PROFILE | June 2026
Elliott Dear — Founder & CEO of Claims Assassins
By Elliott Dear, Lawyer
Claims Assassins was founded in 2018 on one idea: every out-of-network payment dispute it files should carry an attorney’s signature. Elliott Dear, who has spent about twenty years working in out-of-network physician billing, built the firm so that the signature on each one is his.
Two Decades in Non-Par Billing
Out-of-network billing teaches one lesson over and over. A non-participating physician bills for the work, the insurer decides what to pay, and the difference sits on the practice’s books. Elliott Dear has spent years on the billing side of that equation, looking at the same kind of EOBs, the same short payments and the same question from physicians about what could be done about them.
Why the Answer Was a Lawyer
Independent Dispute Resolution is a formal process, with a written record, deadlines and a determination at the end. Elliott Dear came to it as a lawyer: admitted to the New York bar in 2005, registration #4329546, in good standing, with a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law, where he served on the Fordham Law Review. He also spent 2004 to 2008 as an associate in structured finance at Clifford Chance LLP, on CLOs, RMBS and asset-backed deals, work that lives and dies on its documentation.
What He Built in 2018
The firm Elliott Dear founded is narrow on purpose. It handles attorney-signed Independent Dispute Resolution for out-of-network physicians: plastic and reconstructive surgeons, emergency physicians, and oral and maxillofacial surgeons. A fully insured New York plan goes to New York State IDR, administered by the Department of Financial Services; a self-funded plan sits outside the state process. Each submission is built from the EOB, the operative note and the billed charges, and each one is reviewed and signed under his bar number. Deadlines are tracked, and after a determination, which carries a 30-day payment deadline, the payment demand goes out.
The Terms
The arrangement is a 10% contingency on the improvement, with no upfront fee, no contracts and no onboarding, and the firm does not take over the office’s billing.
The First Claim
A physician curious whether a claim belongs in dispute can send one to Elliott Dear for a free review, and the answer comes from the attorney who founded the firm.