Patent Issued for Multiple Computer Server System For Organizing Healthcare Information (USPTO 10,909,627)

2021 FEB 16 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Park, Andrew (Blaine, WA); Gutschmidt, Drew (Vancouver, CA), filed on April 29, 2014, was published online on February 15, 2021.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 10,909,627, is Biopolicy Innovations Inc. (Vancouver, Canada).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “A medical manufacturing company that provides pharmaceuticals or medical devices will naturally be interested in which insurance companies provide coverage for its products, as the more insurance companies that provide coverage for the product, the larger the potential customer base is. Healthcare professionals, such as medical manufacturing companies, currently rely on a cumbersome manual system of determining if healthcare insurance policies have been updated or changed. However, most healthcare professionals find out about changes to an insurer’s coverage policies passively through newsletters and the like, or anecdotally through others in the industry, long after the change has occurred.

“The predominant method of keeping track of insurer healthcare updates is to subscribe to newsletters and manually visit websites to see if a change has occurred. This is not an adequate solution due to the time required to visit the voluminous number of websites that carry relevant information and the human error that can miss a change (assuming such a change occurred on the website accessed). Subscribing to newsletters is also inadequate because health insurers do not always update their newsletters comprehensively, nor release them on a regular schedule; and newsletters are frequently released long after a change has actually occurred. It is thus important for stakeholders to find out about a change in policy as quickly as possible after it occurs.

“Generic software crawling technology is available, but is not targeted specifically towards the healthcare industry and the needs of medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, diagnostic companies, dental device manufacturers, professional healthcare associations and insurance companies; and offers no organization once a change is detected.

“A proposed solution exists that offers a query based database that contains names of health plans of tiers of pharmaceuticals, but fails to offer a database of update notifications and does not include information on medical devices; only pharmaceuticals.

“Another proposed solution offers an alert service for healthcare policy websites, but does not provide an analytical database that can customize, target and sort information within a policy or policy change, including information such as prior authorization requirements and current procedural terminology coding, and fails to provide a corresponding analytical tool.

“Other services provide a similar function but lack a targeted organized database of information that can be accessed via multiple searches and targeted data queries and are unable to produce customized reports that are updated along with the changes produced by a computer system.

“Another proposed solution is found in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0112873 disclosing a system and method for electronically monitoring, alerting and evaluating changes in a health care payor policy.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The system according to the invention scans a large volume of information available in a database of downloaded websites and documents, which are available through the Internet, to detect targeted changes related to healthcare insurance policies, using criteria selectable by a user. The information is then condensed to a format that is easily ported into a second database that houses and organizes the new information. The second database is accessible by the user and drop down menus are available to allow the user to generate a report displaying selected elements of healthcare policies in rows, with the name of the insurer in the column headings. The system according to the invention can use multiple servers to scan websites to collect and process large volumes of information.

“The system can allow stacking of servers, so all servers contribute to the singular data output produced by the main server. Each server can act independently of the others so disruption to a single server does not affect any processes or jobs of other servers.

“The system and method according to the invention solves the problem of scanning a huge web domain of information that could not be done completely in a manual fashion, multiple times a day. With the system, any changes to healthcare policies are detected no less than 24 hours after being posted on the web. A user interface that sorts the information allows ease of use and readability. By porting the information into a second database where it is organized and queried with a user-driven analytical tool, users gain additional insight into each policy and can compare consistent features of each policy across multiple insurance payers. This automated database provides the payer names as the columns, under which are healthcare policy specific data components (such as therapy coverage, prior authorization, previous and next review dates, coding).

“Multiple computer servers can be used to detect changes in a database of policies relevant to each user and to continually scan the websites in which the policies are located to download the policies into the database and capture the changes, which undergo further processing before the information is presented to the user.

“The system allows users to receive change updates to their policies of interest, without having to continually and manually log into each insurer’s website and determine if there is a change. The system has the ability to capture insurance policy information from insurers and health technology assessments in the US, Europe, Latin America, Canada and other countries around the world.

“The system is designed to specifically target predefined medical therapies in a designated database of websites for easy software based manipulation of change data.

