Are healthcare providers required to review faxed health records that they received?

Scenario: A private practice has multiple providers. In a very short period of time, the providers received multiple faxed health records for patients they have not seen in years.

The providers will certainly need to review those faxed health records, prior to rendering care to those patients again, for best continued care. Thus, those faxed health records must be filed in those patients' paper charts, or electronic health records, under a designated category; such as: "Correspondence", or " External Records".

The retention period for health records is generally governed by state laws. The HIPAA Privacy Rule requires that covered entities implement administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to protect the privacy of patients' health records for as long as a covered entity retains them, including through disposal.