What does OHIP error code EQ6 mean?

EQ6 means the referring or requisitioning health care provider number on the claim is not registered with the Ministry of Health. Correct the number to a currently registered six-digit billing number and resubmit.

How is EQ6 different from AC4?

AC4 means the number is unaccepted for this fee schedule code because of format, self-referral, or NP or midwife restrictions. EQ6 means the number is not on the Ministry registration file at all.

Can EQ6 apply to diagnostic requisitions, not only consultations?

Yes. The Ministry wording covers referring and requisitioning provider numbers. Diagnostic claims that require a requisitioner can reject EQ6 for the same unregistered number.

Why did my software accept the number if EQ6 still fired?

Many systems only check that the field has six digits. EQ6 is a Ministry registration check. A six-digit value that is not a registered OHIP billing number will still reject.

What if the three-month window has already closed?

If the original EQ6 claim reached the Claims Error Report inside three months of the service date, INFOBulletin 230402 allows a corrected resubmission through the Ministry stale-date process after the window. If the claim was never submitted in time, payment may be recoverable by written application where documentation supports the original registration mismatch.

OHIP error report

EQ6

Provider registration and referrals

OHIP error code EQ6: referring provider number not registered

EQ6 means the referring or requisitioning health care provider number is not registered with the Ministry of Health. The number on the claim does not match a registered provider on the Ministry file.

Ministry wording: Incorrect referral number. Referring/requisitioning health care provider number is not registered with the Ministry of Health. Most often affects Internal medicine, Psychiatry, Neurology, Hospitalists, Orthopaedic surgery.

You already know EQ6. A single rejection is rarely the whole pile. Specialists we work with recover $10,000 to $100,000+ from rejected and unpaid claims.

1Why it fires
2What it costs
3Whether it is recoverable

See if this is recoverable

EQ6 at a glance

EQ6 is a Claims Error Report registration check on the referring or requisitioning field. The Ministry wording is specific: the referring or requisitioning health care provider number is not registered with the Ministry of Health. The claim is rejected before payment and does not appear on the Remittance Advice as a paid item.

That is different from AC4, where the number is present but unaccepted for format or referrer-type reasons. It is different from ERF, where the number is known and currently ineligible to refer. It is also different from ARF or ARP, which address a missing referring physician number. EQ6 means the value you submitted does not match a registered provider number on the Ministry file.

Specialists see EQ6 on consultations and on diagnostic claims that require a requisitioning number. The consultation request can look complete on paper. The six digits on the page still fail registration. A single stale address-book row can reject a week of consults before anyone notices the pattern.

Why it fires

A digit was transposed when the number was entered from a referral letter.
The EMR stored a number that never existed as a registered OHIP billing number, such as a group number, pager, or CPSO number in the wrong field.
The referrer is new to Ontario billing and the number on the letter is not the number the Ministry has registered, or the reverse: letterhead still shows an old number after the physician changed billing numbers.

Most EQ6 lines are data entry. Six digits that almost match a real billing number still fail if one digit is wrong. Intake from handwritten letters, scanned PDFs, and verbal “use Dr. X” instructions is where transposition errors start.

The second pattern is using the wrong identifier class. CPSO numbers, hospital dictation IDs, clinic group numbers, and pager strings are not OHIP billing numbers. Format validation in software may accept six characters and still leave you with EQ6, because EQ6 is registration, not format. V09 and parts of AC4 catch format and range problems. EQ6 asks whether the Ministry has that number on file as a registered health care provider.

The third pattern is timing and letterhead lag. A locum, a new graduate, or a physician who recently moved practices may appear on a letter before or after the Ministry registration that matches that letterhead. The reverse also happens: the physician changed numbers and your EMR still holds the retired value. Every subsequent consult from that row fails the same way.

EQ6 is not limited to consultations. The Ministry wording covers referring and requisitioning provider numbers. Pulmonary function, cardiology professional components, and other diagnostic claims that pull a requisitioner from the same address book will cluster on the error report when that row is wrong.

What it costs

The claim is rejected before payment. The unpaid amount is the full submitted fee for that consultation or diagnostic service.

There is no partial payment on an EQ6. The item waits on the error report until a registered number is supplied. High-volume consult practices can accumulate a week of unpaid consults from a single bad address-book entry before anyone notices the pattern.

The dollar figure depends on the fee schedule code. Do not treat EQ6 as a zero-dollar data warning. It is an unpaid claim for work already done.

For services rendered on or after 1 April 2023, the in-province submission window is three months from the date of service. An uncorrected EQ6 that sits on the error report can age past that window even though the clinical service was delivered on time.

Fee codes this most often affects

A135 · Consultation, internal and occupational medicine: A high-volume specialist consultation listing. One stale referrer row in the EMR can reject a week of these when the number is not registered.
A605 · Consultation, cardiology: Cardiology consults often arrive from clinics outside your usual referral base, which is where unregistered numbers appear.
A185 · Consultation, neurology: Neurology referrals frequently arrive on letterhead that carries a clinic or group identifier rather than the registered billing number.
A195 · Consultation, psychiatry: Psychiatry intake often captures the referrer from an intake form rather than the signed request, which is a common source of unregistered numbers.

