How to pass the SCI HI exam on the 9th Edition

The SCI HI exam is 50 multiple-choice questions in 1 hour 15 minutes, with a pass mark of 70%, so 35 right. SCI tests the 9th Edition study text at every sitting from 22 October 2026, charges S$109.00 for a weekday sitting before 5pm, and runs the paper on weekdays with your result on screen when you finish. Below: the format, the edition, the figures that cost marks, how to book without paying twice, and a 3-week plan.

The SCI HI exam at a glance

A wrong or blank answer scores zero and costs nothing extra, so never leave one blank.

Which HI study text you're tested on now

SCI's notice on new study texts puts the HI 9th Edition (Version 1.0) on every exam from 22 October 2026. SCI released it on 20 July 2026. So if you're booking now, the 9th Edition is your text. An 8th Edition eBook, or a senior's notes written before July, is the wrong book for any date you can still pick.

You don't buy the text separately. Once you've registered and paid, SCI emails you a link to the eBook (check your spam folder if it doesn't arrive). SCI switches the link off once you've sat the paper and turns it back on when you register for a retake. You can print it at your own cost.

SCI doesn't publish a list of what changed outside the book. The Version Control Record at the back of the eBook lists every update, so read it before chapter 1: it tells you which pages to check against older notes you're tempted to reuse. SCI's HI page still lists the same 15 chapters. Our note on where study texts and current rules differ tracks the version dates for every paper.

Is HI a CMFAS paper, and who has to sit it?

People search for it as CMFAS HI, but SCI lists it as its own Health Insurance module. The requirement comes from MAS Notice 117. Anyone in life or general insurance who advises on or sells health insurance needs it: medical expense, disability income, long-term care, critical illness and managed healthcare cover. That includes company staff, not only agents. MAS's notice on adviser exams, FAA-N26, points life advisers to the same rule when a policy carries accident and health benefits.

There's one exemption worth knowing. If the only health products you handle pay critical illness or hospital income benefits, you can skip HI, as long as you've passed BCP and PGI, or M9. SCI says it can't advise on exemptions, so your compliance team has the final word on which papers your role needs.

The figures to learn first

HI questions hand you a hospital bill and ask who pays what, so you need exact limits. These are the current rules as MOH and CPF publish them for admissions from 1 June 2026. Check each one against your 9th Edition eBook. If the book prints a different figure, answer from the book in the exam, and use the current rule with clients.

The $1,630 you'll hear from seniors is the first two days of a normal ward stay: $830 plus $800. From day three, the limit is $830.

The trap is mixing up two kinds of limit. A MediShield Life claim limit caps what the insurance pays, while a MediSave withdrawal limit caps what you can take out of your own savings account. One question can ask for both on the same bill, so learn them as a pair.

The bill question, step by step

CPF's page on what MediShield Life covers works out a payout in four steps, and bill questions follow the same order:

1. Pro-rate the bill if it needs it. MediShield Life is built for subsidised Class B2 and C wards, so bills from other wards, private hospitals, non-subsidised treatment and Permanent Residents get pro-rated first.
2. Cap each item at its claim limit. Anything above the limit is the patient's to pay.
3. Take off the deductible. It's a fixed amount, paid once a policy year.
4. Apply co-insurance to what's left. It runs from 10% down to 3%, and falls as the claimable amount grows.

Get the order wrong and the answer is wrong, even when every subtraction is right. Deductibles and co-insurance bands are what a review changes, so use the ones printed in your edition. Our HI sample questions include MediShield Life sums to try.

Watch the clock too. 75 minutes for 50 questions is 90 seconds each. A bill question takes longer than a definition, so bank time on the quick ones, and have your own calculator ready.

Keep MediSave, MediShield Life and MediFund apart

The financing chapter checks whether you can keep these three apart.

• MediSave is a personal savings account. You can use it, up to set limits, for your own bills and your immediate family's.
• MediShield Life is national insurance for large hospital bills. It pays within its claim limits, after the deductible and co-insurance.
• MediFund is the last safety net. It helps Singapore citizens who are subsidised patients and still can't pay what's left after subsidies, insurance and MediSave. A committee at each approved institution decides how much.

So when a question says a patient has used up their MediSave and still owes money, think MediFund, provided they're a citizen and a subsidised patient.

Integrated Shield plans and CareShield Life: what gets tested

An Integrated Shield Plan is MediShield Life plus extra cover from a private insurer. It opens up A and B1 wards and private hospitals, and a client can hold only one at a time. The MediShield Life part of the premium can be paid fully from MediSave. The private part can use MediSave only up to an Additional Withdrawal Limit set by age next birthday: $300 at 40 and below, $600 from 41 to 70, and $900 from 71. Anything above that is paid in cash.

