What is a typical contingency rate for IDR filing?

Most IDR filing companies and law firms charge 15 to 25 percent of what they recover through No Surprises Act arbitration. The exact rate usually moves with claim volume and average claim size, and is negotiable at the top of that range.

Is flat fee or contingency cheaper?

It depends on award size and volume. On a $10,000 award, a 20 percent contingency costs $2,000, and batched disputes multiply that. Flat fee pricing stays fixed per arbitration, so it wins as awards and batches grow, while contingency can be cheaper for a group with very few, very small disputes.

Are there costs besides the vendor fee?

Yes, two: a $15 administrative fee per party per dispute, and the certified IDR entity's fee of a few hundred dollars, deposited by both sides and refunded to the winner. A winning provider typically nets everything back except the $15.

Answers / Pricing

What IDR companies charge

IDR company pricing comes in three models. Most filing services and law firms charge contingency, typically 15 to 25 percent of recovery. Lido IDR charges a flat fee per arbitration. A few software products charge monthly subscriptions and leave the filing to you. On a $10,000 award, a 20 percent contingency costs $2,000; a flat fee stays the same number no matter what the arbitrator awards.

The three models

Almost every vendor agreement for No Surprises Act arbitration lands in one of three shapes, and the shape matters more than the vendor's marketing.

Model	Typical cost	Where it fits
Contingency	15 to 25 percent of recovery	No upfront cost; vendor is paid only on wins
Flat fee	Fixed amount per arbitration	High volume or high awards, where percentages compound
Subscription software	Monthly price scaled to volume	Groups that keep filing in house but want the tracking automated

Contingency dominates because it feels free: no recovery, no fee. The feel is the product. In a forum where providers won 85.8 percent of published decisions, the vendor's risk is small and the percentage keeps compounding on every award.

The math at stake

Run one honest example. On a $10,000 award, a 20 percent contingency costs $2,000. The same percentage on a batched dispute that recovers $50,000 costs $10,000, for work that is not ten times harder, because one arbitration covers the whole batch. And published awards are not small: the typical decision came in around 4.7 times the qualifying payment amount, so the percentage is taken from a number the forum itself inflates. A flat fee per arbitration breaks that link. The fee is known before filing, it does not grow with the award, and on batched or high-value disputes the difference is most of the money.

What should be included

Whatever the model, the fee should cover the whole chain: eligibility screening against the two No Surprises Act categories, open negotiation notices sent inside the 30 business day window, batching decisions, initiation within the 4 business day deadline, the offer and evidence package, and follow-through on payment, which is due 30 calendar days after a decision. Ask what happens when a dispute is found ineligible, whether the entity deposit is passed through at cost, and whether you can see every filing made in your name. A vendor that will not show its work is pricing for opacity.

Questions that expose the real price

Four questions sort most vendors. What is the all-in cost on my last 12 months of out-of-network claims under your model, computed, not estimated. Does your percentage apply to the full payment or only the increase over the payer's initial offer, because those are very different numbers. Who keeps the refunded entity deposit after a win. And what does it cost to leave, covered in switching IDR companies. Lido IDR answers the first one on a 30 minute call, against your own volume, as a flat fee per arbitration.

Price it on your own numbers

Bring rough claim counts and payer mix, and Lido IDR will put flat fee per arbitration pricing against a percentage of recovery on your actual volume. Talk to an IDR specialist.