What the California Accident & Health License Covers
CDI calls this line Accident and Health or Sickness — the full statutory mouthful, and worth knowing because that is how it appears on the exam menu and on the fee schedule. It authorizes disability income, medical and hospital expense, Medicare supplement, long-term care, and the group health products that make up most of the market.
California is a genuinely distinctive state to sell health in, and not only because of its size. Health coverage here answers to two regulators: CDI licenses you and regulates traditional indemnity and PPO insurers, while HMOs and managed-care plans answer to the Department of Managed Health Care under the Knox-Keene Act. Your license comes from CDI regardless of which kind of plan you place.
If you also expect to write life or annuity business, note that the combined Life, Accident and Health or Sickness exam covers both lines in one sitting, and filing for both licenses together costs a single $188 rather than two.
For the 12-hour Code & Ethics course California still requires before your license is issued, TESTivity recommends Achievable. The Achievable insurance courses were built by the same subject-matter expert behind TESTivity, so the two are designed to work together.
One important distinction: TESTivity is not an approved pre-licensing provider in California 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 and Health or Sickness examination is 75 questions in 105 minutes, passing at 60%. A small number of unscored experimental items — the bulletin says one to ten, roughly 10% — may be added, and they consume your clock even though they do not affect your score.
A note on sources: CDI's own Examination Times and Number of Questions web table still lists this exam at "1.5 hours." The March 2026 Candidate Information Bulletin says 105 minutes, and the bulletin is the newer and more precise document. Plan against 105 and you will not be caught short either way.
The alternative is the combined Life, Accident and Health or Sickness exam — 150 questions in 195 minutes — which Ins. Code §1676(b) allows to satisfy the exam requirement for both lines at once. CDI's older Life-Only/A&H FAQ page reads as though two separate exams are required; the statute and the current bulletin both provide for the single combined sitting.
Whichever you choose, you pick the delivery format at registration: a PSI test center, CDI's Los Angeles examination site, or a live remote proctor from home. The remote option is covered in full below.
Most Tested Topics on the California Accident & Health Exam
California health law diverges from the federal baseline more than almost any other state's, and the exam knows it. These are the state-specific rules that generic national prep material will not have taught you:
| Concept | The California rule |
|---|---|
| Marketplace | A state-based exchange — Covered California, not healthcare.gov |
| Medicaid | Medi-Cal, expanded under the ACA effective 1 January 2014 to 138% of the federal poverty level, administered by the Department of Health Care Services |
| CHIP | Folded into Medi-Cal — the former Healthy Families program was merged in 2013 |
| Prompt payment of clean claims | 30 days (§10123.13; electronic claims separately governed by §10123.147) |
| Late-payment interest | 15% per year on a late, uncontested claim — one of the steepest in the country (§10123.13) |
| External review | Independent Medical Review. For CDI-regulated insurers the Commissioner adopts the IRO's determination and it is binding on the insurer (§10169 et seq.) |
| Federal COBRA threshold | 20+ employees — Cal-COBRA fills the gap below that |
| Cal-COBRA employers | Small employers with 2 to 19 eligible employees (§10128.50 et seq.) |
| Cal-COBRA duration | Up to 36 months — the longest mini-COBRA in the nation |
| Cal-COBRA premium | Up to 110% of the group rate, versus federal COBRA's 102% |
| Long-term care free look | 30 days (§10232.7); Medicare supplement also 30 days (§10192.13) |
| LTC producer training | 8 hours in each of the first four 12-month periods after original licensure, then 8 hours before every renewal (§10234.93) |
The two numbers candidates get wrong are 36 months and 110%. Federal COBRA's 18/36-month structure and 102% cap are drilled into every national outline, so the reflex is to answer 18 and 102. California's small-employer continuation runs to 36 months and permits 110% — and when a question specifies a California employer with, say, twelve employees, it is testing Cal-COBRA, not COBRA.
The other reliable point is the binding nature of Independent Medical Review. Most states' external review is advisory or applies only to some plan types; California's IMR determination is adopted by the Commissioner and binds the insurer, which is exactly why the process became a national model. Do not soften it to "recommended."
