Patent Application Titled “Communication Of Insurance Claim Data” Published Online (USPTO 20240087043): Allstate Insurance Company

2024 APR 01 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx journalists, a patent application by the inventors Gangaram, Srinivas Reddy (Buffalo Grove, IL, US); Hanson, Randall Martin (Grayslake, IL, US); Upadhyaya, Raj Albert (Hoffman Estates, IL, US); Wales, Erika Ann (Waukegan, IL, US), filed on November 20, 2023, was made available online on March 14, 2024.

The assignee for this patent application is Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Vehicle repair shops and insurance companies can gain efficiencies and improve quality of service by interoperating electronically to exchange data and documents such as repair requests, estimates, photos, authorizations, invoices, and payments. Some claim-handling systems used by insurance companies can support such interoperability with repair shop systems, known as estimating systems.

“An insurer claim-handling system is typically designed to work with a specific brand of estimating system, thus requiring vehicle repair shops to use that brand to interoperate with the insurance company. Different insurance companies may specify or require the use of different estimating systems, which means that vehicle repair shops wanting to interoperate with or perform repairs for two or more insurance companies may have to purchase and maintain two or more estimating systems. The costs of purchasing, using, training, maintaining, and supporting multiple systems are inefficient for any vehicle repair shop and can be prohibitive to smaller vehicle repair shops that would otherwise want to work with multiple insurance companies.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent application, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “The following presents a simplified summary of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description provided below.

“To overcome limitations in the prior art described above, and to overcome other limitations that will be apparent upon reading and understanding the present specification, the present invention is directed to methods and systems for providing a vehicle insurance claim management application (VICMA) that will improve communication and streamline collaboration between the vehicle repair shop and an insurance company in three general task groups: assignment management (comprising work requests, estimates/photos, and reinspections), financial management, and performance measurement. The invention also provides interoperability with different types of estimating systems.

“A first aspect of the invention provides one or more computer storage media storing computer readable instructions that, when executed, provide a vehicle insurance claim management application (VICMA). The VICMA includes an adapter module which translates data between the VICMA and a vehicle repair estimating system. The VICMA further includes an assignment module that is used by the vehicle repair shop to perform functions such as: receive assignment data from the insurance company pertaining to a work request submitted to the vehicle repair shop; transfer or pre-load assignment data to a repair estimating system; receive estimate data from the repair estimating system; review estimate data for compliance with front-end business rules; upload estimate data to an insurance company system to be reviewed for compliance with back-end rules; receive and review reinspection data from the insurance company; and update estimate data based on reinspection data.

“A second aspect of the invention further includes the above described aspect of the VICMA with a financial module that stores and provides payment (Electronic Fund Transfer “EFT”) status information for the vehicle repair claims assigned to the vehicle repair shop.

“Another aspect of the invention further includes the above described aspect of the VICMA with a performance module that stores and provides performance metrics for the vehicle repair shop as compared to other vehicle repair facilities working with the insurance company.

“Another aspect of the invention is a method for a vehicle insurance claim management application (VICMA). The method comprises a number of steps. First, the VICMA receives a set of assignment data from an insurance company pertaining to a plurality of work requests submitted to the vehicle repair shop. Next, the VICMA transfers the assignment data to a vehicle repair estimating system. Next, the VICMA receives a set of estimate data from the vehicle repair estimating system. The VICMA then translates the assignment data and estimate data between the vehicle insurance claim management application and the vehicle repair estimating system. The VICMA then reviews the estimate data for compliance with a set of front-end business rules. Next, the VICMA transfers the estimate data to an insurance company system to be reviewed for compliance with a set of back-end rules. The VICMA then receives a set of reinspection data and reviews the inspection data from the insurance company. Next, the VICMA updates the estimate data based on the reinspection data. The VICMA also tracks a real-time financial status for the repair. The tracking of the real-time status includes storing the payment status information for the plurality of work requests assigned to the vehicle repair shop, providing payment status information for the plurality of work requests assigned to the vehicle repair shop, generating invoices from the vehicle repair shop to the insurance company to initiate payment, and processing an electronic fund transfer automatically when the plurality of vehicle repairs are completed and the vehicle is delivered. The VICMA also compiles a set of vehicle repair shop performance data automatically when the plurality of work requests are completed by the vehicle repair shop.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system for interoperability between a remote server and a vehicle repair system, the system comprising: the remote server comprising one or more first processors; the vehicle repair system having one or more second processors; and a vehicle insurance claim management application operating on the remote server and the vehicle repair system and executing a sequence of steps that causes the system to: receive, from the remote server, a request that includes data with information about at least one of a customer, a vehicle, or a corresponding loss of the vehicle; change the data into a format accepted by the vehicle insurance claim management application, wherein the changing includes encrypting the data; transfer the changed and encrypted data to the vehicle repair system; receive, from the vehicle repair system, a repair estimate associated with the request, the repair estimate including estimate data associated with the corresponding loss of the vehicle; change the estimate data into the format accepted by the vehicle insurance claim management application, wherein the changing further includes encrypting the estimate data; audit the estimate data for compliance with one or more rules; and based on the estimate data satisfying the one or more rules, transfer and communicate the changed and encrypted estimate data to the remote server.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle insurance claim management application further causes the system to: automatically compile performance data associated with the vehicle repair system and based on the estimate data; and provide the compiled performance data to the vehicle repair system.

