Denial code

PR 55 denial code

Treated as experimental or investigational.

Winnable with a clinician PR CO 55

What PR 55 means

PR: Patient responsibility. This one goes on the patient statement.

So the balance is billable to the patient, provided your advance notice was in order. Check that before the statement goes out. Billing a patient for something you contractually agreed to absorb is the expensive mistake on this code.

The same code, a different prefix. 55 also arrives as CO 55. The reason for the denial is the same. The prefix decides who pays for it, so the next step is not the same. If your remit says CO 55, read that page instead.

Is it worth appealing?

Winnable with a clinician. Recoverable on the merits, but somebody clinical has to attest.

What to do

Appeal with literature and the payer policy. Low win rate; triage by dollar value.

Where this comes from. This is our own reading of the code, not the payer's and not a copy of the standards text. We classify it from how these denials actually resolve. Where we are unsure, we say so rather than guessing.

PR 55 description

Treated as experimental or investigational. So the balance is billable to the patient, provided your advance notice was in order. Check that before the statement goes out. Billing a patient for something you contractually agreed to absorb is the expensive mistake on this code.

This is our plain-English wording, not the official X12 text. X12 asserts copyright over the published descriptions, so we write our own and say what it means for the money rather than restating the code.

Related codes

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