CHAA study guide
CHAA · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Certified Healthcare Access Associate (CHAA) is a professional credential administered by the National Association of Healthcare Access Management (NAHAM). It is designed for the people who sit at the front door of the revenue cycle: registrars, patient access representatives, schedulers, insurance verifiers, ED registration staff, and the supervisors who lead them. The CHAA study guide has 5 sections and about 1,781 words.
01Patient Access Operations and the Front-End Revenue Cycle
Patient access is the front door of the revenue cycle. The work spans scheduling, preregistration, eligibility and benefit verification, referral and authorization capture, medical-necessity screening, point-of-service (POS) collections, financial counseling, and admission/discharge/transfer (ADT) activity.
360 words, about 2 min02Revenue Cycle Management and Reimbursement
Revenue cycle management covers everything from charge capture to cash posting and denial resolution. Know the sequence: service documented, charges captured against the chargemaster (CDM), coded with CPT/HCPCS and ICD-10-CM/PCS, claim scrubbed, submitted as an 837 transaction, adjudicated by the payer, returned as an 835 remittance or ERA, posted with payment plus contractual adjustment, then patient balance billed.
339 words, about 2 min03Regulatory Compliance, Privacy, and Consent
Patient access operates inside HIPAA, EMTALA, the Medicare Conditions of Participation, the No Surprises Act, 42 CFR Part 2 for substance use disorder records, and state law. Two rules of thumb frame nearly every item: HIPAA sets a floor, not a ceiling, so stricter state law controls; and disclosures permitted for treatment, payment, and operations still require the minimum necessary , except that treatment disclosures are generally exempt from that standard.
379 words, about 2 min04Customer Service and Communication
Front-end communication determines whether patients arrive prepared, whether registration data is complete, and whether complaints escalate. Core frameworks to know: AIDET (Acknowledge, Introduce, Duration, Explanation, Thank you), service recovery (listen, apologize for the experience, resolve, thank), and teach-back to confirm a patient understands cost share, prep instructions, or coverage.
347 words, about 2 min05Healthcare Information Systems and Technology
Access work runs on the EHR and its integrations. Know the electronic transaction set: 270/271 is eligibility request and response, 276/277 is claim status, 278 is prior authorization, 837 is the claim, and 835 is the remittance advice.
356 words, about 2 min