Patent Issued for Computing system for sharing networks providing payment allocation based upon attribute scoring and related methods (USPTO 11593777): Sharable LLC

2023 MAR 21 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Sharable LLC (Melbourne, Florida, United States) has been issued patent number 11593777, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Asher, Pinaki (West Melbourne, FL, US), Meggs, Anthony F. (Melbourne, FL, US).

This patent was filed on May 22, 2020 and was published online on February 28, 2023.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “In recent years, health care expense sharing has emerged as a “decentralized” approach to financing and reserving for health care costs. As a “non-insurance” alternative, health care sharing is not subject to typical insurance regulations. Individual participants are legally and ultimately responsible for their own medical bills. However, participants in health care sharing networks willingly and consistently share from their own personal funds to pay each other’s medical bills.

“Some health care sharing networks implement a technology framework often called a Virtual Share Exchange (VSE). The VSE may include a collection of virtual account management, billing, and payment technologies that form a comprehensive and transparent health care sharing process. The VSE model enables health care sharing networks to facilitate sharing programs on a P2P (or member-to-member) basis to help provide compliance with applicable safe harbor exemptions to insurance regulations.

“VSE platforms have enabled healthcare sharing networks to rapidly grow and scale similar to institutional computer network models, like health insurance. Modern VSE platforms have become advanced Fintech applications that integrate all the stakeholders and financial processes that are necessary to facilitate member-to-member sharing via computer networking and electronic payment infrastructure.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “A computing device may include a memory and a processor configured to cooperate with the memory to establish member sharing accounts for respective members of a virtual share exchange (VSE) for sharing payment of member healthcare bills across the member sharing accounts, where the members have different attributes associated therewith. For a member healthcare bill associated with a given member, the processor may calculate respective attribute scores for the other members of the VSE based upon similarities between the attributes of the other members and the attributes of the given member, rank the member sharing accounts for payment sharing of the member healthcare bill based upon the calculated attribute scores, and electronically transfer funds between the member sharing accounts for payment sharing of the member healthcare bill based upon the ranking of the member sharing accounts.

“The processor may be further configured to aggregate the attribute scores into respective profile scores for each member, and rank the member sharing accounts for payment sharing based upon the profile scores. In some example configurations, at least one of the attributes may comprise a mandatory attribute, and the processor may be configured to exclude from the ranking member sharing accounts of members with the mandatory attribute different than the mandatory attribute of the given member.

“In an example embodiment, one of the attributes may comprise zip codes associated with the members, and the processor may be configured to calculate zip code attribute scores for the other members based upon matching of at least a portion of their zip codes with a zip code of the given member. More particularly, the processor may be further configured to calculate respective state grouping, region, and area attribute scores for the other members from their zip codes based upon matches with a state grouping, region, and area associated with the zip code of the given member, for example.

“In accordance with another example, one of the attributes comprises medical conditions, and the processor may be configured to calculate respective medical condition attribute scores based upon matching medical conditions of the other members with a medical condition of the given member. For example, the processor may be configured to determine the medical conditions of the members from Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes within at least one of a member medical history profile, and within the member medical bills submitted to the virtual share exchange.

“In still another example, one of the attributes may comprise family compositions of the members, and the processor may be configured to calculate family composition attribute scores based upon matching of family compositions of the other members with a family composition of the given member. By way of example, the processor may be further configured to calculate respective number of participants, gender, and age attribute scores for the other members based upon matches with a number of participants, genders, and ages associated with the family of the given member. In accordance with another example embodiment, one of the attributes may comprise social media interests, and the processor may be configured to calculate social media interest attribute scores based upon matching of social media interests of the other members with social media interests of the given member for member social media accounts linked to the member sharing accounts.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computing device comprising: a memory and a processor configured to cooperate with the memory to establish member sharing accounts for respective members of a virtual share exchange (VSE) for sharing payment of member healthcare bills across the member sharing accounts, the members having different attributes associated therewith; for a member healthcare bill associated with a given member, calculate respective attribute scores for the other members of the VSE based upon similarities between the attributes of the other members and the attributes of the given member by dividing the attributes within a data structure into cascading components having successive parent/child data dependencies therebetween, and calculating the respective attribute scores as a sum of successive score values for the other members with components matching those of the given member; rank the member sharing accounts for payment sharing of the member healthcare bill based upon the calculated attribute scores; and electronically transfer funds between the member sharing accounts for payment sharing of the member healthcare bill based upon the ranking of the member sharing accounts.

“2. The computing device of claim 1 wherein at least one of the attributes comprises a mandatory attribute, and wherein the processor is configured to exclude from the ranking member sharing accounts of members with the mandatory attribute different than the mandatory attribute of the given member.

“3. The computing device of claim 1 wherein the processor is further configured to aggregate the attribute scores into respective profile scores for each member, and rank the member sharing accounts for payment sharing based upon the profile scores.

