The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) has adopted emergency regulations to implement provisions of the New York State Budget governing the New York State version of the No Surprises Act (covering surprise bills to patients).   The State Budget amended the law to: require both parties to a dispute to make payment to the independent dispute resolution (IDR) entity before an IDR entity reviews the dispute; expand the time that IDR entities have to issue a decision; prohibit an IDR entity from commingling payments for the dispute resolution process with any other funds held by the IDR entity; require an IDR entity to hold all payments in a separate account; and require an IDR entity to issue a refund of the dispute resolution process payment to the prevailing party within 30 days of rendering a determination on the dispute or to the applicant within 30 days of rejecting the dispute as ineligible.  The amendments took effect retroactive to August 26, 2026, and apply to disputes submitted on and after that date.  You can read DFS No Surprises Act emergency regulations at pages 1-4 in the following link: https://dos.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2026/09/090926.pdf.