“The system creates value for the user as the user can pick out changes to a volume of documentation that is impossible to scan efficiently through human effort alone. The system also removes the element of human error when determining if a document has changed. The user enjoys the benefit of having change information delivered to them much quicker than passively waiting for inconsistent and unreliable newsletter announcements from insurers (every insurer has disparate procedures in releasing newsletters, and many do not release them at all). Additional value is offered in a second database that houses much of the change information in a format that allows querying of specific data within policies, allowing the user to produce a report comparing this data across multiple insurers of their choosing.

“The system can alert the user to changes in documentation automatically via email, Short Message Service (SMS) or mobile application push notifications, thereby allowing the user to keep apprised of changes daily.

“A method of providing changes in healthcare policy information is provided, including: providing a first database, the first database containing a plurality of records, each record containing a copy of a website, the website pertaining to healthcare policy information; scanning current versions of the websites on the Internet and determining which of the websites have changed by comparing the current version of the website on the Internet to the copy in the first database; then identifying the website to a first server; and updating the copy of the website in the first database; and providing access to reports generated to reflect changes in the website.

“The first server may determine the changes made to each of the websites identified by a second server that scans the current versions of the websites. Records including the changes made to each of the websites identified by the second server may be stored in a second database. A first user interface may allow a user to search the first database. The second database may be searchable by the user through a second user interface.

“A field of each record in the first database may include at least one of the fields selected from the following: procedure name, medical device name, diagnostic test name, guideline name, vaccine name, drug name; name of insurer; and health plan name. A field of each record in the second database may include at least one of the fields selected from the following: procedure name, medical device name, diagnostic test name, guideline name, vaccine name, website name; insurer name; and coverage criteria.

“A system for managing healthcare policy information is provided, including: a first database, the first database containing records including copies of websites, the websites pertaining to policy information; a first server configured to scan current versions of the websites on the Internet and identifying which of the current websites have been changed since a previous scan of the website to a second server; and updating the records in the first database; and a second server configured to generate a report of the changes made to each of the identified websites; the second server also configured to provide access to a user to generate reports relating to the websites.

“The second server may be configured to determine the changes made to the websites identified by the first server and to generate an alert for a user on a change to a preselected website, the alert including information about the change to the preselected website. The system may include a mobile device application connected to the first database and the second database thereby allowing users to access and interact with healthcare policy data stored on the first and second databases.

“A system for viewing healthcare policy information is provided, including: a database containing a plurality of websites, the websites corresponding to copies of websites pertaining to healthcare insurance coverage policies; a second database of user selectable data fields containing elements of websites stored in the first database; a user interface whereby a user can view and download healthcare insurance coverage information related to the healthcare insurance coverage policies, the policies sortable by procedure name, medical device name, diagnostic test name, guideline name, vaccine name, website name; insurer name; and coverage criteria; a server in communication with the first and second databases, the server configured to generate data output from criteria selectable by the user through interactive menus; and means for exporting the data output into a selected data formats.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A computer-implemented method of tracking changes in healthcare policy documents, using a computer system, the method comprising: providing, in the computer system, a first database containing a plurality of records, each record containing a copy of a website from which original healthcare policy documents are located and downloaded into the first database; assigning a serial ID and a field to each record; scanning on a predetermined schedule, using a first server, current versions of the web sites on the Internet to identify which of the current websites have been changed in text, code, or document file size since a previous scan of the websites by comparing the text of the websites on the Internet to the text of the web sites stored in the first database; and updating the records in the first database; transmitting the serial IDs of the identified web sites having changes to a second server and scheduling websites which are unchanged for re-scanning; scanning on a predetermined schedule, using the second server, the identified websites from which updated healthcare policy documents are downloaded and compared to the original healthcare policy documents in the first database to capture changes made to the original healthcare policy documents, wherein the second server runs a server-side script to determine the changes in the form of text that was added or removed from each of the updated healthcare policy documents and generates a report indicating the text that was added or removed by the serial IDs; wherein scanning comprises detecting the identified websites by URL, grouping the identified websites, labelling the identified websites as either original websites or subsequent websites, and scheduling the original websites for re-scanning and attributing result data to the subsequent websites to decrease server load; running metrics on quantity of changes attributed to an insurer based on the changes in the text from the identified websites, and displaying a map showing concentration of changes in the healthcare policy documents across geographical regions; storing records including the changes made to each of the updated healthcare policy documents identified by the second server in a second database; providing a user device comprising a smartphone, a tablet, or a personal computer running an application connected to the first and second databases; allowing a user to use the smartphone, the tablet, or the personal computer to search the first and second databases and to generate reports; and displaying the reports comprising a visualization of the changes to the text in the healthcare policy documents on the smartphone, the tablet, or the personal computer to the user, and healthcare policy specific data components selected by the user of healthcare policies in rows and a name of an insurer in column headings, allowing the user to compare consistent features of each healthcare policy across a plurality of insurers.

