COMPLAINT TRACKING, IMAGING AND PROCESSING SYSTEM

• US 20100228581A1
• Filed: 03/06/2009
• Published: 09/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hartford Fire Insurance Company (The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hartford Fire Insurance Company (The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: DeFrancesco, Patsy A., Henderson, Bruce S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,195,485 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

The present invention relates to an insurance complaint document management and processing system that interfaces with a state Department of Insurance. According to some embodiments, an insurance complaint document is received at a document conversion system. The received document may be converted to a document image may be automatically matched to insurance policy information. It may then be arranged to provide the document image and the insurance policy information for resolution.

Claims

1. An insurance complaint document processing system adapted for communication with a Department of Insurance, comprising:

a communication device to receive and transmit complaint documents via a communication network;

a processor coupled to the communication device for processing complaint related information; and

a storage device in communication with said processor and storing instructions adapted to be executed by said processor to;

process an insurance complaint document into an electronic image format;

store the insurance complaint document electronic image;

validate the complaint document with an insurance policy identifier,

resolve complaint document redundancies associated with at least one insurance policy identifier into a consolidated complaint record;

process the consolidated complaint record for resolution; and

transmit complaint resolution progress information to the Department of Insurance via the communication device.

2. The insurance complaint document processing system of claim 1, wherein validating the complaint document with an insurance policy identifier is performed using a combination of at least two of deterministic, probabilistic, fuzzy, phonetic, transliterative techniques, knowledge-based expertise and advanced heuristic algorithms.

3. The insurance complaint document processing system of claim 2, wherein validating the complaint document includes mapping document correspondence identification data to a corresponding insurance policy number.

4. The insurance complaint document processing system of claim 3, wherein complaint processing guidelines are received from the Department of Insurance.

5. The insurance complaint document processing system of claim 4, wherein claim redundancies are resolved using at least one of generic keyword and concept searching, full fuzzy matching on numerical values, Boolean searching, ordinal criteria and textual criteria and bi-directional and asymmetrical matching.

8. The integrated insurance complaint document processing system of claim 5, further comprising a claim resolution sub-system to:

(i) communicate complaint resolution information to the regulatory agency.

6. An integrated insurance complaint document management and processing system for managing and processing regulatory agency complaints, comprising:

a complaint document conversion sub-system to;

(i) receive an insurance complaint document from a remote device, (ii) convert the received insurance complaint document to a document image, (iii) assign document identification data to the document image and (iv) store the document identification data;

an automated validation sub-system to;

(i) receive the document image and document identification data from the document conversion system, and (ii) match the document image with insurance policy information from an insurance policy database; and

a complaint redundancy sub-system to;

(i) receive the insurance policy information associated with the document image from the automated validation engine, (ii) resolve for redundancies related to the insurance policy and (iii) consolidate redundancies related to the insurance policy.

7. The integrated insurance complaint document processing system of claim 6, wherein said document conversion system further includes at least one of:

(i) an email server, (ii) a web server, (iii) a facsimile machine, (iv) a facsimile machine, (v) an image format converter, (vi) an optical character recognition application, or (vii) an identification data terminal.

9. The integrated insurance complaint document processing system of claim 6, wherein the claim resolution sub-system receives complaint resolution guidelines from the regulatory agency.

10. The integrated insurance complaint document processing system of claim 9, wherein claim redundancies are resolved using at least one of generic keyword and concept searching, full fuzzy matching on numerical values, ordinal criteria and textual criteria and bi-directional and asymmetrical matching.

11. The integrated insurance complaint document processing of claim 10, wherein validating the complaint document with a policy identifier is performed using a combination of at least two of deterministic, probabilistic, fuzzy, phonetic, transliterative techniques, knowledge-based expertise and advanced heuristic algorithms.

12. A computer-readable medium storing instructions adapted to be executed by a processor to perform an insurance complaint document processing method in a complaint document system, said method comprising:

receiving an insurance complaint document image and associated document identification data from a document conversion sub-system via a communication device,

validating the document identification data with indicia indicative of an insurance policy in a policy validation sub-system;

resolving redundancies between two or more complaint document images and the insurance policy in a redundancy review sub-system;

transmitting an indication of the insurance complaint document image along with the indicia indicative of the insurance policy to a state Department of Insurance in a complaint resolution sub-system; and

displaying the insurance complaint document image on a terminal device in the complaint resolution sub-system.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving resolution input based on the displayed insurance policy; and

transmitting the resolution input to the state Department of Insurance.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein resolving redundancies between two or more complaint document images and the insurance policy includes using semantic search techniques.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein redundancies are resolved using a combination of generic keyword and concept searching, Boolean searching, fuzzy matching on numerical values, ordinal criteria and textual criteria and bi-directional and asymmetrical matching.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein validating the document identification data is performed using at least one of deterministic, probabilistic, fuzzy, phonetic, transliterative techniques, knowledge-based expertise and advanced heuristic algorithms techniques.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving complaint resolution guidelines from the state Department of Insurance in the complaint resolution sub-system.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the complaint resolution guidelines include time based deadlines for complaint resolution.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein displaying the insurance complaint document image on a terminal device in the complaint resolution sub-system includes providing a customizable complaint reporting display.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein displaying the insurance complaint document image on a terminal device in the complaint resolution sub-system includes providing an electronic complaint search facility.