HAC Study Guide 2026
Everything you need to pass the HAC exam in one place: the exam format, every topic to study, real practice questions with explanations, flashcards, and full-length practice tests. Free, no sign-up needed.
📋 HAC Exam Format at a Glance
📚 HAC Topics to Study (69)
✍️ Sample HAC Questions & Answers
1. What is the primary purpose of 'propensity score matching' in observational patient outcome studies?
Propensity score matching creates comparable treatment and control groups by matching patients on their probability of receiving treatment, reducing selection bias.
2. Net Monetary Benefit (NMB) is calculated as:
NMB converts health outcomes to monetary units using the WTP threshold and subtracts incremental costs; positive NMB indicates cost-effectiveness.
3. Which approach to data integration is BEST suited for near-real-time analytics dashboards in a clinical setting?
CDC captures row-level changes as they occur and streams them downstream, enabling near-real-time data freshness.
4. A quality analyst finds that a critical lab result field is populated in only 60% of records. Which action should be taken FIRST?
Understanding the mechanism of missingness (MCAR, MAR, or MNAR) is essential before choosing any handling strategy.
5. Which standard framework specifically addresses electronic health information exchange security controls and is frequently referenced alongside HIPAA compliance programs?
The NIST Cybersecurity Framework is widely adopted by healthcare organizations to supplement HIPAA Security Rule requirements and manage cybersecurity risk systematically.
6. Which approach best reduces selection bias when evaluating a population health intervention without a randomized control group?
Propensity score matching balances observed confounders between groups, approximating a randomized comparison in observational study designs.