Best Medical Coding Programs
A young man reviewing an invoice while banking online

American Medical Billing Association certification

How to Become a Certified Medical Reimbursement Specialist (CMRS) in 2026

Edited by Taylor Rupe, B.S., B.A.

Published · Last updated

To become a Certified Medical Reimbursement Specialist (CMRS) you pass the CMRS exam set by American Medical Billing Association. A billing-focused credential from the American Medical Billing Association.

AMBA requires a high school diploma or the equivalent and a current AMBA membership, but sets no prerequisite courses and no required training.

There is no licence and no state board in medical coding, so the credential is the qualification. What follows is what the CMRS covers, what it costs in total, who can sit it, what keeps it current, and when it is the right one to choose over CPC or COC.

Exam

Not published

Awarded by

American Medical Billing Association

Renewal

$99 a year in AMBA membership, which you must hold to sit the exam and to keep the credential, plus 15 continuing education units by each anniversary date, half of them through the association; AMBA webinars can supply all 15 at no cost

What is the CMRS certification?

The CMRS, or Certified Medical Reimbursement Specialist, is a certification awarded by American Medical Billing Association that validates competence in medical reimbursement and the billing process. In practice it is a billing-only credential with a smaller footprint than the AAPC CPB, worth checking against local job postings first.

American Medical Billing Association points the CMRS at three groups in particular:

  • Billers working in or for small physician practices
  • Independent billing contractors
  • People whose work is reimbursement rather than code assignment

What does the CMRS exam cover?

The CMRS exam covers 5 areas, as American Medical Billing Association describes them:

  • Anatomy and physiology, 82 questions, and medical terminology, 81
  • The CMS-1500 claim form, 64 questions, plus insurance and carriers, 68
  • CPT coding, 63 questions, and ICD-10-CM coding, 55
  • Healthcare acronyms and terms, 51, and information technology, 77 across two sections
  • Compliance and HIPAA, managed care, fraud and abuse, 68 between them

What that means in practice: the shape of this exam is unlike the others on this page. AMBA runs 16 sections and 694 answers, and the two largest are anatomy and medical terminology rather than anything about billing, which tells you it is testing the vocabulary a biller needs to read a chart rather than production coding speed. Reimbursement, not code assignment, is still where it lands.

How much does the CMRS exam cost?

The CMRS exam costs a fee the body does not publish openly, and AMBA sells the CMRS study guide as a PDF for $199, which it says covers about 85 percent of the exam. Treat it as the floor rather than the total. Code books alone run to a few hundred dollars a year, and they are revised annually.

The CMRS is taken online through AMBA's own learning system and open-book, in 16 sections and 694 answers, with 45 days of access to finish it.

American Medical Billing Association scores the CMRS against a pass mark of a cumulative 85 percent, with two free retakes and a 30-day wait after each failure, so the exam is criterion-referenced: you are measured against a fixed standard rather than graded on a curve against other candidates.

Set that against what the training costs. Tuition on the programmes we rank runs from about $1,100 to $10,100 a year, so for most people the exam is the smaller number, and a programme that bundles the voucher is worth more than its sticker price suggests. See the ranked programmes.

Who can sit the CMRS exam?

Anyone meeting American Medical Billing Association's stated conditions can sit the CMRS. AMBA requires a high school diploma or the equivalent and a current AMBA membership, but sets no prerequisite courses and no required training.

Meeting it is not the same as being ready for it. American Medical Billing Association is describing who may register, not who tends to pass, and the gap between those two is where most failed first attempts sit. A programme built specifically around the CMRS is worth more than one that merely leaves you eligible for it, which is why our ranked programmes record the exam each one names.

How do you keep the CMRS?

Keeping the CMRS takes $99 a year in AMBA membership, which you must hold to sit the exam and to keep the credential, plus 15 continuing education units by each anniversary date, half of them through the association; AMBA webinars can supply all 15 at no cost. Worth pricing in before you choose: lapse it and you pay the full exam fee again to recover it.

What sets the CMRS apart

  • Awarded by a billing association rather than a coding one, and correspondingly narrow
  • The least frequently named of the credentials on this site in job postings

How does the CMRS compare with other coding certifications?

The CMRS compares most directly with CPC and COC, and the choice between them follows the employer rather than the credential. The CMRS is a billing-only credential with a smaller footprint than the AAPC CPB, worth checking against local job postings first.

Credential Body Where it fits
CPC AAPC the default first credential for physician-practice and outpatient work, and the foundation the other AAPC credentials build on
COC AAPC the facility-side counterpart to the CPC, for people whose employer is a hospital outpatient department rather than a practice

What jobs and pay does the CMRS lead to?

The CMRS leads to medical biller roles. Federal data files that work as Billing and Posting Clerks, SOC 43-3021, with a median of $48,500 , with the bottom tenth at $37,290 and the top tenth at $67,710, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for May 2025. No credential guarantees a wage, and the tenth percentile is closer to what a first job pays than the median is.

Medical Biller

Submits claims to payers, posts payments, and works denials and appeals until the practice is paid.

Common questions about the CMRS

Who is eligible to sit the CMRS exam?
For the CMRS, AMBA requires a high school diploma or the equivalent and a current AMBA membership, but sets no prerequisite courses and no required training.
How do you keep the CMRS once you have it?
Keeping the CMRS takes $99 a year in AMBA membership, which you must hold to sit the exam and to keep the credential, plus 15 continuing education units by each anniversary date, half of them through the association; AMBA webinars can supply all 15 at no cost. Budget for it: a lapsed credential costs the full exam fee to recover.
Is the CMRS worth it?
The CMRS is worth it if the employers you want name it, and not otherwise. It is a billing-only credential with a smaller footprint than the AAPC CPB, worth checking against local job postings first. The cheapest way to test that is to read a handful of job adverts from employers you would actually apply to.

Sources

American Medical Billing Association revises its fees and requirements periodically, so treat the figures here as read on the date above rather than as a quote.