- ALHC is a six-course designation from the International Claim Association (ICA); this site focuses on ICA C1, Medical Aspects of Claims.
- C1 is delivered online by McCann Associates through the Adaptera platform and costs $325 for ICA members or $550 for nonmembers.
- The C1 exam has 75 multiple-choice questions, a 150-minute limit, and requires a 70% score to pass.
- Enrollment gives you the exam plus one retake, both to be used within 180 days before access expires.
What Is ALHC?
ALHC stands for Associate, Life and Health Claims, a professional designation issued by the International Claim Association (ICA). It's built specifically for claims professionals in the life and health insurance space who want a credential that validates their technical knowledge of how claims are evaluated, documented, and resolved. Unlike a single-exam certification, ALHC is a multi-course program: candidates complete two approved introductory courses plus four ICA courses, labeled C1 through C4.
This site, ALHC Exam Prep, is focused on one specific piece of that pathway: ICA C1, Medical Aspects of Claims. Everything on this page describes the C1 course-and-exam package, not a single comprehensive "ALHC exam." If you've seen other sites describe ALHC differently - different fees, different question counts, different sponsoring organization - they're almost certainly describing an unrelated credential that happens to share the same acronym. On this site, ALHC means exactly what the ICA defines it to mean.
Who Awards the ALHC Designation
The ICA sets the curriculum and confers the ALHC designation once all required coursework is complete. On the delivery side, the C1 course and exam are administered online by McCann Associates using the Adaptera testing platform - the same infrastructure candidates will log into to study, unlock the exam, and submit answers for scoring.
Before you ever sit for an ICA course, you need to clear two introductory requirements. ICA accepts either of these combinations:
- LOMA 280 or 281, together with LOMA 290 or 291
- AHIP Parts A and B
Once you've completed one of these introductory tracks, you submit your external completion records directly to ICA so they can be logged against your ALHC file. From there, you move into the four ICA courses - C1 through C4 - of which C1, Medical Aspects of Claims, is the subject of this guide. For a full breakdown of prerequisites and how to document them, see ALHC Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.
Inside C1: Medical Aspects of Claims
C1 is built around the medical knowledge a claims examiner needs to evaluate life and health claims accurately - interpreting medical documentation, understanding how conditions and treatments relate to policy provisions, and recognizing where medical facts intersect with claim decisions. It's the course most candidates describe as the steepest learning curve in the ALHC sequence because it asks insurance professionals to get comfortable with clinical terminology and reasoning they may not use daily.
Because this site is scoped to C1, the material you'll find here is organized around that course's content rather than a generic insurance-exam outline. If you want a topic-by-topic breakdown of what's tested, start with ALHC Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All Content Areas, which maps the C1 material to a study-friendly structure.
Medical Aspects of Claims - What C1 Actually Covers
Candidates need working familiarity with how medical information flows into a claims decision, not just isolated medical vocabulary.
- Reading and interpreting medical records, attending physician statements, and diagnostic documentation
- Understanding how specific conditions and treatment histories affect claim eligibility and duration
- Recognizing red flags that warrant additional medical review or independent examination
- Connecting medical findings back to policy language and claim provisions
Key Takeaway
C1 rewards candidates who can translate medical documentation into claims-relevant conclusions - not candidates who simply memorize disease definitions in isolation.
Because the study materials must be completed before the exam unlocks, there's no shortcut to skipping ahead. Adaptera requires you to work through the full course content first, which actually works in your favor: by the time you reach the exam, you've been exposed to every tested concept at least once. For a closer look at how demanding this course feels in practice compared to other ALHC courses, see How Hard Is the ALHC Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026.
Exam Format and Day-of Mechanics
The C1 exam itself is straightforward in structure, even if the content is dense:
- 75 multiple-choice questions
- 150-minute time limit
- 70% required to pass
- Closed book - no textbooks, notes, or outside reference materials, and no computer-assisted lookup tools
One detail that trips up first-time candidates: exiting the exam window submits it for scoring immediately. There's no "save and resume" once you've started the actual exam session, so plan for an uninterrupted 150-minute block. Also worth noting - ICA itself does not mandate proctoring for the C1 exam, but individual employers may impose their own proctoring requirement if they're sponsoring your enrollment, so check with your manager or HR contact before test day.
For the exact scoring mechanics and what 70% actually means in terms of correct answers, see ALHC Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass.
Registration, Fees, and Deadlines
The C1 course-and-exam package is priced at $325 for ICA members and $550 for nonmembers. That single fee covers the online course content, the exam itself, and - importantly - one retake if you don't pass on the first attempt.
