Patent Issued for Single entry combined functionality (USPTO 11449872): Synchrony Bank

2022 OCT 12 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Synchrony Bank (Stamford, Connecticut, United States) has been issued patent number 11449872, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are 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).

This patent was filed on November 14, 2019 and was published online on September 20, 2022.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote:

“1. Field of the Technology

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

“2. 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.).”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “SUMMARY OF THE CLAIMED INVENTION

“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. 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 from the single input action corresponds to a plurality of accounts associated with a plurality of different service provider platforms, and wherein the plurality of different service provider platforms are associated with a plurality of different non-distributed system databases; concurrently transmitting the card data in real-time, wherein when the card data is received at a first service provider platform associated with a first non-distributed system database 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 associated with a second non-distributed system database storing second account data, the second service provider platform makes a second determination as to the second account data; using a trained machine learning algorithm on the card data and historical transaction data to automatically adjudicate the transaction in real-time for both the first account data and the second account data, wherein the transaction is adjudicated without user intervention, and wherein automatically adjudicating the transaction includes parallel processing of two or more different transaction processing functions according to the first and the second non-distributed system databases; updating the historical transaction data with the adjudicated first account data and adjudicated second account data; and updating the machine-learning algorithm with the updated historical transaction data, wherein the updated machine-learning algorithm is used to adjudicate a future transaction.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first service provider platform corresponds to an insurance system, the first non-distributed system database includes an insurance policy database of the insurance system, the determination as to the first account data includes an extent of insurance coverage according to the insurance policy database, and wherein executing one of the two or more different transaction processing functions includes using the extent of insurance coverage for a portion of the transaction.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the second service provider platform corresponds to a payment source system, the second non-distributed system database includes a cardholder database of the payment source system, the determination as to the second account data includes an amount of payment funds according to the cardholder database, and wherein executing one of the two or more different transaction functions includes using the amount of payment funds for a portion of the transaction.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: storing the updated historical transaction data in a machine learning database, wherein using the updated machine learning algorithm includes customizing one or more future transaction processing functions of the future transaction.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising determining that data regarding the user includes a user preference, wherein executing the two or more different transaction processing functions is further based on the user preference.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein a result of one of the two or more different transaction processing functions corresponds to a portion of the transaction, and wherein another one of the two or more different transaction processing functions corresponds to another portion of the transaction.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the second account data initially indicates an insufficient level of available funds for use in processing the transaction, and wherein one of the two or more different transaction processing functions includes automatically processing an increase to the level of available funds, wherein the increased level of available funds is used to adjudicate the transaction.

“8. A system, comprising: a communication interface configured to communicate 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, the card data from the single input action corresponding to a plurality of accounts associated with the plurality of different service provider platforms, and wherein the plurality of service provider platforms are associated with a plurality of different non-distributed system databases; and concurrently transmits the card data in real-time, wherein when the card data is received at a first service provider platform associated with a first non-distributed system database 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 associated with a second non-distributed system database 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 processors execute the instructions to: using a trained machine learning algorithm on the card data and historical transaction data to automatically adjudicate the transaction in real-time for both the first account data and the second account data, wherein the transaction is adjudicated without user intervention, and wherein automatically adjudicating the transaction includes parallel processing of two or more different transaction processing functions according to the first and the second non-distributed system databases; updating the historical transaction data with the adjudicated first account data and adjudicated second account data; and updating the machine-learning algorithm with the updated historical transaction data, wherein the updated machine-learning algorithm is used to adjudicate a future transaction.

“9. The system of claim 8, wherein the first service provider platform corresponds to an insurance system, the first non-distributed system database includes an insurance policy database of the insurance system, the determination as to the first account data includes an extent of insurance coverage according to the insurance policy database, and wherein executing one of the two or more different transaction processing functions includes using the extent of insurance coverage for a portion of the transaction.

“10. The system of claim 8, wherein the second service provider platform corresponds to a payment source system, the second non-distributed system database includes a cardholder database of the payment source system, the determination as to the second account data includes an amount of payment funds according to the cardholder database, and wherein executing one of the two or more different transaction functions includes using the amount of payment funds for a portion of the transaction.

“11. The system of claim 8, further comprising: a machine learning database that stores the updated historical transaction data, wherein using the updated machine learning algorithm includes customizing one or more future transaction processing functions of the future transaction.

“12. The system of claim 8, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium further includes: instructions that when executed, determine that data regarding the user includes a user preference, wherein executing the two or more different transaction processing functions is further based on the user preference.

“13. The system of claim 8, wherein a result of one of the two or more different transaction processing functions corresponds to a portion of the transaction, and wherein another one of the two or more different transaction processing functions corresponds to another portion of the transaction.

“14. The system of claim 13, wherein the second account data initially indicates an insufficient level of available funds for use in processing the transaction, and wherein one of the two or more different transaction processing functions includes automatically processing an increase to the level of available funds, wherein the increased level of available funds is used to adjudicate the transaction.”

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

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Fasoli, David. Single entry combined functionality. U.S. Patent Number 11449872, filed November 14, 2019, and published online on September 20, 2022. 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=11449872.PN.&OS=PN/11449872RS=PN/11449872

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