The Massachusetts Third Party Administrator license
Third Party Administrator
Administers a health plan for somebody who is not the insurer, most often a self-funded employer. Massachusetts registers it rather than licensing it, and what the registration really buys the state is a yearly count of who is covered.
Course
None
This license has no pre-licensing course route.
Ways in
1
There is no state exam for this license.
Exam
n/a
Not required on any of the routes below.
Every way to qualify
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Route 1 Register with the Division before doing business
No state exam for this license
The registration itself
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A registration filed with the Division before doing any business in the commonwealth, in the form and by the method the Commissioner prescribes, completed in its entirety. An incomplete form may be returned rather than considered.
and what it has to say
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A narrative description of the administrator and its activities, the states in which it was formed, is headquartered and operates, and a designated contact person with a telephone number, email address and mailing address, all certified by an officer of the administrator.
211 CMR 148.00, the Division's registration and reporting requirements for third-party administrators. Registration renews annually by 1 April and the renewal is conditioned on the annual report at 148.04: the number of self-insured customers at 31 December, the aggregate subscriber membership, member months and averages. There is no examination, no course, no experience finding and no competence finding anywhere in the regulation, which is what marks it out from a license. There is a reporting relief rather than an exemption from registering: an administrator that tells the Division by 1 April which of its customer accounts had fewer than 100 Massachusetts members at the end of the previous year is excused from reporting on those accounts for as long as that stays true. The purpose clause reaches pharmacy benefit managers as well, which Massachusetts now licenses separately under chapter 176Y, so a pharmacy benefit manager can owe both.
Read at the Department on 2026-08-19
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No national seller sells a course for this license, and nothing could. 211 CMR 148.00 is a registration with no examination, no course and no competence finding in it at all.