Patient charts when a practice changes hands
Selling a physical therapy practice: the charts in the deal
Updated
Passing charts to the group that buys your practice is, in HIPAA's terms, a different act from selling the same charts to a data company.
Handing charts to the buyer of the clinic
164.502(a)(5)(ii) lists exceptions to what counts as a sale of protected health information, among them a disclosure for the sale, transfer, merger, or consolidation of all or part of the covered entity and for related due diligence.
A data deal alongside the sale
A licence of patient data to an AI company is not on that list of exceptions, so the sale rule, the authorization in 164.508(a)(4) and de-identification under 164.514 still decide it, whoever owns the practice.
The vendors in between
An EMR or billing company holding the charts is usually a business associate, and under 164.504(e) its contract must stop it using or disclosing the information beyond what the contract permits or the law requires. HHS's business associate guidance makes the same point about service providers.
Records Medicare expects to exist
42 CFR 410.61 requires outpatient therapy covered by Medicare to be furnished under a written plan of treatment, so those written plans sit in the charts a practice holds; how long to keep them is a question for the practice's counsel.