When a doctor retires, your medical records don’t disappear with the practice. The retiring physician is required to arrange for them to go somewhere: usually a successor doctor taking over the practice, a professional medical records storage company, or a designated custodian (often another local practice) who handles future requests. HIPAA follows the records wherever they land, and your right to request a copy of your own health information stays intact.
What the Retiring Doctor Was Supposed to Do
A physician planning to retire has obligations that go well beyond locking up the office. The American Medical Association’s Code of Ethics directs doctors to give patients enough advance notice to find a new provider and arrange for record transfers.1American Medical Association. 1.1.5 Terminating a Patient-Physician Relationship That notice should tell you where your records will be stored, how to request copies once the office is gone, and whom to contact.
Whoever ends up holding the files takes on the same HIPAA duties the original doctor had. Your protected health information stays protected, and the new holder has to respond to your access requests on the same federal timeline.2eCFR. 45 CFR 164.524 – Access of Individuals to Protected Health Information
If your doctor practiced inside a hospital system or large group, your records almost certainly stay in that organization’s electronic health record, and pulling them up at a new appointment can be nearly automatic. Solo and small-group practices are messier. There may be no successor, patient portal access usually shuts off when the office closes, and the storage arrangement the doctor set up before retiring becomes your only route in.
How to Request Your Records
If the practice is still open, call the office and ask for a copy. You’ll fill out a release form listing your name, date of birth, dates of service, and the specific records you want. Acting before the doors close is the single biggest thing you can do to make this easy.
Once the practice has closed, contact the custodian or storage company named in the retirement notice. Lost the notice, or never got one? Your state or local medical society often keeps track of where retired doctors’ records went. State medical boards are another good bet, because many states require retiring physicians to report the storage arrangement.
Under HIPAA, your right to inspect and copy your health information doesn’t expire because the doctor stopped practicing. The entity holding your records has 30 days to respond. They can extend that by another 30 days once, but only with a written notice explaining the delay and giving a firm date.2eCFR. 45 CFR 164.524 – Access of Individuals to Protected Health Information
What It Costs
There’s no single national fee. For paper copies, providers can charge the reasonable cost of copying and postage, and state laws set the ceiling. Per-page caps run from around $0.10 in some states to $1.00 or more in others, sometimes with a separate search or retrieval fee on top.
For electronic copies of records the provider already keeps electronically, HIPAA allows a flat alternative: no more than $6.50 per request, covering labor, supplies, and postage combined.3HHS.gov. Is $6.50 the Maximum Amount That Can Be Charged to Provide Individuals With a Copy of Their PHI? That $6.50 is not a universal cap. It’s an option available for electronic copies of already-electronic records. Paper and other formats follow actual or average cost calculations under state limits.
One Access Limit Worth Knowing About
Your right to your own chart is broad, with a narrow but important exception. Psychotherapy notes — the personal notes a therapist writes during or after a session and keeps separate from the main chart — sit outside HIPAA’s general right of access, and a provider can deny that request without offering an appeal.2eCFR. 45 CFR 164.524 – Access of Individuals to Protected Health Information Information compiled in anticipation of a lawsuit can also be withheld. Everything else in your chart is yours by right.
How Long the Records Stick Around
No single federal law tells doctors exactly how long to keep patient charts. HIPAA requires covered entities to retain certain compliance documents for six years, but that rule covers administrative paperwork, not clinical records.4eCFR. 45 CFR 164.316 – Policies and Procedures and Documentation Requirements The actual retention period for patient records comes from state law and, for many practices, from Medicare rules layered on top.
State minimums run from 5 to 11 years after the patient’s last visit, with 7 and 10 years being the most common. The clock usually starts from the date of the last encounter, though some states measure from discharge or from when the record was created. If you moved after treatment, the state where your care happened is the one whose retention rule applies to those records.
