Comment by fhsm

Record retention is covered by a complex set of overlapping regulations and contracts. They are dependent on much more than date of service. M&A activity, interstate operations, subsequent changes in patient mental status, etc can all cause the horizon to change well after the last encounter.

As all the comments in this thread suggest the cost of having an extra record , even an extra breached record is low. The cost of failing to produce a required medical record is high.

Put this together with dropping storage prices, razor then margins, and IT estates made out of thousands of specialized point solutions cobbled together with every integration pattern ever invented and you get a de facto retention of infinity paired with a de jure obligation of could-be-anything-tomorrow.