Patent Issued for Healthcare Information Management via Financial Networks (USPTO 9947061)
By a
Patent number 9947061 is assigned to
The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: "The background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
"The various phases of a patient's healthcare typically involves services provided by multiple providers which are often times separate from one another, with only the patient as the common link between all of them. Nevertheless, to properly provide the benefits and care that the patient needs typically requires that these separate provider entities communicate with one another. For example, a doctor communicates with a pharmacist via a prescription written by the doctor, which the pharmacist fills to dispense prescribed medication to the patient. However, these communications have traditionally been limited to relying on the patients themselves to carry a prescription, diagnosis, referral, or other type of treatment document from one provider to the next, only after which the providers may or may not communicate with one another to verify information. This reliance on patients to relay healthcare information creates a disconnect between the providers involved in the healthcare process of the patient, which creates an opportunity for mistakes or abuse. Inadvertent modification of prescription information by the patient, for example, can result in inadequate or dangerous medication dispensation by the pharmacist. A patient can also intentionally distort prescription information for the purposes of abuse. Additionally, patients deliberately seeking to abuse prescription medications have the ability to 'doctor shop', getting multiple prescriptions from multiple doctors, which are filled by multiple pharmacies that are all unaware of one another.
"Despite the widespread availability of electronic data transfer and electronic communications, most Americans' medical information including treatment instructions and prescriptions is stored on paper--in filing cabinets at various medical offices, pharmacies, or in boxes and folders in patients' homes. Paper-based records require a significant amount of storage space compared to digital records. In
"The application and use of electronic health information exchange (HIE) allows doctors, nurses, pharmacists, other health care providers and patients to appropriately access and securely share a patient's vital medical information electronically--improving the speed, quality, safety and cost of patient care.
"There are currently three key forms of health information exchange: Directed Exchange--ability to send and receive secure information electronically between care providers to support coordinated care; Query-based Exchange--ability for providers to find and/or request information on a patient from other providers, often used for unplanned care; and Consumer Mediated Exchange--ability for patients to aggregate and control the use of their health information among providers
"The foundation of standards, policies and technology required to initiate all three forms of health information exchange are complete, tested, and available today.
"Directed Exchange
"Directed exchange is used by providers to easily and securely send patient information--such as laboratory orders and results, patient referrals, or discharge summaries--directly to another health care professional. This information is sent over the internet in an encrypted, secure, and reliable way amongst health care professionals who already know and trust each other, and is commonly compared to sending a secured email. This form of information exchange enables coordinated care, benefiting both providers and patients.
"For example, a primary care provider can directly send electronic care summaries that include medications, problems, and lab results to a specialist when referring their patients. This information helps to inform the visit and prevents the duplication of tests, redundant collection of information from the patient, wasted visits, and medication errors.
"Directed exchange is also being used for sending immunization data to public health organizations or to report quality measures to The
"Query-Based Exchange
"Query-based exchange is used by providers to search and discover accessible clinical sources on a patient. This type of exchange is often used when delivering unplanned care.
"For example, emergency room physicians who can utilize query-based exchange to access patient information--such as medications, recent radiology images, and problem lists might adjust treatment plans to avoid adverse medication reactions or duplicative testing.
"In another example, if a pregnant patient goes to the hospital, query-based exchange can assist a provider in obtaining her pregnancy care record, allowing them to make safer decisions about the care of the patient and her unborn baby.
"Consumer-Mediated Exchange
"Consumer-mediated exchange provides patients with access to their health information, allowing them to manage their health care online in a similar fashion to how they might manage their finances through online banking. When in control of their own health information, patients can actively participate in their care coordination. For example, patients can participate by providing other providers with their health information, identifying and correcting wrong or missing health information, identifying and correcting incorrect billing information, and tracking and monitoring their own health.
"Existing electronic healthcare communication systems attempt to remedy the dangers of cost, errors and abuse in healthcare processes by centralizing or otherwise synchronizing a patient's healthcare information among the providers associated with the patient. However, these systems typically require the installation of new infrastructure hardware and/or software components at each participating provider. The expenses and/or complexity of these systems limit the providers willing or able to participate in the system.
"Others have made efforts towards developing systems and methods of secure healthcare information management. For example,
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"US pre-grant application publication 2008/0126135 to Woo titled 'Paperless Medication Prescription System', published
"US pre-grant application publication 2010/0205005 to Pritchett, et al titled 'Patient Oriented Electronic Medical Record System', published
"Applicants' prior work has been implemented in pilot programs, such as the Indianapolis DME pilot program and the TNRxSafety pilot program. However, the systems used in these pilot programs were not capable of conveying individual sets of information verifiable according to a sequential series of states for each set of information.
