Kimberton Healthcare Consulting Assigned Patent

By Targeted News Service

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 6 -- Kimberton Healthcare Consulting, Phoenixville, Pa., has been assigned a patent (8,457,982) developed by John Brophy, Phoenixville, Pa., for a "method of limiting insurer exposure to renal dialysis claims liability."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Systems and methods are provided to limit exposure of medical Plans to high liabilities for renal dialysis without exposing the insured patient to out-of-pocket liability while still allowing the patient to receive dialysis as they need it. In one embodiment, this goal is achieved by providing an ERISA medical insurance Plan structure that limits Plan responsibility to 125% of the Medicare approved amount for the services provided, and simultaneously supplements coverage of the patient under Medicare Part B. Because Medicare regulations prohibit providers from balance-billing patients subsequent to billing Medicare, the patient cannot be billed for amounts in excess of the Plan limits."

The patent application was filed on March 4, 2009 (12/397,962). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,457,982&OS=8,457,982&RS=8,457,982

Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi.

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