Listings and descriptions are from the OHIP Schedule of Benefits. Amounts change with each fee schedule update, so confirm the current value before you rely on it.

Step-by-step: how to clear this rejection

Confirm the Claims Error Report code is EQ6, not AC4, ERF, V09, ARF, or ARP.
Compare the submitted referring or requisitioning number with the signed consultation request or requisition.
Ask the referring office for the current six-digit OHIP billing number if the letter is ambiguous or the number fails registration.
Update the EMR address-book row, then resubmit the corrected claim.
Do not cycle through guessed numbers. Each failed resubmit still consumes time inside the three-month window.

Start with the source document, not the error report alone. If the letter shows two numbers, use the six-digit OHIP billing number, not a group, clinic, or CPSO identifier.

When the referring office confirms a different number, change the master record before you resubmit. Overlaying a correction on one claim while leaving the favourite list wrong recreates EQ6 on the next patient from the same referrer.

If software validates six digits but does not check Ministry registration, treat the first consult from an unknown number as a manual verification step. That takes less time than reversing a week of EQ6.

Money you already earned, still unpaid

Recovery is separate work from ongoing billing. Charging only a percentage of what we recover, we review the backlog, correct what your documentation supports, and resubmit. Recent engagements have recovered five- and six-figure amounts, including rejected claims well past the 3-month stale dated deadline going back into 2023.

The alternative is usually your evenings or admin blocks, not billable clinic time. No setup or service fees. Every dollar recovered is money already written off, you keep most of it, and you pay nothing if nothing comes back.

“These claims weren’t chased up on. These claims have been stale dated. You add up the volume of money in there and it’s a consequential sum.”

Dr Sanjay Acharya, on what the recovery review found

Show me what is still recoverable

How to fix it going forward

Verify new referring numbers against a current source before the first claim, not after the error report.
When a letter shows two numbers, use the six-digit OHIP billing number, not a group, clinic, or CPSO identifier.
Retire address-book rows that have produced EQ6. Do not keep overlaying corrections on the claim while leaving the master record wrong.
For locum and new-to-practice referrers, confirm registration is active on the service date, not only that a number exists on letterhead.

Prevention is a referrer-file problem. Build a rule: the first consult from an unknown number is checked before submission.

Separate format checks from registration checks. Format checks stop V09 and some AC4 cases. They do not prove the number is registered.

Review monthly error reports for repeated EQ6 on the same referrer name. That is the signal to delete or repair the address-book row, not to train staff to “try again.”

Is it recoverable?

Recoverable by resubmission inside the window

Replace the referring or requisitioning number with the number the Ministry has registered and resubmit inside the three-month window from the date of service.

Call or write the referring office for the current six-digit billing number if the letter is ambiguous. Then resubmit. Do not cycle through guessed numbers.

If the original claim reached the Claims Error Report inside three months, INFOBulletin 230402 allows a corrected resubmission through the Ministry stale-date process after the three-month window. If the claim was never submitted in time, payment may be recoverable by written application where you can show the service was provided and the original rejection was a registration mismatch. That is not a routine correction, and this page does not explain how that application is prepared.

For in-province services on or after 1 April 2023, claims must be submitted within three months of the date of service, not six. Ontario INFOBulletin 230402 is the Ministry notice. Many third-party pages still quote six months. That window is closed for current work. If the original claim reached the Claims Error Report inside three months, a corrected resubmission can still be filed after the window in the Ministry's stale-date process. If the claim was never submitted in time, payment may be recoverable by written application. That is not a routine resubmit.

Related codes

Frequently asked questions

What does OHIP error code EQ6 mean?: EQ6 means the referring or requisitioning health care provider number on the claim is not registered with the Ministry of Health. Correct the number to a currently registered six-digit billing number and resubmit.
How is EQ6 different from AC4?: AC4 means the number is unaccepted for this fee schedule code because of format, self-referral, or NP or midwife restrictions. EQ6 means the number is not on the Ministry registration file at all.
Can EQ6 apply to diagnostic requisitions, not only consultations?: Yes. The Ministry wording covers referring and requisitioning provider numbers. Diagnostic claims that require a requisitioner can reject EQ6 for the same unregistered number.
Why did my software accept the number if EQ6 still fired?: Many systems only check that the field has six digits. EQ6 is a Ministry registration check. A six-digit value that is not a registered OHIP billing number will still reject.
What if the three-month window has already closed?: If the original EQ6 claim reached the Claims Error Report inside three months of the service date, INFOBulletin 230402 allows a corrected resubmission through the Ministry stale-date process after the window. If the claim was never submitted in time, payment may be recoverable by written application where documentation supports the original registration mismatch.

References

For how error reports relate to the remittance advice, see how to read your OHIP remittance advice and what rejection codes actually mean. Official wording for this code: Ministry of Health, Error Report Rejection Conditions (December 2022).