Method and apparatus for assessing credit for healthcare patients
First Claim
1. A computerized method to make healthcare patient credit decisions comprising:
- receiving patient information;
obtaining financial information from a guarantor of costs associated with services the patient needs;
determining a benefit of additional guarantor financial information from a third party; and
obtaining the additional guarantor financial information from the third party if the benefit of the additional guarantor financial information is greater than the cost of obtaining the additional information, wherein the method is performed by a computing system comprising one or more computing devices.
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Accused Products
Abstract
According to one example embodiment, there is provided a method and an apparatus to evaluate the credit of a healthcare patient. The example embodiment provides methods and computer systems programmed to use multiple variables that are known about a patient prior to a service being rendered to segment the patient population into finer grained groupings. These finer grained groupings allow financial factors, such as a credit score, to be a more accurate predictor. Also, according to another example embodiment, the model is not a generic model for all patients, but the variables and their parameters are specific to a particular healthcare organization'"'"'s or facility'"'"'s patient population. This creates a custom model that further enhances its predictiveness.
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Citations
29 Claims
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1. A computerized method to make healthcare patient credit decisions comprising:
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receiving patient information; obtaining financial information from a guarantor of costs associated with services the patient needs; determining a benefit of additional guarantor financial information from a third party; and obtaining the additional guarantor financial information from the third party if the benefit of the additional guarantor financial information is greater than the cost of obtaining the additional information, wherein the method is performed by a computing system comprising one or more computing devices. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method comprising:
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determining a probability that patient healthcare service charges will be paid as a function of patient information and guarantor financial information obtained from a third party, wherein the probability is determined as a function of a payment probability model; maintaining, in a data repository, the determined probability, the patient information, the guarantor financial information, an indication of the third party source of the financial information, and received patient payment history associated with charges for the patient healthcare services; and refining the payment probability model as a function of information including the determined probability, the patient information, the guarantor financial information, an indication of the third party source of the financial information, and received patient payment history associated with charges for the patient healthcare services, wherein the method is performed by a computing system comprising one or more computing devices. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method to make customer credit decisions comprising:
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receiving customer information from customers and from one or more third parties; and determining customer categories as a function of the received information and one or more credit models, wherein the one or more credit models are generated according to customized rules, determined third party information accuracy, and historical data from one or more customers, wherein the method is performed by a computing system comprising one or more computing devices. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A method of selecting a third-party source of financial information, the method comprising:
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maintaining patient guarantor financial information obtained from third-parties; maintaining actual outcome data of guarantor collection activity; and selecting a third-party source of financial information for specific criteria as a function of at least the maintained guarantor financial information and the actual outcome data, wherein the method is performed by a computing system comprising one or more computing devices. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29)
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Specification