CARC 14 Active

CO-14: Date of Birth Follows Date of Service

TL;DR

Provider responsibility — correct the issue and resubmit the claim. The patient is not liable for this amount.

Action
Verify & Resubmit
Who Pays
Provider
Appeal
No
Patient Impact
None
Disclaimer
This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional billing advice. Always verify information against your payer contracts and current coding guidelines. Consult a certified billing specialist for specific claim issues.

What Does CO-14 Mean?

With CO (Contractual Obligation), the CARC 14 adjustment is the provider's responsibility. The payer denied or reduced payment because of patient's date of birth is entered incorrectly, showing a date after the service date. The patient is not liable for this amount.

CARC 14 appears on a remittance when the payer identifies an issue related to date of birth follows date of service. This is a technical billing or coding problem that must be corrected before the claim can be processed for payment. The denial indicates the claim data did not meet the payer's adjudication requirements.

Common scenarios that trigger this adjustment include: patient's date of birth is entered incorrectly, showing a date after the service date; Digits in the DOB are transposed during data entry (e.g., month and day swapped); Date of service was entered incorrectly on the claim. The group code paired with CARC 14 determines who bears the financial responsibility — CO places it on the provider as a contractual obligation, OA indicates a coordination of benefits or other payer adjustment, PR shifts it to the patient.

Common Causes

Cause Frequency
Incorrect date of birth on claim Patient's date of birth is entered incorrectly, showing a date after the service date Most Common
Date of birth transposition error Digits in the DOB are transposed during data entry (e.g., month and day swapped) Most Common
Incorrect date of service Date of service was entered incorrectly on the claim Common
Newborn claim with incorrect DOB Prenatal services billed with the newborn's DOB instead of the mother's DOB Common

How to Resolve

  1. Review the remittance details Examine the CO-14 adjustment and any accompanying RARC codes to identify the specific reason for the denial.
  2. Identify the root cause Determine which issue applies: incorrect date of birth on claim, date of birth transposition error, incorrect date of service, among others.
  3. Correct the claim Address the identified issue — update the claim data in your billing system to resolve the date of birth follows date of service problem.
  4. Resubmit the corrected claim Submit the corrected claim following the payer's resubmission guidelines. Include any supporting documentation that addresses the denial reason.
Do Not Appeal This Code

This is typically a data entry error (DOB or date of service is wrong). Correct the dates and resubmit rather than appealing. If the payer has incorrect DOB on file, contact them to update the record.

Common RARC Pairings

The RARC code tells you exactly what triggered the CO-14:

RARC Description
MA130 Missing/incomplete/invalid information can be resubmitted Correct the DOB or date of service and resubmit →
N517 Missing/incomplete/invalid information Verify and correct date information →

How to Prevent CO-14

Also Filed As

The same CARC 14 may appear with different Group Codes:

OA-14 PR-14

Related Denial Codes

CO-4 — Procedure Code Inconsistent with Modifier CO-5 — Procedure Code Inconsistent with Place of Service CO-13 — Date of Death Precedes Date of Service CO-302 — Precertification/Authorization Time Limit Expired CO-6 — Procedure/Revenue Code Inconsistent with Patient Age

Sources

  1. https://x12.org/codes/claim-adjustment-reason-codes
  2. https://revenuecyclemgmt.com/claim-adjustment-reason-codes/
  3. https://www.rivethealth.com/blog/carcs-rarcs-claim-adjustment-remittance-advice-codes
  4. Codes maintained by X12. Visit x12.org for official definitions.