Certified Medical Reimbursement Specialist


Certified Medical Reimbursement Specialist is a voluntary national credential that was created specifically for the medical billing professional. The American Medical Billing Association has been providing this industry certification and designation for nearly a decade.
The CMRS designation is awarded by the Certifying Board of the American Medical Billing Association after an exam. Although there is no state or federal requirement for a medical billing professional to become certified to practice medical billing, the goal is to provide a professional certification that upholds a high ethical standard of knowledge that recognizes the competency of a certificant.

Composition of the exam

The exam is composed of 16 sections:
  1. Medical Terminology
  2. Anatomy & Physiology
  3. Information Technology
  4. Web & Information Technology
  5. ICD-10 Coding
  6. CPT-4 Coding
  7. Clearinghouses
  8. CMS 1500
  9. Insurance
  10. Insurance Carriers
  11. Acronyms
  12. Compliance
  13. Fraud & Abuse
  14. Managed Care
  15. General
  16. Case Study

    Rules and requirements

The current year's HCPCS, CPT-4, and ICD-10 Code Books are needed to take the exam, or you can use a free trial of the AMBA's .
The AMBA offers a CMRS Study Guide. Purchasing the guide is optional but recommended because 80% of the exam is taken from the study guide.
A small portion of the answers to the CMRS exam can be found in the book Understanding Health Insurance. There are 150 sample questions from the exam in the Workbook, and the answers are in the Instructor's Manual.