Error code
A3L — Other New Patient Fee Already Paid
New patient fee already paid
A new patient fee, such as Q013 or Q033, was already paid for this patient, and it's a one-time payment.
What to do: Remove the new patient fee and resubmit the rest of the visit if it was rejected too.
- Code
- A3L
- Description
- Other New Patient Fee Already Paid
Explanation
Updated October 26, 2026
Another new patient fee has already been paid for this patient, so this one was rejected.
What it means
A3L means another new patient fee has already been paid for this patient. New patient fees are one-time payments, so a second one is rejected.
New patient fees are primary care Q-codes listed in Appendix Q of the Schedule. The Ministry's EQJ wording names two of them: the New Patient fee (Q013) and the New Graduate New Patient fee (Q033).
Common causes
- The patient was already claimed as a new patient by you or another physician
- Two different new patient fees billed for the same patient
- A new patient fee billed again when the patient re-enrolled
How to fix it
- Check the patient's billing history for any new patient fee.
- If one was already paid, remove the new patient fee and resubmit the rest of the visit if it was rejected too.
- Resubmit the corrected claim. Resubmit within three months of the service date if you can. If that window has passed but the claim was first submitted on time, use the Ministry's stale-dated resubmission process described under VJ7.
Don't resubmit if
- A new patient fee was already paid for this patient.
How APEX handles it
APEX reads your error reports and remittance advice from MCEDT and lists claims rejected with this code in its Correction Centre for you to correct and resubmit. See how APEX works · Pricing