Medical transaction system
First Claim
1. A medical transaction system for communicating data messages between a plurality of computer stations located at healthcare providers and payors, comprising:
- a communication receiver for receiving data messages related to patient care activities performed by said healthcare providers, said messages received from said computer stations at said healthcare providers in a plurality of formats and protocols recognized by said communications receiver;
a compiler for compiling patient care information from said date messages received from said computer stations to form a plurality of patient care records having a single common format that is independent of at least one of said plurality of formats and protocols recognized by said communication receiver;
an extractor for extracting ones of said patient care records in accordance with a computer station identification code;
a formatter for formatting said extracted patient care records in a format corresponding to said computer station identification code;
a communications transmitter for transmitting said formatted patient care records to said computer station identified by said identification code in a format and protocol recognized by said identified computer station;
a verifier for verifying data fields within said data messages received from said computer stations and generating an error record indicating when at least one data field within one of said received data messages failed verification; and
a response generator for converting said error record into an error message with a format corresponding to said computer station that sent said failed data message;
wherein said communication transmitter transmits said formatted error message to said computer station.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A medical transaction system is disclosed which is capable of permitting a plurality of healthcare providers to communicate with a plurality of payors and financial institutions. The healthcare providers, payors, and financial institutions do not have to communicate in the same data message formats nor in the same communication protocols. Such a system facilitates not only the processing of medical claims submitted by the healthcare providers to the payors, but also permits the transfer of medical data records between healthcare providers. The system supports the processing of medical claims without requiring a centralized database or imposing a uniform claim format on the healthcare providers and payors. The preferred embodiment of the invention further includes a financial transactor that uses remittance information from the payors to generate the electronics funds transfer messages to credit and debit accounts. Additionally, the system supports a medical line of credit at financial institutions that may be used to pay portions of medical claims not covered by payors.
478 Citations
42 Claims
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1. A medical transaction system for communicating data messages between a plurality of computer stations located at healthcare providers and payors, comprising:
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a communication receiver for receiving data messages related to patient care activities performed by said healthcare providers, said messages received from said computer stations at said healthcare providers in a plurality of formats and protocols recognized by said communications receiver; a compiler for compiling patient care information from said date messages received from said computer stations to form a plurality of patient care records having a single common format that is independent of at least one of said plurality of formats and protocols recognized by said communication receiver; an extractor for extracting ones of said patient care records in accordance with a computer station identification code; a formatter for formatting said extracted patient care records in a format corresponding to said computer station identification code; a communications transmitter for transmitting said formatted patient care records to said computer station identified by said identification code in a format and protocol recognized by said identified computer station; a verifier for verifying data fields within said data messages received from said computer stations and generating an error record indicating when at least one data field within one of said received data messages failed verification; and a response generator for converting said error record into an error message with a format corresponding to said computer station that sent said failed data message; wherein said communication transmitter transmits said formatted error message to said computer station. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A medical transaction system for communicating medical data messages comprising:
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a communication layer for communicating data messages related to patient care activities performed by healthcare providers with a plurality of computer stations, said data messages being communicated in a plurality of communication protocols and being formatted in a plurality of data message formats recognized by said communication layer; and a medical transaction processing kernel for compiling patient care information from data messages received from said computer stations at said healthcare providers in different formats and different communications protocols, generating patient care records having a single common format that is independent of at least one of said plurality of formats and protocols recognized by said communication layer, and extracting a portion of said compiled patient care information for transmission to said computer stations, said medical transaction processing kernel comprising a compiler for compiling patient care information from said data messages received from said computer stations and for formatting said complied information into a patient care record; an extractor for extracting selected ones of said patient care records corresponding to a computer station identification code; a formatter for formatting said extracted patient care records in a format corresponding to said computer station identification code; a verifier for verifying data fields within said patient care records, said verifier generating error records in response to said verifier determining one of said data fields within a patient care record contains data of an incorrect type, said error record including identifying information for identifying said patient care record that failed verification and said computer station that sent said data message used to generate said failed patient care record. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A method for communicating medical transactions between a plurality of computer stations, some of said computer stations being located at healthcare providers and some of the said computer stations being located at payors, said method comprising:
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communicating data messages related to patient care activities performed by healthcare providers with said plurality of computer stations at said healthcare providers and said payors in a plurality of data message formats and in a plurality of communication protocols; and processing data messages received from said computer stations at said healthcare providers in different formats and different communications protocols to compile patient care information from said received data messages and format said compiled information to generate patient care records having a single common format that is independent of at least one of said plurality of formats and protocols, said processing further comprising extracting a portion of said compiled patient care information by extracting ones of said patient care records that correspond to a computer station identification code, formatting said extracted patient care records in a data message format corresponding to a computer station identification code to generate data messages for transmission to said computer stations, verifying that data fields within said patient care records contain data of the correct data type, generating an error record in response to determining that a data field of a patient care record does not contain data of the correct type; and identifying said patient care record that contained said data field not having the correct type of data. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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Specification