Thank you for your interesting question. To my knowledge, there is no nationally-maintained statistic that specifically addresses COB denials. The best suggestion I have to to apply a methodological approach to the issue:
- Begin to track COB (and/or MSPQ) denials for payors that represent significant volume in your clients' facility(ies)
- Compare and contrast COB-denial rates among payors
- Try to identify root causes that might explain any significant variations that you note
- If there are no differential root causes, target the payor or payors who exhibit higher than average COB-denials rates
- Share the data you collect with the problem-makers, preferably in face-to-face meetings, and in letters and/or "payor report cards" that you send to the provider rep, plan administrator, and claims-office director
- Get your clients' whole teams on board - CFO, VP of Managed Care, CRO, even the CEO if necessary to deal with the payor(s) in question
- Keep up the pressure!
In my last CRO position, Aetna traditionally used COB denials to "manage cash" at my expense. They were a clear outlier, with COB-denials rates four times higher than other payors. When confronted with the evidence, they changed their behavior over time, and brought down their rates to average levels.
Also, my colleague Roland Funsten has effectively used "managed care report cards" to compare and contrast payors in his marketplace. They can be very effective tools in identifying and eliminating problems that fall outside the norm, and in promoting competition between payors that can favor providers. Please let me know if you would like an extract of our KPIs presentation, wherein we discuss and show examples of these report cards.