CO-17 denial code
Requested information was not provided or was insufficient
How to fix it
Find the original request, send exactly what was asked for, and reference the request in the cover documentation.
How to prevent it
Log every payer records request against the claim with a due date. These expire quietly and become uncollectable.
In practice
A payer sends a records request for a high-cost imaging study. It arrives by post, is scanned into a general correspondence folder, and nobody links it to the claim. Six weeks later the claim denies with CO-17.
The records existed and would have supported payment. What failed is that a request with a deadline was received by an organisation that had no process for tracking requests with deadlines.
Recovery depends on whether the appeal window is still open. The response must be exactly what was asked for — not the full chart — and should reference the original request so the reviewer can match it to the pending item rather than treating it as unsolicited.
What sits behind it
CO-17 is unusual in that it denies for something the practice already possesses. The clinical justification is in the chart; only the act of sending it failed. That makes it one of the few denials where the entire loss is administrative.
The failure mode is almost always the same: payer correspondence arrives through a channel — post, fax, portal message — that is not connected to the claim it concerns. Requests sit in a queue nobody owns, deadlines pass silently, and the first anyone knows is the denial.
Sending the whole chart in response is the other common error, and it is worse than it looks. It buries the relevant documentation, invites review of services that were not in question, and conflicts with the minimum necessary standard under HIPAA. Send what was requested.
Related codes
Terms used here — Appeal · Timely Filing · Minimum Necessary
How we handle it — Denial Management · AR Management · Claims Management
Primary sources
The rules behind CO-17, at the bodies that publish them.
- Medicare claims appeals process (opens in a new tab)
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — The five levels of appeal, what each requires and the deadline for each. Missing a level's deadline ends the appeal regardless of the claim's merits.
- Medicare Claims Processing Manual (opens in a new tab)
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — The operative manual for how Medicare claims must be coded, submitted, adjusted and appealed. When a payer policy and a vendor's advice disagree, this settles it.
- HIPAA for professionals (opens in a new tab)
HHS Office for Civil Rights — The Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules in their authoritative form, including what a billing vendor is permitted to do with PHI.
Every denial code with a guide
Authorization
Bundling
Contractual
Coverage
Data quality
Documentation
- CO-150Level of Service Not Supported
- CO-17Requested Records Not Received
- CO-252Attachment Required
Eligibility
Liability and workers comp
Patient responsibility
Provider eligibility
Timely filing
Looking for a different code? Search all 190 CARC and RARC codes
Questions about CO-17
Often, if the appeal window is still open. Send exactly what was requested, reference the original request so the reviewer can match it to the pending item, and confirm receipt. The clinical justification usually existed all along — only the response failed.
No. Send precisely what was asked for. Sending the full chart buries the relevant documentation, invites review of services that were not in question, and sits badly against the HIPAA minimum necessary standard.
Because payer records requests arrive through channels that are not connected to the claim — post, fax, portal messages — and land in queues nobody owns. The deadline passes silently and the denial is the first notification.
Log every payer records request against its claim with a due date and an owner, in whichever system the claim lives. The request is a claim event, and treating it as general correspondence is what loses it.
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