Error code
V12 — Patient's first name is missing/not alphabetic
Patient first name invalid
The patient's first name is blank, starts with a space, or has characters other than A to Z.
What to do: Fill in the first name, remove leading spaces and non-letter characters, then resubmit.
- Code
- V12
- Description
- Patient's first name is missing/not alphabetic
Explanation
Updated October 26, 2026
The patient's first name is missing or contains characters other than letters. Correct the name and resubmit.
What it means
V12 ("Patient's first name is missing/not alphabetic (A-Z)") means the patient's first name on the claim is blank, starts with a blank, or has characters other than A to Z.
This is a format check: the claim was rejected before OHIP assessed the service itself, so it usually pays once the field is corrected.
The Ministry lists V12 with the Reciprocal Medical Billing (RMB) codes, which apply to claims for patients from other provinces, where the patient's name is sent on the claim.
Common causes
- The first name was left blank
- The name starts with a space
- The name has hyphens, apostrophes, accents or numbers
How to fix it
- Check the patient's first name on the claim.
- Remove leading spaces and characters other than A to Z, and fill in the name if it is blank.
- 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: one stale-dated claim file through MCEDT, then an email to [email protected] with the Error Reports showing the original submission date.
Don't resubmit if
- You haven't changed anything. Sending the same claim again will reject the same way.
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