The CEHRS Test Plan & How to Use This Guide

NHA Certified Electronic Health Records Specialist CEHRS

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1 Introduction & Exam Overview

About the NHA CEHRS Exam The CEHRS Test Plan & How to Use This Guide

2 Chapter 1: Foundations — Medical Terminology, Health Care Settings & the EHR

1.1 Medical Terminology I: Roots, Prefixes, Suffixes & Combining Forms 1.2 Medical Terminology II: Body Systems, Directional Terms & Clinical Abbreviations 1.3 Health Care Systems, Settings, Personnel & Credentials 1.4 Parts of the EHR & Core Functions of the Electronic Record 1.5 Regulatory Agencies, Professional Standards & Population Health Concepts

3 Chapter 2: Non-Clinical Operations — Patient Registration & Scheduling

2.1 Patient Registration & Intake Workflows 2.2 Master Patient Index (MPI) & Demographic Management 2.3 Appointment Scheduling & Resource Management 2.4 Patient Communication, Portals & Front-Office Operations 2.5 Encounter Documentation: Face Sheets, Labels, Armbands & Check-Out

4 Chapter 3: Non-Clinical Operations — Health Record Administration & Archiving

3.1 Health Record Types, Hybrid Systems & Data Conversion 3.2 Record Retention, Storage & Archival Policies 3.3 Release of Information (ROI) & Authorization Procedures 3.4 Auditing, Chart Maintenance & Record Integrity

5 Chapter 4: Non-Clinical Operations — Data Sources, Devices & EHR User Support

4.1 Retrieving Patient Data from Internal Databases (Provider, Payer & Financial) 4.2 Acquiring Patient Data from External Sources 4.3 Importing from Integrated Devices & Managing EHR Hardware Inventory 4.4 Identifying, Reporting & Reconciling Data Discrepancies 4.5 End-User EHR Training, Competency & Training Documentation 4.6 Communicating Software Updates, IT Troubleshooting & Escalation

6 Chapter 5: Clinical Operations — Clinical Intake, Point-of-Care & Vitals

5.1 Clinical Intake, Rooming & Vital Signs Documentation 5.2 Chief Complaint, History of Present Illness (HPI) & ROS 5.3 Physical Exam Documentation & Clinical Notes Formatting (SOAP) 5.4 Allergy Documentation, Adverse Reaction Logging & Safety Alerts 5.5 Problem Lists, Medical History & Immunization Tracking 5.6 Patient Education Materials in the EHR & Scope of Practice

7 Chapter 6: Clinical Operations — Templates, Documentation Review & Data Retrieval

6.1 Developing Clinical Templates for Data Capture 6.2 Reviewing Clinical Documentation for Completeness & Accuracy 6.3 Point-of-Care EHR Support & Telehealth Workflows 6.4 Navigating the EHR to Retrieve Requested Patient Data 6.5 Securely Transmitting & Exchanging Patient Data

8 Chapter 7: Clinical Operations — CPOE, Orders & Decision Support

7.1 Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) Fundamentals 7.2 Laboratory & Diagnostic Test Order Entry and Results Tracking 7.3 Medication Reconciliation, e-Prescribing & Formulary Checks 7.4 Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) & Practice Guidelines 7.5 Clinical Care Coordination, Referrals & Discharge Planning

9 Chapter 8: Revenue Cycle & Financial Management

8.1 Insurance Verification, Eligibility (EDI 270/271) & Prior Authorization 8.2 Superbills, Charge Capture & Encounter Form Management 8.3 Coding Fundamentals for EHR: ICD-10-CM, CPT & HCPCS Level II 8.4 Claim Submission (EDI 837), Remittance (EDI 835) & Revenue Cycle 8.5 Providing Estimated Patient Costs & Good Faith Estimates 8.6 Patient Statements, Payment Collection & Balance Reconciliation

10 Chapter 9: Regulatory Compliance, HIPAA & Security

9.1 HIPAA Privacy Rule & Protected Health Information (PHI) 9.2 Minimum Necessary Rule, Permitted Uses & Patient Rights 9.3 HIPAA Security Rule: Administrative, Physical & Technical Safeguards 9.4 HITECH Act, Breach Notification Rule & Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) 9.5 Information Blocking Rules, 21st Century Cures Act & Compliance Audits 9.6 Allocating & Verifying EHR Access Controls and Role-Based Privileges 9.7 Educating Staff, Identifying Non-Compliant Behavior & Escalation 9.8 Abbreviation Policies, Professional Standards & EHR Downtime Procedures

11 Chapter 10: Data Management, Reporting & Health IT Standards

10.1 Health IT Interoperability: HL7, FHIR & Health Information Exchanges (HIE) 10.2 Standardized & Ad Hoc Financial Reports 10.3 Standardized & Ad Hoc Clinical Reports 10.4 Verifying Report Accuracy & Avoiding Common Reporting Errors 10.5 Quality Reporting, MIPS, Promoting Interoperability & Clinical Dashboards 10.6 Data Abstraction, Quality Improvement Studies & EHR System Security Management

The CEHRS Test Plan & How to Use This Guide

Key Takeaways Explain This Topic AI

The CEHRS test plan divides 100 scored items across five domains: Non-Clinical Operations (28), Clinical Operations (32), Revenue Cycle/Finance (15), Regulatory Compliance (15), and Reporting (10).

Clinical Operations and Non-Clinical Operations together account for 60 of the 100 scored items, making EHR workflow the single largest study priority.

