What This License Is
A New Jersey Accident and Health line of authority - PSI calls the exam simply Health - lets you sell accident, health, disability, Medicare supplement and long-term care products. It is issued by the Department of Banking and Insurance (DOBI), the combined banking-and-insurance department headed by a Commissioner.
Long-term care sits inside this line, and unlike some states New Jersey does not make you hold a separate credential for it. What it does require is training: eight hours initially and four hours every 24 months thereafter (N.J.A.C. 11:4-34.29). The rule is specific that you must already hold life or accident-and-health authority, and that the training may not be insurer- or product-specific.
One structural point that shapes your whole plan: New Jersey has no combined Life & Health exam. A combined 40-hour prelicensing course exists and DOBI recognises a combined licence, but you earn it by sitting two separate exams - 88 questions here and 83 on the Life side. Nothing is saved by taking them together, because you cannot.
Exam Options & Format
The Accident & Health exam runs 88 scored questions in 3 hours 30 minutes at 70% correct - about two and a half minutes a question, which is generous by the standards of most states' insurance exams. PSI adds five to nineteen unscored experimental items on top, so the on-screen count will be higher than 88 and that is normal.
Every New Jersey producer exam runs the same 3 hours 30 minutes regardless of length. Life is 83 questions, this one is 88, Casualty is 91, Personal Lines is 112 - all in the same window. That means the pacing pressure differs sharply between lines, and this is one of the roomier ones.
PSI publishes no series or exam-code number for New Jersey. If you see one quoted, it did not come from PSI or DOBI.
There is no attempt limit and no waiting period beyond the same-day rebooking restriction. Each retake costs another exam fee, and your passing score report is valid for one year - that is the deadline to file your application.
Most Tested Topics on the New Jersey Health Exam
New Jersey built substantially on top of the federal floor, and the state-law portion of this exam rewards knowing exactly where. These are checked against the statutes and the administrative code:
| Concept | The New Jersey rule |
|---|---|
| Marketplace structure | A state-based exchange - Get Covered New Jersey, operated by DOBI. New Jersey left HealthCare.gov and ran its own platform beginning with the 2021 plan year |
| Individual mandate | Yes - the New Jersey Health Insurance Market Preservation Act requires most residents to maintain coverage, enforced by a Shared Responsibility Payment on the state income tax return. New Jersey kept its mandate after the federal penalty went to zero |
| Medicaid and CHIP | Expanded to 138% FPL effective 1 January 2014, delivered through NJ FamilyCare - New Jersey's combined Medicaid and CHIP programme, administered by the Department of Human Services, not DOBI |
| Clean-claim deadline, electronic | 30 calendar days to pay a clean claim submitted electronically (N.J.A.C. 11:22-1.5, HCAPPA) |
| Clean-claim deadline, paper | 40 calendar days for a clean claim on paper - note 40, not the 45 most states use |
| Late-payment interest | 12% a year, simple on a clean claim not paid on time (10% for dental plan organisations) |
| External appeal | The Independent Health Care Appeals Program (IHCAP), run by DOBI and decided by an Independent Utilization Review Organization, is binding on the carrier. File within 4 months of the final internal denial; the IURO decides within 45 days, or 48 hours expedited |
| Continuation, employer size | State continuation reaches small-employer groups of roughly 2 to 50 employees - the gap federal COBRA leaves below its 20-employee threshold |
| Continuation, duration | Up to 18 months from the qualifying event - extended to 36 months for a spouse or dependent child on the covered employee's death or a divorce (N.J.S.A. 17B:27A-27) |
| Continuation, election and cost | Elect within 30 days of the termination or reduction in hours; premium capped at 102% of the group rate |
| Long-term care training | 8 hours initially, then 4 hours every 24 months (N.J.A.C. 11:4-34.29) |
The continuation rules are worth learning as a gap-filler rather than as a rival to COBRA. Federal COBRA applies at 20 or more employees. New Jersey's small-employer continuation reaches groups of roughly 2 to 50, so its whole job is covering the employers COBRA does not - and it runs up to 18 months from the qualifying event, matching COBRA's ordinary duration rather than undercutting it. Only a spouse or dependent child on death or divorce reaches 36 months.
The number that genuinely differs is the election window: 30 days, against COBRA's 60. That is the one candidates get wrong, because 60 is drilled hard and 30 looks like a typo. If a stem describes a New Jersey small-group employee who elected on day 45, the answer turns on that difference.
