Patent Application Titled “Single Entry Combined Functionality” Published Online (USPTO 20230091689): Patent Application

2023 APR 11 (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 Fasoli, David (Stamford, CT, US); Gadhavi, Erin (Stamford, CT, US); Gurr, Clarinda (Stamford, CT, US); Johnson, Bete (Stamford, CT, US); Larsen, Annabel (Stamford, CT, US); Larsen, Kendra (Stamford, CT, US); Urbansky, Craig (Stamford, CT, US); Yang, Sally Yijing (Stamford, CT, US), filed on August 15, 2022, was made available online on March 23, 2023.

No assignee for this patent application has been made.

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “

“Field of the Technology

“The present invention is related to application functionality. More specifically, the present invention is related to single entry combined functionality.

“Description of the Related Art

“Presently, data entered into a system is often associated with a single functionality. For example, swiping a payment card can perform the singular function of applying an amount of funds (e.g., from a line of credit, other financial account, or insurance account) to a corresponding charge. In some situations, for example, a medical appointment, may require both an application of insurance (e.g., to pay for some or all of the medical appointment), and an application of credit (e.g., to pay for the deductible or for the appointment entirely). Indeed, sometimes an insurance account or health savings account can include available funds that can be applicable to the cost of a medical appointment, but some present systems require payment of the medical bill in full followed by a request for reimbursement, which can be cumbersome.

“For example, when a consumer completes a medical appointment, they may use health insurance and one or many forms of payment including cash, check, debit, HSA/FSA or credit/financing. When applying insurance to healthcare-related costs, this process can involve first paying the healthcare bill in full on the day of service, then at a later date, submitting an insurance claim requesting reimbursement for the treatment. Full or partial post-transaction insurance reimbursement may be issued in the form of a physical check to the consumer, which is subsequently deposited by the consumer back into their bank account, which may then be used to replenish or pay off credit borrowed. This process is cumbersome and there are several opportunities to improve upon this process.

“There is, therefore, a need in the art for improved systems and methods that are capable of cross-referencing data and concurrently performing more than one functionality based upon a single data entry (e.g., typed entry, scanned entry, swiped entry, etc.).”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent application, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “The first improvement is at the point-of-sale on day of service. Presently, a consumer card is associated with singular functionality-consumer has one card for utilizing insurance and separate card(s) for balance payment. Some embodiments seek to combine these cards by providing “one swipe” technology to (1) identify account(s), (2) simultaneously enable multiple functions (e.g. insurance and balance payment) and (3) allow user to select among payment sources available to the account holder. The “swipe” can be, but is not limited, to a swipe of a card via a terminal. It can also involve manual account entry, chip insert, card scan/tap, mobile payment technology, or any other means to identify the account number(s) being used.

“In some embodiments, “one swipe” technology will eliminate system silos between insurance and payment functions, enabling data-sharing across platforms. This infrastructure change will allow for a seamless user experience from (1) account(s) identification to (2) insurance adjudication to (3) payment to (4) relevant automatic reimbursements-all in a single transaction.

“In some embodiments, by elimination of such silos, the infrastructure presented above will facilitate real-time, cross-database machine learning and artificial intelligence to drive more efficient, accurate, real-time insurance adjudication, reduce the number of manual reviews required, offer cardholders access to find treatment options with higher insurance coverage, and provide customized financial advice to help the cardholder maximize savings and budget for their healthcare expenses.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. (canceled)

“2. A computer-implemented method, comprising: receiving card data from a single input action corresponding to a transaction at a terminal device, wherein the card data corresponds to a plurality of accounts associated with a card including the card data; transmitting the card data in real-time, wherein when the card data is received at a first service provider platform storing first account data, the first service provider platform makes a first determination as to the first account data, and wherein when the card data is received at a second service provider platform storing second account data, the second service provider platform makes a second determination as to the second account data; adjudicating the transaction based on the first determination and the second determination to determine funds to apply to the transaction; and applying the funds from a first account associated with the first account data and a second account associated with the second account data towards a balance associated with the transaction.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising: determining, after applying the funds and during a post-transaction adjudication process, that additional funds are available from additional sources to be applied to the transaction; applying the additional funds to the transaction; determining a reimbursement amount for the transaction based on applying the additional funds; and providing the reimbursement amount to the card.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein additional funds are applied based on fund sources not adjudicated during the transaction.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein additional funds are applied to the transaction that include insurance funds not adjudicated during the transaction that are adjudicated during a post-transaction adjudication process.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further including, during the adjudicating of the transaction: determining, using a trained ML model, that a cardholder associated with the card is eligible for a promotional funds amount; and applying the promotional funds amount as part of additional funds applied to the transaction.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the adjudicating is performed using a trained ML model on the card data and historical data to automatically adjudicate the transaction in rea-time for both the first account data and the second account data without user intervention.