Both the initial exam and the retake must be completed within 180 days of enrollment. If that window closes before you've used your attempts, your access expires and you'll need to repurchase the course to try again. This makes the 180-day clock one of the most important numbers to plan around, especially if you're balancing C1 with a full claims caseload at work.
Key Takeaway
Treat the 180-day window as your hard deadline, not your exam date. Build in time for the course content, a first exam attempt, and - if needed - a retake, all before that clock runs out.
For a line-item look at what you're paying for and how the member/nonmember pricing compares, see ALHC Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown. If you want to map your enrollment date against realistic exam-day targets, ALHC Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling walks through the scheduling logic in more detail.
How C1 Fits the Full ALHC Pathway
C1 doesn't stand alone - it's one of six pieces required for the full ALHC designation. Here's how the components line up:
| Requirement | Options / Details |
|---|---|
| Introductory Course 1 | LOMA 280 or LOMA 281 |
| Introductory Course 2 | LOMA 290 or LOMA 291, or AHIP Parts A and B in place of both intro courses |
| ICA Course C1 | Medical Aspects of Claims - the focus of this site |
| ICA Courses C2-C4 | Remaining ICA-administered courses required for the full designation |
| Record Submission | External completion records (LOMA/AHIP) submitted directly to ICA |
Because most candidates work through these courses over an extended period, it helps to see the whole roadmap early rather than discovering prerequisites after the fact. If you're just starting out, ALHC Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify lays out the full sequence, and ALHC Certification gives a broader overview of the designation as a whole.
Who Pursues ALHC and Why
ALHC candidates are typically already working in claims - life claims examiners, health claims analysts, claims supervisors, and appeals or audit specialists at insurance carriers, third-party administrators, and reinsurers. Employers value the designation because it signals that a claims professional has formal training in the medical, contractual, and procedural dimensions of claims handling, not just on-the-job familiarity.
C1 in particular matters to anyone whose role involves reviewing medical evidence attached to a claim file - deciding whether documentation supports the claimed condition, whether further medical review is warranted, or how a diagnosis interacts with policy exclusions. If your day-to-day already involves reading attending physician statements or medical exam reports, C1's content will feel directly applicable rather than academic.
Curious whether the designation translates into measurable career movement? Is the ALHC Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 and ALHC Jobs both dig into how the credential is used and recognized within claims departments, while ALHC Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis looks at how it's positioned relative to other claims credentials.
Scheduling Your C1 Study Time
Because the Adaptera platform requires you to finish the course materials before the exam unlocks, your study plan really has two phases: working through the content, then reviewing before your attempt. A simple week-by-week structure helps keep the 180-day window from sneaking up on you.
Course Content - First Pass
- Work through all Medical Aspects of Claims modules in order; don't skip sections since the exam won't unlock until they're all marked complete
- Keep a running list of medical terms and claim-decision scenarios you find confusing
Targeted Review
- Revisit the sections tied to your confusion list, focusing on how medical findings map to claim outcomes
- Practice reasoning through sample scenarios rather than re-reading passively
Exam-Ready Check
- Do a full closed-book run-through of your notes to confirm you're not relying on outside references
- Confirm your 150-minute block is uninterrupted and check whether your employer requires proctoring
This kind of spaced review works especially well for C1 because medical terminology and claim-decision logic both benefit from repeated exposure over several sittings rather than a single cram session. For a more detailed, day-by-day version of this approach, see ALHC Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt. And once you're ready to test your recall against exam-style questions, our practice test platform is built specifically around the C1 content covered here.
If you'd rather see the raw pass-rate context before committing to a study timeline, ALHC Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows and ALHC Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts are useful companion reads. You can also run a few timed sets on the main practice test site to see how your pacing holds up across all 75 questions within the 150-minute limit.
Frequently Asked Questions
ALHC is a designation earned through two introductory courses (LOMA or AHIP tracks) plus four ICA courses, C1 through C4. This site focuses specifically on ICA C1, Medical Aspects of Claims.
The International Claim Association sets the curriculum, and McCann Associates delivers the online course and exam through the Adaptera platform.
The course-and-exam package is $325 for ICA members and $550 for nonmembers, which includes the exam and one retake.
No. The exam is closed book with no outside reference materials or computer assistance permitted, and exiting the exam window submits it for scoring.
Your enrollment, including the exam and retake, must be used within 180 days. If that window expires before you complete it, you'll need to repurchase the course to regain access.