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N652 Remark Code: Service Date Before Date of Loss

N652 means the date of service is earlier than the date of loss on the injury claim. Treatment given before an accident or injury cannot have been caused by it, so the workers' compensation or auto carrier will not pay for it.

Code: N652 (RARC N652)
Status: Active In use since July 15, 2013.
Code set: Remittance Advice Remark Codes (RARC)
Group codes: CO (Contractual Obligation): The carrier does not accept the line under this injury claim. If the date is a typo, correcting it resolves the issue; otherwise the service belongs with a different payer.
PR (Patient Responsibility): Occasionally used to indicate the patient is responsible. Check whether the patient's health plan should be billed first.
Official description: The date of service is before the date of loss.
X12 Remittance Advice Remark Codes, retrieved September 25, 2026
Last verified: September 24, 2026 against the official X12 list.

What N652 means

Workers’ compensation and auto carriers only pay for care that results from a specific event. They record that event as the date of loss or date of injury. If a bill arrives with a service date earlier than that event, the carrier cannot connect it to the claim, and it flags the line with N652.

There are really only two explanations: one of the dates is wrong, or the service was genuinely provided before the injury and belongs to another payer.

Common causes

A typo in the date of service in box 24A.
The wrong accident date entered in the provider’s system, or the carrier has a different one on file.
A visit from before the accident billed under the new injury claim by mistake, for example when a patient’s account was switched to the carrier before older claims were settled.
A new injury claim opened for a patient with a prior injury, with services from the earlier case billed to the new claim number.

What to do

Compare three dates: the service date on the claim, the injury date you reported, and the date of loss the carrier has.
If your dates were wrong, submit a corrected bill using the carrier’s corrected-bill process, or resubmission code 7 in box 22 if it accepts a CMS-1500 replacement.
If the carrier’s date is wrong, contact the adjuster with the first report of injury or accident report and ask for the claim to be updated, then request reprocessing.
If the service truly predates the injury, bill the patient’s health plan or the patient as appropriate.

How to prevent it

Record the date of injury on every accident or work-injury case at registration, verify it with the adjuster, and have the billing system warn when a service date is earlier than the injury date. Keep separate cases for each injury so older visits never end up on a new claim.

Codes that may appear with N652

CO-16 (Claim/service lacks information or has submission/billing error(s).): Submission or billing error, used when the carrier expects the date to be corrected.
PR-26 (Expenses incurred prior to coverage.): Expenses incurred before coverage began, which for an injury claim starts on the date of loss.

N653 (The date of injury does not match the reported date of loss.): The date of injury reported on the bill does not match the carrier's date of loss.
N622 (Not covered based on the date of injury/accident.): The service is not covered based on the date of injury or accident.
N650 (This policy was not in effect for this date of loss.): The policy was not in effect on the date of loss.

N652 FAQ

Is N652 ever a simple typo?

Often. A wrong year or transposed month on either the service date or the injury date is a common cause. Check both before assuming the service is unrelated.

What if the patient was treated for the same body part before the accident?

That earlier care is not payable under the injury claim. Bill it to the patient's health plan. The carrier may also ask about pre-existing conditions when reviewing later treatment.

Does N652 apply to group health claims?

It is used on workers' compensation and property and casualty claims, which are organized around a date of loss.

Important: read before using this information

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