Effective December 15, 2023, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury (the tri-agencies) advised that the independent dispute resolution (IDR) portal was reopened for all dispute types. This reopening applies to batched disputes that were previously initiated, new batched disputes, and new single disputes concerning air ambulance services.
The tri-agencies are granting extensions of deadlines in conjunction with the portal’s opening:
- Parties for whom the IDR initiation deadline under applicable regulations fell or will fall on any date between August 3, 2023 and January 15, 2024 will have until January 16, 2024 to initiate a new batched dispute or a new single dispute involving air ambulance services.
- Parties whose initiation deadline falls on or after January 16, 2024 will have the usual four business days after the end of the open negotiation period to initiate a batched or air ambulance dispute in the federal IDR portal. Alternatively, if the dispute is subject to the 90 calendar-day suspension period following a payment determination, the parties will have the usual 30 business-day period to initiate a batched or air ambulance dispute in the federal IDR portal.