In-room / in-home expedited delivery of prescription services

• US 20060116905A1
• Filed: 11/08/2005
• Published: 06/01/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/23/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Rx Patent Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Paul Yered
• Inventors: Yered, Paul
• Application Number:
  US11/269,106
• Publication Number:
  US 20060116905A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

A method is described for processing a prescription request for a customer that includes information about the geographic location of the customer. The method includes receiving the request at a prescription claims processing center, including the information about the geographic location of the customer. A prescription service provider that operates at a known geographic location is selected from a plurality of prescription service providers, based on the received geographic location. The received prescription request is routed to the selected prescription service provider, for fulfillment by the selected prescription service provider.

Claims

1. A method of processing a prescription request for a customer that includes information about the geographic location of the customer, comprising:

receiving the request at a prescription claims processing center, including the information about the geographic location of the customer;

selecting a prescription service provider operating at a known geographic location from a plurality of prescription service providers, based on the received geographic location; and

routing the received request to the selected prescription service provider for fulfillment by the selected prescription service provider.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising arranging for delivery of the filled prescription from the selected prescription service provider to the customer within a desired time frame.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the delivery of the filled prescription within the desired time frame comprises at least one of:

same-day delivery on the day of the request;

next-day delivery within one day of the request; and

multiple deliveries on the day of the request.

4. The method of claim 1,

wherein each of the plurality of prescription service providers operate at known geographic locations, at least some of which are different from each other;

and

wherein the act of selecting the prescription service provider comprises comparing the geographic location of the customer with the known geographic locations of the plurality of prescription service providers so as to identify a prescription service provider that is nearest to the geographic location of the customer.

5. The method of claim 4,

wherein the information about the customer'"'"'s geographic location includes at least one of a zip code, a city name, a state name, an IP address, and a telephone area code of the customer'"'"'s geographic location;

wherein the act of identifying the nearest prescription service provider comprises comparing at least one of zip codes, city names, state names, and telephone area codes of the known geographic locations with the information about the customer'"'"'s geographic location.

6. The method of claim 1,

wherein the received geographic information includes at least one of a zip code, a city name, a state name, an IP address, and a telephone area code of the customer'"'"'s geographic location;

wherein the act of routing the request to the selected prescription service provider comprises routing by at least one of the zip code, a city name, a state name, an IP address, and a telephone area code of the customer'"'"'s geographic location.

7. The method of claim 1,

wherein the geographic location of the customer comprises a location of a commercial lodging facility at which the customer is staying at the time of the request;

and

further comprising arranging for delivery of the prescription within the desired time frame to a room in the commercial lodging facility that is occupied by the customer at the time of the request.

8. The method of claim 1,

wherein the information about the geographic location of the customer comprises a home address of the customer;

and

further comprising arranging for delivery of the prescription within a desired time frame to the home address of the customer.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein arranging for delivery comprises requesting a deliverer to pick up the filled prescription and to deliver the filled prescription to the customer.

10. The method of claim 1,

wherein the prescription claims processing center has at least one website that allows online submission of the request by the customer.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the request comprises at least one of:

receiving a phone call from the customer at a telephone number of the prescription claims processing center;

electronically receiving the request; and

receiving the request online from an Internet website of the prescription claims processing center.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising publicly advertising the telephone number of the prescription claims processing center.

13. The method of claim 11,

wherein electronically receiving the request comprises at least one of:

receiving an electronic scan of the request from a remote scanner connected to the prescription claims processing center;

receiving a submission of the request through a TV channel;

receiving a transmission of the request through a cable network; and

receiving an e-mail transmission the request.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the cable network comprises an internal TV cable network of a commercial lodging facility that provides interactive access to guests of the commercial lodging facility.

15. The method of claim 1,

wherein routing the request to the selected prescription service provider comprises at least one of:

routing the request to an interactive voice response system in the prescription service provider;

routing the request to an Internet website of the prescription service provider;

electronically transmitting the request to an electronic receiver located in the prescription service provider;

faxing the request to the prescription service provider;

e-mailing the request to an e-mail address of the prescription service provider; and

scanning the request into a scan receiver located in the prescription service provider.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected prescription service provider is a pharmacy, and further comprising at least one of:

the prescription claims processing center transmitting the prescription request to a medical professional for the medical professional to write an order for the requested prescription drug; and

the prescription service provider transmitting the prescription request to a medical professional for the medical professional to write an order for the requested prescription drug.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising selecting the medical professional operating at a known geographic location from a plurality of medical professionals;

and

wherein the act of transmitting the prescription request to the medical professional comprises at least one of;

faxing the prescription request to the medical professional;

e-mailing the prescription request to the medical professional; and

paging the medical professional to notify the medical professional that the prescription request has been received.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising the medical professional transmitting the order for the requested prescription drug to the selected pharmacy, for fulfillment by the selected pharmacy.

