CARC 29: The time limit for filing has expired
The claim was not submitted to the insurer within the required filing deadline.
What this means for your claim
Health plans have timely filing requirements (often 90 to 365 days from date of service). A late claim is typically denied in full.
What to do next
- 1
Ask your provider for proof of the original submission date — many denials on timely filing grounds are incorrect.
- 2
If the provider can show a timely submission (e.g., clearinghouse records), they can appeal with proof.
- 3
If filing was genuinely late due to circumstances beyond your control (e.g., insurer error, coordination of benefits delay), an appeal with a written explanation may succeed.
How to handle a contractual-obligation adjustment
Contractual Obligation (CO) codes describe the part of a claim that is governed by the contract between your insurer and the provider. In most cases the adjustment itself is legitimate — it reflects the agreed network discount, your deductible, your coinsurance, or your copay. The money you should focus on is the patient-responsibility line, because that is the amount you can actually verify, dispute, or have reprocessed.
Confirm the math against your plan documents
Pull your Summary of Benefits and Coverage and your member-portal accumulators. Check that the allowed amount matches the in-network contracted rate and that your deductible, coinsurance, or copay was applied at the correct stage. A surprising number of patient-responsibility errors come from accumulators that didn't update after a prior claim.
Check whether your out-of-pocket maximum was reached
Once you hit your annual out-of-pocket maximum, your coinsurance and copays for covered, in-network services should drop to $0. If an EOB still shows patient responsibility after you've met that limit, call member services and ask for the claim to be reprocessed against your accumulator.
Make sure the service was coded the way it actually happened
A visit coded as a higher-complexity level, or a preventive screening miscoded as a diagnostic (sick) visit, can shift cost onto you. Request an itemized bill, compare the CPT codes to what you actually received, and ask the provider's billing office to correct and rebill any mismatch before you pay.
Your appeal rights for CARC 29
If you believe a contractual adjustment was applied incorrectly — wrong network status, wrong accumulator, or a coding error — start with the provider's billing office for coding issues and your insurer's member services for benefit-application issues. If they disagree, you have the right under the Affordable Care Act to a formal internal appeal, and if that's denied, an independent external review.
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