Medi-Cal renewal checklist

60, 30, 7 days.
One checklist.
Coverage holds.

Three windows before your Medi-Cal renewal date. Each one has a short list of what actually has to happen — who sends what to whom, and when. Sober Stay files nearly all of it; you only have to send the proof we ask for.

Open pre-screen intakeSee current residences
Calendar this page at the start of every redetermination cycle. Most residents renew once a year — coverage lapses when the upload slips past 30 days out.

The three windows

What happens at each window, and what to do.

Walk these in order. Don’t skip the 60-day step — the 30-day upload doesn’t survive without the documents it asks for.

  1. 60 days before your renewal date

    60 days out.

    The renewal packet arrives.

    The county sends a renewal packet in the mail about 60 days before coverage would end. The packet asks you to confirm income, household, and address — and to send back proof. If you don’t respond, Medi-Cal can stop on the renewal date. This is the window to start the paperwork, not the window to finish it.

    What to do

    • Open every envelope from the county (or your managed-care plan) in the next two weeks — the renewal packet looks like ordinary mail.
    • Pull last month’s paystub, your lease or shelter letter, and an ID into one folder.
    • Call your case manager or managed-care plan and ask what they need from you.
    • If Drug Medi-Cal (DMC-ODS, LA County’s substance-use treatment program) covers your treatment, tell Sober Stay so we can file the redetermination alongside.

    Next step: open / intake — so the team picks the redetermination up before move-in.

    Open a pre-screen intake

  2. 30 days before your renewal date

    30 days out.

    The document-upload deadline.

    Thirty days out, the county’s paperwork is due. If the upload slips past this date, Recovery Bridge Housing (RBH, the short-term LA County bridge program) and Drug Medi-Cal funding stop on the renewal date — meaning no bed can be billed that month. Sober Stay usually finishes the upload for you in this window; you just have to send the proof when we ask.

    What to do

    • Send Sober Stay the proof the renewal packet asks for — paystub, ID, address letter, anything else the county listed.
    • Confirm your managed-care plan (Health Net, Kaiser, Anthem, another MCP) is still the one listed on your Medi-Cal card.
    • If you moved in the last 30 days, update the address with the county before the upload — a returned packet is the most common reason coverage lapses.
    • Re-confirm MAT (medications for addiction treatment — Suboxone, methadone, vivitrol) with your prescriber; we send the regimen along with the redetermination so it doesn’t get re-screened.

    Next step: open / intake — uploads go out the same day.

    Open intake if you haven’t already

  3. 7 days before your renewal date

    7 days out.

    RBH enrollment re-confirmed.

    The week of the renewal, Sober Stay re-enrolls the resident in Recovery Bridge Housing for the next term and confirms Drug Medi-Cal day-rate billing for the month ahead. If anything is going to break, it breaks here — and we fix it before the renewal date, not after. Move-in remains on schedule.

    What to do

    • Read the text or email your case manager sends and reply same-day if anything is missing.
    • Bring two forms of ID and your current prescription list to move-in.
    • Confirm transportation to the house — Sober Stay does not provide it; the bed is the bed.
    • Tell your managed-care plan coordinator the move-in date so they bill the right county for the right month.

    Next step: open / intake — the same form updates the redetermination file.

    Confirm the bed via intake

Keep the bed

The same form updates the redetermination file.

If your renewal date is coming up — or you’re not sure when it is — open the pre-screen intake. The intake team flags redetermination work before the 60-day window opens, so coverage holds for the next term.

Open pre-screen intakeSee current residences