“3. The system of claim 2, wherein the performance data includes performance metrics related to at least one of customer service; repair quality; cycle time; accuracy in estimating total repair cost, average part costs, or average hours per estimate; or number of recommended certifications.

“4. The system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle insurance claim management application further causes the system to store payment status information for the request.

“5. The system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle insurance claim management application further causes the system to: based on the estimate data not satisfying the one or more rules, reinspect the estimate data.

“6. The system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle insurance claim management application further causes the system to: in response to completing the auditing of the estimate data, calculate a discrepancy score of the estimate data based on each discrepancy between the estimate data and the one or more rules.

“7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more rules comprise at least one of front-end contract-based rules or back-end accuracy rules.

“8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: receive, from a remote server, a request that includes data with information about at least one of a customer, a vehicle, or a corresponding loss of the vehicle; change the data into a format accepted by a vehicle insurance claim management application, wherein the changing includes encrypting the data; transfer the changed and encrypted data to a vehicle repair system; receive, from the vehicle repair system, a repair estimate associated with the request, the repair estimate including estimate data associated with the corresponding loss of the vehicle; change the estimate data into the format accepted by the vehicle insurance claim management application, wherein the changing further includes encrypting the estimate data; audit the estimate data for compliance with one or more rules; and based on the estimate data satisfying the one or more rules, transfer and communicate the changed and encrypted estimate data to the remote server.

“9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, further including instructions to cause the one or more processors to: automatically compile performance data associated with the vehicle repair system and based on the estimate data; and provide the compiled performance data to the vehicle repair system.

“10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the performance data includes performance metrics related to at least one of customer service; repair quality; cycle time; accuracy in estimating total repair cost, average part costs, or average hours per estimate; or number of recommended certifications.

“11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, further including instructions to cause the one or more processors to store payment status information for the request.

“12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, further including instructions to cause the one or more processors to: based on the estimate data not satisfying the one or more rules, reinspect the estimate data.

“13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, further including instructions to cause the one or more processors to: in response to completing the auditing of the estimate data, calculate a discrepancy score of the estimate data based on each discrepancy between the estimate data and the one or more rules.

“14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the one or more rules comprise at least one of front-end contract-based rules or back-end accuracy rules.

“15. A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving, by one or more processors from a remote server, a request that includes data with information about at least one of a customer, a vehicle, or a corresponding loss of the vehicle; changing, by the one or more processors, the data into a format accepted by a vehicle insurance claim management application, wherein the changing includes encrypting the data; transferring, by the one or more processors, the changed and encrypted data to a vehicle repair system; receiving, by the one or more processors from the vehicle repair system, a repair estimate associated with the request, the repair estimate including estimate data associated with the corresponding loss of the vehicle; changing, by the one or more processors, the estimate data into the format accepted by the vehicle insurance claim management application, wherein the changing further includes encrypting the estimate data; auditing, by the one or more processors, the estimate data for compliance with one or more rules; and based on the estimate data satisfying the one or more rules, transferring and communicating, by the one or more processors, the changed and encrypted estimate data to the remote server.

“16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, further comprising: automatically compiling, by the one or more processors, performance data associated with the vehicle repair system and based on the estimate data; and providing, by the one or more processors, the compiled performance data to the vehicle repair system.

“17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the performance data includes performance metrics related to at least one of customer service; repair quality; cycle time; accuracy in estimating total repair cost, average part costs, or average hours per estimate; or number of recommended certifications.

“18. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, further comprising: storing, by the one or more processors, payment status information for the request.

“19. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, further comprising: based on the estimate data not satisfying the one or more rules, reinspecting, by the one or more processors, the estimate data.

“20. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, further comprising: in response to completing the auditing of the estimate data, calculating, by the one or more processors, a discrepancy score of the estimate data based on each discrepancy between the estimate data and the one or more rules.”

For more information, see this patent application: Gangaram, Srinivas Reddy; Hanson, Randall Martin; Upadhyaya, Raj Albert; Wales, Erika Ann. Communication Of Insurance Claim Data. U.S. Patent Application Number 20240087043, filed November 20, 2023 and posted March 14, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20240087043)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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