Jul 29, 2026 · 7 min · 9 segments
No Surprises Act payment disputes continue to rise. Centene raises its full-year financial outlook after a strong second quarter. And the FDA selects the first participant in its digital health pilot…
The number of out-of-network disputes filed through the No Surprises Act arbitration process continued to swell last year, according to recently released data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The No Surprises Act was passed in 2020 and is meant to shield patients from surprise medical bills.
The federal law established the independent dispute resolution process that allows health care providers and health insurers to have their out-of-network disputes reviewed and decided by a neutral third party.
However, federal officials initially greatly underestimated the number of disputes that would be filed, originally anticipating there would be around 17,000 disputes submitted every year.
CMS reports that there were nearly 1.4 million disputes filed through the federal independent dispute resolution process in the latter half of 2025.
In 2024, by comparison, there were more than 1.4 million filed throughout the entire year.
A congressional report notes that 2024 was the first year without any suspensions to the process.
The top 10 parties accounted for about two-thirds of all disputes in the second half of last year, down slightly from the first half.
The top three, billing intermediary HaloMD and provider groups TeamHealth and SCPHealth alone accounted for nearly 40% of all disputes.
The Wall Street Journal found that the awards to healthcare providers tripled in 2025, compared with the year before, to around $15 billion.
The number of out-of-network disputes filed through the No Surprises Act arbitration process continued to swell last year, according to recently released data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The No Surprises Act was passed in 2020 and is meant to shield patients from surprise medical bills.
The federal law established the independent dispute resolution process that allows health care providers and health insurers to have their out-of-network disputes reviewed and decided by a neutral third party.
However, federal officials initially greatly underestimated the number of disputes that would be filed, originally anticipating there would be around 17,000 disputes submitted every year.
CMS reports that there were nearly 1.4 million disputes filed through the federal independent dispute resolution process in the latter half of 2025.
In 2024, by comparison, there were more than 1.4 million filed throughout the entire year.
A congressional report notes that 2024 was the first year without any suspensions to the process.
The top 10 parties accounted for about two-thirds of all disputes in the second half of last year, down slightly from the first half.
The top three, billing intermediary HaloMD and provider groups TeamHealth and SCPHealth alone accounted for nearly 40% of all disputes.
The Wall Street Journal found that the awards to healthcare providers tripled in 2025, compared with the year before, to around $15 billion.
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