The Independent Dispute Resolution process that is the central implementation mechanism of the No Surprises Act will soon undergo reengineering.
Working with the Labor Department and the Department of the Treasury, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services plans to transition the IDR process from single-use web forms into a new IDR gateway later this year.
Previewing a process that it anticipates officially unveiling in the near future, CMS notes that through this new gateway, users be able to start and respond to disputes; gain access to dispute dashboards and reports associated with their organization; track dispute information, including disputes assigned to a certified IDR entity; monitor assigned disputes by process phase; and review notifications regarding dispute activity.
The new gateway will include new security features well.
The No Surprises Act was adopted in 2020 to introduce a new way of adjudicating payment disputes between insurers and out-of-network providers when consumers receive surprise medical bills.
CMS writes that “More information about the IDR Gateway will be coming soon.”
Learn more about CMS’s plans for the IDR process from this CMS explanation and from the Becker’s Payer Issues article “CMS to launch centralized platform for independent dispute resolution process.”