"All publications herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
"The following description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
"In some embodiments, the numbers expressing quantities of ingredients, properties such as concentration, reaction conditions, and so forth, used to describe and claim certain embodiments of the invention are to be understood as being modified in some instances by the term 'about.' Accordingly, in some embodiments, the numerical parameters set forth in the written description and attached claims are approximations that can vary depending upon the desired properties sought to be obtained by a particular embodiment. In some embodiments, the numerical parameters should be construed in light of the number of reported significant digits and by applying ordinary rounding techniques. Notwithstanding that the numerical ranges and parameters setting forth the broad scope of some embodiments of the invention are approximations, the numerical values set forth in the specific examples are reported as precisely as practicable. The numerical values presented in some embodiments of the invention may contain certain errors necessarily resulting from the standard deviation found in their respective testing measurements.
"As used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the meaning of 'a,' 'an,' and 'the' includes plural reference unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Also, as used in the description herein, the meaning of 'in' includes 'in' and 'on' unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.
"The recitation of ranges of values herein is merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each separate value falling within the range. Unless otherwise indicated herein, each individual value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein. All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g. 'such as') provided with respect to certain embodiments herein is intended merely to better illuminate the invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the invention otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element essential to the practice of the invention.
"Groupings of alternative elements or embodiments of the invention disclosed herein are not to be construed as limitations. Each group member can be referred to and claimed individually or in any combination with other members of the group or other elements found herein. One or more members of a group can be included in, or deleted from, a group for reasons of convenience and/or patentability. When any such inclusion or deletion occurs, the specification is herein deemed to contain the group as modified thus fulfilling the written description of all Markush groups used in the appended claims.
"Thus, there is still a need for a healthcare information exchange that allows for the secure exchange of a patient's healthcare information between providers in a secure manner that prevents mistakes or abuse, without requiring expensive, complicated infrastructure acquisitions and upgrades by participating providers."
In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors' summary information for this patent: "The inventive subject matter provides apparatus, systems and methods in which a patient's healthcare information can be exchanged securely, rapidly and efficiently between healthcare providers for services such as diagnosis, treatment and prescription management. The apparatus, systems and methods can enable this type of information exchange without requiring member participants in the system to acquire additional hardware or software by taking advantage of the financial information exchange networks a merchant or service provider already uses to process electronic transactions. Thus, the added costs and complexity associated with acquiring or upgrading a member's infrastructure are eliminated.
"The system can include a message processor communicatively connected to participating members. The message processor can comprise computer-executable instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium (hard drive, flash memory, RAM, optical drives, etc.) that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to carry out processes associated with the inventive subject matter. In embodiments, the message processor can comprise specially programmed processors, specifically programmed to perform functions associated with the inventive subject matter. The message processor can also be communicatively coupled to one or more databases, used to store information such as account transaction states and a response codes.
"The message processor can be configured to receive a message from a member terminal, wherein the message is formatted according to a financial transaction message exchange protocol. Examples of financial transaction message exchange protocols include the ISO 8583 standard. The message can be routed from the terminal to the message processor via a financial transaction message exchange system, such as by using the first 6-digits (known as a BIN).
"The message can include a payment amount field with a corresponding payment amount field value. The message processor can be configured to process the message according to a non-financial transaction encoding scheme. Non-financial transaction encoding schemes can include healthcare management schemes, such as prescription management schemes used to fill prescriptions, diagnosis encoding schemes used to manage patient diagnosis, and treatment management schemes, used to provide medical treatment procedures to patients, and communicate information regarding the same to healthcare providers, payers, and other stakeholders such as manufacturers, distributors, benefit managers, government agencies, etc. The message can also include account identifying information such as the account ID (e.g., account number), expiration date, originating terminal identifiers, timestamping, etc., formatted according to the electronic financial transaction message exchange protocol.
"The database, which can be a general database or a specialized account transaction state database, can store one or more active account transaction states for a particular account. The account transaction state can correspond to a state of a non-financial transaction. In a healthcare setting, the account transaction state can correspond to an active state of a prescription, diagnosis, treatment, etc. The message processor can process the information within the received request message against account transaction states, to determine whether the request represented by the message (e.g., prescription fill request, diagnosis entry, etc.) corresponds to an active account transaction state.
