US · guidance
CMS Pub. 100-08, ch. 4, § 4.2.2.6.2
File/Document Retention
Files/documents shall be retained for 10 years. However, files/documents shall be
retained indefinitely and shall not be destroyed if they relate to a current investigation or
litigation/negotiation; ongoing Workers’ Compensation set aside arrangements, or
documents which prompt suspicions of fraud, waste, and/or abuse of overutilization of
services. This will satisfy evidentiary needs and discovery obligations critical to the
agency’s litigation interests.
For UPIC’s in transition, all existing electronic files for all years shall be transferred into
UCM. Any hard copy files (that do not need to be retained indefinitely) older than 10
years shall be destroyed.
For UPICs in operation, all paper/hard copy files older than 10 years (that do not need to
be retained indefinitely) shall be destroyed.
Any hard copy files older than 10 years that are part of a current investigation or
litigation may be scanned as an electronic copy. After certification that it has been
properly scanned, it shall be destroyed. All scanned/electronic copies shall be transferred
to the UCM.
History
(Rev. 11032; Issued: 09-30-21; Effective: 10-12-21; Implementation: 11-10-21)
Provenance
- Source
- cms.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-08-25
- Edition
- iom-2026-08-25
- Content hash
d18293873a7b53b89e43b9920a44efd6a3bb7acc9876b2d7b831fdac31fffe97
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