Elliot Dear, Esq. — New York Attorney & Founder of Claims Assassins

Put a pin wherever out-of-network care happens in New York and the first pins land in emergency rooms, where a patient arrives without choosing a doctor and the physician on shift treats whoever comes through the door. The next pins land in the surgical practices across New York City and Long Island where plastic and reconstructive surgeons and oral and maxillofacial surgeons operate. Those are the physicians Elliot Dear works with.

A Local Process for Local Claims

When the patient’s coverage is a fully insured New York plan, the payment dispute belongs in New York State IDR. That process is administered by the Department of Financial Services and applies the benchmark New York law names, the FAIR Health 80th percentile. For an emergency physician in New York City or a surgeon on Long Island, the dispute is decided under New York’s own process, and that is where Elliot Dear files it.

Sorting the Plan Before the Map Matters

Not every New York patient carries a New York plan. A self-funded plan sits outside the state process, even when the employer, the patient and the emergency room share the same neighborhood. So the first step on every claim Elliot Dear looks at is sorting the plan. A fully insured New York plan goes into the state process; a self-funded plan does not, and the physician hears that at the start, before any work is built on the wrong footing.

A New York Attorney on New York Claims

Elliot Dear holds New York registration #4329546, was admitted to the New York bar in 2005, and is in good standing. He earned his J.D. at Fordham University School of Law, served on the Fordham Law Review, and was an associate in structured finance at Clifford Chance LLP from 2004 to 2008. Each submission on the map is built from the EOB, the operative note and the billed charges, and he reviews and signs it under his bar number.

Across the City and Out on the Island

Claims Assassins, which Elliot Dear founded in 2018, works with a practice wherever it sits on that map without moving into its office. The practice keeps its own billing. There is no upfront fee, no contract and no onboarding; the fee is a 10% contingency on the improvement. After a determination, the payment demand goes to the insurer, and the determination carries a 30-day payment deadline. An emergency group or a surgical practice can send one claim for a free review.