What This License Is
A Pennsylvania Accident and Health line of authority covers accident, health, disability, Medicare supplement and long-term care products. It is issued by the Pennsylvania Insurance Department, a standalone department under a Commissioner appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate.
Long-term care sits inside this line rather than requiring a separate credential - but it carries its own training obligation. Under 31 Pa. Code 39a.9 you need 8 hours of initial LTC training and at least 4 hours in every subsequent 24-month licensing cycle, completed before you sell, solicit or negotiate long-term care insurance. Producers selling Partnership-qualified policies must include a 1-hour Medicaid course within that initial eight.
Pre-licensing education is gone. Act 142 of 2024 repealed Pennsylvania's 24-credit preexamination requirement effective 29 April 2025. That is worth stating precisely, because it did not shrink the requirement - it deleted the subsection. There is now no classroom prerequisite for any producer line.
One correction to a widely repeated claim while we are here: eliminating pre-licensing did not eliminate product-specific training. The LTC hours above still gate LTC sales, and Act 99's 4-credit annuity course still gates annuity sales. What went away was the general education requirement for sitting the exam, not the training that governs selling particular products.
Exam Options & Format
The Accident & Health exam is Series 16-02: 100 scored questions in 2 hours at $45, plus five to ten unscored experimental items that PSI folds into the same clock rather than adding time for.
The passing standard is a flat 70% - "In order to pass the examination, you must achieve a minimum score of 70%." No scaled score, no conversion.
Compare the combined exam before you book. The Life, Accident & Health exam (Series 16-03) is 150 scored questions in 2 hours 50 minutes for $55, and it earns both lines at once. Two single-line exams cost $90. So the combined route is cheaper and one sitting rather than two - the only reason to take Accident & Health alone is genuine certainty you will never write life business.
There is no attempt cap and no waiting period beyond the same-day rebooking restriction. Each retake is another $45, and a passing result gives you one year to file the application.
If you hold a CLU, CPCU or CIC, you can skip this exam entirely - all three waive the accident-and-health examination under 40 P.S. 310.4(d). The Life & Health guide has the full table.
Most Tested Topics on the Pennsylvania Accident & Health Exam
Pennsylvania's health law has been rebuilt in places over the last few years, which makes this line unusually easy to study from stale material and get wrong. These are checked against the statutes and the Department:
| Concept | The Pennsylvania rule |
|---|---|
| Marketplace structure | A state-based exchange - Pennie, created by Act 42 of 2019, live for the 2021 plan year, replacing HealthCare.gov for Pennsylvania |
| Medicaid expansion | Expanded to 138% FPL, effective 1 January 2015 - later than most expansion states - delivered as Medical Assistance through the HealthChoices managed-care programme, administered by the Department of Human Services, not the Insurance Department |
| Clean-claim deadline | 45 days, applied to electronic and paper claims alike - Pennsylvania publishes a single deadline rather than splitting by submission method (40 P.S. 991.2166) |
| Late-payment interest | 10% a year on a clean claim not paid within the 45 days |
| External review | The Act 146 of 2022 independent external review, run by the Insurance Department and decided by an Independent Review Organization, binding on the insurer, live since 1 January 2024. The Department determines eligibility within 5 days, the consumer has 15 business days to submit further records, and the reviewer has 45 calendar days from assignment - most decisions inside 60 days, at no cost to the consumer |
| Mini-COBRA, employer size | 2 to 19 employees - the small groups federal COBRA's 20-employee threshold leaves out (Act 2 of 2009) |
| Mini-COBRA, duration | Up to 9 months - materially shorter than COBRA's 18 |
| Mini-COBRA, eligibility and cost | Elect within 30 days of notice; the employee must have been covered for 3 continuous months; premium capped at 105% of the group rate |
| HMO regulation | Two agencies license a Pennsylvania HMO - the Insurance Department for the insurance and financial side, the Department of Health for care delivery, quality, access and networks |
| Long-term care training | 8 hours initially, then at least 4 hours every 24-month cycle, with a 1-hour Medicaid component for Partnership sellers (31 Pa. Code 39a.9) |
Mini-COBRA is the highest-yield item here, and it is high-yield because the numbers all run short. Candidates arrive with COBRA drilled - 18 months, 20-plus employees, 60 days to elect, 102% of the group rate - and Pennsylvania inverts almost every one of them: 9 months, 2 to 19 employees, 30 days, 105%. Four numbers, four differences. A question describing a Pennsylvania employee at a twelve-person firm and offering "18 months" is offering the federal answer to a state question.
The 3-continuous-months prior-coverage condition is the part most summaries drop entirely, and it is the kind of qualifying detail a well-written item turns on: an employee who started six weeks ago does not get Pennsylvania continuation at all.
The external review is the second trap, because the law changed. Act 68 of 1998 built Pennsylvania's original managed-care grievance and external-review process, and a great deal of study material still teaches it. The operative programme today is the Act 146 of 2022 process that went live on 1 January 2024 - state-run, IRO-decided, binding, and free to the consumer. Learn Act 146; treat Act 68 as the history that explains why the grievance vocabulary sounds the way it does.
