Method for establishing a person as a user in a system

• US 8,275,652 B2
• Filed: 11/07/2008
• Issued: 09/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: FMR LLC
• Original Assignee: FMR LLC
• Inventors: Hafeman, Joseph E., Iannucci, Louis, Melfi, Mark, Shippee, Carl, Kulkarni, Rajandra Laxman
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Nga B.
• Application Number:
  US12/267,344
• Publication Number:
  US 20090113518A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,418 Days
• Field of Search: 705/8, 705/9, 705/35, 705/36
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes

Abstract

Dependents of benefit plan participants can be given access to personal information of a plan participant. The dependents, who are not existing users or members of the plan, can be allowed access to some or all of the personal information associated with the plan participant.

Claims

1. A method for establishing a person as a user in a system associated with an employer-offered benefit comprising:

generating, by a first computing device, a first account for an employee, the first account being associated with an employer-offered benefit;

receiving, at the first computing device from a second computing device associated with the employee, first one or more credentials to authenticate the employee, the first one or more credentials being associated with the employee and the first account;

receiving, at the first computing device from the second computing device, identity information associated with a person to be established as a user in the system and a relationship between the employee and the person to be established, wherein the person to be established is eligible to receive services under the employer-offered benefit;

generating, by the first computing device, a second account for the person to be established, the second account including the identity information and the relationship, being associated with the services under the employer-offered benefit, being in the name of the person to be established, and being independent from the first account;

initiating, by the first computing device, transmission of a message including second one or more credentials for activating the second account to the person to be established, the transmission using a communication channel that is specific to the person to be established;

receiving, by the first computing device after the second account is activated, service-specific dependent information from a third computing device associated with the person to be established; and

updating, by the first computing device, information associated with the employer-offered benefit services available to the second account using the service-specific dependent information received from the third computing device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the communication channel is a postal mailing addressed to the person to be established.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the communication channel is an email address of the person to be established.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the second one or more credentials includes at least one of a password or a personal identification number (PIN).

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising allowing the person to be established to retrieve the second one or more credentials.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the identity information is received through a customer service channel.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the customer service channel is selected from a group comprising a form on a website, an ActiveX component, and a Java applet.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the identity information is obtained via a telephonic communication from the employee, wherein the telephonic communication is oral, digital, or both.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the telephonic communication is selected from a group comprising an interactive voice menu and a customer service representative.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the identity information is received via an email message from the employee, an online chat message from the employee, or a combination thereof.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the identity information includes a first name, last name, relationship of the person to be established to the employee, a Social Security number, a date of birth, a mailing address, or any combination thereof.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising correlating a record of the person to be established with a record of a user in the system.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the correlating comprises having a foreign key relationship between the record of the person to be established and the record of the user.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the record of the person to be established is a Social Security number in a first data store and the record of the user is a Social Security number in a second data store.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the person to be established as a user in the system is a non-employee.

16. The method of claim 12 wherein the communication channel that is specific to the person to be established is different from the communication channel of the employee.

17. A system for establishing a person as a user in a system associated with an employer-offered benefit, the system comprising:

a first computing device configured to;

generate a first account for an employee, the first account being associated with an employer-offered benefit;

receive, from a second computing device, first one or more credentials to authenticate the employee, the first one or more credentials being associated with the employee and the first account;

receive, from the second computing device, identity information associated with a person to be established as a user in the system and a relationship between the employee and the person to be established, wherein the person to be established is eligible to receive services under the employer-offered benefit;

generate a second account for the person to be established, the second account including the identity information and the relationship, being associated with the services under the employer-offered benefit, being in the name of the person to be established, and being independent from the first account;

initiate transmission of a message including second one or more credentials for activating the second account to the person to be established, the transmission using a communication channel that is specific to the person to be established;

receive, after the second account is activated, service-specific dependent information associated with the person to be established from a third computing device; and

update information associated with the employer-offered benefit services available to the second account using the service-specific dependent information received from the third computing device.

18. A computer program product, tangibly embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, for establishing a person as a user in a system associated with an employer-offered benefit, the computer program product including computer-executable instructions operable to cause a computing device to:

generate a first account for an employee, the first account being associated with an employer-offered benefit;

receive, from a second computing device, first one or more credentials to authenticate the employee, the first one or more credentials being associated with the employee and the first account;

receive, from the second computing device, identity information associated with a person to be established as a user in the system and a relationship between the employee and the person to be established, wherein the person to be established is eligible to receive services under the employer-offered benefit;

generate a second account for the person to be established, the second account including the identity information and the relationship, being associated with the services under the employer-offered benefit, being in the name of the person to be established, and being independent from the first account;

initiate transmission of a message including second one or more credentials for activating the second account to the person to be established, the transmission using a communication channel that is specific to the person to be established;

receive, after the second account is activated, service-specific dependent information associated with the person to be established from a third computing device; and

update information associated with the employer-offered benefit services available to the second account using the service-specific dependent information received from the third computing device.