Did you actually know that you cannot keep a prescription issued by a doctor indefinitely? I’m sure you did! But how long is it valid?
Limited validity
In purely legal terms, a prescription is a document with limited validity. Of course, there is also a regulation on this. And this stipulates that a prescription is only valid for a maximum of six months.
“Normal” prescriptions, however, can only private patients six months. Statutory health insurers, on the other hand, only reimburse the costs incurred within one month of a prescription being issued.
The regulations are even stricter for narcotics. Narcotics are issued by the physician on a special form and are valid for only 7 days.
