The NHA CPT Test Plan, Domain by Domain: Tasks, Core Knowledge and What Changed in January 2026

Every scored question on the NHA CPT exam is tied to a task on one seven-page document. NHA's Candidate Handbook explains that a job analysis by practitioners, educators and psychometricians produces the test plan, and that every exam question "must address one of the specified tasks" on it. If you can explain each task on the plan, nothing on the exam should be a topic you've never seen.

What NHA's CPT test plan contains

The current plan is the PDF that NHA's CPT page links as its free test plan (checked in the page's most recent archived copy, October 9, 2026). It is titled "Test Plan for the CPT Exam" and based on a job analysis completed in 2024, and NHA's announcement calls it the "New CPT Exam Test Plan (for exams after January 7, 2026)." NHA's update log announced no newer CPT plan as of October 28, 2026.

The test plan has two kinds of lines:

• Task statements (1A, 2C, 3J and so on) describe what a phlebotomy technician does. NHA says they "reflect the duties that a candidate will need to know how to properly perform."
• Knowledge statements (k1 to k94) describe what you need to know to do those tasks. Knowledge listed right after a domain's tasks generally applies only to that domain.

NHA adds that questions "might require recall and critical thinking" about a knowledge statement, a task statement, or both. In practice, that means a question can ask for a fact (which tube goes with a coagulation test) or put you in a scenario that turns on the same fact.

The five NHA CPT domains at a glance

Counts from the test plan, with Passy's arithmetic in the last column:

The average is only a guide: NHA doesn't say how many items each task gets, so one form may test a task twice and another task not at all. What the table does show is that Safety and Compliance packs the most items onto each task, and Patient Preparation spreads 20 items over 17 tasks, so almost every one of its tasks is likely to matter. The NHA CPT exam format guide covers the 120-question, 2-hour structure around these 100 scored items.

Core Knowledge: the 23 statements that sit inside every domain

NHA says Core Knowledge "does not represent standalone domains." It is "necessary knowledge for a phlebotomist" that can be used inside any question. Grouped by theme:

• The role and the body (k1–k8): the phlebotomy technician's role in testing and in patient care, medical terminology, blood components (serum, plasma, whole blood, cells, platelets), the ABO and Rh blood groups, the cardiovascular system, vascular anatomy of the antecubital fossa, hand and foot, and hemostasis and coagulation
• Quality and infection control (k9–k12): how pre-analytical errors affect results, aseptic technique, universal and standard precautions, and the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act
• Rights and privacy (k13–k14): HIPAA and the Patient Bill of Rights
• Communication and professionalism (k15–k19): verbal and non-verbal communication, patient characteristics that affect communication, cultural, religious, psychosocial and economic considerations, gender identity and pronoun use, and professionalism
• Systems and paperwork (k20–k23): EMR/EHR and other practice software, administrative skills such as computerized order entry and inventory, labeling requirements, and documentation and reporting

Core Knowledge is why a Routine Blood Collections question can hinge on anatomy, or a Processing question on labeling.

Domain 1, Safety and Compliance (26 items): tasks 1A–1N

The domain's knowledge statements (k24–k39) add the resources behind these tasks, the NHA code of ethics, manufacturer maintenance and calibration, quality control logs and reference ranges, sharps and biohazard rules, exposure protocols (eye washing, showers, notification, needlestick reporting), hand hygiene, donning and doffing PPE, first aid for problems such as fainting and hypo- or hyperglycemia, and CPR guidelines. The rules behind them are covered in the NHA CPT safety and compliance guide.

Domain 2, Patient Preparation (20 items): tasks 2A–2Q

Its knowledge statements (k40–k53) name the details a question can turn on: interviewing techniques, the identifiers required, requisition fields (demographics, physician, diagnosis code, tests, priority), consent components, ICD-10-CM coding, timing of draws, testing requirements, matching tube color to test, variables such as medications and recent surgery, special considerations such as fistulas, non-blood specimen procedures, minimum and maximum blood volumes, positioning and site selection criteria. The NHA CPT patient preparation guide works through these, and site selection itself is in the venipuncture guide.

Because almost every Patient Preparation task carries about one item, a scattered review costs points here. Planned NHA CPT practice maps every question to one of the five test plan domains, so a weak domain shows up early.

Domain 3, Routine Blood Collections (28 items): tasks 3A–3R

The 21 knowledge statements here (k54–k74) are the most technical on the plan: needle gauges and lengths, tube colors, additives and preservatives, order of draw with fill levels and inversions, tourniquet procedure, palpation, antiseptics, anchoring, insertion angle, safety devices, adjustments when blood doesn't flow, complications such as syncope and seizures, the steps for removing tourniquet, tubes and needle, dermal puncture procedure, capillary order of draw and bandaging. Three Passy guides cover them: the order of draw guide, the tube colors and additives guide and the venipuncture guide.

Domain 4, Special Collections (12 items): tasks 4A–4J

The knowledge statements (k75–k86) concentrate on blood cultures (skin preparation, equipment, volumes, order of draw, bottle preparation), filter-paper collection, blood donation standards, pediatric volume calculations, non-blood specimen handling, blood alcohol skin preparation and drug-screen requirements. Each is explained in the NHA CPT special collections guide. For a domain this small, the 156 Special Collections questions planned for full NHA CPT prep give each of the ten tasks repeated practice.

Domain 5, Processing (14 items): tasks 5A–5I

Knowledge statements k87 to k94 cover centrifuge procedure, aliquoting, handling, storage, transport and disposal, CLIA requirements, chain of custody, databases, critical values and result distribution. The NHA CPT specimen processing guide explains the handling rules.

What changed between the 2016 and 2024 NHA CPT test plans

NHA's crosswalk maps every old task to its new number. NHA described the overall impact on exam topics and content areas as "minimal," and its CPT Customer FAQ says the new exam had no pilot scoring period. Domain by domain:

If you're using a study book written before 2026, those rows are the places to check: anything on blood smears is no longer tested, and the new tasks may be missing from the book entirely.

Turning the NHA CPT test plan into a checklist

A practical approach, one domain at a time:

1. Write each task code on its own line, with the knowledge statements that belong to it beside it.
2. Explain the task in one or two sentences without notes, including why the step matters (why the tourniquet comes off before the needle, why a gel tube isn't used for some tests).
3. Mark it green, amber or red. Green means you could answer a scenario on it; red means you couldn't explain it.
4. Study red tasks first, weighted by the domain's items. A red task in Safety and Compliance or Routine Blood Collections usually costs more than one in Special Collections.
5. Recheck after timed practice. Questions you miss point back to a task code; mark it red again.

The NHA phlebotomy study plan turns the domain weights into weekly hours. To see which domain needs the next session, planned Progress tracking names the NHA CPT domain to study next.

Your next step with the NHA CPT test plan

Download the test plan from NHA's CPT page and run the green-amber-red check on Patient Preparation first, because its 17 tasks share only 20 items. Then try the 20 free NHA phlebotomy practice questions and note which task code each miss belongs to, or let the free study planner spread the five domains across the weeks before your date.