What This License Is
Virginia's Health line of authority covers accident and sickness insurance sold in the Commonwealth — medical plans, disability income, dental, long-term care and the Medicare-related products. Note the label. Virginia's line is called Health, not "Accident & Health" and not "A&H," even though the underlying statutes speak of accident and sickness policies throughout. When you read § 38.2-3503 you are reading the law that governs this license.
The regulator is the Bureau of Insurance, which is not a department but a bureau inside the State Corporation Commission — a constitutional body that is also a court of record. Licensing and disciplinary authority in Title 38.2 runs to the Commission, and the Commissioner of Insurance is the employee the Commission places at the head of the Bureau (Va. Code § 12.1-16). Virginia's statutes call you an agent; § 38.2-1800 makes "producer" a synonym.
Two structural facts to settle before you register. Virginia requires no pre-licensing education for Health — no hours, no certificate, nothing to carry to the test center. And Virginia offers both a standalone Health exam (Series 11-06) and a combined Life, Annuities and Health exam (Series 11-01), each at $35. If you want both lines, one combined sitting is cheaper than two standalone ones.
The environment this license sells into is worth knowing on day one. Virginia expanded Medicaid effective January 1, 2019, administered by the Department of Medical Assistance Services; the state's CHIP program is FAMIS, Family Access to Medical Insurance Security; and Virginia uses the federal marketplace at healthcare.gov rather than running a state-based exchange.
Exam Options & Format
The Health exam is Prometric Series 11-06 — 90 scored questions plus 15 unscored pretest items, 105 in all, 2 hours, $35. Pretest items "will not be counted for or against you in the final examination score."
| Exam route | Scored / total questions | Time | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Series 11-06, Virginia Health — this license | 90 scored / 105 total | 2 hr | $35 |
| Series 11-01, Virginia Life, Annuities and Health — both lines | 140 scored / 150 total | 2 hr 30 min | $35 |
Virginia embeds its law rather than testing it separately. There is no state section, no state timer and no split score — Virginia regulation is an "Insurance Regulation" domain plus statutory references scattered through the substantive material.
The weighting is the reason to think twice before cross-studying. 11-06 loads Virginia regulation at 17% of a 90-question form — 15 questions — while the combined 11-01 loads it at 10% of a 140-question form, or 14 questions. Nearly the same absolute count, packed into a form barely half the size. The rest of 11-06 runs General Insurance 10%, Health Basics 12%, Individual Health Insurance Policy General Provisions 16% — Prometric's heading for what the statutes call individual accident and sickness —, Disability Income 9%, Medical Plans 10%, Group Health 8%, Dental 2%, Seniors and Special Needs 14% and Federal Tax 2%.
Read those two bolded domains together. Individual A&S general provisions at 16% and Virginia regulation at 17% are, between them, a third of the exam — and both are dominated by § 38.2-3503, the statutory-form section covered in the most-tested table below. There is no more efficient place to spend study time on this exam.
Retakes: wait 24 hours before rebooking (Prometric's Virginia FAQ says the system may want 24 to 48). There is no cap on attempts, but § 38.2-1817 imposes a 30-calendar-day freeze on a resident applicant after a third failure. The fee is per attempt and nonrefundable.
Most Tested Topics on the Virginia Health Exam
Virginia's accident-and-sickness law is where national study material goes wrong most often, and it goes wrong in a specific way: it teaches the NAIC model's optional provisions as though Virginia had adopted them, when Virginia's statutory form picked differently. From the TESTivity Virginia regulations curriculum, statute-verified:
| Virginia health concept | The rule, and where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Grace period, tiered by premium mode | 7 days on a weekly premium policy, 10 days on a monthly premium policy, 31 days on all others (§ 38.2-3503) |
| Reinstatement, accident and sickness | The 45-day rule, and it runs against the INSURER: where the insurer accepts premium and issues a conditional receipt, the policy "will be reinstated on the forty-fifth day after the date of the conditional receipt unless the Company has previously written the Insured of its disapproval" — silence reinstates (§ 38.2-3503) |
| Time limit on certain defenses, accident and sickness | 2 years. "After two years from the date of this policy, only fraudulent misstatements in the application may be used to void the policy or deny any claim" (§ 38.2-3503) |
| Notice of claim | Within 20 days after a covered loss starts, or as soon as reasonably possible (§ 38.2-3503) |
| Proof of loss | Within 90 days after the end of each period of continuing loss, and in no event later than one year absent legal incapacity (§ 38.2-3503) |
| Clean-claim payment deadline | 40 days, and Virginia applies one uniform standard to electronic and paper claims alike (§ 38.2-3407.15) |
| Late-payment interest on claims | § 38.2-3407.15 sets no rate of its own — it requires the carrier to pay, without demand, any interest owing under § 38.2-3407.1 or § 38.2-4306.1, which compute interest daily at the legal rate of interest running from 15 working days after the insurer receives proof of loss (§§ 38.2-3407.15(B)(3), 38.2-3407.1(B)) |
