- Total initial ABTS Congenital Cardiac Surgery (CHS) fees are $4,900: $650 application, $1,750 written, $2,500 oral.
- The written exam runs December 7-11, 2026; the oral exam is June 4-5, 2027 in Dallas.
- Fees do not include travel, lodging, or prep materials for the Pearson-administered Part I or the in-person Part II.
- You cannot sit for the oral exam without first passing the written exam, so budget both fees together.
Total CHS Certification Cost at a Glance
If you're mapping out the financial commitment behind Certification in Congenital Cardiac Surgery (CHS) through the American Board of Thoracic Surgery, the number to anchor on is $4,900 in initial examination fees. That figure covers the application, the written Part I exam, and the oral Part II exam - but it does not include travel, lodging, license verification costs, or any preparation resources you choose to use.
Unlike some subspecialty credentials that bundle everything into one flat fee, ABTS breaks the CHS pathway into three distinct charges collected at different stages. Understanding when each fee is due - and what happens if you don't pass the written exam on your first attempt - matters as much as knowing the total.
Fee-by-Fee Breakdown
Here's how the $4,900 initial cost actually splits, and what each payment gets you.
| Fee Component | Amount | What It Covers |
|---|---|---|
| Application Fee | $650 | ABTS review of eligibility, training verification, and program endorsement documentation |
| Written Examination (Part I) | $1,750 | Multiple-choice exam administered at Pearson Professional Testing Centers |
| Oral Examination (Part II) | $2,500 | In-person case-based oral exam, required only after passing Part I |
| Total | $4,900 | Initial certification cost before travel/prep |
The application fee is essentially the gatekeeping cost - it's charged regardless of outcome, since it pays for ABTS to confirm you meet eligibility criteria before you're cleared to schedule the written exam. If you're unsure whether your training pathway qualifies, review the specifics in our CHS Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify guide before you submit payment.
The written exam fee ($1,750) is due once you're approved to test. Beginning in 2025, the written exam moved to a three-option multiple-choice format rather than the traditional four- or five-option structure many candidates expect from other board exams. That narrower format changes how you should approach elimination strategy - worth building into your prep timeline.
The oral exam fee ($2,500) is the largest single line item, and it's only collected - and only relevant - after you've passed the written exam. This sequencing means candidates who don't pass Part I on the first attempt do not pay the oral fee until they clear the written requirement, but it also means a failed written attempt likely means re-registering and paying the written fee again in a future cycle.
Key Takeaway
Because the oral exam fee is only triggered after a written pass, treat the $1,750 written exam as the true financial gate. Passing it on the first attempt is the single biggest lever you have over your total spend.
Hidden and Indirect Costs
The $4,900 in ABTS fees is the official number, but it's not the full financial picture for most candidates. Two logistics realities add real cost:
- Written exam travel: Part I is administered at Pearson Professional Testing Centers, which are widely distributed but still require travel, time off from clinical duties, and possibly lodging depending on your location and testing center availability during the December 7-11, 2026 window.
- Oral exam travel: Part II is held in person in Dallas on June 4-5, 2027. Unlike the written exam's distributed testing centers, the oral exam is a single-location event, meaning every candidate nationwide (and internationally) incurs flight, hotel, and multi-day time-away costs.
Neither of these logistics costs is trivial for a practicing surgeon coordinating call schedules and OR time around exam dates. If you haven't yet mapped out the full testing calendar, our CHS Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling article lays out both windows so you can request time off and book travel well in advance.
Preparation materials are the other variable cost. ABTS does not publish an official question bank, so most candidates assemble a mix of textbooks, the current Booklet of Information content categories, and practice resources. If you're weighing how much to invest in prep versus self-study, our CHS Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt breaks down a realistic prep budget alongside the timeline.
Costs Before You Even Apply
The $650 application fee assumes you already meet the eligibility bar - and getting there has its own cost in time and training structure, even though ABTS doesn't charge for it directly. Initial eligibility requires:
- Current primary ABTS certification already in hand
- Unrestricted medical licensure
- Qualifying thoracic and congenital cardiac surgery training
- Verified operative experience
- Program endorsement from your training institution
For fellows who started training on or after July 1, 2023, the bar is specific: two consecutive years in one ACGME-accredited program, plus at least 150 major congenital cases, including a minimum of 50 in the first year. None of this shows up as a line-item fee, but it represents years of career-building investment that precede the $650 application payment. If you're still confirming whether your training timeline qualifies, our detailed CHS Requirements 2026 breakdown walks through each pathway.
Why Eligibility Shapes Your Study Budget
Candidates who trained under the newer two-year, 150-case pathway typically enter the exam with more recent, concentrated exposure to high-volume categories like Conotruncal Anomalies and Septal Defects, but may need to dedicate more deliberate review time to lower-volume categories such as Diseases of the Myocardium or Acquired Cardiovascular Diseases in Infants and Children, which surface less often in day-to-day case mix.
