NM102 in X12 837P: A Field Guide to Entity Type Qualifier
NM102 decides whether the rest of the NM1 loop is read as a person's name or a business name — get it backwards and NM103 either shows a surname in the organization-name field or a clinic's name split awkwardly across first and last name fields.
NM102 is a single-digit code in the NM1 segment that specifies whether the entity being named is a person (1) or a non-person entity like an organization (2).
Valid code values
Example
Entity type 2 tells the reader NM103 holds an organization name rather than a surname — here, the payer. Synthetic claim data.
Where this trips people up
When test data is generated from a template that assumes every NM1 loop describes a person, organizational loops like the payer or a billing group practice end up with entity type 1 and a business name jammed into NM103 as if it were a last name. Some translators accept this silently; others reject the segment outright, and either way it produces test claims that don't reflect how production data actually looks.