What Is CMGT-BC Certification?

What CMGT-BC Actually Is

CMGT-BC is the credential designation for the Nursing Case Management Certification, offered by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), which operates within the American Nurses Association's enterprise. A nurse who passes the exam earns the title Case Management Nurse - Board Certified and may use the letters CMGT-BC after their name.

This is a registered nurse credential. It is not open to non-nurses, and it measures knowledge specific to nursing case management: coordinating care across settings, managing quality and outcomes, promoting health, and practicing within professional and ethical boundaries. That scope is worth stating plainly because the acronym is easy to confuse with unrelated credentials in other fields. If you arrived here looking for something other than the ANCC nursing certification, this site covers only the nursing credential described in this article.

For a shorter definitional overview, see our explainers on what CMGT-BC is and what CMGT-BC stands for. This article goes further, covering the exam mechanics, the eligibility rules, the fee structure and the unusual timeline facing prospective candidates.

The Program Phaseout: Dates That Matter

This is the single most important fact for anyone considering the credential today: the Nursing Case Management certification program is being phased out. ANCC has announced a sequence of deadlines, and understanding them determines whether pursuing CMGT-BC makes sense for you.

Two consequences deserve emphasis. First, once the exam retires, a certification that lapses beyond the two-year reactivation window cannot be revived by retaking the exam, because the exam will no longer exist. Second, because retesting must also finish by the final deadline, a candidate who fails needs to leave enough time on the calendar for another attempt. Our guide to CMGT-BC exam dates and scheduling walks through how to plan around these constraints.

Always confirm the current status on the ANCC's official program page and its certification FAQ before you commit money, since the issuer controls these dates.

Who Qualifies to Sit for the Exam

ANCC sets four eligibility requirements for the Nursing Case Management exam. You must satisfy all of them before your application is approved:

• Licensure: a current, active RN license, or an accepted international equivalent.
• Experience: the equivalent of two full-time years of practice as a registered nurse.
• Practice hours: 2,000 hours in nursing case management within the past three years.
• Continuing education: 30 hours of continuing education in the specialty, completed within the past three years.

The practice-hour requirement is where many candidates stumble. The hours must be in nursing case management, not general nursing, so nurses in adjacent roles such as bedside care with an occasional discharge-planning duty should document carefully and confirm that their hours qualify. The CE requirement similarly calls for specialty-relevant education rather than any continuing education.

For a detailed walk through documentation and edge cases, read our CMGT-BC requirements guide.

How the Exam Works on Test Day

Format and Timing

The exam is a closed-book, computer-based, multiple-choice test administered by Prometric at test centers. You receive 150 questions in three hours. Of those, 125 are scored and 25 are pretest items that ANCC is evaluating for future exams. You will not be told which questions are which, so treat every item as if it counts.

In-Person Delivery Only

The certification exam is taken in person. It is not remotely proctored. This is a common point of confusion: ANCC offers readiness tests that can be delivered remotely, but the availability of a remote readiness test does not mean the certification exam itself can be taken from home. Plan for travel to a Prometric center, and note that your standard authorization to test lasts 120 days, so you should schedule within that window.

Test-Day Rules

• No personal calculators and no paper or electronic reference materials.
• A dry-erase board is provided for notes.
• Breaks are permitted, but they consume your exam time because the clock keeps running.
• You can mark questions and return to them before submitting.
• There is no penalty for guessing, so never leave an item blank.

The Four Content Domains

The exam is built from the official test content outline, effective October 23, 2024 and updated September 8, 2025. It divides the material into four domains. The issuer's rounded percentages happen to add up to 101%, and we report them exactly as published rather than adjusting them. The scored-question allocation is 27, 37, 32 and 29 items out of 125.

Because Care Coordination carries the most weight, a candidate who is weak there faces the greatest risk. But do not neglect the others: the outline is fairly balanced, and no domain is small enough to skip. For a deeper breakdown, see the complete CMGT-BC domains guide.

Scoring, Pass Rate and Retesting

How the Passing Score Works

ANCC reports results on a scaled-score system with a maximum of 500. You need at least 350 to pass. This is not equivalent to answering 70% of questions correctly. The passing standard is set using the Modified Angoff method, in which subject-matter experts judge how a minimally qualified candidate would perform, and the resulting standard is converted to the scaled score. Details are in our CMGT-BC passing score guide.

What the Data Show

According to ANCC's 2025 certification data, the first-time pass rate was 66%: 188 of 286 first-time candidates passed. As of December 31, 2025, there were 1,961 active certificants. That pass rate suggests the exam is passable with solid preparation but not a formality, since roughly one in three first-time candidates did not pass. For interpretation, see our analysis of the CMGT-BC pass rate and our assessment of how hard the exam is.

If You Need to Retest

Retesting requires at least 60 calendar days after your previous attempt, renewed eligibility, and no more than three attempts in any 12-month period. All of this is subject to the final testing deadline of December 31, 2027. A failed first attempt late in the program's life therefore leaves little margin, which is another reason to test sooner rather than later.

Fees and Registration Mechanics

The initial certification fee is $395 for nonmembers or $295 for ANA members. Each price includes a $140 nonrefundable administrative fee, so if your application is not approved or you do not test, that portion is not returned. The $100 difference makes ANA membership worth evaluating if you are also planning to renew, since renewal pricing also favors members.

The process runs roughly as follows: confirm eligibility, submit your application and fee to ANCC, receive your authorization to test, then schedule an appointment with Prometric within the 120-day authorization window. Our certification cost breakdown covers additional considerations such as preparation materials and travel.

Keeping the Credential: Five-Year Renewal

Certification lasts five years. Renewal is not an exam but a portfolio of professional activity, and it is the main way the credential continues after the exam itself retires. Requirements include:

• Active RN licensure and active certification standing
• 75 hours of specialty continuing education, at least 60 of which must be formally approved
• One additional professional-development category

The 1,000-practice-hour option is one way to satisfy that additional category, but it is not required of everyone. Activities must occur within your five-year cycle and before you submit the renewal application. The renewal fee is $350 for nonmembers, with ANA-member pricing advertised as low as $250.

Where the Credential Fits in Your Career

Case management nurses are employed wherever care transitions, utilization and outcomes matter. Typical settings include hospitals and health systems, ambulatory and community care programs, health plans and payers, home health and post-acute organizations, and population health or care coordination departments. Employers in these settings may favor or require board certification for senior or specialized roles, though requirements vary by employer.

We deliberately avoid quoting salary figures here, because credible numbers depend on region, setting and experience, and we only state what we can support. If compensation is your main question, our salary guide and ROI analysis discuss how to evaluate it, and our page on CMGT-BC jobs covers the kinds of roles where it appears.

Given the program phaseout, the long-term value calculation is slightly different from a standard credential. If you earn it, you can keep renewing it, so it remains a recognized marker for existing certificants. New candidates, however, only have a limited window to enter the program, which is worth weighing against alternatives. That decision is personal and depends on your employer's expectations.

Sequencing Your Preparation by Domain

Rather than generic study advice, tie your schedule to the exam's weighting. Here is one way to order a roughly eight-week plan, with the logic behind each phase:

Our CMGT-BC study guide expands this approach, and the cheat sheet is a handy final-week review. When you are ready to test your knowledge under realistic conditions, our CMGT-BC practice tests mirror the multiple-choice, scenario-driven style of the real exam.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to check where you stand? Try a set of questions from our CMGT-BC practice exam platform and see how your knowledge maps to the four domains.