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Spotlight PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 The EU e-invoicing mandate is here — France Sept 2026, Belgium Jan 2026, Germany 2025.

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X12 156 — Hospital Notification of Birth

Hospital-birth notification transmitted by the hospital: child identity, parents, physician, hospital, vital data.

Purpose

The 156 is used in the US to notify a birth: to the State Department of Vital Records (civil-status registration and Birth Certificate issuance), to the SSA (Social Security Administration) for automatic SSN enrollment, and to insurers for plan-add. Often emitted in parallel with an HL7 ADT^A28.

Envelope structure

The 156 travels inside the three X12 envelope levels (ISA/IEA, GS/GE with functional group BR, and ST/SE). Didactic example in 004010:

x12 example-156.x12 
ISA*00*          *00*          *ZZ*HOSPITAL01    *ZZ*STATEREGISTRY *260516*1830*U*00401*000000156*0*P*>~
GS*BR*HOSPITAL01*STATEREGISTRY*20260516*1830*1*X*004010~
ST*156*0001~
BNB*BR*BIRTH-001*20260516~
NM1*IL*1*DOE*JOHN*A***34*~
DMG*D8*20260516*M~
NM1*PR*1*DOE*JANE*M~
NM1*FA*2*ACME HOSPITAL*****FI*HOSP01~
AMT*BW*3.45~
DTM*364*202605161420~
SE*8*0001~
GE*1*1~
IEA*1*000000156~

Common segments

  • Header — ST, BNB Beginning of Birth Notification.
  • Child — NM1*IL + birth date, sex.
  • Mother — NM1*PR Parent.
  • Father — NM1*PR if known.
  • Hospital — NM1*FA.
  • Birth data — AMT weight, DTM birth time.
  • Summary — SE.

Common pitfalls

  • Legal deadline: most States require filing within 5-10 days. Beyond, admin overhead.
  • Weight in kg vs lbs: common mismatch. US standard = lbs/oz, but never confuse the AMT*BW unit.
  • Unknown father: leave the Father block empty rather than filled with N/A values.

Documentation

The 156 code and the Hospital Notification of Birth name are public and listed at x12.org/products/transaction-sets. The full loops/qualifiers/code-lists structure is distributed by DISA via proprietary Implementation Guides (TR3). ediverse.io covers only public concepts, the envelope and didactic examples.