Not returning a renewal packet can end your coverage under Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid program, even if you still qualify. Federal law makes the county try to renew you automatically from data it already holds before asking for paperwork, but a form that does arrive has to come back on time. This guide covers how California Medicaid recertification and renewal works in 2026, what to do when your packet arrives, and the 90-day window if you miss the deadline.

Renew at BenefitsCal.com · Medi-Cal Member Helpline: 1-800-541-5555

Medicaid eligibility is set at application and redetermined every 12 months. Most closures are procedural: the person still qualified but did not return the form in time.

DHCS's July 2026 Fast Facts report puts Medi-Cal certified eligibles at 13,910,180 as of April 2026. The California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) is the single state agency, but renewals are run by California's 58 counties on the shared CalSAWS system, with BenefitsCal.com as the member portal.

In This Guide

How the California Medicaid renewal cycle works

Under 42 CFR 435.916, Medi-Cal eligibility is redetermined once every 12 months for most beneficiaries., Your renewal month is set at approval and never moves: approved in October, you renew every October. Renewals then split two ways:

  • MAGI populations (children, pregnant enrollees, parents and caretaker relatives, and Affordable Care Act adult-expansion enrollees): income is checked against Social Security and IRS data through CalSAWS.
  • Non-MAGI populations (Aged, Blind, and Disabled; institutional long-term care; Home and Community-Based Services waivers; Medicare Savings Programs; and Medically Needy share-of-cost cases): an asset test applies. Federal law requires every state to run an electronic Asset Verification System and to use it when it determines or redetermines eligibility for aged, blind, or disabled people (Section 1940 of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. 1396w), so the resource check reaches you at renewal, not only at application.

That test is new. AB 116 (Chapter 21, Statutes of 2025) reinstated it effective January 1, 2026 at $130,000 for one person plus $65,000 for each additional household member (so $195,000 for a couple), after California eliminated its non-MAGI asset limits in 2024. It did not come back for everyone: DHCS states the Pickle, Disabled Adult Child, and Disabled Widow/er programs stay exempt under separate federal waiver authority, so if you renew under one of those the $130,000 test is not yours. The limits are temporary, holding through June 30, 2027; from July 1, 2027 the limit drops to $21,000 for one person, $31,000 for two, plus $1,550 for each additional household member.

Ex parte California Medicaid renewal: the federal mandate

The ex parte default at 42 CFR 435.916 governs modern Medicaid renewal: before the county asks you for anything, it must try to renew your coverage from reliable information already in your account or otherwise available to it, including electronic data sources. That is the MAGI rule, at 42 CFR 435.916(a)(2). On a non-MAGI basis (age 65 or older, blindness or disability, long-term care, a Medicare Savings Program, or medically needy), the duty sits in paragraph (b), worded differently: the county must redetermine eligibility that way "if sufficient information is available to do so."

In California that means Social Security and SSI records, IRS tax filings, and wage records available to CalSAWS. If they confirm you are still inside your category's income threshold and nothing else has changed, coverage continues 12 more months with no action required, and a notice tells you so.

It fails when income is hard to verify from data alone (self-employment, gig work, cash income, or seasonal earnings that never reach wage databases), when the household changes, when income sits close to the cutoff, or, for non-MAGI cases, when resources cannot be confirmed electronically. Then the county mails a renewal form pre-filled with what it has. For MAGI-based eligibility, 42 CFR 435.916(a)(3) requires at least 30 days from the date on it to respond, supply missing information, and sign; on a non-MAGI pathway the state may apply that procedure but federal law does not require it. California is more generous, allowing up to 90 days from the letter date to return the form without a new application.

How to renew Medi-Cal: your four channels

Federal law forbids requiring an in-person interview at a MAGI renewal, and leaves that rule to the state for non-MAGI groups. California takes the form four ways.

Channel How Notes
Online BenefitsCal.com Fastest; confirmation and document upload
Phone Medi-Cal Member Helpline 1-800-541-5555, or your county office Keep your case number handy
Mail Return the signed form to your county office Address is pre-printed on the packet
In person Any of California's 58 County Welfare Department offices Find yours through BenefitsCal

BenefitsCal is the statewide self-service portal on the CalSAWS back-end. No account yet? Register with the case number from any notice or your Benefits Identification Card.

The 90-day California Medicaid renewal reconsideration window

If your coverage closed because you missed the form, you may not have to start over. Under 42 CFR 435.916, if you lose Medi-Cal for failure to return the renewal form or requested information, the county must reconsider your eligibility and treat the late-returned form as your renewal if you submit it within 90 days of termination, without a new application. That federal duty covers eligibility based on modified adjusted gross income (MAGI); for non-MAGI groups a state may offer the same window but is not required to. California's guidance is not written narrower: DHCS tells members that returning the form or missing information within 90 days keeps coverage without a new application, and that a new application is required after that. If you are non-MAGI, confirm with your county that it applies to you.

