What This License Is
The New Mexico Accident and Health or Sickness line of authority covers medical, disability income, long-term care, Medicare supplement and related coverages. The statute names it in full at NMSA 1978 §59A-12-17(A)(2) — "accident and health or sickness" — and PSI titles the exam the same way.
One structural point that catches candidates: New Mexico has no combined Life-and-Health line of authority. The statute grants Life and Accident & Health as two separate qualifications. The combined Series 18-27 is a single examination that qualifies you for both — the licence still lists two lines. If you sit 18-26 alone you hold one.
Selling Medicare Advantage or Part D also requires annual federal AHIP-style certification and carrier appointment on top of this licence. New Mexico does not administer that, but no Medicare-focused producer works without it.
Accident and Health Exam Options in New Mexico
| Route | Exam | Items | Time | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A&H only | Series 18-26 | 100 (+5-10 unscored) | 2 hr | $75 |
| Life + A&H together | Series 18-27 | 150 | 2 hr 30 min | $75 |
Both are administered by PSI Services, which replaced Prometric on 27 August 2024. PSI publishes Spanish-language versions of the New Mexico producer examinations alongside the English papers; confirm the language option for your specific exam when you schedule.
The passing standard is 70% of scored items, a genuine raw percentage. Five to ten unscored experimental items may be added on top of the 100, so plan for a slightly longer paper than the outline count suggests.
Most Tested Topics on the New Mexico Accident and Health Exam
New Mexico runs a good deal of its own health machinery, and the state-specific questions cluster there rather than in the national coverage material. From the TESTivity New Mexico regulations curriculum, statute-verified:
| Concept | The New Mexico rule | Cite |
|---|---|---|
| Medicaid expansion | Expanded under the ACA, effective 1 January 2014 | ACA |
| Medicaid programme name | Turquoise Care, the managed-care programme since 1 July 2024 (formerly Centennial Care), run by the NM Health Care Authority | - |
| Health insurance exchange | A state-based exchange, beWellnm - not the federal marketplace | - |
| Clean-claim deadline, electronic | 30 days to pay or deny - but only 14 days for an electronic prescription-drug claim | §59A-16-21.1 |
| Clean-claim deadline, paper | 45 days if submitted manually - New Mexico splits the deadline by submission format | §59A-16-21.1 |
| Late-payment interest on claims | one and one-half percent (1.5%) per month on amounts unpaid after the deadline | 13.10.28 NMAC |
| External review, binding effect | An Independent Review Organization decides, and its decision binds the carrier (and the grievant), subject to each side's other remedies | 13.10.17.23 NMAC |
| State continuation duration | Up to 6 months, then a right to a conversion policy | §59A-18-16 |
| Continuation election period | Within 30 days of the insurer's notice | §59A-18-16 |
| Continuation premium ceiling | A reasonable, nondiscriminatory rate - New Mexico fixes no COBRA-style 102% cap | §59A-18-16 |
| Long-term care producer training | 8 hours of initial LTC training before transacting it | 13.4.7 NMAC |
The split clean-claim deadline is the single most reliable New Mexico question in this set. National material teaches one prompt-payment clock; §59A-16-21.1 sets three, keyed to how the claim arrived: 14 days for an electronic prescription-drug claim, 30 days for other electronic claims, and 45 days if submitted manually. Expect to be asked which deadline applies to which format — and note that a pharmacy fact pattern is testing the shortest one.
The continuation rules are the other trap, and they are a trap precisely because they look like COBRA and are not. New Mexico's statute states no minimum employer size, runs six months rather than eighteen, and sets no 102% premium cap. A candidate answering from federal COBRA knowledge gets all three wrong.
Taking Your New Mexico Exam by Live Online Proctoring
New Mexico has kept remote testing at a moment when several states' vendors have withdrawn it. Verified against PSI's live New Mexico inventory on 5 September 2026, every producer examination — Life, Accident and Health, the combined Life/A&H, Property, Casualty, the combined Property and Casualty, and Personal Lines — is bookable both Onsite (Test Center) and Online Proctored (Live). OSI confirms the same in one line: "PSI provides in person and remote testing."
Choosing the modality. You select it during scheduling: PSI's flow asks you to "Select your test, then select Modality: (Online Proctored) or (Test Center)." The fee is the same $75 either way.
The ID rule is different at home. A US Government Issued Military Identification Card is not accepted for remote testing, though it is accepted at a test centre. Every other accepted document — state driver's licence, state ID card, US or foreign passport, US alien registration card — works in both settings. All must be current, government-issued, and carry both photo and signature; temporary IDs are refused.
The 30-minute launch window is absolute. You must launch the session within 30 minutes of the scheduled start or you forfeit the fee, and the $75 is explicitly non-refundable and non-transferable. This is a harder edge than the test-centre rule, where arriving late is at least discussed with a proctor.
Run the system check first, not on exam morning. OSI publishes two supporting documents alongside its licensing page — the "PSI Online Proctored (Live) Experience" walkthrough and "Online Proctoring System Requirements." Work through both on the machine you will actually test on, on the network you will actually use. Remote failures in this format are almost never the exam content; they are a webcam permission, a second monitor, or a corporate VPN.
If you are not confident in your connection, book a centre. New Mexico has five PSI sites and the Property guide lists all five with addresses. A forfeited $75 buys a lot of driving.
What the Accident and Health Licence Costs
$75 per exam attempt, $30 for the resident producer licence under NMSA 1978 §59A-6-1, and $20 per insurer appointment. Biennial continuation is $60.
The exam fee is the same whether you test at a centre or at home, and the same for the 100-question A&H paper as for the 150-question combined paper — which is why candidates who want both lines usually sit 18-27 rather than 18-25 and 18-26 separately.
NIPR's transaction fee and the IdentoGO fingerprint charge are additional and are not published by the state; both appear at the point of payment.
Eligibility
You must be at least 18 (§59A-12-12), pass Series 18-26, and clear a state and federal fingerprint background check. There is no pre-licensing education requirement for any New Mexico producer line.
A Chartered Life Underwriter (C.L.U.) designation waives the accident and health examination as well as the life and annuity examination under 13.4.2.11(B)(3) NMAC — a broader reach than the designation's name suggests. The Life & Health guide covers the waiver routes in detail.
Applications are filed on NIPR after passing, within one year of the exam date.
Continuing Education for Accident and Health Producers
Important CE details: Three of the 24 hours must be ethics, leaving 21 general. Credit hours cannot be carried over into the next compliance period. The specialty trainings listed at 13.4.7.10(C)(2) NMAC - stop loss (8 hours), flood (4 hours) and long-term care (8 initial, then 4 per compliance period) - count toward the 24 rather than sitting on top of it. Annuity product training is a separate requirement under 13.9.20 NMAC and is not part of that clause.
24 hours every two years, 3 of them ethics, with no carryover, on a compliance period that expires the last day of your birth month.
Health producers carry a substantial specialty-training load in New Mexico. Long-term care requires 8 hours of initial training before you may transact it, with a recurring requirement each compliance period thereafter. Producers who sell annuities — common for the same book — carry a separate product training requirement.
The structural point worth planning around: under 13.4.7 NMAC these specialty hours count toward the 24, not on top of them. A health producer who completes 8 hours of LTC training has 16 hours left to find, of which 3 must still be ethics.
Nonresident licensees whose home state imposes CE are exempt in New Mexico, and licensees continuously licensed for 25 years or more without a lapse of more than 90 days are exempt entirely under 13.4.7.2(B) NMAC.
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