In the 5010 270/271 Errata A1 document published June 2010, The subscriber and dependent 270 TRN03 (errata pages 26 and 35) segment has been updated to no longer require the values of 1, 3 or 9 (EIN, DUNS, user identified) as the first digit. This change is not made for the 271 which still requires the 1, 3 or 9 to be returned in the TRN03. What is the expectation, when passing a 271, when these TRN segment are created by another entity? Our concerns are 1) The TRN creating entity is expecting the same value they sent, and 2) we do not have intelligence in determining what the expected value (1,3,9) might be systemically for another entity’s TRN segment.
The purpose of TRN03 is to identify the company assigning the trace number in TRN02 and is defined by that company. The requirement regarding the restriction to using 1, 3 or 9 was previously part of the 4010 Standard. This restriction was removed in the 5010 Standard and the authors of the TR3 intended to remove the requirement entirely from the 270/271 transaction to mirror the change in the X12 standard. This was removed for the 270 in the 005010X279A1; however the requirement was unintentionally not removed from the 271.
The primary purpose of the TRN when returning the TRN from the 270 (TRN01 = 2) is to echo what was received in TRN02, TRN03 and TRN04. This allows the information receiver to locate their own TRN and reconcile the transaction in their system.
The second note for the 271 2000C and 2000D TRN03 states “If TRN01 is “2", this is the value received in the original 270 transaction” and receivers of 271 transactions expect to receive the value in TRN03 as sent. The intent has always been to return what was received in the original TRN03 and there was no intent to have an entity change the number received in TRN03. In this case, the second note takes precedence over the third note.
An information source must return the values received in TRN02, TRN03 and TRN04 as they were received and not modify them in any way.
For clearinghouses or payers returning their own TRN segment in the 271, they will still have to begin TRN03 with a 1, 3 or 9 as identified in the third note.
The 271 2000C and 2000D TRN03 third note states “The first position must be either a “1” if an EIN is used, a “3” if a DUNS is used or a “9” if a user assigned identifier is used”. If the TRN03 received does not have one of these values, the creator of the 271 would not know “if” an EIN, DUNS or user assigned identifier was used and is not required to insert one of these values and is to return the value as received per the second note.
As mentioned above, since the second note takes precedence over the third note, there is no need to put in logic to determine if 1, 3 or 9 should be inserted and the value in TRN03 must be returned as received.
The note requiring TRN03 begin with 1, 3 or 9 will be removed from the 271 for the next version of the TR3.