🗄️Medical Record Storage & Retention Policy
This policy outlines Berry Street’s standards and responsibilities related to the creation, storage, retention, and release of medical records for services delivered on the Berry Street platform. It is intended to ensure compliance with HIPAA and applicable state and federal regulations while minimizing risk to patients, providers, and the organization.
This policy applies to all providers delivering care through Berry Street and to all medical records generated for Berry Street–sourced and provider-sourced (PS) patients within the Berry Street system.
Definitions
Billing Entity/Provider: The entity responsible for submitting claims to payers and maintaining the official medical record.
Berry Street–Sourced Patients: Patients acquired through the Berry Street platform.
Provider-Sourced (PS) Patients: Patients brought to the platform directly by the provider.
Medical Record: Clinical notes, assessments, treatment plans, correspondence, scheduling and other documentation related to patient care.
👉 This section covers:
Provider Responsibilities
Providers are responsible for ensuring that all clinical documentation entered into the Berry Street system is complete, accurate, timely, and compliant with clinical and payer requirements.
See Clinical Documentation & Charting for more information
Providers must document care exclusively within the Berry Street-supported electronic medical record (EMR) system for services delivered on the platform.
Berry Street Responsibilities
As the billing provider, Berry Street is responsible for the secure storage, management, and retention of medical records in accordance with HIPAA and applicable record retention laws.
Berry Street retains medical records for a minimum of seven (7) years, or longer if required by state or federal law.
Berry Street maintains administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect patient information.
Record Ownership & Access
For Berry Street–sourced patients, Berry Street maintains the designated medical record for billing and compliance purposes as the billing entity.
For provider-sourced (PS) patients, providers may retain copies of records in accordance with applicable laws and professional obligations. Berry Street continues to securely store records created within the Berry Street system in accordance with retention requirements.
Downloading & Independent Storage of Records
Berry Street strongly recommends that providers keep medical records within the Berry Street system.
Downloading and storing records independently may introduce additional compliance, privacy, and security risks, particularly when records are stored outside systems with consistent HIPAA-aligned administrative, technical, and physical safeguards.
Berry Street does not currently provide bulk-download tools or guidance for exporting records. This reduces privacy and security risk associated with storing records outside the platform.
When records are needed, Berry Street supports release through the patient-authorized records request process.
Patient Requests & Record Release
If a patient requests access to their medical records or authorizes release to another provider or organization, Berry Street has a formal process to release records in compliance with HIPAA.
This process applies regardless of whether a provider remains on the Berry Street platform.
Provider Transitions
If a patient follows a provider to another practice or platform and formally requests their records, Berry Street will release records to the authorized party in accordance with legal requirements.
Providers do not need to independently store records to ensure patient continuity of care.
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