consensus-based, interoperable, syntax‑neutral data exchange standards
Alphabetized listing of current X12 members organizations.
Join other member organizations in continuously adapting the expansive vocabulary and language used by millions of organizations while leveraging more than 40 years of cross-industry standards development knowledge.
Membership categories and associated dues are based on the size and type of organization or individual, as well as the committee you intend to participate with.
To apply for an X12 membership, complete and submit an application form which will be reviewed and verified, then you will be notified of the next steps. Some important considerations for your application include the type and size of your organization, your named primary representative, and committee-subcommittee you intend to participate with.
Online access to all available versions of X12 products, including The EDI Standard, Code Source Directory, Control Standards, EDI Standard Figures, Guidelines and Technical Reports.
Multi-tier licensing categories are based on how licensees benefit from X12's work, replacing traditional one-size-fits-all approaches. Categories include Commercial, Internal, Developer and more.
X12 produces three types of documents to facilitate consistency across implementations of its work.
X12 defines and maintains transaction sets that establish the data content exchanged for specific business purposes. Each transaction set is maintained by a subcommittee operating within X12’s Accredited Standards Committee.
X12 standards are the workhorse of business to business exchanges proven by the billions of daily transactions within and across many industries including:
X12 has developed standards and associated products to facilitate the transmission of electronic business messages for over 40 years. X12 manages the exclusive copyright to all standards, publications, and products, and such works do not constitute joint works of authorship eligible for joint copyright.
All X12 work products are copyrighted. Any use of any X12 work product must be compliant with US Copyright laws and X12 Intellectual Property policies.
Chartered by the American National Standards Institute for more than 40 years, X12 develops and maintains EDI standards and XML schemas which drive business processes globally. X12's diverse membership includes technologists and business process experts in health care, insurance, transportation, finance, government, supply chain and other industries.
X12 standards are the workhorse of business to business exchanges proven by the billions of transactions based on X12 standards that are used daily in various industries including supply chain, transportation, government, finance, and health care. Millions of entities around the world have an established infrastructure that supports X12 transactions.
Introducing neX12...
X12 is well-positioned to continue to serve its members and the large install base by continuing to support the existing metadata, standards, and implementation tools while also focusing on several key collaborative initiatives.
X12 is led by the X12 Board of Directors (Board). The X12 Board and the Accredited Standards Committee’s Steering group (Steering) collaborate to ensure the best interests of X12 are served. Each group has specific responsibilities and the groups cooperatively handle items or issues that span the responsibilities of both groups.
X12 appoints various types of liaisons, including external and internal liaisons. Internal liaisons coordinate between two X12 groups. External liaisons represent X12's interests to another organization as defined in a formal agreement between the two organizations. More information is available in X12 Liaisons (CAP17).
X12 welcomes the assembling of members with common interests as industry groups and caucuses.
Current and past groups and caucuses include:
X12 is pleased to recognize individual members and industry representatives whose contributions and achievements have played a role in the development of cross-industry eCommerce standards.
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The EDI Standard is published once per year in January.
Proposed modifications to the current EDI Standard proceed through a series of ballots and must be approved by impacted subcommittees, the Technical Assessment Subcommittee (TAS), and the Accredited Standards Committee stakeholders in order to be included in the next publication
The tabels on this page depict the key dates for various steps in a normal modification/publication cycle.
View X12 release schedule, click here
X12 has submitted the first in a series of recommendations related to advancing the version of already adopted and mandated transactions and proposing additional transactions for adoption.
Based on industry feedback, X12 is using a phased approach for the recommendations rather than presenting the entire catalog of adopted and mandated transactions at once. Each recommendation will cover a set of logically grouped transactions and will include supporting information that will assist reviewers as they look at the functionality enhancements and other revisions.
View X12 recommendations to NCVHS, click here
X12 welcomes feedback. Submit the form with any questions, comments, or suggestions related to corporate activities or programs. This feedback is used to inform X12's decision-making processes, policies, and question and answer resources. This form is not used to request maintenance (revisions) to X12 products or to submit comments related to an internal or public review period.
