News

A new story based on HaloMD’s award data does not account for health plans’ established processes used to reimburse for out-of-network care and understates the significant impact of ineligible disputes entering the arbitration process. Health Plans Make Initial...

In a new letter to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), House Energy & Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) and Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.) have asked for an updated cost assessment on the No Surprises Act arbitration process as evidence...

House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Representative Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) recently introduced the Lower Premiums, Faster Payments Act (H.R. 10788), which would stop costly abuse and misuse of arbitration by replacing the No Surprises Act’s...

Congress passed the No Surprises Act to end surprise medical bills, and it largely has for patients. But employers and working families are now facing a new surprise: higher premiums and shrinking provider networks, driven by certain providers’ and arbitration firms’...

When Congress passed the No Surprises Act, the independent dispute resolution (IDR) process was intended to settle occasional payment disputes between providers and health plans. Regulators originally estimated that the process would handle 17,000 disputes a year. In...

At a time when CMS is actively assessing re-certification for select arbitrators, also known as IDR entities (IDREs), a new investigation by STAT News finds that arbitrators are profiting from a system with little accountability or oversight, siding with providers in...

Patients are largely protected from surprise medical bills, but they are paying the price for certain private equity-backed providers and out-of-network specialists who abuse the No Surprises Act. A new CBS News investigation examines how the law’s arbitration process...

While the No Surprises Act largely succeeded in preventing consumers from receiving surprise medical bills, rising costs — amounting to more than $22.4 billion — generated by misuse and abuse of the law’s independent dispute resolution (IDR) process are cutting into...

After a new federal rule slashed the administrative fee for initiating IDR disputes by 87% — from $115 to just $15, nearly 400,000 disputes were initiated in July 2026 alone. This 24% jump in just one month is one of the latest signals that the IDR process has veered...