Troubleshoot Medicare Return Codes

This article provides a list of return or error codes returned by Medicare after your practice has submitted online claims, and the cause and resolution actions for each code. If a submission has been declined, consult this list before calling Best Practice Software Support to see if you can resolve the problem.

Some resolutions will require your IT Support or a Windows administrator with knowledge of updating environment variables and setting access permissions on folders.

See a full list of Medicare claiming return codes on the Services Australia website.

Common Medicare return codes

Medicare Code

Description

Cause

Resolution

1004

A session could not be established.

 

Install the Medicare module.

See Record a Minor ID and Location for online claiming for more information.

1006

PKI Login failure

The Medicare Certificates have expired.

Re-import the Medicare certificates from C:\Program Files\Best Practice Software\BPS\MedicareCerts.

 

1011

Unable to find Java Virtual machine library

Java is not installed correctly on the machine.

Install the Medicare module.

See Record a Minor ID and Location for online claiming for more information.

1014

Unable to locate the EasyclaimAPI class

Environment Variables are incorrect.

Install the Medicare module.

See Record a Minor ID and Location for online claiming for more information.

1705

Secure Failure

Site Certificates have expired.

Check the Site Certificate Expiry Date.

If the site certificates haven't expired, tried recreating the certificate store in a new location. Give the Windows user group 'everyone' full control to the store as well.

See Update a Medicare PKI certificate for more information.

1999

An undefined error has been detected in Java API

Incorrectly configured environment variables.

Edit Environment Variables > user variables to make sure that TMP and TEMP are the only user-defined variables.

Your IT support can assist you with editing Windows user and environment variables.

2008

No business object currently exists for the supplied Session ID

 

Install the Medicare module.

See Record a Minor ID and Location for online claiming for more information.

2015

No voucher exists within the session for the supplied VoucherSeqNum

Multiple Thumbprint files exist.

  1. In a Windows File Explorer, browse to the folder C:\Users\username\.medicareonline\.

  2. Delete the contents of this folder and resubmit the claim.

2017

The Payee Provider specified is the same as the Servicing Provider

Payee Providers exist in the System with the same provider numbers.

  1. Go to Setup > Providers

  2. Select the Servicing Provider

  3. Navigate to the Medicare Online tab

  4. Ensure the Payee Provider entered does not have the same Provider Number as the Servicing Provider.

2027

The report does not exist for the given selection criteria

Multiple Thumbprint files exist.

  1. In a Windows File Explorer, browse to the folder C:\Users\username\.medicareonline\.

  2. Delete the contents of this folder and resubmit the claim.

2054

Date of service is inconsistent with other dates set

Patient's date of birth.

Check that the date of birth is correct in patient demographics.

The last modification to a patient demographics is shown down the bottom of the window.

3001

Communication error. Check that you have a current internet session. For further assistance contact the Medicare eBusiness Service Centre.

Potential problem with the anti-virus software

There may be an issue with your anti-virus software, or internet service provider.

Best Practice Software cannot resolve this issue. Contact your anti-virus vendor or Medicare eBusiness.

3004

The request cannot be dealt with at this time because real-time processing is not available or the system is down. Contact the Medicare eBusiness Service Centre for further assistance.

 

Reinstall the Medicare module.

See Record a Minor ID and Location for online claiming for more information.

If that does not resolve the issue, edit Environment Variables > user variables to make sure that TMP and TEMP are the only user-defined variables.

If that does not resolve the issue, the Medicare servers may be experiencing high volume issues. Try resubmitting at a later time if possible.

This error message has also been caused by some antivirus software. If an OPV check works but the transmission still fails, try temporarily disabling your antivirus or firewall and resubmit.

3008

The sending Location could not be identified at the Client Adaptor

 

  1. In a Windows File Explorer, browse to the folder C:\Users\username\.medicareonline\.

  2. Delete the contents of this folder and resubmit the claim.

9003

The provider is identified as inactive for Online Claiming purposes. Contact the PKI Customer Service Centre for assistance.

The provider is not marked as 'Active' in the Medicare Servers. This may be due to the registration not being completed correctly.

Contact Medicare e-Business to confirm the provider is active. You may need to complete a Change of Bank Details form again.

9010

The software product used to create the transaction is not certified for this function. Contact the Medicare Australia eBusiness Service Centre for further assistance.

Best Practice is trying to transmit using another products Medicare Module.

Reinstall the Medicare module.

See Record a Minor ID and Location for online claiming for more information.

If that does not resolve the issue, edit Environment Variables > user variables to make sure that TMP and TEMP are the only user-defined variables.

If the user variables Easy_Parm_3 or Easy_Parm_4 exist, AND your practice does not use a proxy server for online claiming, delete these variables.

9111

If createCryptoStore - a PSI Store already exists in the nominated folder. Otherwise a problem has been encountered using PKI services. Repeating the function call should be successful.

Unable to access the certificate store in the correct manner.

This issue can indicate a few causes, such as MAOL not set up correctly. However, this message is usually related to permissions.

