RARC (Remittance Advice Remark Code)
A RARC is a standardized code that supplements a CARC on the remittance, adding the detail the adjustment reason alone does not carry.
Updated
A Remittance Advice Remark Code (RARC) is a standardized code returned on the electronic remittance advice that adds explanation the adjustment reason alone does not carry. Most RARCs are supplemental: they accompany a Claim Adjustment Reason Code and narrow its reason to something specific enough to act on — the CARC states why the line was adjusted, and the RARC says which item or policy was at issue.
There is a second kind. Informational RARCs are prefaced “Alert:” and stand on their own, without a CARC — they convey information about the claim rather than explain an adjustment. So a RARC on a line is not always attached to a reason code, and reading one as though it must be is a way to misread the line.
The RARC list is maintained by CMS, as the maintainer recognized by X12 — unlike CARCs, which are maintained through the X12 committee process. X12's own external code list table records the split: remark codes (list 411) are maintained by CMS, adjustment reason codes (list 139) by an X12 maintenance group. Both are national code sets, so a code carries the same meaning across payers, and a maintenance request for one does not go to the same place as for the other.
In practice
The RARC is usually where the actionable detail lives. An adjustment reason may say that information is missing; the remark code is what identifies which information — and that is the difference between a claim that can be corrected today and one that goes back into a queue.
Not every adjustment carries a RARC, and a claim line can carry several. Denial work reads the whole set on the line, not the first code returned.
Commonly confused with
- CARC: The CARC carries the adjustment reason and the financial group code. A supplemental RARC explains it further; an informational RARC (“Alert:”) carries no adjustment at all.