Claim edit: Duplicate diagnosis codes

Stedi now rejects 837P professional, 837D dental, and 837I institutional claims that contain duplicate diagnosis codes.

How the edit works

A claim’s diagnosis codes describe what’s wrong with the patient. For example, in 837P professional or 837I institutional claims, M54.50 is the ICD-10-CM diagnosis code for “Low back pain, unspecified."

A claim can include multiple diagnosis codes, listed in order of importance. The primary diagnosis code is in position 1, the next is in position 2, and so on. All codes after position 1 make up the secondary diagnosis list.

Each diagnosis code on the claim must be unique. You can’t submit the same code twice.

Submitting the same diagnosis code more than once does not provide additional clinical information to the payer. It may lead to confusion during processing or review.

Diagnosis codes for 837P professional and 837D dental claims

For 837P professional and 837D dental claims, all diagnosis codes appear in the same array field. The first entry is the primary diagnosis. Subsequent entries are secondary diagnoses.

Diagnosis codes for 837I institutional claims

For 837I institutional claims, the primary and secondary diagnosis codes are in separate fields.

If a diagnosis code appears more than once in a claim, the payer may reject the claim.

This edit catches the issue before the claim reaches the payer. It prevents payer rejections, which are slower and delay payment for the provider.

Rejection errors

This edit has two conditions, each producing a different error.

The primary diagnosis code appears in the secondary diagnosis list

If you submit a claim using Stedi's Claim Submission API endpoints and the claim fails the edit, you'll get back an error response in real time. The response includes details in the errors array:

If you submit a claim using 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*A7>254*[DATE]*U*[AMOUNT]********Duplicate Diagnosis Code. The primary diagnosis code, F329, must be unique and cannot also be reported in the secondary diagnosis list. Correct and resubmit.~

The same diagnosis code appears more than once among secondary diagnoses

If you submit a claim using Stedi's Claim Submission API endpoints and the claim fails the edit, you'll get back an error response in real time. The response includes details in the errors array:

{
  "errors": [
    {
      "code": "33",
      "description": "Duplicate Diagnosis Code. Diagnosis code(s) F329 are incorrectly duplicated. Diagnosis codes must be unique within the claim. Correct and resubmit.",
      "followupAction": "Please Correct and Resubmit"
    }
  ]
}

If you submit a claim using 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*A7>255*[DATE]*U*[AMOUNT]********Duplicate Diagnosis Code. Diagnosis code(s) F329 are incorrectly duplicated. Diagnosis codes must be unique within the claim. Correct and resubmit.~

Tip: Update your diagnosis pointers

If you remove a duplicate diagnosis code in an 837P professional or 837D dental claim, update any diagnosis pointers on the claim's service lines to avoid mismatched pointers.

Diagnosis pointers link each service line of a claim to a diagnosis code. Diagnosis pointers are positional. Each pointer refers to the index position of a diagnosis code on the claim. For example:

• If a service line uses diagnosis pointer 2, it refers to the diagnosis code in position 2.

• If a service line uses diagnosis pointer 3, it refers to the diagnosis code in position 3.

Removing a code can shift the positions of remaining codes. This would make existing pointers incorrect and can result in payer rejections.

Diagnosis pointers