Patent Issued for Communication of insurance claim data (USPTO 11823279): Allstate Insurance Company

2023 DEC 07 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent 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 1, 2021, was published online on November 21, 2023, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11823279 is assigned to Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors 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 the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “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.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. An insurance claim system for improved interoperability between an insurance company server and a vehicle repair estimating system, the system comprising: a work request that includes a set of assignment data with information about at least one of a customer, a corresponding vehicle, or a corresponding loss of a vehicle; the insurance company server comprising at least one first computer processor and a user interface coupled to a network; the vehicle repair estimating system having at least one second computer processor and interconnected with the insurance company server via the network, the vehicle repair estimating system configured to create a repair estimate, wherein the repair estimate includes a set of estimate data of the corresponding loss of the vehicle; and a vehicle insurance claim management application operating on the insurance company server and the vehicle repair estimating system and executing a sequence of steps with the insurance company server and the vehicle repair estimating system that causes the insurance claim system to: receive the work request and the set of assignment data from the insurance company server; change the set of assignment data into a format accepted by the vehicle insurance claim management application, wherein the changing further includes encrypting the set of assignment data; transfer the changed and encrypted set of assignment data to the vehicle repair estimating system; receive the repair estimate with the set of estimate data from the vehicle repair estimating system, wherein the repair estimate with the set of estimate data includes information about the repair estimate for the corresponding loss of the vehicle, and further wherein the repair estimate is uploaded from the vehicle repair estimating system to the vehicle insurance claim management application; change the set of estimate data into the format accepted by the vehicle insurance claim management application, wherein the changing further includes encrypting the set of estimate data; analyze and audit the set of estimate data for compliance with a set of contract-based conditions; provide a performance rating to a vehicle repair shop associated with the vehicle repair estimating system, the performance rating based at least on the repair estimate; transmit the performance rating to the vehicle repair estimating system; and based on the change and the analyzing of the set of estimate data, transfer and communicate the changed and encrypted set of estimate data to the insurance company server.

“2. The insurance claim system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle insurance claim management application in communication with the insurance company server and the vehicle repair estimating system causes the insurance claim system further to: receive a second set of assignment data from the insurance company server via an assignment user interface, wherein the second set of assignment data includes information about at least one of a second customer, a corresponding second vehicle, or a corresponding second loss with the corresponding second vehicle; change the second set of assignment data into the format accepted by the vehicle insurance claim management application, wherein the changing further includes encrypting the second set of assignment data; transfer the changed and encrypted second set of assignment data to the vehicle repair estimating system; receive a second set of estimate data of the corresponding second loss of the corresponding second vehicle from the vehicle repair estimating system, wherein the second set of estimate data includes information about a second repair estimate for the corresponding second loss of the corresponding second vehicle, and further wherein the second repair estimate is uploaded from the vehicle repair estimating system to the vehicle insurance claim management application; and change the second set of estimate data into the format accepted by the vehicle insurance claim management application, wherein the change further includes encrypting the second set of estimate data.

“3. The insurance claim system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle insurance claim management application in communication with the insurance company server and the vehicle repair estimating system causes the insurance claim system further to: store and provide payment status information for the set of assignment data.

“4. The insurance claim system of claim 1, wherein the insurance company server is coupled to a web server through which users interact with the vehicle insurance claim management application and the insurance claim system.

“5. The insurance claim system of claim 4, wherein the web server includes a claim processing system used to store the set of assignment data for further processing.

“6. The insurance claim system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle insurance claim management application in communication with the insurance company server and the vehicle repair estimating system causes the insurance claim system further to: provide a timeline indicating a plurality of milestone dates corresponding to the work request.

“7. The insurance claim system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle insurance claim management application in communication with the insurance company server and the vehicle repair estimating system causes the insurance claim system further to: provides an interactive calendar through which a vehicle repair shop schedules a repair of the vehicle corresponding to the work request.

“8. An insurance claim system for improved interoperability between an insurance company server and a vehicle repair estimating system, the system comprising: a first work request that includes a first set of assignment data with information about at least one of a first customer, a corresponding first vehicle, or a corresponding first loss of the corresponding first vehicle; a second work request that includes a second set of assignment data with information about at least one of a second customer, a corresponding second vehicle, or a corresponding second loss of the corresponding second vehicle; the insurance company server comprising at least one first computer processor and a user interface and coupled to a network; the vehicle repair estimating system having at least one second computer processor and interconnected with the insurance company server via the network, the vehicle repair estimating system configured to create a repair estimate; and a vehicle insurance claim management application operating on the insurance company server and the vehicle repair estimating system and executing a sequence of steps with the insurance company server and the vehicle repair estimating system that causes the insurance claim system to: receive the first work request and the first set of assignment data from the insurance company server; receive the second work request and the second set of assignment data from the insurance company server via an assignment user interface; change the first set and the second set of assignment data into a format accepted by the vehicle insurance claim management application, wherein the changing further includes encrypting the first set and the second set of assignment data; transfer the changed and encrypted first set and the second set of assignment data to the vehicle repair estimating system; receive a first set of estimate data from the vehicle repair estimating system, wherein the first set of estimate data includes information about a first repair estimate for the corresponding first loss of the corresponding first vehicle, and further wherein the first repair estimate is uploaded from the vehicle repair estimating system to the vehicle insurance claim management application; receive a second set of estimate data from the vehicle repair estimating system, wherein the second set of estimate data includes information about a second repair estimate for a second loss of the corresponding second vehicle, and further wherein the second repair estimate is uploaded from the vehicle repair estimating system to the vehicle insurance claim management application; change the first set and the second set of estimate data into the format accepted by the vehicle insurance claim management application, wherein the changing further includes encrypting the first set and the second set of estimate data; analyze and audit the first set and the second set of estimate data for compliance with a set of contract-based conditions; provide a performance rating to a vehicle repair shop associated with the vehicle repair estimating system, the performance rating based at least on the repair estimate; transmit the performance rating to the vehicle repair estimating system; and based on the change and the analyzing of the first set and the second set of estimate data, transfer and communicate the changed and encrypted first set and the second set of estimate data to the insurance company server, and further wherein the vehicle insurance claim management application provides interoperability between the insurance company server and the vehicle repair estimating system.

“9. The insurance claim system claim 8, wherein the vehicle insurance claim management application in communication with the insurance company server and the vehicle repair estimating system causes the insurance claim system further to: provide a timeline indicating a plurality of milestone dates corresponding to at least one of the first or second work request.

“10. The insurance claim system of claim 8, wherein the vehicle insurance claim management application in communication with the insurance company server and the vehicle repair estimating system causes the insurance claim system further to: provide an interactive calendar through which the vehicle repair shop schedules a repair of a vehicle corresponding to at least one of the first or second work request.”

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

URL and more information on this patent, see: Gangaram, Srinivas Reddy. Communication of insurance claim data. U.S. Patent Number 11823279, filed November 1, 2021, and published online on November 21, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11823279)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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