What the Arkansas Accident & Health License Covers
Arkansas writes this line as Accident, Health & Sickness — the full name, and worth knowing because that is how it appears on PSI's exam menu and on AID's forms. It covers disability income, medical and hospital expense, Medicare supplement, long-term care and the group health products that make up most of the market.
Arkansas is a more interesting health state than its size suggests. It expanded Medicaid in 2014 through a premium-assistance model that bought private Marketplace plans for the expansion population rather than enrolling them in traditional Medicaid — the so-called Private Option, now ARHOME. It runs a State-Based Marketplace on the Federal Platform: Arkansas operates its own marketplace while consumers enrol through healthcare.gov. And its state continuation law is genuinely unusual, as the most-tested section below explains.
There is no combined Life and Health exam in Arkansas. If you also want the Life line, you sit two separate 100-question exams — though they may be scheduled in the same session, and the pre-licensing maths improves. The Life & Health guide has the comparison.
TESTivity recommends Achievable to satisfy your Arkansas pre-licensing requirement. Achievable is an approved provider, its insurance courses were built by the same subject-matter expert behind TESTivity, and completing the Achievable course earns you the certificate of completion Arkansas requires.
One important distinction: TESTivity is not an approved pre-licensing provider in Arkansas and does not issue certificates of completion. The TESTivity learning tools and study packages will absolutely help you pass the exam — but treat them as a supplement to your Achievable course, not a substitute for it.
Disclosure: TESTivity has a partnership with Achievable and may earn a commission if you enroll through links on this page.
Exam Options & Format
The Accident, Health & Sickness examination is 100 scored questions plus 10 unscored pretest items in 150 minutes, passing at 70%. The pretest items do not count against your time.
PSI's Arkansas Health content outline publishes the split precisely, and it is the clearest example of how Arkansas structures its exams: an Arkansas-specific section of 30 scored questions (plus 5 pretest) in 60 minutes, and a general knowledge section of 70 scored questions (plus 5 pretest) in 90 minutes. The two are separately timed and separately scored, and each must be passed at 70% independently.
Work through what that means. Thirty questions in the state section, 70% to pass — you can miss nine. Nine questions on Arkansas insurance law standing between you and a licence, in a section a national study course will barely touch. This is why AID Rule 31 puts five mandatory hours of Arkansas laws and rules inside every pre-licensing course.
The alternative worth considering is not a different health exam — there isn't one — but adding Life. Two exams, $50 each, sat in one session if you like, and the second 20-hour course drops to 15 because Rule 31 does not make you repeat the Arkansas law block.
Most Tested Topics on the Arkansas Health Exam
Arkansas's health law diverges from the federal baseline in ways national prep material will not cover — and its state continuation scheme is unlike almost any other state's. Each of these is verified against the Arkansas Code or an AID rule:
| Concept | The Arkansas rule |
|---|---|
| State continuation — who it covers | All fully insured group accident and health plans, with NO employer-size threshold (§23-86-114). Arkansas does not restrict it to small employers the way most mini-COBRA laws do |
| Prior coverage required | The insured must have been covered 3 months beforehand |
| Continuation duration | 120 days maximum — short, where federal COBRA runs 18 to 36 months |
| Election period | 10 days to elect |
| Federal COBRA threshold | 20 or more employees — Arkansas's law runs alongside it, not below it |
| Prompt payment, electronic claim | 30 days (AID Rule 43 §12(a)) |
| Prompt payment, paper claim | 45 days — Arkansas splits the two (AID Rule 43 §12(a)) |
| Late-payment interest | 12% per year, accruing automatically from the 61st day (§23-66-215(a)) |
| External review | Arkansas runs its own, and the IRO decision binds the carrier. File within 4 months; decision in 45 days, or 72 hours expedited (§23-99-414; AID Rule 76) |
| Marketplace | A State-Based Marketplace on the Federal Platform — Arkansas runs it, consumers enrol via healthcare.gov |
| Medicaid expansion | Effective 1 January 2014 via a premium-assistance model (the Private Option, now ARHOME) |
| CHIP | ARKids First-B is the CHIP programme; ARKids First-A is the Medicaid component |
| Long-term care free look | 30 days (§23-97-311); Medicare supplement also 30 days (AID Rule 27) |
| LTC producer training | 8 hours initial, then 4 hours every 24 months (AID Rule 13) |
The state continuation numbers are where this exam is won and lost, because they invert what you learned federally. Most states write a mini-COBRA that fills the gap below the federal 20-employee threshold and runs for months. Arkansas applies its law to every fully insured group regardless of size — and gives you 120 days. So a question about a 300-employee Arkansas employer is still an Arkansas continuation question, and the answer is 120 days, not 18 months. The 10-day election window is the other trap: federal COBRA gives 60 days, and the reflex is to answer 60.