  • Procedural termination: you did not respond, did not provide requested documentation, or missed the signature. The 90-day reconsideration applies.
  • Eligibility-based termination: the county found you no longer meet income, residency, or another requirement. The reconsideration does not apply; file a new application or appeal.

Submit through any of the four channels above. No form? Get one through BenefitsCal or 1-800-541-5555, and note the closure date so the county routes the case correctly.

Your managed care plan at renewal

Most Medi-Cal members get their care through a managed care plan, and a successful renewal keeps you in the same one. Plan choice is made at enrollment through Health Care Options, the statewide enrollment broker; in some counties you have 30 days to choose, and if you do not, Medi-Cal chooses for you., Change plans through Health Care Options at 1-800-430-4263 (TTY 1-800-430-7077).,

If you are moved from fee-for-service into a managed care plan, DHCS continuity-of-care policy lets you keep your existing provider for up to 12 months, and the plan is required to grant the request, not merely permitted to, so long as you have a current relationship with that provider, the plan has no quality-of-care concerns about them, they accept the plan's contracted or fee-for-service rates, and they are a California State Plan approved provider. Call the plan and name the provider; it must answer within 30 calendar days, sooner if your condition needs it. If it refuses or misses that deadline, file a grievance.

Children's 12-month continuous eligibility

Section 5112 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 requires every state to give children under age 19 in Medicaid or CHIP 12 months of continuous eligibility from enrollment, effective January 1, 2024. Coverage holds regardless of changes in family income: if a parent loses Medi-Cal mid-year because household income rose, the children stay covered until their next annual renewal. Two events still end it early: the child turns 19, or moves out of California.

That same 2023 act also lets a state keep someone who was eligible while pregnant enrolled with full Medicaid benefits for 12 months after the pregnancy ends, rather than the historic 60 days.

Long-term care and waiver renewals

If you receive Medi-Cal long-term care (nursing facility or an HCBS waiver), your renewal has two independent parts, both of which must stay current.

Financial redetermination

The county runs your income and asset review on the annual 12-month cycle, including the asset check federal law requires at renewal through the Asset Verification System. For institutional Medi-Cal in 2026:

  • California does not disqualify a long-term-care applicant for having too much income: income above what the resident may keep becomes a patient liability, or share of cost.,
  • A resident in long-term care for an entire calendar month keeps $35 a month for personal and incidental needs under 22 CCR 50605(a); the rest of their countable income goes to the share of cost. A resident there only part of the month is not held to $35; the ordinary maintenance need under 22 CCR 50603 applies instead.
  • The $35 is not the only income you may keep, and a renewal is the moment to say so. Statute treats it as one item in a cumulative list that also covers upkeep of the home, support of minor children or a disabled relative you have regularly supported, and, for an institutionalized spouse, an allowance for the community spouse and dependent family. The home-upkeep deduction under 22 CCR 50605(b) carries four conditions: no spouse or family member lives in the home, the home is being kept for your return, a verified medical determination says you are likely to return within six months, and it runs no longer than those six months. Ask the county to apply the ones that fit; they will not appear on their own.
  • In HCBS waiver cases, DHCS's spousal-impoverishment calculation is a six-item list of which "there is no $35 personal needs allowance" is only the first: spouses sit in separate budget units, the non-MAGI deductions and disregards apply, and the one-person federal poverty and medically needy levels govern. Do not read the no-allowance line as the whole calculation.
  • If your spouse stays in the community, federal spousal-impoverishment protections apply. For 2026 DHCS publishes a single Community Spouse Resource Allowance of $162,660 and a single Minimum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance of $4,067 a month rather than a range, and California extends these protections to HCBS waivers, not just institutional care. The 2026 CSRA is not a renewal test. DHCS states it applies only to cases newly determined under spousal-impoverishment provisions from January 1, 2026 onward, and that the limit "does not apply at annual renewal."

Level-of-care reassessment

Your continued need for a nursing-facility level of care is reassessed separately by your care or service coordinator (waiver participants) or the facility (institutional Medi-Cal). If it is not approved, your long-term care Medi-Cal ends, though you may continue on standard ABD Medi-Cal if you otherwise qualify.

Medicare Savings Programs and dual eligibles

Medicare Savings Program eligibility (QMB, SLMB, and QI) is redetermined on the same 12-month non-MAGI cycle, ex parte attempt first. If you are dually eligible, your Medi-Cal renews yearly through your county while your Medicare continues on its own rules; losing Medi-Cal keeps Medicare but ends the QMB cost-sharing help that came with it. The Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program (HICAP) counsels for free at 1-800-434-0222.

