Military Health System

2.1  When preparing records for transfer to FRC, records shall be properly packed to minimize the possibility of damage to records.

2.2  Records shall not be forced into the boxes. Leave a 1/2 inch space in each box to permit easy withdrawal of individual records for future reference. If interfiles are expected in the future, enough space shall be left to accommodate them. Records shall be packed upright, with letter-size records facing the front of the box and legal-size records facing the left side of the box (see Figure 9.A-1 and Figure 9.A-2). Records shall be shipped in manila file folders or expandable folders separating the various records specified in Section 2. Under no circumstances shall records be placed one on top of another in a box.

2.3  After the records are boxed, the boxes shall be numbered sequentially (1/10, 2/10, 3/10, etc.) with permanent black marker in the upper right front corner (see Figure 9.A-1).

2.4  Detailed lists of the contents of boxes and indexes to records shall be attached to the Standard Form 135 (SF-135), Records Transmittal and Receipt, and retained by the contractor for future reference or provided upon request by the Defense Health Agency (DHA). Record indexes shall be organized by a unique identifier that matches the file label and identifies the box number. The contents of each box shall be sorted in ascending order.

3.1  When transferring records to the FRC, the contractor shall prepare and forward one original of the SF-135 (available on the DHA Records Management (RM) web site under the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Records Transmittal and Receipt, SF-135) to the DHA RM Officer. In the “From” block (Block 5), the contractor shall enter the following: Defense Health Agency, ATTN: Records Management, 16401 East Centretech Parkway, Aurora, Colorado 80011-9066. The contractor shall insert its own address below the DHA address. The contractor shall state in the Series Description Block the description of the records, the contract number and region. Instructions for completing the remainder of the form are printed on the reverse side of the SF-135. A detailed listing of the contents of each box shall be attached to the SF-135.

3.2  When records are transferred, they must be scheduled for disposal using the applicable disposition schedule (see Section 2, for schedules). When the disposal authority is not cited, the SF-135 will be returned for completion.

3.3  Upon receipt of the SF-135, the FRC reviews it for completeness for transfer. If approved, the FRC assigns a transfer number on the form.

3.4  The original SF-135 is retained by the FRC; one copy of the annotated SF-135, showing transfer number(s) will be returned to the contractor, indicating the FRC’s approval of the shipment.

3.5  After receiving the copy of the approved SF-135, the contractor shall mark each box in the shipment with the assigned transfer number. The transfer number shall be put in the upper left front of the box (see Figure 9.A-1). The contractor shall place one copy of the SF-135 with the index in Box 1 of each transfer and the records will be shipped to the FRC. A copy of the SF-135 and index shall be retained by the contractor for its use.

3.6  The shipment of records shall be accomplished as soon as possible after the contractor receives the annotated copy of the SF-135. If shipment cannot be made within 90 days of receipt, the contractor must notify the DHA RM Office and the FRC, or the SF-135 may be cancelled and returned by the FRC.

3.7  Upon receipt of the records in the FRC, the SF-135 will be signed and returned to the contractor. The FRC’s Archives and Records Centers Information System (ARCIS) web application tracks the location of boxes with bar codes. The bar codes and location numbers are no longer provided back to DHA.

3.8  Records boxes will be palletized as shown in Figure 9.A-2. If transferring to the Pittsfield FRC, use Figure 9.A-2. If transferring records to another FRC, contact the DHA Records RM for guidance.

4.1  The contractor shall refer to NARA’s FRC Toolkit guidance on “Transferring Records to a Federal Records Center” for shipping instructions.

4.2  Shipping is the responsibility of the contractor. Refer to the packaging and marketing instructions in the contract for further information.

4.3  The FRC has the right to refuse any shipment of records. The FRC may refuse to accept the delivery of a shipment if their requirements are not met.

4.4  If the FRC must perform work on the shipment to make it acceptable (i.e., putting box or transfer numbers on boxes, repacking damaged boxes (caused by improper packing), etc.), that cost will be the responsibility of the contractor.

5.1  The FRC provides reference services, which include the loan or return of records, preparation of authenticated reproductions of documents, and furnishing of information from records. Requests for the return of retired records by the contractor shall be approved by the DHA RM Officer.

5.2  Recall of a record from the FRC may constitute a reactivation of the case if the record will be retained on the basis of a current transaction (permanent recall). The record shall be transferred as part of a new shipment of records to the FRC after the new retention period has been met. A record is not reactivated if used only for reference (temporary recall) and may be returned to the FRC for refile.

5.3  To recall records from the FRC, the contractor shall complete the Optional Form 11 (OF-11) (see the National Archives, Forms, OF 11, Reference Request) and contact the DHA RM Office, who will coordinate the recall. When multiple OF 11s are transmitted to the FRC, they shall be arranged in transfer number order, by FRC location and contractor box number. Use one OF 11 per request. If OF 11s are unavailable, request files on letter-size paper, providing one copy for each requested document to be used by the FRC as a charge-out document.

5.4  The following information shall always be furnished when preparing a reference request:

5.5  Phone requests shall be limited to emergency situations. The FRC normally processes requests within eight hours of receipt. All telephone requests for records (priority requests) must go through the DHA RM Office at (303) 676-3559. Emergency phone requests are defined as:

5.6  All records requested from storage shall go to the individual (office) requesting them. Records shall not be sent to outside sources such as the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) or Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS). Records shall be sent only to the DHA contractors or the DHA RM Officer.

5.7  Requests for records (OF-11) shall be in FRC location order if 25 or more requests are sent together. There is no limit on the number of requests the FRC will process at one time.