19. The method of claim 1,

wherein the prescription claims processing center comprises a system configured to receive and process claims from multiple pharmacies for prescriptions made by multiple manufacturers, to aggregate the received claims for the prescriptions made by each one of the multiple manufacturers, to obtain from each manufacturer a manufacturer rebate based on the aggregated claims for that manufacturer.

20. The method of claim 1,

wherein the prescription claims processing center comprises a system configured to receive and process claims from multiple pharmacies for prescriptions made by multiple manufacturers, to aggregate the received claims for the prescriptions made by each one of the multiple manufacturers, to obtain from each manufacturer a manufacturer rebate based on the aggregated claims for that manufacturer, and to allocate and distribute a pharmacy rebate to each one of the multiple pharmacies based on a portion of the manufacturer rebates.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing in a database the request including the information about the geographic location of the customer.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising notifying the customer to pick up the prescription from the selected service center when the prescription has been filled.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving multiple requests for prescriptions, each request including information about the geographic location of the customer who submitted the request, the information including at least one of a zip code, a city name, a state name, an IP address, and a telephone area code of the geographic location;

aggregating the received requests for at least one of the zip code, the city name, the state name, the IP address, and the telephone area code of each customer; and

storing the aggregated requests in a database.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of prescription service providers comprise at least one of:

a pharmacy;

a medical institution; and

a medical professional.

25. The method of claim 9, further comprising asking the deliverer to hand-deliver the filled prescription to the customer within the desired time frame.

26. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining approval for the prescription request from a medical professional, before routing the request to the selected prescription service provider.

27. The method of claim 1, further comprising the selected prescription provider arranging for delivery of the filled prescription from the selected prescription service provider to the customer within a desired time frame.

28. A method of processing a request for a prescription for a customer that includes information about the geographic location of the customer, comprising:

receiving the request at a prescription claims processing center, including the information about the geographic location of the customer;

selecting a prescription service provider operating at a known geographic location from a plurality of prescription service providers, based on the received geographic location;

routing the received request to the selected prescription service provider for fulfillment of the prescription and delivery of the prescription to the customer by the selected prescription service provider within a desired time frame.

29. A system of processing a request for a prescription from a customer that includes information about the geographic location of the customer, the system comprising:

a processing system configured to receive the request including the information about the geographic location of the customer, the processing system further configured to select a prescription service provider operating at a known geographic location from a plurality of prescription service providers, based on the received geographic location, and to route the received request to the selected prescription service provider for fulfillment by the selected prescription service provider.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the processing system is further configured to arrange for delivery of the filled prescription from the selected prescription service provider to the customer within a desired time frame.

31. The system of claim 29,

wherein each of the plurality of prescription service providers operate at known geographic locations, at least some of which are different from each other;

and

wherein the processing system is further configured to compare the geographic location of the customer with the known geographic locations of the plurality of prescription service providers so as to identify a prescription service provider that is nearest to the geographic location of the customer.

32. The system of claim 29,

wherein the received geographic information includes at least one of a zip code, a city name, a state name, an IP address, and a telephone area code of the customer'"'"'s geographic location;

and

wherein the processing system is further configured to route the request to the selected prescription service provide by at least one of the zip code, the city name, the state name, the IP address, and the telephone area code of the customer'"'"'s geographic location.

33. The system of claim 29, wherein the processing system is further configured to receive and process claims from multiple pharmacies for prescriptions made by multiple manufacturers, to aggregate the received claims for the prescriptions made by each one of the multiple manufacturers, to obtain from each manufacturer a manufacturer rebate based on the aggregated claims for that manufacturer, and to allocate and distribute a pharmacy rebate to each one of the multiple pharmacies based on a portion of the manufacturer rebates.

34. A method of processing a request for a service from a customer that includes information about the geographic location of the customer, comprising:

receiving the request at a service request processing center, including the information about the geographic location of the customer;

selecting a service provider operating at a known geographic location from a plurality of service providers based on the received geographic location; and

routing the received request to the selected service provider for delivery of the service by the selected service provider to the customer within a desired time frame.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the service comprises at least one of:

grocery shopping and delivery;

dry cleaning;

car rental;

food delivery;

health care,

hair care; and

sales and delivery of consumer products.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the health care service comprises at least one of:

medical care service, dental care service, nursing service, chiropractic service, and physical therapy service.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the consumer products include at least one of:

cell phones;

toys;

tools;

DVDs;

CDs; and

records.