Certified in Federal Payer Operations
The professional credential for people who run authorization, referral and enrollment under VA Community Care, TRICARE and CHAMPVA.
What CIFPO is
CIFPO is the issuing organization for the CFPO credential. It is organized as a legal entity separate from DutyPath LLC, the company that operates DutyPath Academy, a preparation provider. The two share a founder.
Certification is awarded solely on the published eligibility standard and examination performance.
What CIFPO is not
CIFPO is not an independent third party and does not claim to be; we state that on every page rather than leave it to be discovered.
CFPO is not a government license, not a state or federal accreditation, and not accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies or any comparable body. CIFPO and CFPO are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense, the Defense Health Agency, TRICARE, CHAMPVA, or any of their contractors, including Optum and TriWest. References to those programs describe their published rules and imply no relationship.
CFPO confers no authority to practice and no guarantee of employment, contract, income or any other outcome.
The work exists. The standard did not.
More than four in ten VA appointments are now delivered outside a VA facility. Every one of them moves through a private practice working federal payer rules — and it moves because a person routed the referral, held the authorization and made the documentation travel with it.
A discipline of its own
Federal payer operations is not medical coding and it is not commercial billing. It is the authorization sequence: who approves what, in what order, under which contractor, and what documentation has to travel alongside.
Held by the individual
CFPO attaches to a person, not an employer or a practice. It travels between organizations and is verifiable by anyone — an employer, a payer, a contracting officer — without the holder's involvement.
Stacks, does not replace
CFPO assumes nothing about coding credentials and conflicts with none of them. It sits alongside CPC, CCS, CPCS, CPMSM and CPES, covering the authorization work that happens before and after the code.
The whole standard, arranged around what you need next.
A candidate should be able to prepare against the standard rather than against a rumor of it. Every policy that governs the credential is on this site, and the handbook collects them in one versioned document.
Pursue the credential
From eligibility to examination day.
The CFPO credential
What CFPO certifies, who holds it, and how it sits beside coding and credentialing marks.
CertificationEligibility
Two pathways: twelve months of documented work, or a qualifying program of at least 40 hours.
CertificationExamination
Format, remote proctoring, the passing standard, accommodations, retakes and security.
CertificationContent outline v1.0
Six domains, weights, item counts and task statements — published in full.
CertificationPreparing for the exam
Every accepted route, the reference list, and sample items with rationales.
CertificationApply & fees
Five steps from application to registered credential, and every fee, flat and published.
CertificationCandidate handbook
Every policy in one versioned document, online and as a PDF.
CertificationTesting windows & dates
Four testing windows a year, application deadlines and standard-setting milestones.
Manage a credential
Verification, renewal, and ethical standing.
Verify a credential
Confirm any credential without an account. The registry never notifies the holder.
HoldersRecertification & CE
Two years, twenty hours, twelve of them on federal payer programs.
HoldersCode of ethics & discipline
Seven canons a holder agrees to, and the process that can take the credential away.
Understand CIFPO
Governance, independence, and the issuing organization.
Content outline v1.0 published
Six domains with weights, integer item counts and task statements, plus the reference list the examination draws on.
Call for item writers opens
Practitioners with federal payer authorization experience are invited to write and review examination items. Cohort 1 closes November 15, 2026.
Who stands behind CFPO.
CIFPO sets the standard, administers the examination, keeps the registry and enforces the code of ethics. It shares a founder with DutyPath LLC, a preparation provider, and is not independent of that relationship. What keeps the credential honest is observable: the outline is published in full, no course is required, and examination fees are paid by the candidate to CIFPO and never shared with any provider.
Ready to be measured against the standard?
Confirm your pathway, submit the application, and sit the examination in the next window.