IDR calculator: estimate your federal arbitration award
Free award estimator for No Surprises Act arbitration, built on 3.39 million published disputes.
What does this IDR calculator do? It estimates a federal IDR award from the published record. Independent dispute resolution (IDR) is the arbitration process the No Surprises Act created for out-of-network claims. Pick your specialty, enter the qualifying payment amount from the payer's notice, and the calculator returns your specialty's win rate, its median award multiple, and an estimated award in dollars, all computed from the CMS federal IDR public use files. Providers win 85.8 percent of federal IDR disputes that reach a decision, the median award is 4.7 times the qualifying payment amount, and the median time from filing to decision is 37 days, based on 3.39 million disputes in the federal public use files.
National figures at the dispute level, from all 3.39 million federal IDR disputes published by CMS. Explore the data at idrexplorer.com.
Estimate your federal IDR award
Free, no signup. The calculator runs in your browser and nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
The QPA is on the payer's initial payment or denial notice. Leave blank to see specialty statistics only.
What the payer actually paid. Defaults to the QPA if blank. Used to size the recovery in the fee comparison.
Estimates come from median outcomes in the CMS federal IDR public use files. Individual disputes vary with the billing code, payer, state, and the strength of the written submission. This tool is informational and is not legal or billing advice.
Win rates and median awards by specialty
The same numbers the calculator uses, for all 22 specialty groups in the federal public use files. Win rates are computed in decided disputes, which exclude default decisions. The median award multiple is the median award as a multiple of the qualifying payment amount across decided line items in that specialty. Each specialty links to its own page with top billing codes and a worked example.
| Specialty | Disputes | Win rate (decided) | Median award multiple | Median days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ancillary HCPCS | 113,777 | 79.8% | 3.8x | 28 |
| Anesthesiology | 242,469 | 82.8% | 5.2x | 31 |
| Cardiology | 83,809 | 85.9% | 6.8x | 30 |
| Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery | 46,751 | 85.6% | 5.6x | 35 |
| Critical Care | 52,569 | 88.0% | 3.7x | 31 |
| Emergency Medicine | 1,130,093 | 84.6% | 3.9x | 29 |
| ENT Surgery | 4,569 | 84.4% | 6.5x | 31 |
| General Surgery | 75,097 | 86.6% | 14.1x | 30 |
| Hospital Medicine | 60,968 | 83.9% | 8.1x | 30 |
| Infusion & Drug Administration | 127,513 | 81.9% | 4.1x | 30 |
| Neonatal & Pediatric Critical Care | 3,620 | 85.3% | 2.6x | 42 |
| Neurodiagnostics & IONM | 165,409 | 84.7% | 34.0x | 31 |
| Neurosurgery & Pain | 43,132 | 85.9% | 36.1x | 32 |
| OB/GYN | 9,551 | 87.7% | 31.7x | 29 |
| Office & Urgent Care E/M | 2,679 | 85.5% | 13.6x | 30 |
| Orthopedic Surgery | 63,605 | 85.0% | 29.7x | 31 |
| Other | 5,879 | 83.0% | 7.1x | 31 |
| Other Medicine | 5,295 | 81.6% | 4.3x | 29 |
| Pathology & Lab | 164,354 | 81.0% | 5.0x | 31 |
| Pulmonary Medicine | 21,078 | 77.7% | 5.3x | 29 |
| Radiology & Imaging | 424,336 | 89.5% | 5.4x | 35 |
| Urology | 6,116 | 88.9% | 17.3x | 30 |
Source: CMS federal IDR public use files, 2023 through 2025. Full method on the methodology page.
How the estimate works
Every federal IDR decision is published by CMS in the public use files. We group the decided line items into 22 specialty buckets. For each specialty we compute the provider win rate in decided disputes, the median days from filing to decision, and the median award as a multiple of the qualifying payment amount across decided line items. Decided means an arbiter picked an offer; default decisions, where one side never submitted, are excluded.
The calculator multiplies the qualifying payment amount you enter by your specialty's median award multiple. That is the whole formula. A $500 QPA in a specialty with a 5.2x median resolves to a $2,600 estimated award. The national headline numbers, an 85.8 percent provider win rate, a 4.7x median award, and 37 days to a decision, are computed at the dispute level and describe the whole federal program rather than any one specialty.
Medians hide spread. Half of decided line items resolve above the specialty median and half below, and high-dollar codes behave differently from low-dollar ones. Use the specialty pages to see how the top billing codes in your book actually resolve. The full grain rules, exclusions, and update cadence are on the methodology page.
Common questions
What is an IDR calculator?
An IDR calculator estimates what an out-of-network provider could win in federal independent dispute resolution, the arbitration process created by the No Surprises Act. This one uses the CMS federal IDR public use files. Pick a specialty, enter a qualifying payment amount, and it returns the specialty win rate, the median award multiple, and an estimated award in dollars. It is free and requires no signup.
How accurate is the estimate?
It is a median, not a prediction. The estimate multiplies your qualifying payment amount by the median award as a multiple of the qualifying payment amount across decided line items in your specialty. Real awards vary with the billing code, payer, state, and the strength of the written submission. Nationally, providers win 85.8 percent of federal IDR disputes that reach a decision.
What is a qualifying payment amount (QPA)?
The qualifying payment amount is the payer's median contracted rate for the same service in the same market, adjusted for inflation. The payer must disclose it with the initial payment or denial. In federal IDR it is the benchmark the arbiter sees, and awards are commonly expressed as a multiple of it.
What does federal IDR cost?
CMS charges each party a $15 administrative fee per dispute for disputes initiated on or after June 11, 2026. The certified IDR entity also charges a fee that is refunded to the winning party. If someone files for you, most vendors and law firms charge 15 to 25 percent of the recovery, the dollars above the payer's initial payment. Lido IDR charges a flat fee per arbitration instead.
Can I file federal IDR myself?
Yes. Federal IDR is decided on written submissions through the federal portal, and there is no hearing. The deadlines are short and counted in business days: 30 business days to start open negotiation after the payer's payment, 30 to negotiate, then 4 to initiate arbitration. Many groups handle the deadlines and evidence themselves. Many others have a service like Lido IDR file for them.
Next steps
Have a specialist file it
Lido IDR files and wins federal No Surprises Act arbitration for out-of-network providers, for a flat fee per arbitration, never a percentage of the recovery.
lidoidr.com →Explore the full data
Every published federal IDR dispute, payer, and IDR entity, with award benchmarks by specialty and state.
idrexplorer.com →