MCMedicalCodingSoftware

N382 denial code

A remark code: the patient identifier is missing, incomplete, or invalid. The member ID on the claim failed the payer's check — wrong format, wrong digits, or nobody's number. It usually rides with CO-16 or PR-31 and tells you which field to fix.

RARC — Remark Code. A remark code adds detail to an adjustment. On a CO-16 it is the remark code that actually tells you what was missing.

Why you got it

  1. 1A mistyped member ID — a digit off, a dropped suffix, a leading letter missing.
  2. 2An old ID from before the payer reissued cards or migrated systems.
  3. 3The right ID for the wrong payer — the claim went somewhere this number means nothing.

How do I fix a N382 denial?

  • Pull the card, re-run eligibility, and correct the identifier exactly as the payer's system has it — including any alpha prefix or member suffix the desk trimmed off.
  • Resubmit as a corrected claim. This is a data fix; there is nothing to argue.

How to stop the next one

Card scans beat transcription. Every hand-keyed member ID is a chance to mint this remark, and the eligibility check that would catch it costs seconds at check-in.

Our diagnosis scrubber will not catch this one. N382 is driven by procedure codes, modifiers, or eligibility rather than by the diagnosis set — and procedure-side checking needs CPT codes, which aren’t included yet. We would rather tell you that than sell you a tool that quietly misses your most common denial.

If denials like this are a volume problem rather than a one-off, the denial management page explains how the paid workspace catches the coding causes on every claim, and the free ICD-10-CM lookup shows the coding notes behind any diagnosis code on the remittance.

Related denials

The explanation above is ours, written to be useful. The official wording of N382 is published and copyrighted by X12, and we do not reproduce it — read it at X12. Reference information for professional coders and billers; not billing or legal advice.