Returned mail: what happens if Medi-Cal can't reach you

A renewal packet returned as undeliverable can lead to a termination. The federal rule that required the county to search for a new address before acting, 42 CFR 435.919, was removed effective July 31, 2026. Federal law now says only that the county may act without advance notice when your whereabouts are unknown, so no warning may reach you (42 CFR 431.213(d)), and that coverage must be reinstated if your whereabouts become known while you are still eligible (42 CFR 431.231(d)). That is where the mandatory-reinstatement rule below matters: an action taken without the required advance notice can oblige the agency to put your services back while you appeal. California may still have its own procedures, so call your county if mail has come back. Either way, keep your address current:

  • Update your address through BenefitsCal as soon as you move
  • Call the Medi-Cal Member Helpline at 1-800-541-5555
  • Tell your managed care plan too; its records are separate from the county's
  • File a USPS change-of-address form

Appeals and your State Hearing rights

If your renewal is denied or coverage terminated, you have a federal right to a fair hearing (Section 1902(a)(3) of the Social Security Act and 42 CFR 431.220). The regulation names one exception: where the sole issue is a federal or state law requiring an automatic change that adversely affects some or all beneficiaries. A decision about your case, including a spend-down determination or a change in your share of cost, is appealable. Under 42 CFR 431.221(d), 90 days from the notice's mailing is the most a state may allow, not a minimum you are owed.

In California the appeal is a State Hearing before an administrative law judge at the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) State Hearings Division, not your county or plan. California allows the full 90 days, counted from the day you receive the Notice of Action, not the day the county mailed it. Keep the envelope. A late request may still be accepted for good cause, such as illness or disability. Request one online through the Appeals Case Management System, by phone at 1-800-743-8525, by mail, or by fax, but not by email. Managed care members have an added step: first exhaust the plan's internal appeal, decided in writing within 30 days, then request a State Hearing within 120 days of that decision. Fee-for-service members go straight to the State Hearing.

Keeping coverage during the appeal. Federal law continues your Medi-Cal as "Aid Paid Pending" if you request the hearing before the action takes effect, generally within the 10-day advance-notice period. In California that means requesting by the effective date on the notice. A few days late, ask anyway: 42 CFR 431.231(a) lets the agency reinstate services when you request a hearing no more than 10 days after the date of action.

If you never got advance notice, reinstatement is a right, not a favor. This is the route most often missed. Under 42 CFR 431.231(c) the agency must reinstate and continue your services until a hearing decision when all three are true: the action was taken without the advance notice federal law required; you request a hearing within 10 days from the date you receive the notice of action, with receipt treated as five days after the date on it unless you show it arrived later; and the agency determines the action came from something other than the application of federal or state law or policy. If your Medi-Cal was cut off and no warning ever reached you, say those words when you call. If the county's action is later upheld, it may recoup the cost of services provided only because benefits continued.

Special populations and renewal nuances

Renewal matters more for some immigrants in 2026. As of January 1, 2026, some adults can no longer sign up for full-scope Medi-Cal because of their immigration status; DHCS calls this the Enrollment Freeze. Adults who already have full-scope Medi-Cal keep it regardless of immigration status, but only if they renew on time and still meet Medi-Cal rules. Children ages 0 to 18, pregnant people, and people under age 26 who were in foster care on their 18th birthday stay eligible regardless of immigration status.

Reasonable opportunity period. When the county cannot promptly verify a declared citizenship or satisfactory immigration status, 42 CFR 435.956 requires it to grant a reasonable opportunity period. The clock starts later than the letter is dated. It begins on the date you receive the notice, deemed five days after the date printed on it unless you show it arrived later, and ends at verification or 90 days after that start, whichever is earlier. The agency may extend it past 90 days for someone declaring satisfactory immigration status on three grounds: your good-faith effort to get the documents, more time to verify your status through other electronic data sources, or more time to help you obtain them. During the period it may not delay, deny, reduce, or terminate benefits for someone it otherwise finds eligible, and it may not cap how many periods you get. If the period ends with your status unverified, the county must act within 30 days to end your eligibility, with the usual notice and appeal rights.

The ombudsman. The DHCS Medi-Cal Managed Care Ombudsman does not update your eligibility, so renewal paperwork still goes through your county.