Finally, the dual-regulator HMO point is a genuine Pennsylvania signature and an easy mark. The logic is that an HMO is simultaneously an insurer and a health-care delivery system, so each side gets its own regulator. Most states use one agency. If a question says two agencies license the HMO, it is describing Pennsylvania.
Taking the Exam From Home
PSI offers Pennsylvania insurance exams remotely, and it is a first-class option rather than an afterthought: when you schedule, you "select your test, then select Modality: (Test Center) or (Remote Proctored)." Worth confirming out loud, because vendors have been quietly withdrawing remote testing in other states.
Run the compatibility check days ahead, not on the morning. The bulletin's instruction - typo and all - is "IMPORTANT: BE SURE TO CHECK THE COMPATIBILTY OF YOUR COMPUTER to include Audio/Video Check, Webcam Check and System Check." PSI publishes the tools at `psiexams.com/system-check/`. A machine that fails on the day is a forfeited $45, not a rescheduled appointment.
The bulletin gives two numbers here and only one of them protects you. It says "You will be able to LAUNCH your test within 30 minutes of your booked test time" - and, in the same flow, that "by not starting your test within 15 minutes after your booked time, you forfeit your test fee or test eligibility." Treat 15 minutes as the real deadline and be at the machine early; there is no upside to finding out which sentence your proctor is working from.
The rule that actually changes your preparation: there are no breaks. The bulletin states flatly that "Breaks are NOT allowed during remote online proctored examinations." At a test centre you may use the restroom with proctor permission - though you get no extra time for it. Remotely, you cannot leave the seat at all. Two hours is manageable; plan your coffee accordingly.
Two behavioural rules are stricter than people expect. PSI lists "not focusing eyes on the screen" among prohibited behaviours - so the habit of staring at the ceiling to think will draw a warning - and "changing spaces during the exam without proctor approval" means you cannot move to a quieter room mid-exam. Your webcam "must be placed for ideal viewing by the proctor," with "adequate lighting for the proctor to see candidate's activity."
Identification is the same single-document standard as a test centre, covered in the Life & Health guide's exam-day section. PSI staffs a dedicated remote-proctoring support line at (844) 267-1017; the general Pennsylvania program line is (888) 818-5822 and the mailbox is PAIns@psionline.com.
One practical asymmetry worth weighing: if you test at a centre, the bulletin points you at a kiosk on site to file your licence application the moment you pass. Test remotely and you file from your own machine instead - no worse, but do it the same day rather than letting the one-year clock start quietly.
What It Costs
About $100 in published fees on a first-time pass: $45 to PSI and $55 to the Department with a resident application. The IdentoGO fingerprint fee sits on top, and no primary source publishes the amount - PID and PSI both describe the payment without stating a figure, so confirm it when you register.
There is no course to buy. That is the whole story of Pennsylvania's cost profile since April 2025: in a state that still mandates 20 or 40 hours of pre-licensing, the classroom is the biggest line item on the page. Here it is absent.
Retakes are $45 with no attempt limit, and exam fees are "NOT REFUNDABLE OR TRANSFERABLE" - so register when you are ready to sit, not to reserve a price.
Eligibility Requirements
40 P.S. 310.6(a) asks that you have reached 18, committed no prohibited act, passed or are exempt from the examination, paid all applicable fees, and possess "the general fitness, competence and reliability" to be licensed. What the section does not contain is a Pennsylvania-residence requirement or an English-literacy requirement - both circulate widely and neither is in the statute.
A CLU, CPCU or CIC waives the accident-and-health exam outright under 40 P.S. 310.4(d), as does being licensed for the line in another state. Initial resident applicants are fingerprinted through IdentoGO under service code 1KGBGJ, but only after passing and applying - the Casualty guide covers that sequence, and the order matters.
Keeping Your License Active
Important CE details: Twenty-four credits every two years from Department-approved providers.
Two-year licence, expiring on the last day of your birth month, and 24 credit hours per cycle with at least three in ethics. The ethics requirement arrived with Act 142 of 2024 - the same act that repealed pre-licensing - and took effect on 29 April 2025.
Existing licensees got a transition period and new ones did not, which is worth knowing if you are reading older guidance: licensees already holding a licence had 12 months from the effective date or until the end of their current licence period, whichever was longer. Anyone licensed since must satisfy it by the end of their first licence period.
You may carry forward up to 24 excess credits into the next period - a full cycle's worth, which is generous by national standards.
The flood requirement that Act 142 also introduced does not reach you on this line: Act 142 attaches it to a licensee with a property and casualty line of authority. What does reach you is long-term care training (8 hours, then 4 every 24-month cycle) and, if you add a life authority, the 4-credit Act 99 annuity course.
One nuance on the Department's own page: it still lists only the 24-hour total and does not mention ethics or flood anywhere. The statute controls. The Property & Casualty guide covers renewal mechanics and the late-renewal tiers.
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