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N270 Remark Code: Other Provider NPI Invalid

N270 means the primary identifier, normally the NPI, for an 'other provider' on the claim was missing, incomplete, or invalid. On institutional claims that means one of the additional provider roles, such as a second surgeon or a referring provider.

Code: N270 (RARC N270)
Status: Active In use since December 2, 2004.
Code set: Remittance Advice Remark Codes (RARC)
Group codes: CO (Contractual Obligation): Correctable by the facility; fix the identifier and resubmit. Not billable to the patient.
Official description: Missing/incomplete/invalid other provider primary identifier.
X12 Remittance Advice Remark Codes, retrieved September 25, 2026
Last verified: September 24, 2026 against the official X12 list.

What N270 means

Beyond the attending and operating provider, an institutional claim can list additional clinicians in “other provider” roles. Each one needs a valid primary identifier. N270 says the payer could not validate one of those NPIs, so it could not accept the provider information attached to the claim.

Expect N270 with CARC 16, or with an NPI-specific reason like 207 or 208 that tells you whether the number was malformed or simply unknown to the payer.

What usually goes wrong

The NPI is blank. A role qualifier was entered in form locator 78 or 79, but nobody filled in the number.

The wrong kind of NPI. A group or facility NPI was used for an individual role.

The number doesn’t belong to the named person. A copy-and-paste error attached one clinician’s NPI to another’s name.

The number is no longer active. NPPES shows the NPI as deactivated, or the payer has no enrollment for it.

How to fix it

Identify the role (via the qualifier) and the clinician behind the entry.
Look up the clinician’s individual NPI in NPPES and confirm it is active and matches the name.
Where the payer requires enrollment for that role, confirm the clinician is enrolled. The provider enrollment article explains what to check.
Correct the NPI, or remove the entry entirely if it isn’t required, then resubmit with frequency code 7.

How to prevent it

Validate every NPI on the claim, not only the billing and attending numbers. A check-digit test plus a Type 1 versus Type 2 test catches most bad values automatically. Periodically compare the clinicians in your provider master to NPPES, since deactivated NPIs remain in billing systems long after the provider has left.

Codes that may appear with N270

CO-16 (Claim/service lacks information or has submission/billing error(s).): Claim information is missing or invalid; N270 names the other provider's NPI.
CO-207 (National Provider identifier - Invalid format): The NPI failed format or check-digit validation.
CO-208 (National Provider Identifier - Not matched.): The NPI was not matched to the provider in payer records.

N269 (Missing/incomplete/invalid other provider name.): The other provider's name is the issue.
N271 (Missing/incomplete/invalid other provider secondary identifier.): The other provider's secondary identifier is the issue.
N274 (Missing/incomplete/invalid other payer other provider identifier.): Concerns the identifier a prior payer used for the other provider, on coordination of benefits claims.

N270 FAQ

Where is the other provider NPI on a UB-04?

Form locators 78 and 79 each hold a role qualifier, an NPI, an optional secondary ID, and a name.

Which NPI type is expected?

An individual (Type 1) NPI for the clinician in that role. An organization NPI in an individual provider field is a common cause of failure.

Does fixing the NPI require an appeal?

No. This is a data correction; a replacement claim with the right NPI is normally enough.

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