The prompt-pay split is the second. New Jersey publishes two deadlines keyed to how the claim arrived - and the paper figure is 40 days, which is unusual enough to be worth memorising as a number rather than a rounding. Neighbouring states use 45. If a stem names the submission method, the method is the question.
Finally, do not let a national outline talk you out of the individual mandate. The federal Shared Responsibility Payment went to zero in 2019 and most material now teaches that there is no mandate. New Jersey enacted its own and it is still in force - collected through the state return, with residents not required to file a New Jersey return falling outside it.
Taking the Exam From Home
PSI proctors New Jersey insurance exams remotely, and the option is live today - worth saying explicitly, because vendors have been quietly withdrawing remote testing in other states. PSI's New Jersey page puts it plainly: "You can complete your exam either onsite at a PSI test center or via online proctored (live)."
Run the compatibility check days in advance, not on exam morning. The bulletin's instruction is to "CHECK THE COMPATIBILTY OF YOUR COMPUTER to include Audio/Video Check, Webcam Check and System Check" - the typo is PSI's. A machine that fails on the day is a forfeited fee, not a rescheduled appointment.
The launch window is 30 minutes. "You will be able to LAUNCH your test within 30 minutes of your booked test time." Miss it and the fee is forfeited.
Three room rules matter more than the rest, and all three cut against you on a 210-minute exam. There are no breaks at all - not restroom, not stretching. There is no scratch paper, which a test centre would give you and collect at check-out. And you may not change computers or locations mid-exam. For an 88-question health exam where you are holding two prompt-pay clocks and a tiered continuation schedule in your head, the absence of paper is a real consideration rather than a technicality.
The rest is what you would expect: the same government photo ID a test centre requires, adequate lighting, a webcam positioned so the proctor can see you and the room, hands on the desktop and eyes on the screen, and nobody else present.
One New Jersey-specific catch that has nothing to do with technology. Passing candidates are evaluated at the test centre for the 60-day Temporary Work Authority, which prints on the spot. The bulletin describes that evaluation as happening at the test centre; if being able to work immediately matters to you, ask PSI how the authority is handled for a remotely proctored sitting before you book remote. The Personal Lines guide covers the authority itself in full.
PSI's scheduling support is (855) 579-4634 and examschedule@psionline.com.
What It Costs
About $275-$300 in unavoidable fees on a first-time pass: the exam, $66.05 for Live Scan fingerprints, and roughly $170 to file through NIPR ($150 licence plus a $20 online processing fee). Paper filing raises the processing fee to $40. The 20-hour prelicensing course sits on top.
The exam fee is contested between New Jersey's own primary sources. PSI's currently served bulletin says $38; DOBI's producer FAQ says $47. PSI stamps that bulletin January 2023; DOBI's FAQ is undated but live-maintained. Budget for the higher figure and confirm at PSI checkout. Registration fees are non-refundable and expire one year after registering, so do not pay early to lock a price.
Eligibility Requirements
At least 18, a completed 20-hour approved course (or a qualifying designation - RHU, CEBS, REBC or HIA on the health side), a passing exam result, Live Scan fingerprints for residents, and a NIPR application within one year of passing.
A resident licence needs a New Jersey residence or business address and no PO box. Nonresidents are not fingerprinted. If you hold a designation, remember the asymmetry the Life guide explains: the course completion certificate never expires, but an approved waiver dies at 90 days.
Keeping Your License Active
Important CE details: Twenty-four credits per biennial term. Attorneys are not exempt, even those holding only a Title authority.
Your licence runs two years, expiring on the last day of your birth month, with the first term stretched to at least 18 months. Each cycle takes 24 credits including 3 hours of professional ethics - and one of those three may be an insurance-fraud course instead.
The requirement is per licensee, not per line, so adding Life and Property later would not move it off 24. Up to 12 non-ethics credits carry over once; ethics credits never do. Producers holding a trade or professional certification with its own CE obligation may bank the equivalent of 12 credits a year with verification from the granting body.
The long-term care training is separate from, but counted within, all that. Eight hours before you sell LTC and four hours every 24 months after. Selling annuities adds the one-time four-hour best-interest course under N.J.A.C. 11:4-59A - relevant here because many health producers also carry a life authority.
Nonresidents compliant in their home state owe New Jersey nothing further by reciprocity. The Property & Casualty guide covers renewal and the lapse rules in full.
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Official Links
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