For minors, most states extend the clock. Records generally have to be kept until the child reaches the age of majority (18 in most states, 21 in a few) plus an additional window of roughly 3 to 10 years, depending on the state. That window is designed to give young adults a chance to access their childhood history and to cover the malpractice statute of limitations that couldn’t run while the patient was underage.
Doctors who participate in Medicare have to keep records documenting Medicare-related services for at least seven years from the date of service.5eCFR. 42 CFR 424.516 – Additional Provider and Supplier Requirements Where a state’s rule is longer, the state rule controls, so Medicare providers follow whichever standard is stricter.6Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Medical Record Maintenance and Access Requirements
If the Doctor Died or Became Incapacitated
An unexpected death or serious illness leaves the same record-custody obligations, but now they fall to the physician’s estate. The executor or a family member managing the practice’s affairs has to notify patients about where their records will be held and how to request them, just as a retiring doctor would.
Solo practices are the hardest case. With no partner or group to absorb the files, the estate typically contracts with a storage company or reaches a custodial agreement with another local practice. If nothing is arranged and records sit unattended, state regulators can step in.
Getting a Relative’s Records
If you’re requesting records for a family member who has died, HIPAA lets a “personal representative” — usually the executor or administrator of the estate, or someone else with legal authority under state law to act on behalf of the decedent — exercise the same access rights the patient had. That authority lasts for 50 years after the date of death.7HHS.gov. Health Information of Deceased Individuals
Expect to provide documentation of your authority: a death certificate plus letters testamentary, letters of administration, or a court order appointing you as the estate’s representative. The provider may also ask for a signed HIPAA authorization. If the deceased person had previously expressed a preference against sharing records with certain people, the provider can honor that preference.7HHS.gov. Health Information of Deceased Individuals
When You Can’t Get Your Records
Most transfers go through without much trouble. When they don’t — the office went dark with no notice, or a custodian is ignoring you — there are two enforcement paths.
File a HIPAA Complaint With HHS
You can file a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services when a covered entity fails to provide access. The complaint has to be in writing and filed within 180 days of when you first knew about the violation, though OCR can extend that deadline for good cause.8HHS.gov. How to File a Health Information Privacy or Security Complaint Name the entity involved — the practice, custodian, or storage company — and describe what happened: when you asked, how long you waited, what you were told.
Complaints go through the OCR Complaint Portal online, by email to OCRComplaint@hhs.gov, or by mail to the HHS Centralized Case Management Operations office in Washington, D.C. OCR does not investigate anonymous complaints, so you have to give your name and contact information.8HHS.gov. How to File a Health Information Privacy or Security Complaint
Contact Your State Medical Board
Most states treat failure to properly maintain or transfer patient records as a licensing violation. A complaint to the state medical board can trigger an investigation and, in serious cases, disciplinary action or fines against the physician. The board may also know where records ended up when the doctor never told patients directly.
Physicians who dump, destroy, or abandon patient records also face federal HIPAA penalties. OCR has settled improper-disposal cases for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and civil penalties can run into the millions per year for willful violations that aren’t corrected.9HHS.gov. Resolution Agreements and Civil Money Penalties
What to Do Right Now if Your Doctor Is Retiring
The moment you hear the practice is closing, start moving. Waiting until the office is already shut costs you time, money, and options.
Request a complete copy of your records while the staff is still there to process it. Ask specifically for a list of active prescriptions, any pending lab orders, and open referrals. Some pharmacies will not refill a prescription once the prescribing doctor’s license goes inactive or the practice formally closes, so lining up a new provider before that happens keeps your medications from lapsing. If your doctor is willing to write a summary letter or transition-of-care document for your next physician, take it. Raw records don’t always tell the story the way a short summary can.
Log into your patient portal and download or print everything available. Portal access almost always disappears when the practice closes, and pulling the same information from a storage custodian afterward is slower and often costs money. Keep the files somewhere safe. Having your own copy in hand is the best protection against whatever happens on the practice’s end.