What Are Allied Health Certifications and How Do You Choose the Right NHA Certification?

Allied health certifications are credentials that show an employer you've met a recognized standard for a specific healthcare support role, such as medical assisting, phlebotomy, or billing and coding. The National Healthcareer Association (NHA) offers eight certifications, and the right one depends on the tasks you want to perform and the setting you want to work in. NHA states that its certifications are NCCA-accredited and recognized by employers nationwide, and that it has awarded over 1 million nationally recognized certifications. Before enrolling, confirm that the specific credential is accepted by the employers and state rules that apply where you plan to work.

Why employers value NCCA-accredited certifications

Accreditation is the main quality signal to check. NHA describes its certifications as NCCA-accredited, which means the credential has been reviewed against a national standard for certification programs. For a job seeker, that matters in two practical ways:

• Portability: an accredited credential is more likely to be recognized across employers rather than tied to one training program.
• Clear scope: each certification maps to a defined set of tasks, so employers know what the credential represents.

Accreditation does not replace state licensing or employer-specific requirements. Some roles and some states have their own rules, so verify before you pay for training or an exam.

The eight NHA certifications and the roles they support

NHA lists the following certifications, each tied to a distinct job function:

How to match a certification to your career goal

Use the task you want to do most days as the deciding factor, then check the setting.

If you want direct patient contact

• CCMA is the broadest option: it combines clinical and administrative duties, which suits clinics and physician offices where staff do both.
• CPT is narrow and procedural: blood draws for patients and donors. It suits labs, donation centers, and settings where phlebotomy is the core task.
• CPCT/A fits outpatient or long-term care facilities where you assist with patient care rather than run a front office.
• CET fits cardiovascular testing roles.

If you want the administrative or records side

• CMAA for office operations and front-desk efficiency.
• CEHRS for working inside patient records systems.
• CBCS for claims, invoices, and payments.

If you want medication handling

• CPhT is the pharmacy-focused path, built around dispensing medications alongside pharmacists.

A useful test: write down the three tasks you'd be happiest doing daily. If two of them are clinical and one is administrative, CCMA is the closer fit than a single-task credential. If all three are records or claims work, look at CEHRS or CBCS instead.

The certification and renewal path

NHA frames its role as supporting people "from education and training, to certification and career development," and its site separates the journey into getting certified, renewing certification, and continuing career development. In practice, plan for three stages:

1. Training or eligibility — complete the education or training your chosen credential expects. NHA describes flexible learning solutions and resources across the certification and career journey, so check the requirements for your specific certification before enrolling.
2. Exam and certification — sit the certification exam for your chosen credential. NHA positions its tools as accessible, online, engaging, and interactive, including for distance learning.
3. Renewal — certifications are time-limited and must be renewed. Build renewal into your plan from the start rather than treating certification as a one-time event.

Study tools worth knowing about

NHA Mobile offers study-on-the-go flashcards aligned to an enrolled NHA course. According to NHA, the flashcards:

• engage learners in active recall to create lasting connections to course material,
• align to course curriculum,
• track mastery of content,
• are available for most NHA products.

One limitation to note: NHA states that flashcards are not currently available for CMAA, Team Based Care, MA SkillsBuilder: Clinical, PersonAbility, and PharmaSeer Math. If you're pursuing CMAA, don't count on that tool as your study method.

Before you commit: verify these three things

1. Employer acceptance — ask two or three employers you'd want to work for whether they recognize the specific credential. NHA says its certifications are recognized nationwide, but individual job postings are the ground truth.
2. State rules — some allied health roles are regulated at the state level. Check your state's requirements for the role you're targeting; a national certification may be necessary but not sufficient.
3. Cost and logistics — the source material here does not list prices or login terms, so confirm exam fees, training costs, and any access conditions directly with NHA before budgeting.

Choosing an allied health certification comes down to matching the daily tasks you want to the credential's scope, then confirming that employers and your state accept it. Start with the task list, narrow to one or two NHA certifications, and verify acceptance before you invest in training.