| State continuation, employers reached | § 38.2-3541 states no employer-size range at all — it reaches group hospital, medical, surgical and major medical policies delivered in Virginia without reference to how many employees the group has |
| State continuation, duration | 12 months immediately following termination — not federal COBRA's 18, and not the 3-, 6- or 9-month windows other states use (§ 38.2-3541) |
| State continuation, the two clocks | The policyholder gives written notice within 14 days of learning of the loss of eligibility; the individual then elects within 31 days after that notice is issued, but in no event beyond 60 days after termination (§ 38.2-3541) |
| State continuation, prior-coverage condition | Continuously insured under the group policy for the entire three-month period immediately preceding termination (§ 38.2-3541) |
| State continuation, premium and exclusion | The insurer's current group rate plus an administrative fee not exceeding two percent; anyone discharged for gross misconduct is excluded entirely (§ 38.2-3541) |
| External review | The independent review organization's decision binds the health plan — § 38.2-3564 is captioned "Binding nature of external review decision" and says so in terms. It is not advisory (§ 38.2-3564; ch. 35.1 generally) |
| Federal COBRA threshold, for contrast | 20 or more employees — federal law, and the reason Virginia's silence on group size matters |
Start with the grace period, because it is the cleanest example of Virginia deviating in a way that looks like a typo. National material teaches 31 days and stops. Virginia's statutory form tiers it by how the premium is paid: seven days weekly, ten days monthly, thirty-one days everything else. An item writer describing a policyholder who pays monthly and is fourteen days late has written a question with a Virginia answer and a national distractor.
The 45-day reinstatement rule is the single most counter-intuitive provision on this exam, and it rewards reading the direction of the obligation. Every other reinstatement rule you will study asks what the insured must do. This one asks what the insurer must do — and the answer is that if the insurer takes your money, issues a conditional receipt and then says nothing, the policy reinstates by operation of the form on day 45. Silence is not neutral. It is consent.
State continuation is where the biggest trap sits, and it is a trap of overconfidence rather than of arithmetic. The familiar "mini-COBRA covers employers with 2 to 19 employees" framing is imported from other states; Virginia's § 38.2-3541 contains no employer-size language whatever. What it does contain is three clocks and a condition — 14 days for the policyholder's notice, 31 days for the individual's election, a 60-day outer wall from termination, and three months of continuous prior coverage — and a 12-month duration. If you are going to memorize one cluster of numbers on this exam, make it that one.
Finally, the prompt-pay rule is worth its own sentence for a practical reason as much as an exam one. Most states split their clean-claim deadlines, giving electronic claims a faster track than paper. Virginia does not — 40 days for both. On what late payment costs, be careful with the figure you have probably seen: § 38.2-3407.15 states no interest rate at all. It requires the carrier to pay, without necessity of demand, any interest owing under § 38.2-3407.1 or § 38.2-4306.1 — and those sections compute interest daily at the legal rate of interest, running from 15 working days after the insurer receives proof of loss. The "prime plus 1%" that circulates widely has no basis in Virginia's prompt-pay statute.
Taking the Virginia Exam Remotely Through ProProctor
Virginia offers remote proctoring and it is actively available, which is worth saying plainly because several states quietly discontinued theirs. Prometric's live Virginia page advertises the ProProctor application, and Prometric maintains two separate candidate bulletins for Virginia — one for test-center exams, one for remotely proctored exams.
Everything that governs the exam itself is identical. Same $35 fee, same two forms of ID, same 24-hour wait before rebooking after a failure and the same 30-calendar-day freeze after a third, same 183 calendar days of score validity. Virginia charges no premium for testing at home and imposes no additional restriction on which lines may be taken remotely. Choose your delivery method when you book.
What is different is the environment, and this is where remote sessions actually fail.
Your room. The bulletin requires a space that is "indoors, in a walled room, well-lit area with a closed door and free of noise." Read every clause as a separate requirement. A walled room rules out an open-plan corner. A closed door rules out a hallway nook. "Free of noise" is not a suggestion about your own concentration — it is about what the proctor hears. A partner working a video call in the next room is a foreseeable problem.
Your desk. "Only one monitor is allowed." Laptop users with an external display must physically disconnect it, not merely switch inputs. You will also need a movable web camera — the proctor will ask you to pick it up and sweep the room before the exam is released, which a monitor-embedded camera cannot do. A separate USB webcam is the safer setup.
