A medical prescription must be given to you by your doctor if your state of health requires that you need to take certain medications or undergo medical examinations. This medical prescription is useful for you to go to a pharmacy, to a specialist, to an analysis laboratory, etc., but it is also used to reimburse you for your medicines and medical procedures. In the case of the purchase of medicines, your pharmacist generally sends your medical prescription directly to the Health Insurance by electronic transmission using your Vitale card. Once you have your medical prescription in hand, how long do you have to use it? Its period of validity depends on the type of prescription issued by your healthcare professional.
During a visit to a doctor, the latter may prescribe medication. To get them from the pharmacist, he will issue you a medical prescription in 2 copies (one for you and the other for your health insurance organization so that you are reimbursed for your medication).
A prescription issued for medication is valid for maximum 3 months from the date prescribed by your doctor. Beyond this period, your doctor's prescription is no longer valid and your pharmacist can no longer dispense the medicines mentioned in this document.
However, the duration of treatment determined by your doctor is a maximum of one year. But he cannot prescribe certain medications, in particular anxiolytics or sleeping pills, for more than 12 weeks. In this case, your pharmacist also has the obligation not to give you your medication for longer than one month, each time. You must therefore return to your pharmacist each month to be able to continue your treatment.
On the other hand, in quite exceptional situations (chronic treatment, delivery of a single box of medicines, etc.), your pharmacist has the possibility of delivering the treatments essential to your health if your medical prescription has expired in order to to avoid any interruption of your care.
Finally, there is another exception:a pharmacist has the option of dispensing oral contraceptives if the original prescription has expired, but only if it is less than a year old.
If your doctor has given you a prescription so that you can have access to paramedical care such as biological analyses, physiotherapy, nursing care, radiology procedures, speech therapy sessions, etc., you do not have no deadline to provide this care, your medical prescription therefore has no time limit.
However, like any treatment prescribed by a doctor, it is strongly advised to carry it out quickly to improve your state of health.
Besides medication, your doctor can also advise you to wear certain medical devices or equipment necessary to improve your health.
This may involve equipping yourself with crutches, wearing a lumbar belt, a knee pad, compression stockings, or even using specific dressings. In this case, your doctor will also issue you a prescription which has a validity period of 12 months .
The validity period of medical prescriptions that prescribe glasses or contact lenses varies according to your age and the reason for changing your optical equipment.
A medical prescription that prescribes contact lenses is valid for 3 years . As with glasses, your optician can renew your lenses during this period, adapting them to your sight without the need for a new prescription from your doctor.
