RARC: Remittance Advice Remark Code
RARCs are explanatory codes payers attach to claim adjustments on the 835 ERA. Where CARCs categorize the adjustment, RARCs narrow it to the specific cause that the workflow team needs to act on.
What is a RARC?
RARCs (Remittance Advice Remark Codes) are an X12-standard set published by the Washington Publishing Company. Each adjustment on the 835 ERA carries a CARC (the category) and may carry one or more RARCs (the specific cause). Common examples: N4 (missing/incomplete/invalid prior authorization number), M86 (service denied because patient is enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan), N122 (add-on code cannot be billed by itself).
How RARCs route to workflow
A claim with CARC 16 (claim/service lacks information) doesn't tell the billing team what to fix. The accompanying RARC does. RARC N4 routes the work back to the prior-auth queue. RARC N122 routes back to coding. RARC N15 (services for newborn must be billed separately) routes back to charge capture. Mature billing operations track work-queue assignment by RARC, not just CARC.
Analytics views worth running on RARC
- RARC frequency by payer — surfaces payer-specific policy quirks.
- RARC frequency by CDM line — surfaces template or modifier issues.
- RARC trend by week — surfaces new payer policies as they roll out.
- RARC overlap with CARC categories — confirms appeal vs prevention strategy.
Where Vizier fits
Vizier ingests the full 835 ERA either through your EHR connector or directly from your clearinghouse SFTP, parses every CARC + RARC pair, and routes work-queue analytics by both. The view answers the question billing teams actually ask: which workflow gap is generating the most denials this week, and who owns fixing it?