The New York accident and health exam, Series 17-52

A separate license from life

Series 17-52 licenses you to sell accident and health coverage in New York. It is its own exam, 100 questions in 2 hours, and 70% passes. If you also want to sell life insurance, 17-55 covers both lines in one longer sitting.

Three families of coverage

Medical expense coverage pays for care: hospital, surgical and physician bills, and the broader plans built on top of them. Questions ask how deductibles, coinsurance and out-of-pocket limits divide a bill between the insurer and the insured.

Disability income replaces earnings, not medical bills. Expect questions on elimination periods, benefit periods, and how a policy defines being unable to work.

Long-term care pays for help with daily living over a long period. It is easy to confuse with disability income because both pay over time. Ask what the money replaces: income, or the cost of care.

Policy provisions

A large share of the exam is the standard language of a health policy: grace periods, claim notice and proof of loss, how a policy can be renewed or canceled by the insurer, and what happens when two policies cover the same loss. Learn what each provision protects and who it protects, the insurer or the insured.

Federal rules on the exam

Some health questions come from federal law rather than New York law: continuing group coverage after leaving a job, and limits on waiting periods in group plans. Know which rules are federal, because a question about them is answered the same way in every state.

Where candidates slip

• Coinsurance against a copay. One is a share of the bill, the other a flat amount.
• Elimination period against benefit period. One is the wait before payment starts, the other is how long it lasts.
• Group against individual coverage, which follow different rules on who holds the contract.

Pacing

100 questions in 2 hours is 72 seconds each. The worked questions, where you split a bill between deductible and coinsurance, take longer than the definitions. Bank the time on the definitions.