CCMA Recertification and CE Guide: How to Renew Your Credential

Your CCMA credential from the National Healthcareer Association (NHA) is valid for 2 years from the date you passed the exam. After that, you need to actively renew it — the credential does not renew automatically, and your NHA account will show an expiration date you are expected to meet. To renew, you need three things: • 10 continuing education credits (NHA calls these CEUs or Continuing Competency Units / CCUs) • A renewal fee of roughly $99 (as of 2025 — verify the current amount at nhanow.com) • Submission of your CEUs and payment through your NHA account before your expiration date The process itself is straightforward once your CEUs are complete: you log into your NHA account, report or upload your CE activities, pay the renewal fee, and NHA reissues your credential for another 2-year cycle. The part that trips people up is not the paperwork — it is realizing at month 23 that they have not earned a single CEU yet.

NHA accepts CEUs from a defined list of approved sources. The easiest option for most CCMAs is the NHA CE Portal at nhanow.com, which offers courses specifically designed for credential holders — many are free or low-cost, and completion is automatically tracked in your account. Activities that typically count toward your 10 CEUs: • NHA-approved online courses through the CE Portal • Approved professional workshops and conferences • College coursework in relevant healthcare subjects (anatomy, medical terminology, pharmacology, etc.) • Courses from CE providers listed on NHA's approved provider list Activities that generally do not count: • General professional development unrelated to healthcare • Self-study or reading without an approved provider issuing credit • Courses from providers not on NHA's approved list, even if the topic is medical • On-the-job training that is not tied to a formal, approved CE activity Practical tip: space your CEUs out over the full 2-year window rather than cramming at the end. Five CEUs per year is a very light load, and the NHA portal makes it easy to knock out a course during a slow shift or on a weekend. Waiting until the last month is how people end up scrambling — or letting the credential lapse.

NHA does have a late renewal process, but it is not a guaranteed safety net and it comes with an additional fee on top of the standard renewal cost. If your credential lapsed recently — within a few months of your expiration date — contact NHA right away through your account or their support line. Late renewal is often still possible in this window if you complete your CEUs and pay the standard fee plus a late fee. If it has been more than a year since your credential expired, NHA typically requires you to retake and pass the full CCMA exam to restore your certified status. At that point, late renewal is off the table, and you are essentially starting over — new exam fees, new prep time, new test day. The fix is boring but it works: set a calendar reminder 6 months before your expiration date. That gives you enough runway to complete any remaining CEUs, budget for the renewal fee, and submit everything well before the deadline. Verify current late renewal policies at nhanow.com since NHA can update these rules.

Not automatically. NHA (which issues the CCMA) and AAMA (which issues the CMA) operate separate CE approval systems, and each organization decides independently which courses count for its credential. That said, there is real overlap. Some CE providers are approved by both NHA and AAMA, which means a single course can count for both credentials if you happen to hold both. This is most common with major medical assisting conferences, national CE providers, and certain online course platforms that specifically advertise dual approval. Before you assume a course will count toward your CCMA renewal, check that the provider or course is listed on NHA's approved provider list — not just AAMA's. If it is not on NHA's list, the CEUs will not count toward your 10, no matter how relevant the content is. When in doubt, use the NHA CE Portal directly: everything there is pre-approved by NHA and tracked automatically in your account.

Keep it active. An expired CCMA shows up as a gap on your resume and in credential verification checks, and employers reading a job application do not always distinguish between "never certified" and "lapsed certification" — both raise questions. The math also favors renewing. Ten CEUs over 2 years is 5 per year, which works out to roughly 30 to 60 minutes of learning every couple of months. NHA's own portal has free and low-cost courses that make this easy to hit without leaving your couch. The renewal fee (roughly $99 as of 2025 — verify at nhanow.com) is a small fraction of what you would spend restoring a lapsed credential, which can mean late fees or, after a year, retaking the full exam. You earned the credential the hard way. Protecting it with a few short courses and one online payment every 2 years is one of the highest-return time investments in your healthcare career.