# Submit claims
Source: https://www.stedi.com/docs/providers/providers-submit-claims

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title: Submit claims
sidebarTitle: Submit claims
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You can submit professional, dental, and institutional claims through the Stedi portal.

You can submit professional claims through our interactive claim form or by uploading X12 EDI claim data. There's no interactive claim form for dental and institutional claims, but you can submit them by uploading X12 EDI claim data.

## Claim form (professional only)

<Warning>
  You can only submit claims to the patient's primary health plan through our interactive CMS-1500 form. You must submit secondary or tertiary claims through X12 EDI upload, API, or SFTP instead.
</Warning>

To submit a professional claim, do one of the following:

* Go to the [Transactions page](https://portal.stedi.com/app/healthcare/transactions) and click **+ Submit claim manually**.
* Go to the **Claims** menu and select **+ Submit claim**.

The submission form is based on the CMS-1500 Claim Form.
![Manual claim submission](/images/providers/manual-claim-submission-form.png)

Enter the required information for your professional claim. Notably:

* Select a **Payer** from the dropdown list. Start typing to filter the list.
* Select whether you want to submit a **Production** or **Test** claim.
  * Production claims are sent to the payer.
  * Test claims aren't sent to the payer. Stedi validates them and displays them in the portal so you can get familiar with Stedi's claim processing workflow. Stedi responds to test claims with a 277CA claim acknowledgment, but you won't receive an 835 Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA).
* We strongly recommend submitting a unique value for the **Patient account number**. The identifier should be more complex than a simple sequential number and should be hard to guess. The payer returns this value in related transactions, such as the 277CA and 835 ERA, so you can correlate responses and real-time claim status checks with the original claim.
  * Keep it 17 characters or less. Some payers cut off values longer than 17 characters in ERAs and claim acknowledgments, which makes it hard to match them with the original claim.
  * Use alphanumeric characters only. Avoid special characters, as many payers don't handle them properly.
  * Use random strings. Formats with patient initials or the date of service in them can create duplicates.
* You can submit claim-level attachments in **Box 19** and service-line attachments in **Box 24 - Service lines**. Note that you can't add attachments to claims that were already submitted through the portal. To include attachments for those, resubmit the claim with the attachments.
  * Click **Add attachment** to specify the details for an attachment.
  * Choose the appropriate **Report type** for each attachment.
  * Choose the appropriate **Transmission code**. If you plan to upload an attachment file, set this to **EL (EDI)**. If you plan to submit the attachment through another method, such as directly through the payer's portal, set this to the appropriate code.
  * Either enter the **Attachment control number** or click **Upload file** to select the file you want to attach. Supported file types are JPG, PDF, PNG, or TIFF. Each attachment should be 10 MB or less to comply with most payer requirements. You can add up to 10 attachment files at the claim level and up to 10 attachment files for each service line. If you included attachment files, Stedi automatically generates the required attachment control numbers for you.

When you're finished, click **Submit claim**. Stedi validates the claim and submits it to the payer. It will appear on the [Transactions page](https://portal.stedi.com/app/healthcare/transactions) as a new **837P Professional Claim**.

Later, you'll also see related claim responses, such as [277CA claim acknowledgments](/providers/providers-claim-acknowledgments) and [835 Electronic Remittance Advice (ERAs)](/providers/providers-electronic-remittance-advice).

## X12 EDI upload

You can submit professional, dental, and institutional claims through the Stedi portal in X12 EDI format. Claim data must adhere to the following X12 HIPAA claim specifications:

* [837 Claim: Professional (X222A1)](https://portal.stedi.com/app/guides/view/hipaa/health-care-claim-professional-x222a1/01HR60MDFAGCSEJNKY8J38867Y)
* [837 Claim: Institutional (X223A2)](https://portal.stedi.com/app/guides/view/hipaa/health-care-claim-institutional-x223a2/01JBHW2YXMN2F9KXK2PS0BFP9F)
* [837 Claim: Dental (X224A2)](https://portal.stedi.com/app/guides/view/hipaa/health-care-claim-dental-x224a2/01JCJZ46AEK835RYV1BXQNBPK8)

![CMS-1500 PDF download](/images/providers/upload-x12-edi-claims.png)

To manually submit an X12 EDI claim:

1. Go to the [Transactions page](https://portal.stedi.com/app/healthcare/transactions).
2. Click **Submit claim** and choose **Upload EDI file** from the menu.
3. Do one of the following:
   * Click **Upload X12 EDI** and select an existing `.edi` file to add.
   * Select the transaction type and then paste the X12 EDI content into the text area.
4. Configure the settings to send a test or a production claim. Production claims are sent to payers. Test claims aren't sent to payers - Stedi's test clearinghouse processes them and returns test 277CA acknowledgments so you can evaluate your claim processing pipeline.
   1. Select either **Test** or **Production** in the menu at the top of the text area.
   2. Set `ISA15` (Interchange Usage Indicator) to `T` (Test Data) or `P` (Production Data), accordingly.
5. Fix any validation errors that appear after adding the claim X12 EDI content. Stedi highlights errors in red and displays the specification for the claim type you selected on the right side of the screen to make it easier to identify and fix issues.
6. Click **Submit claim** to submit the claim to Stedi.

Stedi processes the claim and takes you to the claim's details page. Stedi also displays the claim on the [Transactions page](https://portal.stedi.com/app/healthcare/transactions).

## Download CMS-1500 PDF

Stedi automatically generates a [PDF CMS-1500 claim form](https://www.nucc.org/index.php/1500-claim-form-mainmenu-35) for submitted professional claims.

To download the PDF:

1. Go to the [Transactions page](https://portal.stedi.com/app/healthcare/transactions) and click the claim you want to download.
2. Click **Download CMS 1500 claim PDF**. You can choose to download it either with or without the CMS-1500 form overlay.

![CMS-1500 PDF download](/images/providers/cms-1500-pdf-download.png)

Payers have strict requirements for submitted CMS-1500 claim forms. If you plan to send generated PDFs to payers or retain them for your records, we strongly recommend visiting [CMS-1500 Claim Form PDF](/providers/providers-cms-1500-claim-form-pdf) for information about the correct printer settings for generated PDFs and general best practices.