“2. The method of claim 1 further comprising a first user interface, the first user interface configured to allow the user to search the first database.

“3. The method of claim 2 wherein the second database is searchable by the user through a second user interface.

“4. The method of claim 3 wherein a field of each record in the first database includes at least one of the fields selected from the following: procedure name, medical device name, diagnostic test name, guideline name, vaccine name, drug name; name of insurer; and health plan name.

“5. The method of claim 4, wherein a field of each record in the second database includes at least one of the fields selected from the following: procedure name, medical device name, diagnostic test name, guideline name, vaccine name, website name; insurer name; and coverage criteria.

“6. A non-transitory computer-readable medium carrying computer-executable instructions for tracking changes in healthcare policy documents, the instructions being executable by a processor to: access a memory storing a first database, the first database containing records including copies of websites from which original healthcare policy documents are located and downloaded into the first database; assign a serial ID and a field to each record; request a first server to scan on a predetermined schedule current versions of the websites on the Internet and identify which of the current websites have been changed in text, code, or document file size since a previous scan of the websites by comparing the text of the websites on the Internet to the text of the web sites stored in the first database; and update the records in the first database; transmit the serial IDs of the identified websites having changes to a second server and schedule websites which are unchanged for re-scanning; request the second server to scan on a predetermined schedule the identified websites from which updated healthcare policy documents are downloaded and compared to the original healthcare policy documents in the first database to capture changes made to the original healthcare policy documents, wherein the second server runs a server-side script to determine the changes in the form of text that was added or removed from each of the updated healthcare policy documents and generates a report indicating the text that was added or removed by the serial IDs; wherein scanning comprises detecting the identified websites by URL, grouping the identified websites, labelling the identified websites as either original websites or subsequent websites, and scheduling the original websites for re-scanning and attributing result data to the subsequent websites to decrease server load; run metrics on quantity of changes attributed to an insurer based on the changes in the text from the identified websites, and displaying a map showing concentration of changes in the healthcare policy documents across geographical regions; and store the changes made to each of the updated healthcare policy documents in a second database; request the second server to generate a report of the changes made to the healthcare policy documents; the second server also configured to allow a user to search the first and second databases and generate reports, wherein the second server is configured to determine the changes in the form of text that was added or removed from each of the updated healthcare policy documents from the websites identified by the first server; and displaying the reports comprising a visualization of the changes to the text in the healthcare policy documents and healthcare policy specific data components selected by the user of healthcare policies in rows and a name of an insurer in column headings to allow the user to compare consistent features of each healthcare policy across a plurality of insurers, to the user on a user device comprising a smartphone, a tablet, or a personal computer running an application connected to the first and second databases.

“7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 6 wherein the second server is configured to generate an alert for the user on a change to a preselected website, the alert including information about the change to the preselected website.

“8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 6 further comprising a mobile device application connected to the first database and the second database thereby allowing users to access and interact with healthcare policy data stored on the first and second databases.”

For more information, see this patent: Park, Andrew; Gutschmidt, Drew. Multiple Computer Server System For Organizing Healthcare Information. U.S. Patent Number 10,909,627, filed April 29, 2014, and published online on February 15, 2021. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,909,627.PN.&OS=PN/10,909,627RS=PN/10,909,627

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