How to become a community health worker
No national credential exists. In most states a high school diploma and employer training are enough. Where a state certifies, expect 80 to 230 training hours.
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A community health worker sits at a kitchen table with a client, going through appointment paperwork.
What a community health worker does
A community health worker does home visits and phone check-ins, books appointments, helps with Medicaid applications, and teaches health basics, all for people in the area where the worker lives. Employers also post the job as promotora or promotor de salud, community health representative, or outreach worker. UC Health's Ohio opening listed bilingual Spanish as preferred, and all 3 INTEGRIS Health postings listed bilingual skills as preferred too.
Health plans, hospitals, health departments, community clinics, and nonprofits all employ them. Our own listings in July 2026 were mostly health plans: 15 of the 19 openings were CVS Health roles, 3 were with INTEGRIS Health, and 1 with UC Health. 13 of the CVS roles were Oak Street Health clinic jobs, where the worker spends about half the time away from the center, and 2 were Aetna field roles with no office at all.
How long it takes to become a community health worker
Weeks, in a state with no certification rule, because employers hire on a high school diploma and train you themselves. Where the state certifies, the required training runs from 80 to 230 hours, which programs deliver over a few months or one college semester. The calendar depends on your state, so start there.
| States with no CHW certification | Nationally, typical entry-level education for this job is a high school diploma or equivalent plus short-term on-the-job training (BLS, 2024 data). Where the state has no certificate, you apply and the employer trains you. |
|---|---|
| Oregon | 80 contact hours of Oregon Health Authority approved training, plus an approved oral health training, then acceptance onto the state Traditional Health Worker registry (OAR 410-180-0310 and 410-180-0370). |
| New Mexico | 100 hours of core competency instruction plus 40 hours of experiential learning through an approved program (NMDOH Office of Community Health Workers, 2026). |
| Texas | A DSHS-certified course of at least 180 hours, or the experience route below (DSHS application, revised January 2026). |
| Ohio | 230 hours: a minimum of 100 hours of classroom instruction plus 130 hours of clinical experience in an approved program (Ohio Admin. Code 4723-26-13). |
The experience route matters if you've already been doing the work. Texas will certify you on 1,000 logged hours instead of a course, about 6 months of full-time outreach. Your supervisor or a professional reference emails the verification form straight to DSHS, and DSHS calls them only if it needs more (DSHS program policy, February 2026).
The training you need
A non-degree training program, run by community colleges, state health departments, area health education centers, and nonprofits. No state on this page asks for a college degree, though individual employers do.
Minnesota shows what the college version looks like. 6 higher education programs there offer the CHW certificate, and 1,371 people have earned one over the last 20 years (Minnesota Department of Health, 2024 environmental scan). The state health department or board that certifies CHWs also publishes the list of approved programs, and a course that isn't on that list won't certify you, so check the list before you pay for anything.
If you're comparing this against other ways into healthcare without experience, our guide to healthcare jobs with no experience puts the entry-level roles side by side.
States that certify community health workers
Texas, Ohio, Oregon, and New Mexico each run their own CHW certification, and Minnesota requires a college certificate before you can bill Medicaid. No national credential exists, so state rules are all there is. The 5 states below were checked against their own rules in July 2026, and plenty of other states run programs that aren't here, so your state health department is the source that counts.
| Oregon | The Oregon Health Authority certifies community health workers as one category of traditional health worker, and certification means enrollment on the public state registry. |
|---|---|
| New Mexico | The Department of Health certifies through its Office of Community Health Workers. $125 for the initial generalist certificate plus $59 for the background check, valid 2 years, 30 hours of continuing education to renew. The 125-hour Indian Health Service Community Health Representative training is an accepted route in place of the core competency hours. |
| Texas | The Department of State Health Services certifies promotores and CHWs. You need to be 16 or older with proof of Texas residency. The certificate lasts 2 years and renewal takes 20 hours of continuing education (DSHS program policy, February 2026). |
| Ohio | The Ohio Board of Nursing issues the certificate and approves the training programs (OAC 4723-26). |
| Minnesota | No state certificate as such. To enroll with Minnesota Health Care Programs and bill for CHW services you need a certificate from an approved Minnesota State Colleges and Universities curriculum and an assurance statement signed by a supervising professional (Minnesota DHS enrollment criteria, 2026). |
Certification is what Medicaid and Medicare check before a CHW's work can be billed. New Mexico opened Medicaid billing to certified CHWs on July 1, 2023 (New Mexico Medicaid reimbursement toolkit for CHWs, 2024). Minnesota has paid for CHW health education under Medicaid since 2009 and in 2024 added the health-related social need services Medicare defines, and 209 CHWs there are enrolled with the state to bill (Minnesota Department of Health, 2024 environmental scan). Medicare joined on January 1, 2024 with Community Health Integration services, where the practitioner billed about $79 outside a facility for the first 60 minutes a month and the CHW delivered the work as auxiliary personnel, certified or trained according to state law (CY2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule).
