Smart notepad for improved workflow efficiency for insurance claim associates

• US 10,832,328 B1
• Filed: 10/13/2015
• Issued: 11/10/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Original Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Inventors: Jenkins, John H., Feit, Andrew J., Boring, Christina M., Grove, Chadd Eugene, Hellewell, Brent D., Craig, Beth, Stuepfert, Kevin, Loy, Robert S., Wirtjes, Scott M., Lackey, Scott E., Holt, Manuela, Schuster, David Kuriyan, Miller, Jeremy M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Norman, Samica L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dega, Murali K
• Application Number:
  US14/881,474
• Time in Patent Office: 1,855 Days
• Field of Search: 705 4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

In a computer-implemented method for facilitating handling, by a user of a computing device having one or more display screens and an input device, of a call from an insurance customer regarding a loss event, one or more notes fields in which text may be entered by the user are presented to the user, text that the user entered in at least one of the one or more notes fields is received, the received text is analyzed to identify one or more keywords having potential relevance to the loss event, the identified keyword(s) is/are used to cause loss report information to be automatically added to one or more loss reporting fields provided by a loss reporting tool, and the loss report information is caused to be stored in a claims database as a part of a loss report record associated with the loss event.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for facilitating handling, by a user of a computing device having one or more display screens and an input device, of a call from an insurance customer regarding a loss event, the method comprising:

presenting to the user, by a workbench application executing on the computing device, one or more notes fields in which free-form text may be entered by the user on a user interface display presented on at least one of the one or more display screens;

receiving, by the workbench application and via the input device and the user interface display, free-form text that the user entered in at least one of the one or more notes fields;

analyzing, by the workbench application, the received free-form text to identify one or more keywords having relevance to the loss event, wherein analyzing the received free-form text to identify one or more keywords includes comparing the received free-form text to a plurality of keywords stored in a keyword database;

communicating, by the workbench application, loss report information to a loss reporting tool via an application programming interface (API), the loss report information including the one or more identified keywords; and

automatically populating, by the loss reporting tool, one or more loss reporting fields using the loss report information.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

analyzing the received free-form text to identify one or more keywords includes analyzing the received free-form text to identify one or more words describing a location; and

automatically populating the one or more loss reporting fields includes automatically populating a loss location field using the one or more words describing the location.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

analyzing the received free-form text to identify one or more keywords includes analyzing the received free-form text to identify a name of a person; and

automatically populating the one or more loss reporting fields includes automatically populating an involved person field using the one or more words describing the name of the person.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

analyzing the received free-form text to identify one or more keywords includes analyzing the received free-form text to identify a one or more of (i) a make of a vehicle, (ii) a model of the vehicle, or (iii) a year of the vehicle; and

automatically populating the one or more loss reporting fields includes automatically populating one or more involved vehicle fields using the one or more of (i) the make of the vehicle, (ii) the model of the vehicle, or (iii) the year of the vehicle.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

receiving free-form text that the user entered in the at least one notes field further includes receiving an indication of a first notes category, among a plurality of notes categories, in which the free-form text was entered; and

analyzing the received free-form text to identify one or more keywords includes analyzing the received free-form text according to rules corresponding to the first notes category.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

causing the loss report information to be stored in a claims database.

7. A computing system for facilitating handling of insurance-related calls, the computing system comprising:

a keyword database storing a plurality of keywords;

a computing device comprising one or more display screens and an input device, wherein the computing device is configured to

execute a workbench application to

present to a user one or more notes fields in which free-form text may be entered by a user on a user interface display presented on at least one of the one or more display screens,

receive, via the input device and the user interface display, free-form text that the user entered in at least one of the one or more notes fields,

analyze the received free-form text to identify one or more keywords having relevance to the loss event, wherein analyzing the received free-form text to identify one or more keywords includes comparing the received free-form text to a plurality of keywords stored in the keyword database, and

communicate loss report information to a loss reporting tool via an application programming interface (API), the loss report information including the one or more identified keywords, and

execute the loss reporting tool to

automatically populate one or more loss reporting fields using the loss report information.

8. The computing system of claim 7, wherein:

the one or more keywords include one or more words describing a location; and

the one or more loss reporting fields include a loss location field.

9. The computing system of claim 7, wherein:

the one or more keywords include a name of a person; and

the one or more loss reporting fields include an involved person field.

10. The computing system of claim 7, wherein:

the one or more keywords include one or more of (i) a make of a vehicle, (ii) a model of the vehicle, or (iii) a year of the vehicle; and

the one or more loss reporting fields include one or more involved vehicle fields.

11. The computing system of claim 7, wherein:

the workbench application further receives an indication of a first notes category, among a plurality of notes categories, in which the free-form text was entered; and

the workbench application analyzes the received free-form text to identify the one or more keywords at least by analyzing the received free-form text according to rules corresponding to the first notes category.

12. The computing system of claim 7, wherein the loss reporting tool further stores the loss report information in a claims database.