Moving? How to keep your health coverage, prescriptions and doctors

The short answer

A move can open a short window to change plans. For Medicare Advantage and Medicare drug plans, it lasts until 2 full months after you move. For Covered California and HealthCare.gov, you generally have 60 days. Job-based plans set their own rules.
Some coverage depends on where you live. Medicare Advantage and drug plans, marketplace plans, Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California) and plans with local networks may not work at a new address. Original Medicare works anywhere in the U.S.
Report the move to every program. Medicare gets your address from Social Security. In California, tell your county within 10 days if you have Medi-Cal, and update Covered California within 30 days.
Medi-Cal moves with you between California counties; you do not reapply. It ends if you leave the state, and you apply for Medicaid where you now live.
Before you leave, refill medicines, plan how each prescription will transfer, and get copies of your medicine list and key records.

Your plan, county or state agency decides your actual coverage, so confirm with them.

Start here: what a move does to your coverage

Your coverage	Moving within your state	Moving to another state	Who to tell
Original Medicare, with or without Medigap	Keeps working with any doctor or hospital that takes Medicare	Keeps working. An insurer cannot cancel a Medigap policy because you moved	Social Security; your Medigap insurer
Medicare Advantage or Medicare drug plan (Part D)	You can switch if you leave the plan's area or get new plan choices	You need a plan offered where you now live, or Original Medicare	Your plan; Social Security
Medi-Cal	Stays active; the counties transfer your case. Your health plan may change	Ends. Apply for Medicaid in the new state	Your county, within 10 days
Medicaid in another state	Ask that state's agency	Apply in the new state	Old and new state agencies
Covered California or another marketplace plan	Report the move; you can change plans if new ones are available	You cannot keep the plan. Apply in the new state	Covered California within 30 days; HealthCare.gov right away
Job-based plan	Check the network near your new home	Same check. Some plans, such as HMOs, serve a set local area	Your HR office or the plan

Medicare: you have about two months

Original Medicare (Part A and Part B) has no service area. Just update your address with Social Security, online in a my Social Security account or by contacting the agency, even if you do not get Social Security benefits. If you get Railroad Retirement benefits, update it with the Railroad Retirement Board.

Medicare Advantage and Medicare drug plans are sold for specific areas, and a Medicare Advantage plan can, and sometimes must, drop a member who moves out of its service area. You get a Special Enrollment Period (a chance to change plans outside open enrollment) if you move out of your plan's area, or move within it and have new plan choices.

Timing: The window starts the month you move and lasts 2 full months after. If you tell your plan before you move, it starts the month before.
Choices: Join a Medicare Advantage or drug plan available at your new address, or go back to Original Medicare. If you leave the area and pick nothing, you will be moved to Original Medicare when the old plan drops you. Original Medicare does not include Part D drug coverage, so join a separate drug plan in the same window if you take prescription medicines.
Medigap: If you move out of a Medicare Advantage plan's area and switch to Original Medicare, insurers must sell you certain Medigap plans (A, B, D or G, and C or F only if you were eligible for Medicare before 2020) without charging more for health problems. Apply within 63 days after your Medicare Advantage coverage ends. A similar right applies if you move out of a Medicare SELECT policy's area (a Medigap policy with a network). Your state may add rights.
Other moves: Returning to the U.S. after living abroad, or moving into or out of a nursing home or rehabilitation hospital, opens its own window.

Example (fictional): Mae has a Medicare Advantage plan with drug coverage and is moving from Sacramento to Oregon on June 20. She tells her plan in May, so her window runs from May through August. In July she joins a plan, found in Medicare's online plan finder, that covers her new clinic and her three medicines. Had she done nothing, she would have ended up in Original Medicare with no drug plan.

Medi-Cal: moving to another California county

Tell a county within 10 days. Report the move to the county you are leaving or the one you are moving to, in person, by phone, in writing or online.

You do not reapply. State law says the county you tell must start a transfer within 7 business days, and the new county should take over by the first of the month after 30 days have passed since you reported. Your coverage should stay active throughout, and you should not have to resend documents the old county already has. Reporting late is not, by itself, grounds for the county to say you were overpaid.

Your health plan may change, because Medi-Cal plans serve specific counties. Until the transfer is done, your old plan still covers emergencies and any out-of-network care it approves. If you need non-emergency care in the new county that same month, call the Medi-Cal Managed Care Ombudsman at 1-888-452-8609 and ask to leave your old plan right away. Calls before 5 p.m. should take effect within 2 business days. You then get Medi-Cal through fee-for-service (paid directly by the state, with no health plan) until you join a new plan. Some counties assign everyone to a single county plan automatically; in others, you choose through Health Care Options, 1-800-430-4263. Then see Changing a Medi-Cal primary-care provider.

Medicines. Most Medi-Cal members get pharmacy benefits through Medi-Cal Rx, one statewide program, so drug coverage rules do not change with your county. Check that your new pharmacy is in its network. PACE and SCAN plan members should ask their plan.

Leaving California, or moving to a new state with Medicaid

Each state runs Medicaid for its own residents, and income limits, services and costs differ.

Leaving California? Tell your county. If it cannot confirm you still live in California, it must end your Medi-Cal.
Apply in your new state as soon as you live there. States take applications all year, and federal rules bar them from turning you down because you have not lived there long enough.
Moving to California? Apply for Medi-Cal through your county or Covered California, and tell your old state.

