Certification & Examination Policies
These policies define certification requirements, examination integrity, attempts, remediation, renewal and appropriate use of the HCRS credential.
Complete all required orientation and national-core lessons, applied cases, module gates, the integrated practicum, one state qualification, all certification examination sections and the ethics, accuracy and scope attestation.
The national examination has four 25-question sections and the state examination has 25 questions. Candidates must answer at least 22 of 25 correctly on every section.
Approved HCRI materials and job aids plus official Medicaid and payer sources may be used. No other person, shared-answer source, live patient data or AI assistance may be used during an examination.
Candidates may make up to three attempts per failed section. After a third unsuccessful attempt, assigned remediation is required before an immediate manual reset with materially different items.
Candidates may submit a documented appeal concerning administration, scoring irregularity or policy application within the published review window.
Only an individual with an active credential may use HCRS after their name or represent themselves as HCRS-certified. Agencies are not HCRS-certified.
The credential term is one year. Renewal requires current update modules, a shorter scenario-based recertification examination and a renewed attestation.
HCRI may suspend or revoke a credential for material misrepresentation, examination misconduct or prohibited credential use.
HCRI is an independent education, certification and professional-standards organization. HCRS is not a government license, payer approval or representation of observed on-the-job performance. External law, regulation, official guidance, payer requirements and contracts control wherever applicable.