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TRICARE Operations Manual 6010.59-M, April 1, 2015
Records Management (RM)
Chapter 9
Section 4
Electronic Records Disposition, Storage, And Transfer
Revision:  C-26, May 30, 2018
1.0  General
1.1  The contractor shall adhere to the following current industry standards in regards to electronic records (i.e., International Organization for Standardization (ISO) guidelines for electronic storage and transfer of records):
•  ISO 13008:2012 - Information and Documentation - Digital Records Conversion and Migration Process.
•  ISO/TR 13028:2010 - Information and Documentation - Implementation Guidelines for Digitization of Records.
•  ISO 15489-1:2001 - Information and Documentation - Records Management - Part 1: General.
•  ISO/TR 15489-2:2001 - Information and Documentation - Records Management - Part 2: Guidelines.
•  ISO 16175-1:2010 - Information and Documentation - Principles and Functional Requirements for Records in Electronic Office Environments - Part 1: Overview and Statement of Principles.
•  ISO 16175-2:2011 - Information and Documentation - Principles and Functional Requirements for Records in Electronic Office Environments - Part 2: Guidelines and Functional Requirements for Digital Records Management Systems.
•  ISO 16175-3:2010 - Information and Documentation - Principles and Functional Requirements for Records in Electronic Office Environments - Part 3: Guidelines and Functional Requirements for Records in Business Systems.
•  ISO/TR 17068:2012 - Information and Documentation - Trusted Third Party Repository for Digital Records.
•  ISO/TR 18128:2014 - Information and Documentation - Risk Assessment for Record Processes and Systems.
•  ISO 22310:2006 - Information and Documentation - Guidelines for Standards Drafters for Stating Records Management Requirements in Standards.
•  ISO 23081-1:2006 - Information and Documentation - Records Management Processes - Metadata for Records - Part 1: Principles.
•  ISO 23081-2:2009 - Information and Documentation - Managing Metadata for Records - Part 2: Conceptual and Implementation Issues.
•  ISO/TR 23081-3:2011 - Information and Documentation - Managing Metadata for Records - Part 3: Self-assessment Method.
•  ISO/TR 26122:2008 - Information and Documentation - Work Process Analysis for Records.
•  ISO 30300:2011 - Information and Documentation - Management Systems for Records - Fundamentals and Vocabulary.
•  ISO 30301:2011 - Information and Documentation - Management Systems for Records - Requirements.
1.2  Contractors shall follow procedures outlined in Addendum B (for additional guidance, reference retention and disposal instructions in the Defense Health Agency Records Retention Schedule (DHA RRS), and the policies and regulations cited in Section 1, paragraph 1.1.
2.0  Standards
2.1  The contractor shall ensure electronic records are:
•  Accessible;
•  Identifiable;
•  Retrievable;
•  Understandable; and
•  Authentic.
2.2  Contractors shall ensure they maintain accurate, reliable, and trustworthy electronic document-based information. This means ensuring the following: it can be read and correctly interpreted by a computer application; it is available in natural language format; it has a logical and physical structure, substantive content, and context that were apparent at the time of creation or receipt.
2.3  If a contractor chooses to use an Electronic Records Management Software application, the software must be Department of Defense (DoD) 5015.2 compliant.
2.4  Physical Media Transfer and Storage
2.4.1  DHA records must be stored properly. The ISO requirements will be applied to all storage processes, procedures, archiving, data back-up and recovery, and vital records (records essential to the continued functioning or reconstitution of an organization during and after an emergency).
2.4.2  Contractors shall manage electronic DHA records in accordance with 36 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Chapter XII, Subchapter B, Part 1234, Subpart B, Section 1234.14 which outlines environmental controls for storing electronic records on storage media. Reference National Archives and Records Administration’s (NARA’s) Frequently Asked Question(s) (FAQ(s)) on storing temporary records on Compact Discs (CDs) and Digital Versatile Discs (DVDs). 36 CFR Chapter XII, Subchapter B, Part 1236, Electronic Records Management, describes the responsibility for the retention and disposition of electronic records.
2.5  If a contractor chooses to use an optical disc system, they shall:
2.5.1  Monitor trends in the technological environments that conform to open systems standards.
2.5.2  Specify existing and emerging non-proprietary technology standards in system design.
2.5.3  Evaluate possible data degradation of information stored on optical discs and system functionality on an annual basis using media error monitoring and reporting tools outlined in proposed and evolving standards (i.e., American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) MS59-199X).
2.5.4  Support the ongoing development of non-proprietary standards for data exchange and interoperability.
3.0  Transfer Of DHA Electronic Records
3.1  Transfer of inactive DHA electronic records (records no longer necessary for the conduct of business) from contractor systems is not required. Follow the record series number retention and disposal instructions referenced in the DHA RRS to determine when inactive records may be destroyed. In the event records must be transferred, refer to the following paragraphs.
3.1.1  Transfer documentation must include NARA Standard Form 135 (SF-135) with corresponding indexes.
3.1.2  Where possible, contractors shall submit required documentation in an electronic format that conforms to NARA requirements. For data files and databases, documentation must include record layouts, data element definitions, and code translation tables (code books) for coded data. Data element definitions, codes used to represent data values and interpretations of these codes must match the actual format and codes as transferred.
3.2  Formats and storage media for transfer will be coordinated with the DHA Records Management (RM) Officer. The contractor shall not transfer electronic records that are in a format dependent on specific hardware and/or software.
3.3  The contractor shall follow transfer procedures provided by the DHA RM Officer in collaboration with the contracting office (Addendum B). The contractor shall use the designated validation utility and process provided by the DHA RM Officer for the quality assurance requirement for preparing electronic records for transfer. (See Addendum B.)
3.4  The contractor shall follow the guidelines provided in Addendum B to prepare the electronic SF-135 transfer document that will include the metadata elements.
3.5  The contractor shall follow the guidelines provided in Addendum B to properly ship electronic records. The contractor shall use the recommended storage media designated by the DHA RM Officer. Electronic media devices containing records with PII/PHI for transfer shall be encrypted in a manner that is compatible with DHA environment.
3.6  The contractor shall prepare the electronic transfer package to include the following items:
•  SF-135 in Portable Document Format (PDF) format sample, which can be found on the DHA RM web site. The transmittal document SF-135 shall be used as a communication and documentation tool when requesting electronic records transfer. The sample SF-135 illustrates how to use this document (see key information below). The SF-135 PDF file will be sent via e-mail to the DHA RM Office to request an electronic records transfer. The DHA RM Office uses the information on the SF-135 to request the transfer number and XML file. The DHA RM Office requires an SF-135 PDF file on the media that is used to transfer the electronic records as a documentation tool.
•  eXtensible Markup Language (XML) file provided to contractor from DHA.
•  Delimited data file to include required document type (i.e., DOC, PDF, TIFF, XLS) and version information of the software that produced the document type.
•  Record objects documents.
•  Validation Audit Log.
•  Key Information.
•  In #6 Volume (d) - list the storage size of the transfer.
•  Agency Box Numbers (e) - list the total rows of data in the metadata file.
•  Series Description (f) - list the metadata elements and data types included in the metadata file.
•  Series Description (f) - Indicate if metadata elements are required and visible on record object.
•  Series Description (f) - Identify the delimiter used in the metadata file.
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