What changes after 2026: 6-month renewals

Section 71107 of the 2025 budget-reconciliation law (H.R.1, Public Law 119-21) requires states to redetermine eligibility once every 6 months, rather than every 12 months, for renewals scheduled on or after January 1, 2027. It reaches two groups only: the ACA expansion-adult population enrolled under section 1902(a)(10)(A)(i)(VIII), and people in that same category enrolled instead under a state-plan waiver providing coverage equivalent to minimum essential coverage. Everyone else is outside the provision rather than excused from it. Its one written exemption covers an Indian or Urban Indian as defined in the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, a California Indian, and anyone otherwise determined eligible as an Indian for the Indian Health Service, and it turns on a determination by the state, so raise it with your county rather than assuming it applies automatically. California adopted ACA Medicaid expansion, so from 2027 millions of expansion adults renew twice a year.

The same law separately excuses a longer list of people from its new community-engagement (work) requirement, including someone medically frail or the parent or caretaker relative of a child 13 and under. A work-requirement exemption is not a renewal exemption: those adults still renew every six months.

It also shortens retroactive eligibility for applications filed on or after January 1, 2027, from the third month before the application month to two months, or one month for the ACA expansion adult group. Those are outer boundaries, not start dates: federal regulation leaves the exact effective date inside the window to the state plan, so ask your county what date California uses.

Common Medi-Cal renewal mistakes

  1. Treating the packet like junk mail. Anything from your county, DHCS, or BenefitsCal is time-sensitive; open it the day it arrives.
  2. Ignoring a request for asset documentation on an ABD or long-term care renewal. An unanswered request stalls the renewal.
  3. Revoking the bank-records authorization to protect your privacy. You can revoke it in writing, and the state must tell you the authorization's duration and scope. But federal law also says that if you refuse or revoke it, the state may on that basis alone find you ineligible, so a privacy decision here is a coverage decision.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens if I miss my Medi-Cal renewal deadline?

Your coverage closes, but returning the renewal within 90 days of a procedural closure gets your eligibility reviewed again without a new application: federally required for MAGI-based eligibility, a state option for non-MAGI, and stated by DHCS for members generally., After 90 days, file a new application through BenefitsCal.

My child is on Medi-Cal. If my income goes up mid-year, does my child lose coverage?

No. Under federal continuous-eligibility rules effective January 1, 2024, children under 19 have 12 months of continuous eligibility from enrollment, so your child keeps Medi-Cal until the next annual renewal. Exceptions: turning 19 or moving out of California.

Can I appeal if my renewal is denied?

Yes. You have 90 days from the day you receive the Notice of Action to request a State Hearing through the CDSS State Hearings Division. In a managed care plan, first exhaust the plan's internal appeal, then request the State Hearing within 120 days of the plan's written decision. Request the hearing before the action takes effect and coverage continues as Aid Paid Pending.

Contacts and resources

For an annual renewal, a 90-day reconsideration, or an appeal:

BenefitsCal Renew, upload documents, update your address. BenefitsCal.com
Medi-Cal Member Helpline (DHCS) Renewal help and case status. 1-800-541-5555
Health Care Options Choose, change, or leave a managed care plan. 1-800-430-4263
Medi-Cal Managed Care Ombudsman Neutral help with plan access problems. 1-888-452-8609
CDSS State Hearings Division Request a Medi-Cal State Hearing (appeal). 1-800-743-8525
HICAP Free Medicare and Medicare Savings Program counseling. 1-800-434-0222

To check whether your renewal has been processed, log into BenefitsCal. For whether you remain eligible, see Medi-Cal eligibility and income limits, the California Medi-Cal hub, and the national Medicaid guides.

Learn More

MedicaidCalifornia Medi-Cal: Complete GuideCalifornia families' 2026 guide to Medi-Cal: AB 116 asset limits, Medi-Medi Plans, HCBS waivers, CalAIM, IHSS, estate recovery, and how to apply. MedicaidHow to Apply for Medi-Cal in CaliforniaHow to apply for Medi-Cal in California in 2026: BenefitsCal online, county offices, paper forms, plan selection, yearly renewal, and appeal rights. MedicaidMedi-Cal Income and Asset LimitsMedi-Cal income and asset limits for 2026: MAGI, the SSI pathway, Share of Cost for long-term care, spousal rules, and the asset test that ends 6/30/2027. MedicaidCalifornia Medicaid Appeals and Fair HearingsHow to appeal a California Medi-Cal denial, reduction, or termination, keep your benefits during the appeal, and request a State Hearing with CDSS. MedicaidHow to Choose a Medi-Cal Managed Care PlanHow to choose or switch a Medi-Cal (California Medicaid) managed care plan: the five county models, the 2024 procurement, Kaiser, and how to switch. MedicaidHow to Get Medi-Cal to Pay for Long-Term CareHow Medi-Cal pays for long-term care in California in 2026: share of cost, the asset limit and its July 2027 step-down, transfers, and spousal protection.

Find personalized help renewing your California Medi-Cal coverage at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.

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