CARC 143 Active

PR-143: Portion of Payment Deferred

TL;DR

Patient responsibility — review the adjustment and determine if the patient truly owes this amount.

Action
Review & Decide
Who Pays
Patient
Appeal
No
Patient Impact
Direct Financial
Disclaimer
This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional billing advice. Always verify information against your payer contracts and current coding guidelines. Consult a certified billing specialist for specific claim issues.

What Does PR-143 Mean?

With PR (Patient Responsibility), the CARC 143 adjustment for portion of payment deferred shifts the financial impact to the patient. Before billing the patient, verify that the denial reason is valid. if the underlying issue can be corrected, resubmit the claim first to potentially eliminate the patient's liability.

CARC 143 appears on a remittance when the payer applies an adjustment for portion of payment deferred. Review the group code and any accompanying RARC codes to understand the full context of this adjustment.

Common scenarios that trigger this adjustment include: the payer has approved the claim but is withholding a portion of payment pending additional review, medical record request, or audit completion; Federal or state budget constraints require a portion of the payment to be deferred to a future payment cycle; The payer's contract or payment methodology includes a phased payment approach where a portion of the claim is paid initially and the remainder is deferred to a reconciliation period. The group code paired with CARC 143 determines who bears the financial responsibility — OA indicates a coordination of benefits or other payer adjustment, CO places it on the provider as a contractual obligation, PR shifts it to the patient.

How to Resolve

  1. Review the adjustment Examine the PR-143 adjustment and any RARC codes to understand the basis for the patient responsibility.
  2. Verify the adjustment is correct Confirm the PR designation and amount are appropriate based on the patient's plan benefits.
  3. Appeal if incorrect If the adjustment appears incorrect, file an appeal with supporting documentation.
  4. Collect from the patient if valid If the adjustment is confirmed correct, generate a patient statement and follow standard collection procedures.
Do Not Appeal This Code

Portion of Payment Deferred grouped under PR places the financial responsibility on the patient. The specific reason depends on the context of this adjustment — review any accompanying RARC codes for detail. Because this represents a placement of responsibility rather than a coverage denial, an appeal isn't the right action; verify the placement is correct before billing the patient.

How to Prevent PR-143

Also Filed As

The same CARC 143 may appear with different Group Codes:

OA-143 CO-143

Related Denial Codes

PR-13 — Date of Death Precedes Date of Service PR-14 — Date of Birth Follows Date of Service PR-19 — Workers' Compensation Claim PR-20 — Liability Carrier Responsible PR-21 — No-Fault Carrier Responsible

Sources

  1. https://www.cms.gov/medicare/claims-appeals/organization-determinations
  2. https://www.aapc.com/resources/claim-adjustment-reason-code-carc
  3. https://www.mdclarity.com/denial-code/143
  4. Codes maintained by X12. Visit x12.org for official definitions.