"In an embodiment, the message processor can process grouped or categorized digits of a received transaction payment value against corresponding digits of the transaction state amount values to determine the status of the information in the request. The processing can be performed sequentially, and a failure in determining an active state for any digit group results in the failure of the request, and a return of a decline or rejection code to the requesting terminal.
"The database can also store response codes formatted according to the electronic financial transaction message exchange protocol. Alternatively, the response codes can be stored in a response code database configured to store only response codes. The response codes formatted according to the financial transaction message exchange protocol correspond to denial codes used in response to financial transaction requests. In the non-financial transaction encoding scheme, the response codes can correspond to approval codes as well as denial codes, and for approval and denial codes indicating a specific reason for a denied request. For example, a 'soft-denial' code of the electronic financial transaction message exchange protocol can be interpreted as a returned approval according to the non-financial transaction encoding scheme. In embodiments, a computing device, which may or may not be communicatively connected with other components of the system (e.g., terminals, servers, databases, etc.), can be used to translate plain language or language typically used in the industry into the code of the electronic financial transaction message exchange protocol and or in a reciprocal manner translate electronic financial transaction message exchange protocol codes and present the contents of the message in plain language or in the language typically used in the industry. In the embodiments where the translating computing device is not communicatively coupled to other components of the system, the user can enter a plain-language (or industry-language) query (e.g., prescription, diagnosis, treatment, etc.) and the translating computing device can be configured to translate the message and provide the code for the user to input as a payment amount into the terminal. The output can be one or more of visual, audio, tactile feedback, etc. The output of the code can be in the form of a barcode, QR code, or other machine-readable code, displayed on the device's screen, which can be scanned into the terminal using a scanner. Similarly, the user can input a received code and the device can output the plain-language (or industry-language) meaning of the code via an output interface of the device (e.g., display, speakers, tactile feedback, etc.). In embodiments where the translating computing device is communicatively coupled to other components of the system, the translating computing device can conduct the translation and provide the corresponding code to the terminal directly. Likewise, the translating computing device can receive response codes from the terminal directly, conduct the translation, and provide the message corresponding to the code in plain-language (or industry-language). As such, the user reading the message is not required to perform the translation themselves. In embodiments where the terminal is a computing device such as a tablet, smartphone, personal computer, etc., the terminal can perform the translation. In embodiments, the translation can include a translation of the message codes into protocols or formats usable by other systems.
"Merchants and service providers can register to become members of the system. Each member can have identifiers associated with them that allow the system to identify the point of origin of messages received. Individual terminals within a member can have individual identifiers that allow for a single merchant to have multiple terminals active with the system. This also allows members to prevent terminals that would not likely ever be used with the system from having access to the system, increasing system security. The identifiers for the members can be identifiers issued by the system, or they can be identifiers issued according to the financial transaction exchange network providers.
"The system can include an account input device carried by a user, such as a patient member of a healthcare management system. The account input device can store information related to a user's non-financial account, and is used to initiate interactions with the system. Examples of account input devices include magnetic strip cards, smart cards and computing devices having an application that can execute the account input device functions (e.g., smart phones, tablets, computers, etc.). The account input device can include account identifier information and other information in a format following a financial transaction.
"The member terminals can be devices configured to exchange information with the system according to a financial transaction message exchange protocol. These terminals are devices that are capable of receiving financial account and transaction information for the purposes of conducting financial transactions. The member terminals can receive information from the account input device, as well as receive input information related to individual transactions, and transmit the necessary information to the system. The member terminals can also receive responses from the system and present them to the user and/or member employee. Examples of member terminals include contact terminals, contactless terminals, credit card readers, near-field communication ('NFC') readers, smart card readers, etc. These member terminals can also include cash registers connected to various types of readers, and that can receive account and transaction information manually via one or more of a keypad, proximity sensor, or other type of input device. The member terminals can also include cellular phones, tablets, or other computing devices capable of processing financial transactions according to a financial transaction system (e.g., credit card transactions, debit card transactions).
"A user can become a member of the system by receiving an input device at a participating member's office. For example, a patient at a doctor's office can become a member by receiving a magnetic stripe card from the doctor. The card can be activated by the doctor, whereby the user is identified within the system by the card number of the magnetic stripe card. To avoid issuing multiple duplicative account input devices to the same patient, a database can store links between active account identifiers and patient data (e.g., social security numbers, telephone numbers, or other identifiers).
"Various objects, features, aspects and advantages of the inventive subject matter will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, along with the accompanying drawing figures in which like numerals represent like components."
URL and more information on this patent, see: Sexton,
Keywords for this news article include: Business, Software, Computers,
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