Claim edit: Paper claims missing referenced attachments

Stedi now rejects 837P professional, 837D dental, and 837I institutional paper claims that reference an electronic attachment you didn't send in the same submission.

Paper claims and attachments

With paper claims, Stedi prints the claim and mails it to the payer. If the claim references a 275 claim attachment, Stedi prints the attachment and mails it in the same package.

A claim references an electronic attachment with an attachment control number and a transmission code of EL (Electronically Only). For SFTP submissions, the matching 275 must be in the same interchange (ISA/IEA envelope) as the claim.

How the edit works

The edit only runs on paper claims – claims with the receiver ID set to PAPER. If you submit a paper claim that references an attachment you didn't include in the same submission, the payer gets the claim without its supporting documents and may reject the claim.

This edit catches the issue before the claim reaches the payer. It prevents payer rejections, which take longer to resolve and delay payment for the provider.

Rejection errors

Stedi runs this edit when it prepares the claim for printing, after it accepts the submission. So the Claim Submission API endpoints don't return an error in real time for this edit.

If you submit a claim using the API or SFTP and the claim fails the edit, Stedi will reject the claim with a 277CA claim acknowledgment. The acknowledgment will include a related claim status category code, claim status code, and error message:

STC*A6>21*[DATE]*U*[AMOUNT]******A6>294*A6>489*Missing Attachment. This claim requires the referenced attachment to be submitted as part of the same submission. Correct and resubmit.~

To fix the claim, resubmit it together with the attachment it references.

Related claim edits

Stedi has another edit for claims that indicate an attachment but don't include an attachment control number. See Claim edit: Missing attachment control number.