“4. The computing device of claim 1 wherein one of the attributes comprises zip codes associated with the members, and wherein the processor is configured to calculate zip code attribute scores for the other members based upon matching of at least a portion of their zip codes with a zip code of the given member.

“5. The computing device of claim 4 wherein the processor is further configured to calculate respective state grouping, region, and area attribute scores for the other members from their zip codes based upon matches with a state grouping, region, and area associated with the zip code of the given member.

“6. The computing device of claim 1 wherein one of the attributes comprises medical conditions, and wherein the processor is configured to calculate respective medical condition attribute scores based upon matching medical conditions of the other members with a medical condition of the given member.

“7. The computing device of claim 6 wherein the processor is configured to determine the medical conditions of the members from Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes within at least one of a member medical history profile, and within the member medical bills submitted to the virtual share exchange.

“8. The computing device of claim 1 wherein one of the attributes comprises family compositions of the members, and wherein the processor is configured to calculate family composition attribute scores based upon matching of family compositions of the other members with a family composition of the given member.

“9. The computing device of claim 8 wherein the processor is further configured to calculate respective number of participants, gender, and age attribute scores for the other members based upon matches with a number of participants, genders, and ages associated with the family of the given member.

“10. The computing device of claim 1 wherein one of the attributes comprises social media interests, and wherein the processor is configured to calculate social media interest attribute scores based upon matching of social media interests of the other members with social media interests of the given member for member social media accounts linked to the member sharing accounts.

“11. A method comprising: establishing, at a server, member sharing accounts for respective members of a virtual share exchange (VSE) for sharing payment of member healthcare bills across the member sharing accounts, the members having different attributes associated therewith; for a member healthcare bill associated with a given member, calculating respective attribute scores at the server for the other members of the VSE based upon similarities between the attributes of the other members and the attributes of the given member by dividing the attributes within a data structure into cascading components having successive parent/child data dependencies therebetween, and calculating the respective attribute scores as a sum of successive score values for the other members with components matching those of the given member; ranking, at the server, the member sharing accounts for payment sharing of the member healthcare bill based upon the calculated attribute scores; and electronically transferring funds at the server between the member sharing accounts for payment sharing of the member healthcare bill based upon the ranking of the member sharing accounts.

“12. The method of claim 11 wherein one of the attributes comprises zip codes associated with the members, and wherein calculating comprises calculating zip code attribute scores for the other members based upon matching of at least a portion of their zip codes with a zip code of the given member.

“13. The method of claim 11 wherein one of the attributes comprises medical conditions, and wherein calculating comprises calculating respective medical condition attribute scores based upon matching medical conditions of the other members with a medical condition of the given member.

“14. The method of claim 11 wherein one of the attributes comprises family compositions of the members, and wherein calculating comprises calculating family composition attribute scores based upon matching of family compositions of the other members with a family composition of the given member.

“15. The method of claim 11 wherein one of the attributes comprises social media interests, and wherein calculating comprises calculating social media interest attribute scores based upon matching of social media interests of the other members with social media interests of the given member for member social media accounts linked to the member sharing accounts.

“16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for causing a computing device to perform steps comprising: establishing member sharing accounts for respective members of a virtual share exchange (VSE) for sharing payment of member healthcare bills across the member sharing accounts, the members having different attributes associated therewith; for a member healthcare bill associated with a given member, calculating respective attribute scores for the other members of the VSE based upon similarities between the attributes of the other members and the attributes of the given member by dividing the attributes within a data structure into cascading components having successive parent/child data dependencies therebetween, and calculating the respective attribute scores as a sum of successive score values for the other members with components matching those of the given member; ranking the member sharing accounts for payment sharing of the member healthcare bill based upon the calculated attribute scores; and electronically transferring funds between the member sharing accounts for payment sharing of the member healthcare bill based upon the ranking of the member sharing accounts.

“17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein one of the attributes comprises zip codes associated with the members, and wherein calculating comprises calculating zip code attribute scores for the other members based upon matching of at least a portion of their zip codes with a zip code of the given member.

“18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein one of the attributes comprises medical conditions, and wherein calculating comprises calculating respective medical condition attribute scores based upon matching medical conditions of the other members with a medical condition of the given member.

“19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein one of the attributes comprises family compositions of the members, and wherein calculating comprises calculating family composition attribute scores based upon matching of family compositions of the other members with a family composition of the given member.

“20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein one of the attributes comprises social media interests, and wherein calculating comprises calculating social media interest attribute scores based upon matching of social media interests of the other members with social media interests of the given member for member social media accounts linked to the member sharing accounts.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Asher, Pinaki. Computing system for sharing networks providing payment allocation based upon attribute scoring and related methods. U.S. Patent Number 11593777, filed May 22, 2020, and published online on February 28, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11593777)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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