What This License Is
The Alabama Health line — formally accident and health or sickness, sometimes written disability in the statutes — covers major medical, disability income, dental, vision, Medicare supplement and long-term care products sold in the state.
It is a standalone exam of 100 questions, and the practical question for most candidates is whether to sit it alone or take the combined Life & Health exam instead. The combined paper is 150 questions for $75, against 100 questions for $50 here plus another 125 for $50 if you later add Life. If both lines are plausibly in your future, the combined exam is both cheaper and one fewer trip — see the [Life & Health guide](/insurance/alabama/life-and-health/licensing-guide).
Alabama's health market shapes the exam in one respect worth knowing up front: the state has not expanded Medicaid under the ACA and uses the federal marketplace at healthcare.gov rather than a state-based exchange. Its CHIP program is ALL Kids, administered by the Alabama Department of Public Health.
Exam Options & Format
The Health exam is 100 questions in 2 hours, needing 70 correct to pass — a clean raw 70%, with no scaling. Alabama assigns no series or code number.
Its four parts run: Part I general insurance 21 questions, Part III health insurance 63 questions, and Part IV Alabama insurance law 16 questions. The Alabama block covers licensing, commissioner powers, appointments, continuing education, unfair trade practices and the Domestic Abuse Insurance Protection Act — the last of which is named explicitly in ALDOI's outline and appears on no other state's exam in that form.
ALDOI publishes pass rates annually, which is unusual and useful. For 2025 the Health exam ran 65% first-time (175 of 270) and 63% overall. Across all producer lines the report shows 8,159 exams given and 58% passed. The two hardest papers were Personal Lines at 52% and P&C at 56% first-time; Health sits comfortably above both.
Most Tested Topics on the Alabama Health Exam
Alabama's health law is short, and its distinctive points are about timing and about a state process that does not exist.
| Concept | The Alabama rule |
|---|---|
| Clean-claim payment, electronic | 30 calendar days (Ala. Code § 27-1-17) |
| Clean-claim payment, paper | 45 calendar days — Alabama does split the two |
| After requested information arrives | Pay, deny or adjudicate within 21 calendar days |
| Overdue interest | 1.5% per month, prorated daily |
| Administrative fines | Up to $1,000 per violation or per day, subject to the statutory cap (§ 27-1-17(c), (i)) |
| Late payment and coverage | Paying late does not create coverage for an otherwise non-covered claim |
| External review | ⚠️ Alabama has no state external review process — it defers to the federal HHS-administered process under 45 C.F.R. § 147.136 |
| Medicaid expansion | Not expanded — Alabama remains a non-expansion state |
| Marketplace | Federal healthcare.gov; no state-based exchange |
| CHIP program | ALL Kids, run by the Alabama Department of Public Health |
| Medicare supplement free look | 30 days, refund paid directly to the applicant by the issuer (§ 27-19-57) |
| Long-term care free look | 30 days, refund made within 30 days of return (§ 27-19-105(f)) |
| LTC producer training | One-time 8 hours, then 4 hours every 24 months (482-1-091-.32) |
| COBRA threshold | 20 or more employees — federal only; Alabama adds no mini-COBRA |
The external-review answer is the one to lock down. Candidates trained nationally expect a state-run independent review organization with a binding decision. Alabama has none: Chapter 27-3A governs utilization review only, and appeals route to the federal process. A question offering "the Alabama Department of Insurance assigns an IRO" is describing a mechanism that does not exist here.
Second: the prompt-pay split runs the way you would guess, and the third number is the one people miss. Electronic claims get 30 days, paper 45 — the conventional structure. What gets forgotten is the 21-day clock that starts when the insurer receives information it asked for, and the 1.5% per month interest that runs on anything overdue. And on the COBRA question, remember Alabama has no mini-COBRA: an employer with 18 employees leaves the departing worker with no state continuation right to fall back on.
Testing Online with ProctorU — the Alabama Setup
Alabama is one of the states where remote testing genuinely earns its keep, because the in-person alternative is unusually rigid. Classroom sessions run on fixed days at fixed start times in five cities, and once you have paid you cannot move the booking. Online testing, by contrast, "can be scheduled for any time."
Who proctors it. The University of Alabama delivers online producer exams through ProctorU. After you register through the university's catalog, scheduling details arrive by email from noreply@proctoru.com — typically the next business day, not immediately. Build that lag into your plan; it is the single most common surprise in the process.
What you need. A desktop or laptop with a camera and microphone. Chromebooks are expressly not permitted, which is a real constraint for candidates whose only machine is a Chromebook. Run the vendor's system check before exam day rather than discovering a hardware problem at launch.
Identification is stricter online than in the classroom. For an in-person sitting the university accepts a driver's license or non-driver photo ID, a passport, a military ID, or an employee ID card. The online session terms are tighter: "only valid driver's licenses, passports, or government photo identification will be accepted. It must be current (not expired) and must be a hard copy." An employee badge that would get you into a classroom will not get you into a ProctorU session, and a photo of your license on your phone will not either.
What it costs. The same as testing in person — $50 for a single-line exam, $75 for the combined Life & Health or Property & Casualty paper. There is no proctoring surcharge in the base fee. ProctorU does sell expedited scheduling on top: a "Take It Soon" option adds $8 and "Take It Now" adds $12. Both are optional.
What online testing does not change. The exam itself is identical — same question count, same time, same raw 70% threshold. The no-reschedule and no-refund policy still applies, and so does the requirement to register in advance. If you fail, the same waiting-period ladder applies whichever way you sat it; the [Personal Lines guide](/insurance/alabama/personal-lines/licensing-guide) sets out the retake schedule.
What It Costs
Health costs the same as any other single-line Alabama exam: $50 an attempt, in a classroom or online. The license itself is $80 to ALDOI plus a $5 NIPR transaction fee, and nothing about holding Health rather than another line changes that.
Add $49.20 for the Fieldprint appointment, and — if you use ProctorU's expedited scheduling — $8 for "Take It Soon" or $12 for "Take It Now." Both expedite options are optional.
Eligibility Requirements
18 or older (Ala. Code § 27-7-5(a)(1)), pass the exam, clear the Fieldprint background check, and provide proof of citizenship within 10 days of ALDOI's request. No education requirement exists for this or any other Alabama producer line since the repeal took effect on 1 January 2024.
The qualification that arrives after licensure is the long-term care one. Under 482-1-091-.32 a producer selling LTC must complete a one-time 8-hour training course and then 4 hours every 24 months, and must hold the Life or Accident & Health line underneath it. The 24-month clock is not your renewal cycle — it runs on its own, and it is a common real-world compliance miss as well as an exam item.
Keeping Your Health License Active
Important CE details: 24 credit hours per biennial renewal period, of which 3 must be insurance producer ethics (Rule 482-1-110-.05(1)). A credit hour is at least 50 minutes. There are NO line-specific splits — any approved course counts regardless of the license you hold — and NO carryover: excess hours are lost at the end of the period.
24 hours per biennial period, 3 of them ethics, with a credit hour defined as at least 50 minutes of participation. Alabama imposes no line-specific split — a Health-only producer and a producer holding all five lines owe the same 24 hours, and any approved course counts.
The rule that catches people is zero carryover. Excess hours do not roll forward; they are lost. Nor can you repeat a course for credit within the same reporting period. CE must be showing in your transcript before the license will renew, and ALDOI notes it "generally takes AT LEAST 3-5 business days" to post — plus, since 1 January 2019, no CE extensions are granted. Do not finish your hours in the last week of your birth month.
Quick Reference
Official Links
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