Can the 834.DMG05-2 and -3 be repeated with a carrot between the repeats? Example: DMG*D8*19950322*M**:RET:2186-5^:RET:2131-1~ The Implementation Guide does not seem to indicate this but this is how we are receiving it.
Guide 005010X220 section B.1.1.2.5, "Delimiters," states in part "Delimiters are specified in the interchange header segment, ISA. ... the repetition separator is byte number 83 ... ." Thus, for any interchange where the "^" is present in byte 83 of the ISA segment, the "^" is the Repetition Separator. Section C.1 identifies ISA segment byte number 83 as field ISA11: "Repetition Separator". The ISA11 Repetition Separator is further described in section C.1 as "... the delimiter used to separate repeated occurrences of a simple data element or a composite data structure ...". In the version 005010 834 TR3 -- 005010X220 -- the loop ID 2100A DMG05 data element is specified as: "DMG05 C056 COMPOSITE RACE OR ETHNICITY INFORMATION X 10". Note that this specification includes "10", indicating that this composite data element may be repeated ten times. Based on the ISA11 description in section C.1, any use of a repetition separator with a composite data element applies to the entire composite structure. The example provided in this request illustrates two repeats of composite data element DMG05 using repetition separator "^". This repetition separator is permissible, and the number of composite data element repeats is less than the maximum of ten. The example provided also illustrates each repetition of the composite data element DMG05 contains all three components of DMG05; separated by a permissible component element separator. Thus, the example provided in this request is syntactically correct. Related Prior RFI:1140