The 2023 AHIP training and exam opens up on June 20, 2022. Any agents who want to represent and sell CY 2023 Medicare Advantage and/or Part D drug plans need to complete the 2023 AHIP Medicare Certification.
While the Medicare + Fraud, Waste, and Abuse training and exam is difficult for many, there are some ways to prepare to make it a little less painful.
What's In the AHIP Medicare Certification?
More than 100,000 agents and brokers take the AHIP each and every year! This CMS-compliant training is the health insurance industry's most widely recognized MFWA training.
If you've never taken the AHIP before, you'll learn about Medicare as well as Fraud, Waste, and Abuse (FWA). Both of these together are referred to as MFWA training.
On the Medicare side, you'll learn about:
- The basics of Medicare
- Different types of MA and PDPs
- Eligibility and coverage
- Nondiscrimination training
- Marketing and enrollment
And on the FWA side, you'll learn about:
- How to spot fraud, waste, or abuse
- An overview of the industry efforts to detect fraud
- Legal tools to combat FWA
- The human and financial cost of FWA
- FWA and compliance requirements
- Who commits FWA
- How to report FWA
- Loopholes and obligations
Below are 5 modules to go through, and each module has review quizzes. Pay close attention to those review quizzes (more on that soon)!
- Overview of Medicare Program Basics: Choices, Eligibility, and Benefits
- Medicare Health Plans
- Medicare Part D: Prescription Drug Coverage
- Marketing Medicare Advantage and Part D Plans
- Enrollment Guidance Medicare Advantage and Part D Plans
- Final Exam
When you fully complete all 5 portions of the training, you can take the final exam. After you pass the exam, you'll be able to transmit your certificate to your various insurance carriers, right from the AHIP portal.
What's the AHIP Exam Like?
The AHIP final exam is 50 questions, which are randomly selected to cover all 5 portions of the training.
You have three attempts to score a 90% or higher. Each attempt has a 2-hour time limit, though most agents say they can get through it in an hour or less.
AHIP Exam Tips
Use Google Chrome
Use the Google Chrome browser when taking the AHIP.
Many have reported errors with submission when using other web browsers. If you click out of or get a browser error during the exam, none of your answers are saved.
Study the Review Questions
Pay close attention to the review questions in the quizzes!
Often times, 30-45 of the 50 questions on the final exam are the exact questions from the review quizzes. If you plan to do any studying for the AHIP, let it be of the review questions from each training module.
Each module quiz has 20 questions. Take the quiz like normal – see how you did.
But rest assured that commentary about your wrong answers is given once you complete the quiz. You also get a reference to the slide where this question and answer is covered. That is what you want to be studying.
There are several ways to save these quizzes to study and reference during the final exam:
- Print the quizzes
- Save them as PDFs
- Copy and paste the questions and answers into a spreadsheet (this allows you to search certain words or phrases later on, but it's more time consuming)
- Take screenshots of the quizzes
The final exam is also open book, so it's very handy to have these review questions and answers on hand.
Be Able to Apply Your Knowledge
Prepare for questions that ask you to apply knowledge to a specific situation, not just questions that ask you to identify facts. For example, a question might state a certain aged beneficiary just moved to a county where their plan isn't available. Do they qualify for an SEP? Questions like this are very typical.
Pace Yourself
Pace yourself – you have just over 2 minutes per question to complete the 50-question exam in 2 hours or less.
If this is your first time taking the AHIP, it can be helpful to know how much time you have for each question to ensure you stay on track.
Don't sweat the AHIP! You have 3 attempts to get a 90% or higher, and studying the review questions from the modules can get you nearly all the way there.
Plus, you can take the review quizzes as many times as you need.
Once you're able to get a 90%, you know you're one step closer to passing the final exam.
If you aren't able to pass the exam within 3 attempts, you will have to pay a second time, and you'll get 3 more attempts. However, there are some carriers who require you to pass the AHIP within the first 3 tries.