The answer depends on what type of “medical” you’re asking about. This is one of the most common health-related searches, and it typically points to one of several things: Medi-Cal or Medicaid coverage, a medical marijuana card, a prescription, medical records, or a medical power of attorney. Here’s how long each one lasts and what happens when it expires.
Medi-Cal and Medicaid Coverage
Medi-Cal (California’s Medicaid program) and Medicaid in other states require a renewal, called a redetermination, once every 12 months. During that renewal, the state checks whether you still qualify based on income and household size. If you do, your coverage continues for another year with no gap.
Starting January 1, 2027, a new federal rule changes the timeline for one specific group: adults ages 19 to 64 who enrolled through the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. These members will need to go through a redetermination every six months instead of every 12. All other groups, including children, parents, caretaker relatives, and people who qualify through non-income-based categories, will stay on the standard annual schedule.
Children in California may keep coverage even longer. Under a law passed in 2022, children who enroll in Medi-Cal before age 5 can receive continuous eligibility through their fifth birthday, meaning their coverage won’t be interrupted by annual renewals during those early years. Implementation depends on federal approval and state system updates.
What Happens If You Miss Your Renewal
If you lose Medi-Cal because you didn’t respond to renewal paperwork on time, you have a 90-day window to submit the missing information and get reinstated without filling out a new application. The state sends two reminder letters before terminating coverage, and you get 30 days to respond to each request for verification. If you act within that 90-day grace period after disenrollment, the state must review your eligibility based on what you submit.
Medical Marijuana Cards
Medical marijuana cards typically expire after one year. In California, the Medical Marijuana Identification Card (MMIC) is valid for 12 months from the date of issue, after which you need to renew through your county’s public health department. Some states issue cards valid for two years, but the one-year standard is far more common. Check your state’s health department website for the exact duration, since renewal timelines and fees vary.
Prescriptions
How long a prescription stays valid depends on what type of medication it covers. For controlled substances in Schedules III and IV (common examples include certain sleep aids, anti-anxiety medications, and some pain relievers), federal law sets a hard limit: the prescription expires six months after the date it was written, and you can get no more than five refills within that window. Schedule II controlled substances, which include stronger pain medications and stimulants, cannot be refilled at all. You need a new prescription each time.
For non-controlled medications like blood pressure drugs, antibiotics, or cholesterol medications, there’s no single federal expiration rule. Most states allow these prescriptions to remain valid for one year from the date they were written, though your pharmacy or insurance plan may impose its own limits. If your prescription has expired, you’ll need to contact your prescriber for a new one.
Medical Records
There is no federal law requiring healthcare providers to keep your medical records for a specific number of years. HIPAA, the main federal health privacy law, governs how records are protected and handled, but it does not set a retention period. Instead, state laws determine how long providers must store your records, and those timelines vary widely. Most states require providers to keep adult medical records for at least 5 to 10 years. Records for minors are often kept longer, sometimes until several years after the child turns 18.
If you need copies of old records, request them sooner rather than later. Once a provider meets their state’s minimum retention requirement, they’re free to destroy the files. Hospitals and large health systems tend to keep records longer than the legal minimum, but small practices and retired physicians may not.
Medical Power of Attorney
A medical power of attorney (also called a healthcare proxy or advance directive for healthcare) does not expire on its own. A durable medical power of attorney remains in effect until the person who created it either revokes it or dies. You can revoke it at any time, as long as you’re mentally competent to do so.
The exception is a limited power of attorney, which includes a specific end date or covers only a defined situation, like a single surgery or a period of travel. Once that date passes or the situation resolves, the document automatically expires. If you created a medical power of attorney years ago and your circumstances have changed, you can replace it by signing a new one, which typically voids the previous version.
Medical Debt on Credit Reports
If your search is about how long medical bills affect your credit, the landscape shifted significantly in 2023. The three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) voluntarily removed all medical debts under $500 from consumer credit reports. They also removed records of medical bills that had already been repaid. Before this change, paid medical collections could linger on your report for up to seven years.
Medical debts above $500 that remain unpaid can still appear on your credit report. Roughly $49 billion in medical debt nationwide exceeds that $500 threshold and remains reportable. If you’re dealing with a medical collection, it’s worth checking your credit report to confirm whether it still appears, since the rules have changed recently enough that some outdated entries may not have been cleaned up.