Techniques for estimating charges of delivering healthcare services that take complicating factors into account
First Claim
1. A method of managing delivery of services by healthcare providers to medical patients, comprising:
- (A) creating a table of regression coefficients from individual records of encounters of a population of patients with healthcare providers, by a method including;
accumulating and storing data from the encounter records in a mass storage system of a computer, data of individual ones of the encounter records including at least (1) an identity of a single patient, (2) charges of the healthcare providers for the encounter, and (3) at least one diagnosis made or procedure performed,grouping said encounter records, from information provided therein, into a plurality of summary records for individual ones of the population of patients and one of a plurality of primary illnesses,establishing an estimate model of a total amount of charges for the encounters within a summary record as a function of a plurality of model variables and regression coefficients taken or derivable from the data within said summary records,solving, separately for individual ones of the primary illnesses, the estimate model for the regression coefficients that optimizes fits of said estimate model with the data within said summary records, andstoring said regression coefficients in a table within the computer mass storage system, and(B) estimating the charges for treating an illness of at least one patient, by a method including;
grouping, within the computer, data of the encounter records of said at least one patient, from information provided therein, into at least one summary record for one of the plurality of primary illnesses,reading the regression coefficients from said stored table for the primary illness of said summary record,solving the estimate model for estimated charges by use of the read regression coefficients, and(C) utilizing the estimated charges to manage the delivery of health services by the healthcare providers.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The expected charges for treating a patient are estimated by the use of linear regression techniques wherein variables and coefficients of estimate models are built from historic patient data of all episode types (inpatient, office visits, etc.) and which include secondary and collateral illnesses that greatly affect the cost of treating a patient for the primary illness. In addition to evaluating the primary illness, the evaluation of collateral illness is also made possible since the processing techniques are not simply averaging data for the primary illness as has been done in the past. This allows physicians to understand the magnitude and types of resource usage that are appropriate for particular illnesses. The present invention allows better management of many aspects of the healthcare system by significantly reducing a component of the difference between the estimate and actual charges for treating a particular illness of a patient that is due to the general state of health of the patient. This then allows the remaining difference to be attributed to differences in the way that health service providers treat each illness of a patient. Estimates are made for the expected cost of providing specific episodes of care, to treat each illness in its entirety by use of both in-patient and out-patient services, and to provide the specific procedures used for the appropriate management of each illness of each patient.
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Citations
31 Claims
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1. A method of managing delivery of services by healthcare providers to medical patients, comprising:
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(A) creating a table of regression coefficients from individual records of encounters of a population of patients with healthcare providers, by a method including; accumulating and storing data from the encounter records in a mass storage system of a computer, data of individual ones of the encounter records including at least (1) an identity of a single patient, (2) charges of the healthcare providers for the encounter, and (3) at least one diagnosis made or procedure performed, grouping said encounter records, from information provided therein, into a plurality of summary records for individual ones of the population of patients and one of a plurality of primary illnesses, establishing an estimate model of a total amount of charges for the encounters within a summary record as a function of a plurality of model variables and regression coefficients taken or derivable from the data within said summary records, solving, separately for individual ones of the primary illnesses, the estimate model for the regression coefficients that optimizes fits of said estimate model with the data within said summary records, and storing said regression coefficients in a table within the computer mass storage system, and (B) estimating the charges for treating an illness of at least one patient, by a method including; grouping, within the computer, data of the encounter records of said at least one patient, from information provided therein, into at least one summary record for one of the plurality of primary illnesses, reading the regression coefficients from said stored table for the primary illness of said summary record, solving the estimate model for estimated charges by use of the read regression coefficients, and (C) utilizing the estimated charges to manage the delivery of health services by the healthcare providers. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method of estimating charges of healthcare providers to at least one patient for the purpose of providing advice on the efficiency of such providers, comprising:
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accumulating and storing, in a mass storage system of a computer, data from records of encounters of said at least one patient with healthcare providers that includes at least (1) an identity of said at least one patient, (2) charges of the healthcare providers for the encounter, and (3) at least one diagnosis made or procedure performed, grouping data of said encounter records, from information provided therein, into at least one summary record of said at least one patient for one of a plurality of primary illnesses, solving an estimate model of a total amount of charges for the encounters within a summary record as a function of a plurality of model variables and regression coefficients taken or derivable from the data within said at least one summary record, using regression coefficients previously determined with the same estimate model to optimize a fit of said estimate model for a population of patients with data within a summary record corresponding to said at least one summary record, and utilizing the estimated charges to advise on the efficiency of the healthcare providers in the delivery of health services.
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18. A computer readable mass storage system storing the following:
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a plurality of raw data files of individual records in multiple different formats of patient encounters with both in patient and out patient healthcare providers, a common patient data file containing an indexed version of the raw data contained in the patient encounter data files, a plurality of tables containing definitions including those of various illnesses, a table of regression coefficients calculated from at least the indexed patient data file and the definition tables for various combinations of primary and collateral illnesses, processing software including an estimate model that accesses the table of regression coefficients according to illnesses of specific patients to cause the computer to calculate from healthcare encounter data of such specific patients estimated charges to treat these patients, and an output table containing data of the calculated estimated charges.
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19. A computer readable mass storage system storing the following:
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a plurality of data files of individual records of patient encounters with both in patient and out patient healthcare providers, said records including patient illness diagnoses, a table of regression coefficients that have been calculated for various combinations of illnesses, processing software including an estimate model that accesses the table of regression coefficients according to illnesses of specific patients to cause the computer to calculate from healthcare encounter data of such specific patients estimated charges to treat those patients, and an output table containing data of the calculated estimated charges.
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20. A method of estimating charges of healthcare providers to at least one patient, comprising:
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accumulating and storing, in a mass storage system of a computer, data from records of encounters of said at least one patient with healthcare providers that includes at least (1) an identity of said at least one patient, (2) charges of the healthcare providers for the encounter, and (3) at least one diagnosis made or procedure performed, grouping data of said estimate encounter records, from information provided therein, into at least one summary record of said at least one patient for one of a plurality of primary illnesses, solving an estimate model of a total amount of charges for the encounters within a summary record as a function of a plurality of model variables and regression coefficients taken or derivable from the data within said at least one summary record, said regression coefficients having been previously determined with the same estimate model to optimize a fit of said estimate model for a population of patients with data within a summary record corresponding to said at least one summary record, and utilizing the estimated charges as an indication of the efficiency of the healthcare providers in the delivery of health services to said at least one patient. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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Specification