X12 maintains policies and procedures that govern its corporate, committee, and subordinate group activities and posts them online to ensure they are easily accessible to members and other materially-interested parties.
Frequently Used Forms
Browse and download meeting minutes by committee.
Review X12's official interpretations based on submitted RFIs related to the meaning and use of X12 Standards, Guidelines, and Technical Reports, including Technical Report Type 3 (TR3) implementation guidelines. Submit a request for interpretation (RFI) related to the implementation and use of X12 work.
Information about the X12 organization, its activities, committees & subcommittees, tools, products, and processes. Information is presented as a PowerPoint deck, informational paper, educational material, or checklist. Content is added to this page regularly.
Information related to the X12 corporation is listed in the Corporate section below. Committee-level information is listed in each committee's separate section. Policies and procedures specific to a committee's subordinate groups, like subcommittees, task groups, action groups, and work groups, are also listed in the committee's section.
X12 defines and maintains transaction sets that establish the data content exchanged for specific business purposes and, in some cases, implementation guides that describe the use of one or more transaction sets related to a single business purpose or use case. The diagrams on the following pages depict various exchanges between trading partners.
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Health care and insurance activities including those undertaken by private, commercial, and government health care organization rely on X12's work. Several X12 implementation guides developed by the Insurance Subcommittee are mandated for the exchange of administrative and related information between trading partners, also known as covered entities under HIPAA. X12 also publishes and maintains several code lists that are referenced in its implementation guides but are external to them, known as external code lists.
Examples of common X12 Transaction Sets and Implementation Guides used in the health care and insurance industry include:
Examples of external code lists include:
Subcommittee: X12N
The Design Rules and Guidelines assist standards developers of X12-syntax-based messages achieve consistent and technically appropriate transaction sets that meet the needs of the user community.
Control standards define all the basic syntax aspects of the X12 EDI Standard. Included are the Interchange, Application, Interconnect Mailbag, and Security Control Structures, as well as the Semantic Impact for implementation of EDI structures.
An X12 transaction set is a semantically meaningful unit of information exchanged between trading partners. A transaction set may consist of a transaction set header segment, security header segments, assurance header segments, one or more data segments and loop control segments in a specified order, one transaction security value segment for each assurance header present, one transaction security trailer segment for each security header segment present, and a transaction set trailer segment.
An implementation guide is a technical report that addresses the use of one or more transaction sets for one specific business purpose in order to facilitate consistent transaction set implementation within an industry or sub-industry.
Each implementation guide is specific to one version of the EDI Standard.
X12 developed several implementation guides for the health insurance industry that are adopted under HIPAA for exchanging administrative data between health care payers, providers, and related organizations.
Additionally, X12 has published many related implementation guides for exchanging other types of information between trading partners, such as patient and additional information to support health care claims.
Reference models describe related business processes, computer applications, or business data flows, and are intended to assist in system development. Examples include control structures and standards for handling acknowledgments, and how to create XML element names from X12 implementation guides.
Table data files are inert raw data intended to be imported into existing applications by software developers or implementers.
It is not intended to replace Implementation Guides, X12 Technical Reports, or the X12 Standard, but may be useful in saving considerable time compared to manually building and maintaining protocol to work with EDI toolsets, especially if you intend to handle several transaction sets and versions.
X12 XSDs are mechanically generated from the same database as the implementation guides and EDI standard. Both the TR3 and EDI schemas are W3C-compliant XML Schema Definition (XSD) files. Using X12's auto-generated XSDs saves considerable time compared to manually building and maintaining XSD.
External code lists, referenced in other X12 work are maintained by X12 and related organizations. They are published by WPC on their behalf, and are available for viewing online for free at https://x12.org/codes.
Viewing online is free at X12.org/codes and does not require a license, though embedding or redistributing the code lists in any form may require a license depending on the code list. Please contact licensing@x12.org for more information.
