CHA Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass

What "Passing" Actually Means on the CHA

Candidates searching for the Certified Hospice Administrator passing score usually want one clean number: "I need X percent." The honest answer is more nuanced. The National Board for Home Care and Hospice Certification (NBHHC) reports outcomes as pass or fail, and the candidate handbook does not frame success as a simple raw-percentage target you can memorize. What you are really trying to demonstrate is competence against a published content blueprint covering hospice business operations, finance, business development, and compliance.

That distinction matters for how you prepare. If you fixate on an imagined cut percentage, you'll tend to under-study the topics where administrators most often get tripped up and over-study the ones you already enjoy. A better approach is to treat the blueprint as your scoreboard: every domain contributes questions, and the weighting tells you how heavily each area counts.

For a broader look at what the data does and doesn't tell us about outcomes, see our breakdown of the CHA pass rate, and for a sense of how demanding the exam feels in practice, read How Hard Is the CHA Exam?

How NBHHC Reports Results

The Certified Hospice Administrator exam uses pass/fail reporting. That has a few practical consequences:

• No domain-by-domain bragging rights. A pass is a pass; you won't be ranked against other candidates.
• No partial credit for near-misses. If you fall short, the outcome is simply a fail, so a retake plan should be built around the whole blueprint rather than one weak area.
• No curve to lean on. You're measured against the competence standard for the credential, not against the other people in your testing window.

Because results are binary, the most useful thing you can do before test day is figure out where you stand on each domain. Timed CHA practice tests that tag every question to a blueprint domain are far more diagnostic than a single blended percentage.

Format Facts That Shape Your Score

Several structural features of the exam directly affect how you should approach scoring:

The single most actionable item in that table is the absence of a guessing penalty. A blank answer can never earn credit, while an educated guess sometimes will. Never leave a question unanswered.

Where Your Points Come From: The Four Domains

Since there's no magic percentage to chase, the blueprint is the closest thing to a scoring map. The Certified Hospice Administrator content outline divides the exam into four domains:

Notice the arithmetic: Business Operations plus Finance equals 65% of the blueprint. A candidate who is comfortable with those two domains has a major structural advantage. For a deeper walk through each content area, see our complete guide to all four CHA exam domains.

High-Yield Hospice Topics to Master

The blueprint and handbook point to several topics that deserve extra repetition because they combine operational judgment with regulatory or financial detail.

Utilization and Length of Stay

Expect scenario questions where you interpret what a program's utilization pattern suggests about admissions, discharges, and referral quality. Know how length of stay relates to census, staffing, and finances, and be able to reason about what changes when it shifts.

Levels of Care

You should be able to distinguish the levels of hospice care and recognize which situation calls for which one. These questions often hide the answer inside a clinical or operational vignette, so practice identifying the trigger details.

Hospice Cap Concepts

Cap concepts sit at the intersection of finance and compliance, which makes them a favorite area for multi-layered questions. Focus on understanding what the cap is designed to limit and how an administrator monitors exposure, rather than memorizing isolated definitions. If you want targeted repetition, our hospice cap practice questions are built for exactly this.

Cost Reports

You aren't expected to be a cost accountant, but you should understand what cost reports are for, who relies on them, and how accuracy and timeliness affect the organization.

QAPI

Quality assessment and performance improvement shows up as both a compliance obligation and an operational discipline. Know the purpose of a QAPI program and how an administrator uses data to drive improvement.

Volunteers and Nursing-Facility Agreements

Volunteer program requirements and agreements with nursing facilities are classic "details matter" territory. These are rich sources of straightforward points for candidates who've reviewed them and surprising misses for those who haven't.

Our one-page CHA cheat sheet condenses many of these must-know facts for last-week review.

Windows, Deadlines, and Fees

Your score only counts if you actually get to sit for the exam, so the registration mechanics deserve a place in any passing-score plan. Computer-based testing in 2026 happens in four windows:

Testing is coordinated by Professional Testing (PTI), with Pearson VUE computer-based test centers and approved onsite paper testing. Once your application is approved, you receive an Authorization to Test for Pearson VUE scheduling, and approval lasts 12 months, so you have flexibility if you need to choose a later window. Full scheduling detail is in our CHA exam dates guide.

On cost, initial certification is a US$99 application plus a US$499 examination fee, for US$598 total. Optional CAHSAH administrator course tuition is separate. For the full financial picture, see the CHA certification cost breakdown.

Pacing 80-100 Questions in 2 Hours

With a 2-hour limit and between 80 and 100 questions, you have somewhere between 72 seconds and 90 seconds per question. Because the question count varies, build your pacing around the worst case: assume 100 questions.

1. First pass: Answer everything you can resolve quickly. Single-answer questions often reveal themselves in a first read.
2. Flag and move: If a Finance scenario needs real calculation or reasoning, flag it rather than burning several minutes.
3. Second pass: Return to flagged items with the time you saved.
4. Final sweep: Confirm nothing is blank. With no guessing penalty, every unanswered question is a wasted opportunity.

Because the exam is closed book, you can't verify a regulation or formula mid-test. That makes recall practice, not rereading, the right use of your final weeks.

A Domain-Weighted Prep Plan

Rather than a generic schedule, allocate your time by blueprint weight and by where you personally are weakest. Here's one way to sequence an eight-week lead-up to a testing window:

Start with Business Operations because it's the largest domain and many Finance and Compliance questions build on operational understanding. For a fuller preparation roadmap, our CHA study guide covers resources and sequencing in more depth.

If You Don't Pass

A fail result is disappointing, but it isn't the end of the road. Because reporting is pass/fail, begin by reconstructing which areas felt shakiest during the exam, then use domain-tagged practice to confirm. Revisit your weakest blueprint area first and rebuild from there.

Since an approved application stays valid for 12 months, check your timeline against the remaining testing windows. Consider whether a different window gives you enough runway to close the gaps rather than rushing back into the next one. If you're weighing whether the effort is worth repeating, our ROI analysis of the CHA certification and the CHA salary guide can help you put the investment in context.

After You Pass: Keeping the Credential

Certification lasts 4 years. Renewal requires 50 points, including at least 36 continuing-education contact hours and no more than 14 other points, plus relevant management/leadership employment for 12 of the preceding 48 months. Renewal costs a US$99 application plus a US$299 renewal fee (US$398 total), and a late renewal within the permitted 1-year period adds US$99. Planning continuing education across the four-year cycle is far easier than scrambling at the end.

Frequently Asked Questions