CareShield Life is long-term care insurance that pays monthly cash. It starts paying when an MOH-accredited assessor finds you can't do 3 of the 6 activities of daily living: washing, dressing, feeding, toileting, walking or moving around, and transferring. Fail 2 and nothing is paid. How much it pays depends on when you claim; CPF's own example is someone born in 1980 who claims in 2026, at 46, and gets $689 a month for life.

Anyone born in 1980 or later is covered automatically from 30. Older clients may still hold ElderShield, because for people born in 1979 or earlier, joining CareShield Life is optional.

Book HI without paying twice

You book and pay on SCI's website, and for an individual booking the only way to pay is a Visa or Mastercard credit card. A weekday sitting before 5pm costs S$109.00. After 5pm, or a weekend daytime session where SCI offers one, it's S$119.90. Both figures include GST and a non-refundable registration fee of S$10.90. SkillsFuture Credit doesn't cover CMFAS exams, though SCI says eligible NTUC members can get UTAP support.

SCI allows no cancellation and gives no refund, so read its date rules before you pick a slot:

• 7 or more working days before the exam, your first change of date or time is free. Each change after that costs S$32.70.
• 3 to 6 working days before, SCI charges S$32.70 for every change.
• 2 working days or less before, SCI allows no change at all.

Weekends, public holidays and the exam day itself don't count as working days. SCI's November and December schedule has HI sessions starting at 9am, 10.45am, 1pm, 3.30pm and 6pm on weekdays, at its centre in Suntec Tower Two. The 6pm session is charged at the after-5pm rate.

Bring a calculator, because SCI doesn't provide one. It must be a non-programmable model on SCI's approved list: the Casio FC 100, FC 100V, FC 200 and FC 200V, the Hewlett Packard hp 10b and hp 10b2, the Texas Instruments BA2+ and BA2+ Professional, or the Sharp EL735, EL738 and EL738F. If it has a case, the case can't hold any paper or notes. Our HI booking guide walks through the account and payment screens.

Your 3-week HI study plan

HI has 15 chapters, and they fall into three groups: the system, the products, and the rules and cases. Our plan gives each group a week of evenings.

Week 1, the system. Read the Version Control Record first, then chapter 1 (the healthcare environment) and chapter 9 (healthcare financing). Write the MediShield Life claim limits and the MediSave withdrawal limits on one page, side by side, and learn them cold.

Week 2, the products. Chapters 2 to 8: medical expense, group hospital and surgical, disability income, long-term care, critical illness, other health cover and managed healthcare. Drill bill questions until each one takes you under two minutes. Disability income, long-term care and critical illness blur together, so write one line on what triggers each payout.

Week 3, the rules and the cases. Chapters 10 to 15: policy provisions, pricing, underwriting, MAS Notice 120 on disclosure, financial needs analysis and the case studies, then two full timed mocks to close the week.

The HI paper page lists all 15 chapters and shows a sample question from our bank.

Ready to book HI? Check these first

• You're reading the 9th Edition, and you've checked your older notes and practice questions against it.
• You can work a bill in order: pro-ration, claim limit, deductible, co-insurance.
• Without notes, you can write down the MediShield Life claim limits and the MediSave withdrawal limits from the table above.
• You know CareShield Life pays at 3 of 6 activities, not 2.
• Your calculator is on SCI's list.
• You've scored 35 or more on two full timed mocks. That's the point you're ready to book.

Know exactly which HI chapter to drill next

HI rewards exact recall. Knowing roughly how a claim works earns nothing. Our HI practice gives you full 50-question mock exams on the real 75-minute clock, an explanation on every answer, a retest of the questions you got wrong and a score for each chapter. After a mock, your results list up to three chapters where you scored below the pass mark, so you know what to drill next. Start HI as a single paper. For where the paper bites hardest, read how hard the HI exam is.

Sources

• SCI, Health Insurance (HI) exam details, fees, study texts, schedule, calculator policy and registration policies, read 4 November 2026
• SCI, release of new versions of study texts for regulatory examinations, read 4 November 2026
• MAS, Notice FAA-N26 on competency requirements for representatives of financial advisers, read 4 November 2026
• MOH, MediShield Life benefits, read 4 November 2026
• MOH, MediShield Life reviews, read 4 November 2026
• MOH, MediFund, read 11 October 2026
• CPF, what MediShield Life covers you for, read 4 November 2026
• CPF, using MediSave for hospitalisation, read 4 November 2026
• CPF, Integrated Shield Plan, read 4 November 2026
• CPF, CareShield Life, read 4 November 2026