CMAA Practice Questions (2026) — Free Sample Questions with Answers

Answer: D

Tell him to lower his voice or he will be asked to leave: Threatening the patient escalates conflict and does not address his concern.

Explain that billing errors are the insurer's fault, not the office's: Shifting blame is unprofessional and may be inaccurate; the issue needs to be investigated.

Ask him to call the billing office from home later: Dismissing the patient leaves him frustrated and does not resolve the problem.

Move him to a private area, listen, and look into the charges: Correct. Privacy protects his information, and active listening, empathy and prompt follow-up (escalating if needed) de-escalate the situation.

Difficult interactions: stay calm, move to privacy, listen actively, show empathy, act on the problem and escalate through the chain of command if needed.

Answer: A

Send a written withdrawal letter by certified mail with time to find new care: Correct. Formal written notice (often certified mail, return receipt), a reasonable period of continued availability and an offer to transfer records protect against abandonment.

Cancel his future appointments and stop returning his calls: Ending care without notice is the definition of patient abandonment.

Tell him at the front desk that he should find another doctor: Verbal notice alone is poorly documented and may not give a reasonable transition period.

Mark his chart inactive and refuse his record transfer request: Patients have the right to their records, and refusing them adds to the legal risk.

Abandonment = ending care without reasonable notice. Use written notice, stay available for a set period, help with referral and send records on request.

Answer: C

A child with ear pain who needs the ear canal examined: An ear exam requires an otoscope and a hands-on examination.

A patient who needs a tetanus vaccine after a cut: Vaccines and wound care require an in-person visit.

A follow-up to review recent lab results and medications: Correct. Discussing results and medications needs no hands-on exam and suits a telehealth visit.

A patient due for a Pap test at an annual exam: A Pap test is a hands-on procedure that must be done in the office.

Telehealth fits visits that rely on conversation (results review, medication checks, some behavioral health); procedures, injections and physical exams need in-person visits.

Answer: B

The father's plan, because he is the older parent: The birthday rule ignores birth year; only month and day count.

The mother's plan, because her birthday comes first in the year: Correct. The parent whose birthday (month and day) falls earlier in the calendar year is primary: March comes before August.

The father's plan, because the father's plan is always primary: The old 'gender rule' has been replaced by the birthday rule in most plans.

The plan with the lower deductible, to save the family money: Coordination of benefits follows set rules, not which plan is cheaper.

Birthday rule: earlier month/day in the year = primary for dependent children of married parents; year of birth does not matter. Custody rules apply for divorced parents.

Answer: D

Setting the allowed amounts that each insurer will pay: Allowed amounts are set by payer fee schedules and contracts, not by the clearinghouse.

Deciding whether each service is medically necessary: Medical necessity decisions are made by payers under their coverage policies.

Collecting unpaid balances from patients for the practice: That is the role of a collection agency, not a clearinghouse.

Checking claims for errors and forwarding them to payers: Correct. Clearinghouses scrub claims for missing or invalid data, convert them to the standard format and route them to payers, returning rejection reports.

Clearinghouse = claim scrubber and router; fixing its rejections quickly leads to cleaner claims and faster payment.

Answer: C

45: 45 is the tertiary (last-used) group, which determines order within the folder group.

23: 23 is the secondary group, used to find the position within the primary section.

18: Correct. In terminal digit filing, the last pair of digits (18) is the primary section, followed by 23 (secondary) and 45 (tertiary).

4523: Terminal digit filing reads digits in pairs from right to left, not as the first four digits.

Terminal digit: read from the right. Last pair = primary, middle pair = secondary, first pair = tertiary. It spreads files evenly across sections.