Employers split on it even inside a certifying state. UC Health's Ohio opening listed the state certificate as required, calling it CCHW. A CVS Health field role in Columbus, also in Ohio, asked only for a high school diploma or GED and 2 years of community health experience.
Step by step: how to become a community health worker
- Look up your state first. Search your state health department for community health worker certification. What you find there decides whether you can apply for jobs now or need a semester of training first.
- If the state certifies, pick a program off its approved list. Texas DSHS, the Ohio Board of Nursing, the Oregon Health Authority, and New Mexico DOH each publish the programs whose hours they'll accept.
- Check whether your experience counts instead. Texas certifies on 1,000 hours of CHW work in the past 3 years, verified with your supervisor or a professional reference, and skips the course entirely.
- Do the hours. The clinical or experiential part happens in the community, so expect to be placed with an agency for it, on their schedule.
- Apply for the certificate. Budget for the fees where they exist: New Mexico charges $125 plus $59 for the background check.
- Line up the practical things employers screen on. Field roles check logistics before anything else: the CVS posting in Columbus wants reliable transportation and a home address in the metro area.
- Apply. Ours are on community health worker openings at MedJobList.
What community health workers earn
$51,030 a year, or $24.54 an hour, is the national median (BLS, 2024 data). About 65,100 people held the job in 2024, and the projection to 2034 is 11% growth, which BLS calls much faster than average.
Our listings ran below that median at the start and above it at the top. All 15 CVS Health openings in our July 2026 catalogue started at $18.50 an hour, and the ceiling moved with the state: $31.72 in Kansas and Indiana, $35.29 in Missouri, Michigan, and Ohio, $38.82 in Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Texas, and $42.35 in New York. The 4 hospital postings all skipped the pay line, so ask early.
Where community health workers are hiring now
19 community health worker openings are live in our catalogue right now. Health plans posted most of them in July 2026, in two shapes: clinic-based roles where you split your week between the center and patients' homes, and pure field roles where you drive to members across a metro area or a whole state.
Hospital systems hire for the same title, usually tied to one hospital's service area. Open roles are below.
FAQ
A few weeks in states with no certification requirement, where employers hire on a high school diploma and train you on the job. Where the state certifies, the training is 80 contact hours in Oregon, 140 in New Mexico, 180 in Texas, and 230 in Ohio, which programs usually spread over a few months or one college semester.
Through your state, since there is no national CHW credential. Texas certifies through the Department of State Health Services on a 180-hour approved course or 1,000 hours of past CHW work, and Ohio through the Board of Nursing on a program of 100 classroom hours plus 130 clinical hours. Oregon wants 80 contact hours plus an approved oral health training, then puts you on its traditional health worker registry, and New Mexico wants 100 hours of instruction plus 40 experiential hours. Start at your own state health department, because the rules differ that much.
In most states, no. Certification matters where the state runs its own program, and it matters most for billing: New Mexico opened Medicaid billing to certified CHWs on July 1, 2023, and Minnesota requires an approved college certificate before you can enroll to bill. Employers differ too. In our July 2026 listings, UC Health in Ohio required the state community health worker certificate while a CVS Health field role in the same state asked for a diploma and 2 years of experience.
No state requires one, and the typical entry-level education is a high school diploma or equivalent (BLS, 2024 data). Employers set their own bar: all 3 INTEGRIS Health postings in our July 2026 catalogue required an associate degree, while most CVS Health postings required 1 year of experience and listed a degree only as a plus.
The national median is $51,030 a year, about $24.54 an hour (BLS, 2024 data). Entry pay in our own listings starts lower: every CVS Health community health worker opening in our July 2026 catalogue began at $18.50 an hour, with state ceilings between $31.72 and $42.35.