Record retention schedule template for NEMT companies: each record, how long, and the rule behind it

How to use this schedule

Write one line per type of record, then set each period to the longest rule that reaches it: federal law, your state Medicaid program, and each contract you have signed, whether with a broker, a health plan, or a facility. What each trip record has to contain is a separate question, answered in our guide to NEMT documentation requirements. This schedule decides how long each record stays and what happens to it after.

Fill in the “Clock starts” column with care. Five years can mean five years from the ride, from the bill, or from the payment, and those end months apart. Where a contract gives no starting date, count from the latest date that could apply.

Employee files, from Form I-9 to drug test results and OSHA logs, run on their own federal clocks with headcount thresholds. Those periods are laid out in our employee record retention guide, so Part E below only reserves rows for them.

Go over the schedule once a year and each time a new broker contract is signed, since the records clause is where most of the longer periods come from.

The template

The “Federal floor” column gives the federal minimum where one exists. Write your longest state or contract period beside it.

Part A: Trip and billing records

Part B: Contracts and compliance records

Part C: Vehicle records

Interstate trips, vehicle weight, and seating decide whether a van is covered by those federal rules, as our guide on whether your company needs a DOT number explains.

Part D: Business and tax records

Part E: Employee and driver records

Copy these periods from the employee records guide: Form I-9, payroll and time cards, employment tax records, hiring files, driver qualification files, drug and alcohol tests, OSHA logs, and exposure records.

Part F: Destruction log

Part G: Yearly review

State and broker rules that run longer

State Medicaid rules and broker contracts set most NEMT retention periods, and they differ on both the length and the date the count starts. These are examples from current rules and contracts:

The periods for New York, North Dakota, and CareOregon sit in the documentation guide’s retention table, and they follow the same pattern. Managed care raises the floor for everyone in the chain. Under 42 CFR 438.3(u), health plans hold certain records at least a decade and make their subcontractors do the same where it applies. Under 42 CFR 438.230(c)(3), the right of the state, CMS, and HHS’s inspector general to audit a plan’s subcontractors lasts 10 years, measured from the close of the contract period or the finish of any audit, whichever date falls later.

Ten years also lines up with the outside limit for a federal False Claims Act case: six years from the violation, stretching to as many as ten. That is a good reason to set every trip and billing record to ten years, even in a five-year state.

When the clock stops running

A retention period is a minimum, and three events push it out.

• An audit, review, or investigation. Ohio’s six years keep running until any audit begun inside that window is finished. Alivi’s policy extends its ten years until a dispute, audit, investigation, or claim is resolved. Minnesota’s five years give way to the length of a contested case when that is longer. Broker contracts such as WellTrans’s add a flat ban on destroying anything under review.
• A lawsuit you can see coming. Once a claim is reasonably expected, routine deletion stops for anything that may matter to it. The glossary entry on the litigation hold explains when that duty starts and what it covers.
• Leaving the program. Minnesota keeps the duty alive after a provider leaves the program or is terminated, and after a sale it stays with the seller unless a statute or a written contract with the buyer shifts it. The steps for handing records off at the end are in closing a NEMT business.

List every held record in Part G with the reason, and release it only when the matter is closed.

Destroying records once the period has run

Destruction is a decision to document, not a cleanup job. Alivi’s policy requires that destruction be documented and done in a way that keeps the information confidential, and it treats premature destruction as a violation that can bring suspension, contract termination, and referral to Medicaid. MART’s performance standards go further for the end of a subcontract: the provider may not destroy any rider information without the broker’s approval, destruction must follow NIST Special Publication 800-88, and the provider owes the broker a written certification within five days.

Before each destruction batch:

1. Confirm the longest period on the schedule has run, counted from the right start date.
2. Check Part G for audits, claims, and lawsuits that touch the batch.
3. Get any approval a contract requires.
4. Destroy paper and media by an approved method. Shredding, wiping phones, and choosing a shredding vendor are covered in HIPAA record disposal.
5. Log the batch in Part F and file the vendor’s certificate with it.

When paper trip logs are scanned, write down the scan date as well. The guide to scanning and shredding trip logs covers when the scan can replace the paper.

Keeping trip records together in HealthRide

Trip records make up most of any schedule, and they are easiest to keep when each one is complete on the day of the ride. In HealthRide, each completed ride holds the times the driver actually picked up and dropped off, the miles tracked by GPS, the signature the rider gave on screen, and how long the driver waited before marking a no-show. A month of trips exports as a spreadsheet or a PDF, ready to file under the period your schedule sets. See reports.