CARC 14 Active

OA-14: Date of Birth Follows Date of Service

TL;DR

Adjustment in a COB or secondary payer context. Review the coordination of benefits details to determine the responsible party.

Action
Verify & Resubmit
Who Pays
Depends
Appeal
No
Patient Impact
Indirect
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 OA-14 Mean?

With OA (Other Adjustments), CARC 14 typically appears in a coordination of benefits (COB) context. DOB date issue caught during secondary payer processing. The financial responsibility depends on the specific arrangement between payers — review the primary payer's EOB and the COB terms to determine the correct course of action.

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
Secondary payer DOB validation DOB date issue caught during secondary payer processing Most Common

How to Resolve

  1. Review the coordination of benefits Examine the OA-14 adjustment to understand how it fits within the primary/secondary payer relationship or other multi-payer context.
  2. Verify primary payer adjudication Review the primary payer's EOB to understand the basis for the secondary payer's OA adjustment.
  3. Determine the responsible party Based on the COB review, identify whether the adjustment should be absorbed, billed to another payer, or if additional documentation is needed.
  4. Follow up Monitor the claim status and take additional action as needed based on the COB determination.
Do Not Appeal This Code

Correct the date data and resubmit rather than appealing. The error is in the submitted data, not the payer's decision.

Common RARC Pairings

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

RARC Description
MA130 Missing/incomplete/invalid information can be resubmitted Correct date data and resubmit →

How to Prevent OA-14

Also Filed As

The same CARC 14 may appear with different Group Codes:

CO-14 PR-14

Related Denial Codes

OA-4 — Procedure Code Inconsistent with Modifier OA-5 — Procedure Code Inconsistent with Place of Service OA-6 — Procedure/Revenue Code Inconsistent with Patient Age OA-7 — Procedure/Revenue Code Inconsistent with Patient Gender OA-8 — Procedure Code Inconsistent with Provider Type/Specialty

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.