The 30/45 prompt-pay split is worth a second look too. Arkansas rewards electronic submission with a 30-day deadline and gives paper claims 45 — and then attaches 12% annual interest from the 61st day, which is a different clock again. Three numbers, one topic; expect at least one of them.
Remote Proctored Testing in Arkansas — What to Expect
Arkansas added remote online proctoring for insurance exams effective 23 June 2021, and it is still offered: PSI's current bulletin carries a full remote-testing section with live scheduling instructions, and nothing in PSI's or AID's current material announces a discontinuation. That is worth stating explicitly, because several states have quietly withdrawn remote testing since 2021.
It costs the same. The $50 exam fee applies whether you sit at a test centre or at your kitchen table. Remote testing in Arkansas buys you the drive, not a discount.
Two restrictions that catch experienced remote testers. First: "Breaks are NOT allowed during remote online proctored examinations." Not a shortened break, none — and the Health exam runs 150 minutes across two timed sections. Second: "Candidates are not allowed to have scratch paper." If your exam technique involves sketching a timeline or working through a benefit calculation on paper, it does not survive the transition to remote, and you should practise without it before exam day rather than discovering it at the desk.
The 15-minute forfeit rule. The bulletin is blunt: "By not starting your test within 15 minutes after your booked time, you forfeit your test fee or test eligibility." Not fifteen minutes of grace to get settled — fifteen minutes to have launched. Given that the pre-exam checks take time themselves, log in early.
Run the system check days ahead, not minutes. PSI requires an Audio/Video Check, a Webcam Check and a System Check before the session. Doing these the night before turns a potential forfeit into a non-event.
Room rules. You may not change computers during the exam and may not change spaces during the exam — so pick a room you can hold for the full 150 minutes. Adequate lighting is required, and you must maintain continuous eye contact with the screen; looking away repeatedly reads as looking something up. The prohibited-items list that applies at a test centre applies at home in full.
And bring the same paperwork. Remote testing does not exempt you from Arkansas's proof-of-pre-licensing requirement — PSI requires the certificate at every attempt, including remote ones, alongside your government-issued photo ID.
What It Costs
About $92 to get licensed on a first-time pass: $50 to PSI for the exam, roughly $20 to file through NIPR, and about $22 for the criminal background check — plus your 20-hour pre-licensing course, priced by the provider.
Exam fees are non-refundable and non-transferable, and each of your three permitted attempts inside the 90-day window costs the full $50. Adding the Life line later means a second $50 exam and a second course — though only 15 hours of course, because Rule 31 waives the Arkansas laws block if you took it within the past two years.
Eligibility Requirements
Minimum age 18, an Arkansas residence address for resident applicants, and a valid business email for the NIPR application. The two substantive gates are the 20-hour pre-licensing certificate and the criminal background check, and both must clear before PSI will let you book an exam — the Life guide walks that sequence.
There is no experience requirement and no carrier sponsorship requirement for an Arkansas producer licence.
Keeping Your License Active
Important CE details: Nonresident licensees are exempt where their home state has a comparable requirement, as are insurance consultants and active-duty military; AID Rule 20 adds a full 180-day exemption after a return from deployment.
24 hours every two years including at least 3 hours of ethics, due on or before your birthday, under AID Rule 50 and §23-64-304. Holding several lines does not increase it.
The health-specific obligation is long-term care training. AID Rule 13 requires "no less than eight (8) hours" of initial LTC training before you sell the product, then "no less than four (4) hours every 24 months" thereafter. The training must exclude insurer- or product-specific content, and it may be approved as continuing education — so in practice the hours count toward your 24 rather than sitting on top of them.
If you also hold the Life line, note the annuity Best Interest course under Rule 82 — a one-time 4-credit requirement that gates annuity sales entirely, covered in the Life guide.
One thing Arkansas does not impose: a state flood training requirement. The only flood content in Arkansas's producer scheme sits inside the pre-licensing syllabus — half an hour in the Property course, an hour in Personal Lines. Any flood training obligation you encounter comes from the federal NFIP scheme, not from AID.
Quick Reference
Official Links
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