To renew your Louisiana CNA certification, your employer submits the NAT-7 form to the Louisiana Nurse Aide Registry showing you worked at least eight paid, nursing-related hours during your certification period. If that documentation is on file when your certification is set to expire, the registry recertifies you automatically at midnight on the expiration date. There is no renewal fee, and no application comes from you.
Who Actually Fills Out the NAT-7
The NAT-7 is an employment verification form, and the facility — not the aide — is responsible for completing and submitting it.1Louisiana Department of Health. Designated Signature Form This surprises a lot of CNAs who assume renewal is paperwork they handle themselves. It isn’t. The form is not given to the aide or to unauthorized employees; the facility processes it internally.
Before a facility can send any NAT-7s to the registry, it must have a Designated Signature Form on file. That form authorizes up to four people at the facility, typically the administrator and up to three others, to sign employment reports. Only original signatures from those authorized individuals are accepted.1Louisiana Department of Health. Designated Signature Form
What the Form Has to Show
Federal rules require each state to remove any nurse aide from its registry who has performed no nursing or nursing-related services for 24 consecutive months.2eCFR. 42 CFR 483.156 – Registry of Nurse Aides Louisiana applies that rule by requiring proof of at least eight hours of paid employment in an approved healthcare setting during each certification period.3Louisiana Department of Health. Nurse Aide Training and Certification Maintenance Volunteer hours do not count. The work must be paid, and it must be nursing-related work the facility can attest to.
When a facility signs off on a NAT-7, it is agreeing to specific conditions:
- Only nursing-related duties are reported, not administrative or unrelated tasks.
- Employment is submitted only after the CNA has worked at least eight hours, excluding orientation.
- If the aide leaves or is terminated for any reason, the facility must report it right away.
- The NAT-7 itself is not distributed to the aide or to unauthorized staff.
These terms come directly from the Designated Signature Form agreement that every participating facility signs.1Louisiana Department of Health. Designated Signature Form
How the Facility Submits It
There are two submission routes.
Paper NAT-7s are mailed as original documents to:
LA Nurse Aide Registry
P.O. Box 3767
Baton Rouge, LA 70821-37674Louisiana Department of Health. CNA Registry
Nursing homes and hospital-based skilled nursing units can also submit electronically through the Louisiana Registration System (LARS) at lars.dhh.la.gov, using the eNAT-7.5Louisiana Department of Health. LARS Online Registration Instructions for CNAs Electronic submission is not available to every type of healthcare setting. Where it is available, the turnaround is faster than mailing paper.
What You Should Do as the Aide
The employer handles the form, but the consequences of a missed submission land on you. If your work history isn’t on file when your certification expires, the registry drops your status to “not certified” regardless of whether you actually worked the required hours. A few habits protect you:
- Ask your Director of Nursing or HR whether your NAT-7 was filed. Facilities are supposed to submit for every CNA they employ, but things slip through, particularly at short-staffed facilities or when you’ve recently left a position.
- Know your expiration date and check it well before the deadline. Waiting until the last week leaves no time to fix a missing submission.
- Keep your own records. Pay stubs, schedules, and anything showing nursing-related hours during the period can help if a dispute comes up.
Checking Your Status Online
The Louisiana Department of Health runs a free public search tool at tlc.dhh.la.gov. Anyone can look up a CNA’s current status using a combination of name, Social Security number, or date of birth. The results show your original certification date, your current status, your expiration date, and your certification number.6Louisiana Department of Health. Louisiana CNA – DSW Registry4Louisiana Department of Health. CNA Registry
No physical card is issued at renewal. The registry listing is the official proof of certification, and employers routinely check it before hiring or scheduling shifts. You can print a verification page straight from the search results if someone asks for documentation.
Certified aides can also create a LARS account to manage their own information, including a mailing address change. Only aides whose current status is “certified” can register for a LARS account.5Louisiana Department of Health. LARS Online Registration Instructions for CNAs
If the NAT-7 Doesn’t Get Submitted in Time
When the registry has no qualifying work history on file at expiration, your status changes to “not certified” and you lose the ability to work as a CNA in Louisiana until you resolve it.
You get one chance to test your way back. Louisiana allows a lapsed CNA to retake the competency evaluation within the two years immediately following the expiration date, and you must pass both the written (or oral) portion and the clinical skills portion on that single attempt.3Louisiana Department of Health. Nurse Aide Training and Certification Maintenance Fail either part and you are no longer eligible to retest; the only path forward is a full training program.
To schedule the retest, print your registry page showing “not certified” and confirming you are still inside the two-year eligibility window, then register through Prometric either online or by paper application.7Prometric. Louisiana Nurse Aide Bring the printout and a current photo ID to the testing site. Scheduling and payment are your responsibility.
If more than two years have passed since expiration, or if you already attempted the retest and did not pass both parts, the only way back is to complete a state-approved nurse aide training program and pass the full competency evaluation again.