A 131 Type of Bill (TOB 131) is a four-digit code used on UB-04 forms to indicate a hospital outpatient encounter that began in the emergency room and ended with discharge or transfer, without inpatient admission.
What’s Happening
TOB 131 identifies a single outpatient episode that starts in the ER and concludes with discharge or transfer, ensuring insurers process the claim correctly.
Here’s the thing: this code isn’t some new fad. Medicare, Medicaid, and most private insurers have used it since 2026 whenever a patient gets treated and walked out the door without becoming an inpatient. The structure’s simple—0131 means “zero” for the first digit, “one” for hospital facility, “three” for outpatient care, and “one” to confirm it’s the only bill for that episode. Hospitals love it because it bundles the entire ER visit—from walking in to walking out—onto one clean claim.
Step-by-Step Solution
To submit a correct TOB 131 claim, enter “0131” in Form Locator 4, match the admit date to the ER registration time, and assign accurate revenue codes for each service.
- Open your UB-04 form in whatever billing software you use—Meditech v6.1 or Epic Cadence 2025.2.1 will do.
- Now, head straight to Form Locator 4 (FL 4), the Type of Bill field, and type 0131—that’s zero-one-three-one, no spaces.
- Next, make sure the admit date in FL 6 matches the exact time the patient registered in the ER. No rounding, no estimates.
- For every service you billed, slap the right revenue code in FL 42–49—0450 for clinic visits, 0762 for lab tests, and so on.
- Save the file, export it as an 837-I or 837-P, and fire it off through your clearinghouse. That’s it—your claim’s on its way.
