What Is a Certified Anesthesiologist Assistant (CAA)?

Last reviewed September 5, 2026 · Sourced from the AAAA, the NCCAA 2025 certification and CME handbooks, state statutes, and program disclosures.

A Certified Anesthesiologist Assistant is a master's-trained clinician who delivers anesthesia under the supervision of a physician anesthesiologist. The profession's association, the AAAA, describes CAAs as "highly-skilled medical professionals who help plan and deliver anesthesia care within the Anesthesia Care Team," who "complete a premedical education and achieve a master's degree from an accredited anesthesia program." The credential is national; the right to practice is decided state by state, and today CAAs can practice in 23 of the 51 U.S. jurisdictions.

What CAAs Do

CAAs work in operating rooms and other anesthetizing locations as part of the anesthesia care team: a physician anesthesiologist directs the anesthetic and the CAA carries it out. Their responsibilities run from the pre-operative assessment through post-operative care and include airway management, inducing and maintaining anesthesia, and continuous patient monitoring. The role is the same one a nurse anesthetist fills inside a care team, reached by a premedical route rather than a nursing one; the CAA vs CRNA comparison lays the two paths side by side.

Where CAAs Can Practice

State law decides. 19 jurisdictions (including the District of Columbia) license CAAs through a state medical board, 4 allow practice under a physician's general authority to delegate, 1 has enacted licensure but not yet opened applications, and 27 do not authorize CAA practice at all. The AAAA counts the same territory as 22 states plus Washington, DC, and adds Guam, which this site does not track. Every jurisdiction's status, statute, and pending bills are on the state map, and each state page shows where CAAs can practice nearby.

How CAAs Are Trained

The route is the premedical one: any bachelor's degree with the standard science prerequisites, an entrance exam at most programs, and a master's program of 24 to 29 months that combines classroom anesthesia science with more than 2,000 clinical hours. Applications go through CASAA, the centralized service. There are 30 program campuses run by 18 institutions in 15 states, 25 of them CAAHEP-accredited and the rest seeking accreditation. The two oldest, Emory and Case Western Reserve, date to 1969 and 1970; most of the rest opened in the last five years.

Start with the step-by-step guide, then compare prerequisites and admissions requirements, published admissions statistics, and the application timeline.

Certification: The NCCAA Exam

The National Commission for Certification of Anesthesiologist Assistants (NCCAA) awards the CAA credential. Under its 2025 handbook, a candidate "must have graduated an Anesthesiologist Assistant educational program offered at an institution that is accredited by an agency recognized by the US Department of Education (USDE) or the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA)" and must meet the NCCAA's clinical-experience standards, which students log during training.

• Format: 180 multiple-choice items in two blocks of 90, with 110 minutes per block and an optional 15-minute break between them, delivered at Pearson VUE test centers.
• Window: eligibility runs two years from graduation, with a maximum of six attempts.
• Before passing: a graduate holds "certification eligible" status and may not use the CAA designation.

Staying Certified

Certification is not permanent. CAAs register 50 hours of continuing medical education every two years, at least 40 of them in anesthesia-specific Category I credit, and retake a knowledge exam, the Continued Demonstration of Qualifications (CDQ), first in the fourth year after initial certification and then every ten years. A state license is a separate step with its own renewal, and in states that license CAAs it usually requires both current NCCAA certification and graduation from a CAAHEP-accredited program; the accreditation page explains why that distinction matters.

What CAAs Earn

Federal wage data does not track CAAs separately, so search-result salary figures are usually wrong. Advertised full-time base salaries in 2026 postings average around $250,000, with new graduates starting near $215,000 plus signing bonuses; the salary guide shows the sources and the range.

Sources

1. AAAA — About Certified Anesthesiologist Assistants
2. NCCAA — 2025 Certification Exam Handbook (eligibility, format, candidacy)
3. NCCAA — 2025 CME Handbook
4. NCCAA — CDQ examination schedule
5. BagMask — CAA Salary by State, Q2 2026 (job-posting analysis)
6. Practice status counts, program counts, and program founding dates: this site's state matrix and program directory, each entry cited to its statute or program page.