Texas law also adds the stipulation that a hospital may not destroy medical records that relate to any matter that is involved in litigation if the hospital knows the litigation has not been resolved (Practice brief - retention of health information). Federal laws for record retention often are different from state laws. For instance, hospitals that participate in Medicare must keep medical records on each inpatient and outpatient, records of radiologic service, nuclear medicine including records for the receipt and disposition of radipaharmaceutics for five years. (42 CFR 482.24,.26, and.53) (Calloway). Further, psychiatric hospitals that participate in Medicare must maintain special records including development of assessment/diagnostic data, treatment plan, record progress, discharge planning, and discharge summary for 5 years (Calloway). Thus, Medicare record retention requirements are two years less than those in California and three...

These policies must consider applicable state and federal laws and, at a minimum, must follow the longest of the state or federal retention requirements. Further, facilities may want to keep records for an even longer period of time due to the statute of limitation for medical lawsuits so that they may have records available for defense purposes should a lawsuit arise.
Bibliography

Calloway S.D. Record retention periods. HIPAAdvisory. http://www.hipaadvisory.com/regs/recordretention.htm

Practice brief - retention of health information. American Health Information Management Association. http://library.ahima.org/xpedio/groups/public/documents/ahima/bok1_012547.pdf