The federal government has finally relaunched the independent dispute resolution process under the No Surprises Act. The move came Friday, and it followed calls from radiologists and other specialists to kick-start the long-stalled service.
CMS shut down arbitration Aug. 3 after a judge struck down the 600% increase to the fee physicians must pay to initiate mediation between payers and providers over out-of-network bills. IDR has remained largely inactive since then, with requests from radiologists and other physicians piling up in the eight-week aftermath.
The stasis may have started to break last Monday, when the Radiology Business Management Association, American College of Radiology and other stakeholder groups pressed CMS to restart the IDR process.
“Effective October 6, 2023, the departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and the Treasury have reopened the federal independent dispute resolution portal for the initiation of certain new single and bundled disputes,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said in an email announcement.
The agency previously instructed IDR entities to resume processing all in-progress disputes submitted on or before the Aug. 3 ruling. But ACR, RBMA and societies representing anesthesiology and emergency medicine have implored CMS to address the eight-week backlog.
Processing of in-progress or new batched disputes “remains temporarily suspended” while the departments update guidance and operations “to align with the district court’s opinions and orders” in the recent Texas ruling.
“Disputing parties should continue to engage in open negotiation according to the required timeframes until further notice from the departments,” the notice read.
The Radiology Business Management Association praised the move Friday while noting work remains to be done.
“RBMA continues its advocacy and support for a fair IDR process that will benefit patients as intended by the No Surprises Act,” Bob Still, executive director of the association, told Radiology Business Friday. “This announcement is a step in the right direction.”
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.