The Departments are replacing the single-use web forms that have carried the Federal IDR process since 2022 with one platform, the IDR Gateway. This page sets out what has been published, with dates, and marks plainly where the published material is silent.
15 September 2026 — accounts open. CMS states that all potential users of the IDR Gateway can begin creating accounts on 15 September 2026, and that administrators receive instructions to create their accounts and set up their organisation.
1 November 2026 — the trigger date. The change reaches disputes whose open negotiation period begins on or after 1 November 2026. A dispute whose open negotiation began before that date is not described in the published material; if you have such a dispute in flight across the transition, ask the Departments rather than assume.
Late 2026 — full transition. CMS describes the move from single-use web forms to the platform as taking place in the latter half of 2026, without a single cutover date in the material published so far.
CMS's wording is that organisations and individuals that process disputes, represent parties, or submit IDR web forms must sign up to manage disputes in the Gateway. That is broader than the parties themselves: a third-party administrator, a billing company or a representative that touches the web forms today is inside it.
Each organisation selects at least one Gateway administrator. CMS recommends two and sets a maximum of ten. Administrators set the organisation up; everyone else joins it. If your administrators do not receive setup instructions, CMS directs enquiries to IDRGatewayHelp@cms.hhs.gov or 1-800-965-3059.
From the published description: start and respond to disputes; see dispute dashboards and reports for your organisation; track dispute information, including disputes assigned to a certified IDR entity; monitor assigned disputes by process phase; and receive notifications about dispute activity.
The Gateway introduces identity verification, and protocols described as permitting only United States based users to access the Federal IDR process. Any organisation that today relies on staff outside the United States to prepare, submit or process federal IDR disputes should read that sentence carefully and plan against it now rather than in November.
We have looked for each of these and not found them, so we state their absence rather than guess:
If any of these matters to your operation, the published material will not answer it and the Departments will.
Name your administrators before 15 September and create the organisation early rather than during the November crush. Inventory every person who touches a federal IDR submission and confirm each one can satisfy identity verification and United States access. List the disputes whose open negotiation will begin either side of 1 November, because that is where the two regimes meet.
Trilatic is preparing an application to become a certified Federal IDR entity and is not accepting disputes. This guide states no outcome and gives no advice on offers or amounts.
A 90-minute recorded session on these rules is available to firms and review organisations; enquiries to research@trilatic.com.