The test plan is built from a 2019 practice analysis and expresses content as task statements paired with supporting knowledge statements.

Core/Foundational Knowledge — including medical terminology, health care settings, and interoperability concepts — is not a scored domain but can appear inside any item.

Study time should be allocated to domain weight, not to personal comfort with a topic.

Last updated: August 2026

NHA publishes a free CEHRS Test Plan built from a 2019 practice analysis study. It is the only authoritative statement of what the exam covers, and it is structured in a way that rewards careful reading: each domain lists task statements (duties you must be able to perform, labeled 1.A, 1.B, and so on) followed by associated knowledge statements (facts that support those duties, labeled 1.K1, 1.K2, and so on). An exam item may test recall of a knowledge statement, judgment about a task statement, or both at once.

The Five Scored Domains

• # Domain Scored Items Share of Exam
• 1 Non-Clinical Operations 28 28%
• 2 Clinical Operations 32 32%
• 3 Revenue Cycle/Finance 15 15%
• 4 Regulatory Compliance 15 15%
• 5 Reporting 10 10%
• Total 100 100%

Two facts jump out of that table. First, Clinical Operations is the largest domain , which surprises candidates who assume an "electronic health records" exam is mostly front-office work. Second, the two operations domains together are 60 percent of the exam . HIPAA is important, but at 15 items Regulatory Compliance is only slightly larger than Reporting; candidates who spend half their study time on privacy law are optimizing the wrong thing.

What each domain actually asks you to do

Domain 1 — Non-Clinical Operations (28 items). Verifying patient identifiers, collecting and updating demographic/coverage data, generating encounter documentation, pulling data from internal databases and outside sources, importing from scanners and signature pads, tracking EHR hardware, coordinating patient flow, training end users, communicating software updates, finding and reconciling data discrepancies, and supporting patients on the portal.

Domain 2 — Clinical Operations (32 items). Building clinical templates, transmitting data securely, reviewing documentation for completeness and accuracy, providing at-the-elbow and remote point-of-care support, entering real-time and historic clinical data, supporting CPOE, locating patient education materials, and navigating the record to retrieve requested data.

Domain 3 — Revenue Cycle/Finance (15 items). Looking up ICD, CPT, and HCPCS codes; building superbills; entering codes for claims; verifying documentation supports reimbursement; verifying eligibility; documenting authorizations; providing cost estimates; producing patient statements; and collecting and posting payments.

Domain 4 — Regulatory Compliance (15 items). Professional standards, HIPAA/HITECH confidentiality, educating others on safeguards, spotting non-compliant behavior, allocating and verifying access controls, de-identifying PHI, releasing PHI, internal audits, abbreviation rules, downtime procedures, and EHR incentive program requirements.

Domain 5 — Reporting (10 items). Running standardized financial and clinical reports, building ad hoc reports, producing statistical reports for quality improvement, compiling data for external reporting, and verifying report accuracy before distribution.

Core/Foundational Knowledge

The test plan closes with 13 Core/Foundational Knowledge statements that NHA explicitly says are not standalone domains. They are the background knowledge an item can assume: health care regulatory agencies, professional standards, medical terminology , basic health care finance terminology, health care systems and personnel, the parts of the EHR, protected health information, types of health records, types of health care documentation, the general purpose of the EHR, patient rights and responsibilities, interoperability concepts, and population health concepts.

Do not skip these. A Domain 3 item can hinge on whether you know that -ectomy means surgical removal; a Domain 5 item can hinge on knowing what a skilled nursing facility is. Chapter 1 of this guide is devoted entirely to that foundation.

How This Guide Maps to the Test Plan

• Guide Chapter Primary Test Plan Coverage
• 1. Foundations Core/Foundational Knowledge (terminology, settings, EHR parts, agencies, population health)

2. Registration & Scheduling Domain 1 (identifiers, demographics, encounter documents, patient flow, portal support)

3. Record Administration & Archiving Domain 1 record handling + Domain 4 release of information and internal audits

4. Data Sources, Devices & User Support Domain 1 (internal/external data, device imports, hardware inventory, discrepancies, training, escalation)

5. Clinical Intake & Vitals Domain 2 (real-time and historic clinical data, patient education)

6. Templates, Documentation Review & Retrieval Domain 2 (templates, documentation review, point-of-care support, navigation, secure transmission)

• 7. CPOE, Orders & Decision Support Domain 2 (CPOE support)
• 8. Revenue Cycle & Financial Management Domain 3 (all nine task statements)
• 9. Regulatory Compliance, HIPAA & Security Domain 4 (all twelve task statements)
• 10. Data Management, Reporting & Health IT Domain 5 (all seven task statements) + interoperability
• A Weight-Proportional Study Plan

If you have 60 hours to prepare, allocate them the way NHA allocates items rather than by how interesting a topic feels:

• Study Block Hours Rationale
• Foundations (Chapter 1) 6 Unlocks vocabulary used by every other domain
• Clinical Operations (Chapters 5-7) 19 32% of scored items
• Non-Clinical Operations (Chapters 2-4) 17 28% of scored items
• Revenue Cycle (Chapter 8) 9 15% of scored items
• Regulatory Compliance (Chapter 9) 9 15% of scored items

Reserve the remaining time for full-length timed practice. Because the exam runs 125 minutes, at least one of your practice sessions should be a single uninterrupted 125-minute block so that pacing and fatigue are rehearsed, not discovered on test day.