  1. In Bp VIP.net, check the path listed as Path to certificate store in Setup > Configuration > Online Claiming.

  2. Navigate to that path in Windows File Explorer.

  3. Give the user group 'everyone' full permissions for the path.

  4. Restart Bp VIP.net and retry.

This issue can also be caused by not enough space on C:\ Drive.

9119

The provider is identified as inactive for Online Claiming purposes. Contact the PKI Customer Service Centre for assistance.

The provider is marked as inactive in the Medicare System. Their provider number may not be registered or updated.

Best Practice Software cannot assist with this issue. Contact Medicare to reactivate the provider.

9121

Desecure failure at Medicare. Contact the PKI Customer Service Centre for assistance.

Certificate cannot verify when attempting OPV.

Site certificate imported may have used SHA-2 encryption. You will need SHA-1 site certificates for Medicare Online Claiming.

If these have not been supplied as part of your original site certificates, contact Medicare eBusiness to obtain SHA-1 site certificates for use with Bp VIP.net.

9123

The HCL certificate used to sign the transmission is not the certificate currently registered against the location ID.

Only one site certificate can be linked to a single minor ID.

Your site may have received a new site certificate (for example, because the practice has changed owners) and the old certificate has not yet been removed at Medicare's end.

Contact Medicare eBusiness to remove the old certificates.

9127

Requested Location Encryption Certificate not found in the PSI Store

fac_encrypt.p12 was not imported correctly or at all.

Re-import the Medicare certificates from C:\Program Files\Best Practice Software\BPS\MedicareCerts.

See Update a Medicare PKI certificate for more information.

9201

Invalid format for data item

Invalid characters in patient name

Characters accepted are: alphanumeric characters, apostrophes, hyphens, and spaces. However, spaces must not appear immediately before or after apostrophes and hyphens.

The issue is usually caused by leading or trailing spaces as per the examples below:

  • O’Toole – Valid

  • O’ Toole – Invalid (one or more spaces after apostrophe)

  • O ’Toole – Invalid (one or more spaces before apostrophe)

  • Anne-Marie – Valid

  • Anne -Marie – Invalid (one or more spaces before hyphen)

  • Anne- Marie – Invalid (one or more spaces after hyphen)

  • Anne - Marie – Invalid (one or more spaces before and after hyphen)

  • Robert AKA Bob – Valid

  • Robert (Bob) – The parentheses characters '(' and ')' are not valid.

SQL queries are available that are supplied with Bp VIP.net and can be imported into the Database Searchtool to search for patients with invalid names.

9202

Invalid value for data item. The data element does not comply with the values permitted or has failed a check digit check.

 

Check that the Windows system date and time is correct and set to the correct time zone.

Reinstall the Medicare module.

See Set up Online Claiming for single Minor ID for more information.

9217

Authorisation date is a date in future

Potentially a problem with the Time Zone set on the computer that has created the service.

Check that the Windows system date and time is correct and set to the correct time zone.

9308

Referring Practitioner's Provider Number must be supplied.

The Provider number for the referring Doctor hasn't been updated in the Contacts screen.

Enter the Provider Number into the Contact Details for the referring Provider.

9325

Service type not supplied

 

Reinstall the Medicare module.

See Record a Minor ID and Location for online claiming for more information.

Edit Environment Variables > user variables to make sure that TMP and TEMP are the only user-defined variables.

If the user variables Easy_Parm_3 or Easy_Parm_4 exist, AND your practice does not use a proxy server for online claiming, delete these variables

9342

The Payee Practitioner supplied is the same as the Servicing Provider. If both are the same, only one of the Servicing Provider should be completed.

They've got Payee Providers in the System with the same provider numbers.

In Bp VIP.net, go to Setup > Configuration > Payer Allocation and make sure that provider allocation is set up correctly.

9602

This claim cannot be lodged through this channel. Please submit the claim via an alternative Medicare claiming channel.

OTS has advised that this can be caused by an issue with the Medicare card number.

The claim must be manually submitted to Medicare.

9641

A restrictive condition exists

 

Ensure that you have entered the correct restriction codes under Add item when creating the invoice, such as 'Separate Sites', or 'Not related'.

See Restriction codes for more information.

 

Bp VIP.net crashes without generating any errors or logs when you perform a Check for Payments or an OPV lookup.

Java has not been installed correctly.

Uninstall the old version of Java first, then run the MAOL utility to re-install Java.

See Record a Minor ID and Location for online claiming for more information.

General troubleshooting steps

If you receive a generic error message, a code not included in the list above, or the following message, follow the resolution steps below to see if the problem is resolved before you call Best Practice Software Support.

Step

1. Ensure that all five Medicare certificates have been installed

2. Ensure that the two site certificates are present in the same location.

3. Ensure that all of the certfiicates have a valid start date and expiry date.

4. Ensure that the MinorID has been entered correctly in Bp VIP.net.

Last modified: 9 May 2023