# Claim edit: Reserved X12 delimiter in a field value

> Stedi now rejects 837P professional, 837D dental, and 837I institutional claims with a field value that contains a character reserved as an X12 delimiter.

Published Sep 24, 2026

Product: Claim edits

Stedi now rejects [837P professional](https://www.stedi.com/docs/healthcare/submit-professional-claims), [837D dental](https://www.stedi.com/docs/healthcare/submit-dental-claims), and [837I institutional](https://www.stedi.com/docs/healthcare/submit-institutional-claims) claims with a field value that contains a character reserved as an X12 delimiter.

## How the edit works

[X12 standards](https://www.stedi.com/docs/healthcare/intro-to-claim-submission#x12-hipaa-format) require that a small set of characters be used only to mark the boundaries between segments, elements, and components. Stedi rejects a claim when one of them appears inside a field value: asterisk (`*`), greater-than sign (`>`), caret (`^`), grave accent (`` ` ``), colon (`:`), or tilde (`~`).

The edit checks every text field in the claim. Characters that aren't delimiters pass – the apostrophe in `O'BRIEN` and the hyphen in `SMITH-JONES CLINIC` are both valid.

A reserved character inside a value collides with those boundaries, so the claim can't be read as valid X12. If a field value contains one, the payer may reject the claim.

This [edit](https://www.stedi.com/docs/healthcare/claim-edits-and-repairs#edits) 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

How you get the error depends on how you submit the claim.

**CMS-1500 API**

If you submit a claim using the [Create Professional Claim (CMS-1500) JSON](https://www.stedi.com/docs/healthcare/api-reference/post-create-professional-claim-json) endpoint and the claim fails the edit, you'll get back a `201` response with an `errors` array in real time:

```json
{
  "errors": [
    {
      "description": "Invalid character. The Subscriber First Name (2010BA/NM1-04) contains a reserved X12 delimiter character (greater-than sign). Correct and resubmit."
    }
  ]
}
```

**Claim Submission API**

If you submit a claim using Stedi's other [Claim Submission API endpoints](https://www.stedi.com/docs/healthcare/intro-to-claim-submission#api-claim-submission) and the claim fails the edit, you'll get back an error response in real time. The response includes details in the `errors` array:

```json
{
  "errors": [
    {
      "code": "33",
      "description": "Invalid character. The Subscriber First Name (2010BA/NM1-04) contains a reserved X12 delimiter character (greater-than sign). Correct and resubmit.",
      "followupAction": "Please Correct and Resubmit"
    }
  ]
}
```

**SFTP**

If you submit a claim using [SFTP](https://www.stedi.com/docs/healthcare/submit-claims-sftp-connection) and the claim fails the edit, Stedi will reject the claim with a [277CA claim acknowledgment](https://www.stedi.com/docs/healthcare/claim-responses-overview#277ca-claim-acknowledgment). The acknowledgment will include a related [claim status category code](https://x12.org/codes/claim-status-category-codes), [claim status code](https://x12.org/codes/claim-status-codes), entity identifier code, and error message.

```text
STC*A7>481>HK*[DATE]*U*[AMOUNT]********Invalid character. The Subscriber First Name (2010BA/NM1-04) contains a reserved X12 delimiter character (greater-than sign). Correct and resubmit.~
```

The error names the field and the character, but never repeats the value you submitted – that would put the delimiter back into the acknowledgment.

If more than one field in a claim contains a reserved character, you get one rejection per field.

## Related claim edits

Stedi has another edit for field values that run longer than the maximum length allowed by X12 standards. See [Claim edit: Field values longer than maximum length](https://www.stedi.com/changelog/claim-edit-field-values-longer-than-maximum-length).