Covered California and other marketplace plans

Within California. Update your Covered California account within 30 days, or call (800) 300-1506. If your new area has plans that were not offered at your old address, you can enroll or change plans from 60 days before to 60 days after the move. Pick a plan on or before your move date and coverage starts the first of the month after the move; pick later and it starts the first of the month after you pick.

To or from another state. HealthCare.gov says you cannot keep your plan when you move to a new state. Report the move right away to avoid a gap and to stop paying for coverage that no longer applies. Then apply in the new state, on HealthCare.gov or the state's own site.

Prior coverage. Under federal marketplace rules, which HealthCare.gov follows, a move opens enrollment only if you had qualifying coverage for at least 1 day in the 60 days before it. Exceptions include people moving from another country or a U.S. territory, and American Indians and Alaska Natives. California's regulation states the move rule without this condition. If you were uninsured before moving to or within California, apply anyway; Covered California says it will review your application.

What does not count. HealthCare.gov says moving only for medical treatment, or for a vacation, does not qualify.

Proof. You may be asked to show your new address, for example with a Postal Service change-of-address confirmation, a California driver's license or ID card, a bill or a signed rental agreement. If you have none, Covered California accepts a signed statement explaining why.

To weigh your new choices, see How to compare two health plans beyond the premium.

Job-based coverage

Check the network for your new ZIP code in the plan's directory, then call member services (the number on your card) to confirm doctors, the nearest hospital and your pharmacy.
Ask HR whether you can change plans now. Federal tax rules allow, but do not require, employer plans to permit a mid-year change when a move affects eligibility, such as leaving an HMO's service area. Ask right away; each plan sets its own deadline.
Leaving a job as part of the move? See Lost your job? A checklist for benefits and health coverage.

Prescriptions: plan the handoff

Refill before you go. Ask your plan whether it will cover an early refill before the move. Update any mail-order address.
Ask your new pharmacy to transfer prescriptions from the old one, and bring your bottles or a list. Controlled medicines have stricter federal rules: refills of Schedule III to V medicines can usually be transferred only once, and Schedule II medicines cannot be refilled, so each fill needs a new prescription. An unfilled electronic prescription for a controlled medicine can be moved once, at your request. Ask your pharmacist which of your medicines are controlled.
Ask your prescriber how care continues. If you are leaving the state, ask whether your clinicians can keep seeing you by video; that depends on licensing rules where you will be. Ask for enough refills to last until your first new visit.
Check the new plan's drug list. In a new Medicare drug plan, if a medicine you take is not on the list or needs approval first, the plan must give you a one-time temporary supply, usually at least a month's worth, during your first 90 days. Use that time to switch medicines or ask for an exception.
In California, know the emergency refill rule. If your prescriber cannot be reached, a pharmacist may refill a prescription when, in the pharmacist's judgment, going without could seriously harm your ongoing care. This does not cover Schedule II medicines, because federal law bars refilling them.

Get help now

Do not stop a medicine, or take less to make it last, unless your clinician tells you to. If you are about to run out of a medicine you take every day, call a pharmacist or your prescriber that day. For a medical emergency, call 911.

Doctors and medical records

Gather records before you leave: recent visit summaries, your medicine and allergy list, diagnoses, recent test and imaging results, vaccine records and specialist letters. See How to organize your medical records.

Your right to copies. Under HIPAA, the federal health privacy law:

The office must act within 30 days, with one 30-day extension if it explains the delay in writing. It may require a written request.
It may charge only a reasonable, cost-based fee for copying labor, supplies and postage. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says the fee cannot be per page for records stored electronically. HHS allows a flat $6.50 fee for electronic copies as one option, but that is not a cap.
You can ask for an electronic copy, in the format you want if the office can readily produce it.
HHS says you cannot be denied your records because of an unpaid medical bill.

In California, offices must send copies within 15 days, may charge no more than 25 cents a page for paper copies, and cannot hold records back over an unpaid bill.

Records can go straight to your new doctor. HIPAA lets doctors share records with each other for your treatment without your written permission, though many offices still ask you to sign a release. See also Understanding your medical privacy rights.

Find a new primary care clinician early, since a new-patient visit may not be available right away: see How to find a primary care doctor who is accepting new patients. A referral or prior approval may not carry over, so ask your new plan before booking specialist visits.

Ongoing services need their own handoff. If you use dialysis, home oxygen, home health care, therapy, behavioral health care or a specialty pharmacy, ask each provider how to transfer before you move. If someone at home relies on powered medical equipment in California, see how Medical Baseline works when you move.

Your moving checklist

One to two months before

List every coverage in your household, with each plan's phone number.
Check your new ZIP code in each plan's directory or plan finder.
Ask HR about the plan and any deadline to change.
Request copies of key records; start looking for a new primary care clinician.

The last two weeks

Refill medicines and pick a new pharmacy.
Tell your Medicare Advantage or drug plan your move date.
Carry medicines, your medicine list and insurance cards with you.

Within 10 to 30 days after

Update Social Security (Medicare), your county (Medi-Cal, within 10 days) and Covered California (within 30 days), or apply in your new state.
Choose any new plan before your window closes.
Answer mail from your plan, county or state by its deadline.

A printable version with space for deadlines and call notes is in the moving health coverage checklist.

Where to get free help

Medicare: 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227; TTY 1-877-486-2048). For free, unbiased counseling, your State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP): 877-839-2675; in California, HICAP: 1-800-434-0222.
Medi-Cal: your county office; Health Care Options 1-800-430-4263; Managed Care Ombudsman 1-888-452-8609.
Marketplaces: Covered California (800) 300-1506 or a free certified enroller; HealthCare.gov 1-800-318-2596.

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