← Montana medical records custodian and retention laws

Montana — Medical Records Checklist

For a practice that is closing, being sold, relocating or whose physician is retiring. Prepared 21 September 2026.

How long records must be kept

Adult patients: UNRESOLVED - do not state a Montana period from this checklist.
Patients who were minors: Unresolved.
Clock starts: Unresolved.
Also: ARM 24.126.411 'Patient Records Retention' is the CHIROPRACTOR rule (7 years for adults; for minors 7 years or 1 year past 18). Secondary sites repeating '7 years for physicians' appear to be quoting that chiropractic rule.
Also: The '10 years following discharge or death' figure that circulates for Montana uses facility wording and is not a physician rule.
Also: rules.mt.gov serves no text to automated tools and the Board of Medical Examiners rules PDF would not parse.

Before you close — what this state requires

Montana's retention verdict is already HELD for the same reason. One browser session at rules.mt.gov chapter 24.156 clears both.

What Montana does not require

Stated so nobody infers a duty that is not there.

NOT ESTABLISHED FROM A PRIMARY SOURCE. rules.mt.gov is a JavaScript application that returns an eleven-character body ('Montana SOS') to every automated request, including the Board of Medical Examiners chapter 24.156 pages and the 'PATIENT RECORDS RETENTION' and 'PATIENT MEDICAL RECORDS AND RECORDKEEPING' rules by name.

Where this comes from

Administrative Rules of Montana, Board of Medical Examiners chapter 24.156 - needs a browser session
https://rules.mt.gov/gateway/ChapterHome.asp?Chapter=24.156

Read this before you act on it. Every statement above was taken from the state's own published rule or statute and is quoted or closely paraphrased from it. It is a working checklist, not legal advice, and it is a snapshot: retention periods change, and several states adjust their copying fees every year. Confirm the current text with the source listed above, or with your attorney, before you rely on a date or a dollar figure.

Figures stated as of: NOT CONFIRMED - see above

Prepared by Morgan Records Management for Montana. Checklist built 21 September 2026.