- Map your recent case log against all 11 content categories before committing to a study schedule
- Identify categories you've seen rarely in practice - these need dedicated reading time, not just case recall
Continuing Certification Costs
The $4,900 initial fee only covers getting certified - it doesn't cover staying certified. Since January 2024, ABTS continuing certification for CHS uses non-time-limited certificates, but they remain conditional on meeting five-year milestone requirements. Existing time-limited certificates transition to this model at their expiration.
To maintain certification, diplomates must satisfy:
- Unrestricted licensure and current hospital privileges
- Professional references
- 150 Category 1 CME credits per five-year period, with at least 75 specifically related to thoracic surgery
- Qualifying congenital case activity
- An online continuing-certification assessment
- Patient-safety and quality-improvement requirements
None of these line items are exam fees in the traditional sense, but CME courses, case-log tracking systems, and the time cost of the continuing-certification assessment all represent recurring expenses that should factor into your long-term budgeting - not just the initial $4,900.
Key Takeaway
Budget for CHS certification as a career-long cost, not a one-time exam fee. The $4,900 gets you certified; ongoing CME and assessment requirements keep you certified every five years.
Budgeting Your Prep Time by Domain
Money and time trade off directly here: the more efficiently you study, the less you spend on retakes, extra travel, and lost clinical income from time away. Since the written exam covers 11 unweighted content categories drawn from the current Booklet of Information, a smart way to protect your investment is to allocate study weeks proportionally to where your case experience is thinnest - not just where you feel most comfortable.
High-Volume Structural Categories
- Septal Defects
- Anomalies of Venous Connection
- Anomalies of the Aorta, Aortic Arch, and Coronary Arteries
Valve and Outflow Tract Anomalies
- Anomalies of the Tricuspid and Mitral Valves
- Anomalies of the Aortic Valve and Left Ventricular Outflow Tract
- Anomalies of the Pulmonary Valve and Right Ventricular Outflow Tract
Complex Anatomic Categories
- Conotruncal Anomalies
- Anomalies of Atrioventricular Connection, Univentricular Heart, and Atrial/Visceral Situs
Perioperative and Less-Frequent Categories
- Diseases of the Myocardium
- Pre-, Intra-, and Post-Operative Evaluation and Management of Congenital Cardiac Disease
- Acquired Cardiovascular Diseases in Infants and Children
This kind of category-by-category scheduling is the generic study-methodology piece worth applying here: rather than a blanket spaced-repetition schedule, tie your review blocks directly to the specific categories where your clinical exposure is lightest. For a full breakdown of every category with high-yield subtopics, see our CHS Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 11 Content Areas. And if you're still calibrating how much study time is realistic given the exam's format and small examinee cohorts, our How Hard Is the CHS Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026 article puts the written and oral formats in context.
Practicing under realistic conditions matters just as much as content review. Running full-length timed sets on our practice test platform before exam week helps you convert content knowledge into exam-day speed, especially given the three-option multiple-choice format introduced in 2025.
Weighing the Investment
A $4,900 fee plus travel and prep costs is a meaningful outlay, and it's fair to ask whether it pays off relative to career opportunities. CHS certification is specifically relevant to surgeons pursuing congenital and pediatric cardiac surgery leadership roles, academic appointments, and positions at dedicated congenital heart programs where board certification in the subspecialty is often an explicit hiring criterion. For a deeper look at how the credential intersects with hiring and compensation, our CHS Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis and Is the CHS Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 articles dig into that comparison in detail.
It's also worth remembering how narrow this credential's examinee pool is: ABTS reported 7 passes among 8 written examinees and 4 passes among 4 oral examinees in 2025. Those are very small cohorts, and while they shouldn't be read as a broad statistical trend, they do underscore that CHS candidates tend to be a highly selected, well-prepared group entering the process - which raises the stakes on preparing thoroughly rather than treating the fee as a formality. Our CHS Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows article puts these numbers in fuller context.
If you haven't yet confirmed the minimum score threshold you're preparing toward, review CHS Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass before finalizing your study timeline, and keep a condensed CHS Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts on hand for final-week review across all 11 categories.
Frequently Asked Questions
The initial ABTS fees total $4,900: a $650 application fee, a $1,750 written examination fee, and a $2,500 oral examination fee. This does not include travel, lodging, or study materials.
No. The oral examination fee of $2,500 only applies after you pass the written Part I exam, since written success is required before you're eligible to sit for the in-person Part II oral examination.
The written Part I exam is administered at Pearson Professional Testing Centers, with the 2026 window running December 7-11, 2026. The oral Part II exam is held in person in Dallas, scheduled for June 4-5, 2027.
Yes. Continuing certification requires 150 Category 1 CME credits every five years, with at least 75 related to thoracic surgery, plus an online continuing-certification assessment and patient-safety requirements, all of which carry their own time and financial costs.
No. ABTS fees cover application review and exam administration only. Candidates typically budget separately for textbooks, category-based review, and practice testing, such as timed practice sets available on our practice test platform.