10/24/2022

No Surprises Act Independent Dispute Resolution

On Tuesday, October 18, 2022, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Labor (DOL), and the Department of the Treasury (collectively, the Departments), in partnership with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) launched an updated Notice of Offer web form for providers, facilities, providers of air ambulance services, plans and issuers (disputing parties). The new Notice of Offer web form in the Federal Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) portal will replace all existing methods for submitting a Notice of Offer to certified IDR entities.

Click here to view a demo of the Notice of Offer web form.

This updated Notice of Offer web form is intended to make submitting final offers for payments and other required information easier and less burdensome for disputing parties and certified IDR entities. With this improvement, disputing parties will now have access to a semi-customized Notice of Offer web form within the Federal IDR portal. Beginning October 19, 2022, all disputes that are not currently within the 10-business day notice of offer phase of the Federal IDR process and that have not already received Notice of Offer forms from their certified IDR entity will receive a web link from their selected certified IDR entity to submit the Notice of Offer form through the Federal IDR portal once the certified IDR entity confirms eligibility for the Federal IDR process. Parties who received a Notice of Offer form in another format, such as an Excel form, before October 19, 2022 and are currently within the 10-business day deadline to submit an offer should submit your Notice of Offer directly to the selected certified IDR entity in the form and manner specified by your selected certified IDR entity by the Notice of Offer deadline.

IMPORTANT REMINDER
As the Departments continue to make updates to the IDR web form to accommodate guidance-related and system enhancements, we ask that if you’ve initiated an IDR dispute before that you clear your computer’s cache or open the IDR initiation web form in private or incognito window to see all the new features. Do this at least once a week to ensure you are seeing the most up to date version of the initiation form. Failure to clear your cache or open this form in private/incognito mode could result in additional follow-up with certified IDR entities or system errors. If you have recently initiated multiple disputes, it’s possible you didn’t see the new initiation form that includes claim number submission and other features. You do not need to resubmit your form, but in the future, please clear your computer’s cache or open the initiation form in private/incognito mode to avoid missing any other valuable system updates.