Remote Proctored Testing — The Complete Walkthrough
California is one of the states that kept remote proctoring after several vendors quietly withdrew it elsewhere. CDI currently offers 18 license examinations by remote proctor, including four Spanish-language exams, and PSI's California program page advertises the choice openly. There is no discontinuation notice on CDI's remote-testing FAQ or in its 2024–2026 licensing notices.
What it costs. Nothing extra, and nothing less: the $55 CDI examination fee and the $43 PSI convenience fee both apply to a remote sitting exactly as they do at a test center. The only way to avoid the $43 is to test in person at CDI's Los Angeles site.
Check your machine first, not on exam morning. CDI publishes the requirements: Windows 7 or later, or macOS; a movable webcam and microphone; a connection of at least 400 kb/s up and down; 2GB RAM; 1GB free disk; and a display of at least 1368 × 768. You will run PSI's Secure Lockdown Browser, which will not start alongside other applications. A movable camera is not a nicety — the proctor uses it for the room scan.
Check-in has three parts. A photograph of your identification, a photograph of you, and a 30-second scan of the room with that movable webcam. Budget real time for this; it is not instant, and a failed room scan means starting the appointment over.
The ID rule that sends people home. At a test center, a driver's licence from any state is accepted. For remote testing it is narrower: driver's licence, California State ID card, passport or passport card, employment authorization document, or permanent resident card — and CDI states explicitly that an out-of-state ID card is NOT acceptable for remote testing. An out-of-state driver's licence is fine; an out-of-state non-driver ID card is not. If that is the only photo ID you hold, book a test center.
Room rules are stricter than a test center's, not looser. Every personal item off the desk. Nothing on your head or face — no hats, caps, hoods or sunglasses. Nobody else in the room, and you may not leave it. Both hands stay on or above the desktop for the entire exam. No screenshots or photographs under any circumstances. The same prohibited-items list that applies at a test center applies at your kitchen table: no phone, no smart watch, no wrist watch, no ear buds, no notes, no books.
If it goes wrong. PSI's California candidate line is (833) 518-7456. Note that an older CDI page still lists PSI's retired (877) number — use the 833.
What It Costs
About $360 in state and vendor fees on a first-time pass: roughly $98 for the exam ($55 CDI + $43 PSI), $188 for the license filing, and $74 for fingerprints. Add whatever your 12-hour Ethics and Code provider charges.
Two California-specific savings worth knowing. Testing at CDI's Los Angeles examination site removes the $43 convenience fee. And filing for Accident & Health at the same time as Life-Only is a single $188 filing fee rather than two — the saving disappears if you add the second line later.
Eligibility Requirements
Minimum age 18, and California residency is not required — you may hold a California resident licence without living here only if California is the state you designate as your resident state (§1638); otherwise you take the nonresident route based on your home-state licence.
All unlicensed applicants are fingerprinted through the California DOJ and the FBI. A history is not disqualifying by itself, but it must be disclosed: the Casualty guide covers the background-check process end to end.
Keeping Your License Active
Important CE details: Two exemptions exist and both are narrow: a licensee in good standing for 30 continuous years in California who is 70 or older is excused, unless first licensed on or after 1 January 2010; and the Life licence limited to funeral and burial expenses carries no requirement at all.
The license runs a two-year term from the date it is issued, expiring on the last day of that calendar month two years on — not on your birthday, and not on a fixed statewide date. Each term needs 24 hours of CE including 3 hours of ethics, one of which must cover insurance fraud.
Health producers carry California's heaviest product-training load, and it is the thing most likely to catch you out. If you sell long-term care, §10234.93 requires 8 hours of LTC training in each of your first four 12-month periods after original licensure — that is four separate annual courses, not one — and then 8 hours before every renewal thereafter. Producers who are otherwise exempt from CE still owe an LTC course each term if they sell the product.
Marketing California Partnership for Long-Term Care policies goes further still: 8 hours specifically on the Partnership in a live classroom setting, plus 8 classroom hours on the Partnership in each two-year license period to keep selling them. Online study does not satisfy that one.
The LTC hours count toward your 24, though the schedule can push you past the minimum in practice. Nonresident licensees who satisfy their home state's CE are exempt from California CE generally — but not from the California LTC training if they want to sell LTC here.
Quick Reference
Official Links
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