CO-45 — Charge Exceeds Fee Schedule

CO-45 is a contractual reduction to the payer's fee schedule rate — not a denial of coverage. It means your billed charge is higher than the maximum allowed. This does not usually require an appeal unless you believe the wrong fee schedule was applied (wrong contract year, in-network rate applied vs. out-of-network rate). Compare against your contract and file a payment dispute if there is a discrepancy.