the imaging center each keep their own file under their own clock.
- ›Check whether the period runs from discharge, from last treatment or from record creation. Those three dates can sit years apart on the same patient.
Every period on this page was read from the primary statute or administrative code text and is quoted above with its citation. Reviewed 2026-09-09. Rules change and courts read them differently, so confirm against the current text before you rely on it. This is reference information, not legal advice.
Medrecords AI does not retrieve records from providers. It reads the file you already hold and drafts a cited chronology a qualified reviewer signs off on.
Test a file →Frequently asked
How long must hospitals keep medical records in Massachusetts?
20 years after discharge or final treatment, before the record may be destroyed, under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 111, Sec. 70. That is read from the primary text, not from a secondary chart.
Does HIPAA set a records retention period in Massachusetts?
No. HIPAA requires a covered entity to keep its own compliance documentation, such as policies, notices and signed authorizations, for six years. It sets no retention period for the medical record itself. The state rule governs that, with the Medicare condition of participation as a floor for participating providers.
Does the retention period tell me my filing deadline?
No, and assuming it does is a common and expensive error. Retention tells a provider how long to keep a chart. The limitation period tells you how long you have to bring a claim. They are set by different rules and frequently do not match, particularly for patients who were minors when treated.
Where does this page get its numbers?
From the primary statute or administrative code text, read directly and quoted on the page with its citation and a link. Reviewed 2026-09-09. We do not republish figures from vendor charts, because spot checks against the primary text found several of the top-ranking ones to be wrong or citing rule numbers that no longer exist.