Your machine. The bulletin prints minimums of Windows 7 or later, a current version of Google Chrome, and a 0.5 Mbps connection. Treat those as a floor rather than a target — see the note below on why they read the way they do.
Your conduct. The prohibitions from the test-center rules travel with you: no written notes, no published materials, no phones, no wearable technology, no watches, no food or drink, no other people in the room. Only soft ear plugs with no wires or cords attached are permitted. Nobody may enter during the session, and you cannot leave the camera's view.
One practical piece of advice that is not in any bulletin. Run the ProProctor system readiness check the day before, not fifteen minutes ahead — because the failure modes here are all administrative rather than technical. If you change or cancel a remote appointment without at least 24 hours' notice, you forfeit the examination fee, exactly as you would with a test center, and an appointment lost to a driver update is $35 gone. If remote testing turns out not to suit your setup, a test center is always available: Virginia permits you to sit its exam at any Prometric test center in the United States, which is the Personal Lines guide's territory.
What It Costs
Two published line items: $35 to Prometric for the Series 11-06 exam and $15 to the Bureau for the Health line of authority — $50 on a first-attempt pass. Remote proctoring costs exactly the same $35, so the choice between ProProctor and a test center is about your room and your nerves, not your budget.
The Fieldprint live-scan fingerprint fee is the third cost and the one with no printed number. Fingerprints have been mandatory for resident applicants since January 1, 2021 (§ 38.2-1819), the statute assigns the cost to the applicant, and neither the Bureau nor Prometric publishes the amount. Ask Fieldprint at the point of scheduling; we will not print a figure we cannot source.
No pre-licensing tuition. Virginia requires no course for Health, which removes the largest single expense most states impose.
Both fees are nonrefundable, and two mechanics can cost you them twice. Change or cancel an exam appointment without at least 24 hours' notice and you forfeit the exam fee. And let the 183-day score-validity window lapse and § 38.2-1817 forfeits both the examination fee and the application processing fee — you start again at $50.
Eligibility Requirements
You must be at least 18 and must use a Virginia address for both mailing and residence. There is no pre-licensing education requirement for Health, and no experience requirement.
The real gate is the background check. Since January 1, 2021, § 38.2-1819 requires every resident individual to be fingerprinted at the time of applying for a new license, with prints routed through the Central Criminal Records Exchange to the FBI. The vendor is Fieldprint, using live scan; prints must be no more than 90 days old at application and stay valid on file for one year. The Life & Health guide covers the fingerprint process step by step.
Answer the uniform application's background questions completely. An affirmative answer moves you from a 15-business-day processing lane to 30 business days or more — the SCC quotes 30 to 60 business days where a conviction is involved — but an omission is a misrepresentation, which is a different order of problem.
Relocating with a health license from another state? § 38.2-1817 waives the prelicensing examination for the same lines of authority if you are currently licensed there, or apply within 90 days of that license's cancellation in good standing. Virginia offers no professional-designation waivers — the Property & Casualty guide covers reciprocity in full.
Keeping Your License Active
Important CE details: Sixteen hours per biennium covers one license type, and Virginia counts Health together with Life and Annuities as a single type. A health-only producer who later adds Property and Casualty moves to 24 hours with a minimum of 8 in each category.
16 credit hours per biennium, including at least 3 hours of insurance ethics (Va. Code § 38.2-1866). Sixteen is the one-license-type figure, and Virginia's counting rule matters here: Health and Life and Annuities together count as a single license type. A producer holding both still owes 16. Add a license from a second category and it becomes 24 hours with a minimum of 8 in each.
The ethics hours have a Virginia-specific relief valve. For agents, a course in insurance laws and regulations applicable to Virginia may be applied toward the three-hour ethics requirement. For public adjusters it may not — they need three hours of Virginia ethics specifically. If you hold both credentials, do not assume one course clears both obligations.
Your license renews biennially at the end of your birth month, in odd years if you were born in an odd-numbered year and even years if you were born in an even one, at $10 per line of authority. The Property & Casualty guide covers the full renewal and reinstatement machinery, including the carryover rule and the exemption that was repealed out from under a generation of Virginia agents.
One caution specific to this line's product set. The commonly quoted "8 hours of initial long-term care training" is a pattern imported from other states — no long-term care producer training mandate was located in Virginia's CE article or the Bureau's CE handbook. That is an absence of evidence rather than proof of absence, so if you intend to sell LTC in Virginia, confirm it directly with the Bureau rather than relying on a national course catalog.
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