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N327 Remark Code: Other Insured's Birth Date Problem

N327 means the birth date reported for the other insured (the policyholder of the patient's other coverage) was missing, incomplete, or invalid, so the payer could not coordinate benefits or match the other policy.

Quick facts

Code
N327 (RARC N327)
Status
Active In use since December 2, 2004.
Code set
Remittance Advice Remark Codes (RARC)
Group codes
  • CO (Contractual Obligation): The claim was denied for a correctable data error in the other-insurance section. The provider fixes it; the patient is not billed for the adjusted amount.
  • OA (Other Adjustment): Some payers report the problem as an other adjustment while coordination of benefits stays unresolved. It is not a coverage decision.
Official description
Missing/incomplete/invalid other insured birth date.
X12 Remittance Advice Remark Codes, retrieved September 25, 2026
Last verified
against the official X12 list.

What N327 means

N327 is attached when the payer cannot rely on the date of birth you reported for the other insured, meaning the policyholder of the patient’s second (or first) health plan. That person is often not the patient. A spouse or parent frequently holds the other policy, and front-desk staff sometimes copy the patient’s own birth date into the other insured’s slot by mistake.

The remark usually rides along with CARC 16 for missing or invalid claim data, and sometimes with CARC 22 when the payer believes another plan should pay first. Either way, the fix is in the coordination of benefits (COB) section of the claim.

Common causes

  • The patient’s birth date was reused for the other insured because the intake form only captured one date.
  • The other policyholder changed (new job, divorce, remarriage) and the old person’s details are still on file.
  • The date was keyed in the wrong format or with transposed day and month.
  • A paper claim was built on an older layout, or the practice management system left the other-subscriber demographic fields blank on the electronic claim.

How to fix it

  1. Confirm who holds the other coverage. Ask the patient or guarantor for a copy of the other insurance card and the policyholder’s full name and date of birth.
  2. Verify against the other plan. An eligibility check with that carrier confirms the policyholder data before you resubmit.
  3. Re-establish order of benefits. For dependents, the birthday rule and custody arrangements can change which plan is primary. Our guide to eligibility and COB denials walks through this.
  4. Update the other-insurance fields on the claim (the other-insured section around boxes 9 through 9d and 11d on the CMS-1500, or the other subscriber information on the 837P) and send a corrected claim with frequency code 7 and the original claim number.
  5. If the claim was rejected before adjudication, submit it as a new claim instead.

How to prevent it

Collect the other policyholder’s demographics as their own fields at registration, separate from the patient’s. Re-verify other coverage at least whenever the patient reports a life change, and train staff that “other insured” and “patient” are different people in most COB situations.

Codes that may appear with N327

  • CO-16 (Claim/service lacks information or has submission/billing error(s).): The claim lacks information needed to adjudicate; N327 identifies the other insured's birth date as the gap.
  • OA-22 (This care may be covered by another payer per coordination of benefits.): The payer thinks another plan may be primary and needs clean data about that plan's policyholder to sort out the order of benefits.
  • N340 (Missing/incomplete/invalid subscriber birth date.): Points to the birth date of the subscriber on this payer's own policy rather than the other policy.
  • N329 (Missing/incomplete/invalid patient birth date.): Used when the patient's own date of birth is the field in question.
  • MA92 (Missing plan information for other insurance.): Signals that the plan information for the other insurance is missing altogether.
  • N245 (Incomplete/invalid plan information for other insurance.): Used when the other-insurance plan information is present but incomplete or invalid.

N327 FAQ

Who is the 'other insured' on a claim?

It is the person who holds the patient's other health coverage. For a child covered under both parents' plans, the other insured is usually the parent whose plan is not being billed on this claim.

Does N327 mean the patient has no other coverage?

No. It only says the birth date tied to the other policy could not be used. The payer still needs accurate details to decide who pays first.

Why would the payer care about the other policyholder's birth date?

Birth dates help match the policy in the other carrier's records, and for dependent children some plans apply a birthday rule to decide which parent's plan is primary.