Insurance Policy Revisioning Method

• US 20100070311A1
• Filed: 11/23/2009
• Published: 03/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Clark Allan Heydon, Kenneth William Branson
• Original Assignee: Clark Allan Heydon, Kenneth William Branson
• Inventors: Heydon, Clark Allan, Branson, Kenneth William
• Application Number:
  US12/623,572
• Publication Number:
  US 20100070311A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

An insurance policy is stored (101) as a plurality of discrete temporally-sequential policy data revisions. A legally binding revision for a first given date is then determined (102) by identifying all policy data revisions effective on the first given date and choosing a most temporally recent policy data revision temporally prior to a second given date. When a new policy data revision is (103) temporally subsequent as compared to a first policy data revision and also comprises a legally effective date range preceding at least in part an effective date range of the first policy data revision, legally non-overlapping policy data revisions are created (104) for each legally overlapping effective date range as exists between the new policy data revision and all temporally preceding revisions. Each newly-created legally non-overlapping policy data revision comprises changes introduced by the new policy data revision and at least one temporally preceding policy data revision.

Claims

1. :

A method comprising;

storing an insurance policy as a plurality of discrete temporally-sequential policy data revisions, wherein each revision incorporates information from temporally prior revisions covering an effective date range of the revision;

determining a legally binding revision for a first given date by identifying all policy data revisions effective on the first given date and choosing a most temporally recent policy data revision temporally prior to a second given date.

2. :

The method of claim 1 further comprising;

when a new policy data revision is temporally subsequent as compared to a first policy data revision and also comprises a legally effective date range preceding at least in part an effective date range of the first policy data revision, creating legally non-overlapping policy data revisions for each legally overlapping effective date range as exists between the new policy data revision and all temporally preceding policy data revisions, each newly-created legally non-overlapping policy data revision comprising changes introduced by the new policy data revision and at least one temporally preceding policy data revision.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

determining differences introduced by the new policy data revision.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

identifying for a user at least one of the differences.

5. :

The method of claim 3 further comprising;

automatically applying the differences introduced by the new policy data revision to the newly-created legally non-overlapping policy data revisions to create merged legally non-overlapping policy data revisions.

6. :

The method of claim 5 wherein automatically applying the differences introduced by the new policy data revision further comprises determining if applying the differences introduced by the new policy data revision to the newly-created legally non-overlapping policy data revisions creates conflicting insurance policy terms.

7. :

The method of claim 6 further comprising;

identifying for a user at least one of the conflicting insurance policy terms.

8. :

The method of claim 6 further comprising;

providing a user with an opportunity to resolve the conflicting insurance policy terms.

9. :

The method of claim 6 further comprising;

automatically resolving the conflicting insurance policy terms.

10. :

The method of claim 9 wherein automatically resolving the conflicting insurance policy terms comprises accepting terms introduced by the new data revision.

11. :

The method of claim 9 wherein automatically resolving the conflicting insurance policy terms comprises resolving the conflicting insurance policy terms according to a configurable method.

12. :

The method of claim 9 further comprising;

identifying for a user a resolution of the conflicting insurance policy terms.

13. :

The method of claim 6 further comprising;

allowing the user to select a merge conflict resolution strategy to resolve the conflicting insurance policy terms; and

re-applying the differences introduced by the new policy data revision to the newly-created legally non-overlapping policy data revisions and resolving the conflicting insurance policy terms according to the selected merge conflict resolution strategy to create new merged legally non-overlapping policy data revisions.

14. :

The method of claim 5 further comprising providing a user with an opportunity to edit at least one of;

a primary superseding revision, wherein the primary superseding revision comprises the merged legally non-overlapping policy data revision having an earliest legally effective date;

secondary superseding revisions, wherein the secondary superseding revisions comprise the merged legally non-overlapping policy data revisions subsequent to the primary revision.

15. :

The method of claim 14 further comprising;

determining differences between the primary superseding revision and a most temporally recent prior policy data revision; and

determining differences between each secondary superseding revision and an immediately legally subsequent superseding revision.

16. :

The method of claim 15 further comprising;

detecting any conflicts between each secondary superseding revision and the immediately legally subsequent superseding revision; and

detecting any conflict resolutions.

17. :

The method of claim 16 further comprising;

displaying the differences and the conflict resolutions to the user.

18. :

The method of claim 14 further comprising;

determining edited differences introduced by an edited primary superseding revision;

applying the edited differences to the newly-created legally non-overlapping policy data revisions to create new merged legally non-overlapping policy data revisions.

19. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

using the legally non-overlapping policy data revisions to calculate a revised policy premium.

20. :

The method of claim 1 wherein each policy data revision has a corresponding change date and a corresponding legally effective date stored therewith.

21. :

The method of claim 20 further comprising;

using the change dates and the legally effective dates to facilitate determination of a present liability.

22. :

The method of claim 21 wherein the present liability is determined with respect to a claim for coverage.

23. :

The method of claim 20 further comprising;

querying the policy data revisions in terms of a change date to determine a status of the insurance policy as of a queried-for change date.

24. :

The method of claim 20 further comprising;

querying the policy data revisions in terms of a legally effective date to determine a status of the insurance policy as of a queried-for legally effective date.

25. :

The method of claim 1 further comprising;

when a new policy data revision is a temporally subsequent unbound version as compared to a first policy data revision and also comprises a legally effective date range preceding at least in part an effective date range of the first policy data revision, creating legally non-overlapping unbound policy data revisions for each legally overlapping effective date range as exists between the new policy data revision and all temporally preceding policy data revisions.

26. :

The method of claim 25 further comprising;

when a second new policy data revision is a temporally subsequent unbound version as compared to a first policy data revision and also comprises a legally effective date range preceding at least in part an effective date range of the first policy data revision, creating second legally non-overlapping unbound policy data revisions for each legally overlapping effective date range as exists between the second new policy data revision and all temporally preceding policy data revisions.

27. :

The method of claim 26 further comprising;

comparing the legally non-overlapping unbound policy data revisions corresponding to the new policy data revision and the second legally non-overlapping unbound policy data revisions corresponding to the second new policy data revision.

28. :

The method of claim 25 wherein the legally non-overlapping unbound policy data revisions become bound as of a particular effective date.

29. :

The method of claim 1 wherein the insurance policy comprises supplemental policy-specific data.

30. :

The method of claim 29 further comprising;

providing an insurance product model;

substantively interpreting the insurance product model to thereby facilitate obtaining the supplemental policy-specific data.

31. :

The method of claim 1 wherein the second given date is selected from the group consisting of;

the second given date is the same as the first given date; and

the second given date is different from the first given date.

32. :

A method comprising;

storing an insurance policy as a plurality of discrete temporally-sequential policy data revisions, wherein each revision incorporates information from temporally prior revisions with legally effective date ranges overlapping at least in part a legally effective date range of the revision;

determining a legally binding revision for a first given date by identifying all policy data revisions effective on the given date and choosing a most temporally recent policy data revision temporally prior to a second given date.

33. (canceled)

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39. (canceled)