System and method for management of health care services
First Claim
1. A system for managing health care assets with a plurality of management strategies comprising:
- means for establishing an account for at least one individual;
means for determining an appropriate amount of a defined contribution to establish a health care asset for at least one individual in the account;
means for determining a proportion of the defined contribution to be allocated for certain mandatory health care benefits; and
means for offering the at least one individual a selection of optional health care benefits the cost of which may be offset in whole or in part by the amount of the defined contribution remaining in the account after the amount of the defined contribution to be allocated for the mandatory health care benefits is deducted.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention is a system and method for management of consumer services such as health care services which combines new financial structure for health insurance and health benefit plan, payment methods, health plan design, benefit development algorithms, unique procurement methods for health care benefits with and without application to an individual consumer'"'"'s personal state of health, and is integrated with financial services and asset management products, and benefits for an individual consumer'"'"'s future medical and/or retirement savings, for healthcare needs. The method and system employs a combination of the defined benefit and defined contribution approaches which combination is referred to herein as “defined-care.” Defined-care model or the healthcare asset management model has two primary components, one which is referred to herein as a “health management and retirement account”, and the other of which is an infrastructure “connected portal” that interfaces through a technology platform with the health management and retirement accounts and the account holders. The foundation of this infrastructure according to the present invention is a technology platform across which a variety of processes are implemented. In the technology platform for the infrastructure of the present invention, the conventional processes and the new processes are integrated, thereby allowing a change to one process to be adopted by or otherwise accommodated by the other processes.
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Citations
79 Claims
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1. A system for managing health care assets with a plurality of management strategies comprising:
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means for establishing an account for at least one individual;
means for determining an appropriate amount of a defined contribution to establish a health care asset for at least one individual in the account;
means for determining a proportion of the defined contribution to be allocated for certain mandatory health care benefits; and
means for offering the at least one individual a selection of optional health care benefits the cost of which may be offset in whole or in part by the amount of the defined contribution remaining in the account after the amount of the defined contribution to be allocated for the mandatory health care benefits is deducted. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A system for managing health care comprising:
means for communicating between at least one consumer of health care services and other stakeholders in health care services, the other stakeholders including at least one health care benefits plan and insurer, at least one health care provider, at least one contributor of a defined contribution to the at least one consumer;
the means for communication further comprising;
means for insuring compliance with government regulation or other rules affecting items in the group including the administration of health care benefits, the provision of health care services, and the management of data concerning consumers of health care benefits and health care transactions associated with the same;
means for determining eligibility of the at least one consumer for a particular health care service to be provided by the at least one health care provider; and
means for processing claims on behalf of the at least one consumer for payment of or reimbursement for the particular health care service provided by the at least one health care provider. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A computer program product comprising for use with a system for managing health care comprising:
a computer usable medium, having program code embodied in the medium for causing the computer system to interface over a communications medium such as the Internet or another network between at least one consumer of health care services and other stakeholders in health care services, the other stakeholders including at least one health benefits plan, at least one health care services provider, wherein the program code;
recognizes a total health care asset amount corresponding to and unique to the at least one consumer;
allocates a proportion of the total health care asset amount for certain mandatory health care benefits;
determines the cost of the mandatory health care benefits;
permits the at least one consumer to select from optional health care benefits;
calculates the cost of any optional health care benefits selected; and
deducts the cost of the mandatory health care benefits from the total health care asset amount and, if there is a remainder, queries the at least one consumer as to whether the remainder or a portion thereof should be applied to the cost of any optional health care benefits selected. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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12. A method of managing the health care assets of a plurality of consumers of health care services comprising:
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maintaining a database containing statistical information that permits characterization of consumers of health care services into population groups based on factors in the group including sex, age and occupation and that permits characterization of a consumer'"'"'s individual health risk level based on factors in the group including personal risk factors and prior and existing medical conditions;
acquiring information about each of the plurality of consumers;
determining, using the database, a total defined contribution amount to be allocated in an account for each of the plurality of consumers;
determining certain mandatory health care benefits for each of the plurality of consumers based on the population group and individual health risk level associated with each of the plurality of consumers;
determining the cost of the mandatory health care benefits and calculating the difference between the total defined contribution amount and the mandatory health care benefits to identify a defined contribution remainder in each of the plurality of consumers'"'"' accounts;
offering each of the plurality of consumers optional health care benefits for purchase;
if a consumer selects an optional health care benefit, determining the cost of the optional health care benefit;
calculating, for a given optional health care benefit selected by each of the plurality of consumers, whether all or a portion of the cost of the optional health care benefit can be offset by the defined contribution remainder; and
reporting the result of the calculation to each of the plurality of consumers.
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13. A method of establishing an infrastructure for the management of health care services comprising:
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establishing a technology platform over which a plurality of consumers of health care services can communicate with contributors of defined contribution health care assets for the plurality of consumers and with other stakeholders in health care benefits, the other stakeholders including health care plans and health care providers;
administering the technology platform so that all entities which interface with it remain compliant with government regulations and other appropriate rules affecting the management of health care services; and
maintaining a database which receives and provides information to those in communication with the technology platform which information regards health care statistics relating to the plurality of consumers and the health care transactions of the plurality of consumers.
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14. A method of management of health care services comprising:
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receiving employee census information from one or more employees;
determining catastrophic care coverage for each of said one or more employees from said census information;
determining a health trust fund for funding said catastrophic care coverage for each of said one or more employees; and
funding said health trust fund up to a deductible of a high-deductible insurance policy with premium savings received by an employer purchasing said high-deductible insurance policy.
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23. A system of management of health care services comprising:
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means for receiving employee census information from one or more employees;
means for determining catastrophic care coverage for each of said one or more employees from said census information;
means for determining a health trust fund for funding said catastrophic care coverage for each of said one or more employees; and
means for funding said health trust fund up to a deductible of a high-deductible insurance policy with premium savings received by an employer purchasing said high-deductible insurance policy.
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28. A method for managing health care comprising the steps of:
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providing an employee interface to a uniform health management system;
establishing a health management and retirement account (HMRA) for one or more employees, said health management and retirement account providing funding of health care; and
providing an integrated health care technology platform for providing deliverance of said funding from said HMRA to a health care provider or insurance provider, establishing mandatory health care benefits and optional health care benefits for each of said one or more employees and providing administration of said funding, mandatory health care benefits and optional health care benefits.
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42. A system for managing health care comprising:
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means for providing an employee interface to a uniform health management system;
means for establishing a health management and retirement account (HMRA) for one or more employees, said health management and retirement account providing finding of health care; and
means for providing an integrated health care technology platform for providing deliverance of said funding from said HMRA to a health care provider or insurance provider, establishing mandatory health care benefits and optional health care benefits for each of said one or more employees and providing administration of said funding, mandatory health care benefits and optional health care benefits. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79)
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Specification