“8. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further including, during the adjudicating of the transaction: determining, using a trained ML model, that a cardholder associated with the card is eligible for a credit limit increase for the second account; and applying an amount of the credit limit increase as part of additional funds applied to the transaction.

“9. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein data related to the first account data and the second account data is shared between service providers to update a trained machine learning model to be used in adjudicating future transactions.

“10. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the first account data is stored in a first non-distributed database corresponding to the first service provider platform, and wherein the second account data is stored in a second non-distributed database corresponding to the second service provider platform.

“11. A system, comprising: a communication interface configured to communication over a communication network with a plurality of different service provider platforms, wherein the communication interface further: receives card data from a single input action corresponding to a transaction at a terminal device, wherein the card data corresponds to a plurality of accounts associated with a card including the card data; and transmits the card data in real-time, wherein when the card data is received at a first service provider platform storing first account data, the first service provider platform makes a first determination as to the first account data, and wherein when the card data is received at a second service provider platform storing second account data, the second service provider platform makes a second determination as to the second account data; and one or more processors that execute instructions stored in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, wherein the one or more processors execute the instructions to: adjudicate the transaction based on the first determination and the second determination to determine funds to apply to the transaction; and apply the funds from a first account associated with the first account data and a second account associated with the second account data towards a balance associated with the transaction.

“12. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors execute further instructions to: determine, after applying the funds and during a post-transaction adjudication process, that additional funds are available from additional sources to be applied to the transaction; apply the additional funds to the transaction; determine a reimbursement amount for the transaction based on applying the additional funds; and provide the reimbursement amount to the card.

“13. The system of claim 11, wherein additional funds are applied based on fund sources not adjudicated during the transaction.

“14. The system of claim 11, wherein additional funds are applied to the transaction that include insurance funds not adjudicated during the transaction that are adjudicated during a post-transaction adjudication process.

“15. The system claim 11, wherein, during the adjudication of the transaction, the one or more processors execute further instructions to: determine, using a trained ML model, that a cardholder associated with the card is eligible for a promotional funds amount; and apply the promotional funds amount as part of additional funds applied to the transaction.

“16. The system of claim 11, wherein the adjudication is performed using a trained ML model on the card data and historical data to automatically adjudicate the transaction in rea-time for both the first account data and the second account data without user intervention.

“17. The system of claim 11, wherein, during the adjudication of the transaction, the one or more processors execute further instructions to: determine, using a trained ML model, that a cardholder associated with the card is eligible for a credit limit increase for the second account; and apply an amount of the credit limit increase as part of additional funds applied to the transaction.

“18. The system of claim 11, wherein data related to the first account data and the second account data is shared between service providers to update a trained machine learning model to be used in adjudicating future transactions.

“19. The system of claim 11, wherein the first account data is stored in a first non-distributed database corresponding to the first service provider platform, and wherein the second account data is stored in a second non-distributed database corresponding to the second service provider platform.

“20. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium, having embodied thereon a program executable by a processor to perform a method, the method comprising: receiving card data from a single input action corresponding to a transaction at a terminal device, wherein the card data corresponds to a plurality of accounts associated with a card including the card data; transmitting the card data in real-time, wherein when the card data is received at a first service provider platform storing first account data, the first service provider platform makes a first determination as to the first account data, and wherein when the card data is received at a second service provider platform storing second account data, the second service provider platform makes a second determination as to the second account data; adjudicating the transaction based on the first determination and the second determination to determine funds to apply to the transaction; and applying the funds from a first account associated with the first account data and a second account associated with the second account data towards a balance associated with the transaction.

“21. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the method further comprises: determining, after applying the funds and during a post-transaction adjudication process, that additional funds are available from additional sources to be applied to the transaction; applying the additional funds to the transaction; determining a reimbursement amount for the transaction based on applying the additional funds; and providing the reimbursement amount to the card.

“22. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein additional funds are applied based on fund sources not adjudicated during the transaction.

“23. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein additional funds are applied to the transaction that include insurance funds not adjudicated during the transaction that are adjudicated during a post-transaction adjudication process.

“24. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the method further includes, during the adjudicating of the transaction: determining, using a trained ML model, that a cardholder associated with the card is eligible for a promotional funds amount; and applying the promotional funds amount as part of additional funds applied to the transaction.

“25. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the adjudicating is performed using a trained ML model on the card data and historical data to automatically adjudicate the transaction in rea-time for both the first account data and the second account data without user intervention.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For more information, see this patent application: Fasoli, David; Gadhavi, Erin; Gurr, Clarinda; Johnson, Bete; Larsen, Annabel; Larsen, Kendra; Urbansky, Craig; Yang, Sally Yijing. Single Entry Combined Functionality. U.S. Patent Application Number 20230091689, filed August 15, 2022 and posted March 23, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20230091689)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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