Patent Issued for System And Method For Vehicle Repair Cost Estimate Verification (USPTO 10,453,145)

2019 OCT 31 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Lawlor, Michael John (West Hartford, CT); Siddall, Bethany (Haslet, TX), filed on April 30, 2014, was published online on November 4, 2019.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 10,453,145 is Hartford Fire Insurance Company (Hartford, Connecticut, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Insurance claims often relate to damage to vehicles. By way of example, a vehicle of an insured may be damaged in a collision or by vandalism, falling objects, or other causes. The damaged vehicle is usually taken to a repair facility, such as an automobile body shop. The automobile body shop inspects the vehicle, determines the parts and labor time necessary for the repairs, obtains part prices, uses applicable labor rates, and prepares an estimate for the repairs.

“Insurers typically do not typically accept the body shop’s estimate. The body shop’s estimate may differ from an insurer’s assessment of the cost of repairs for a variety of reasons. These reasons may include an insurer’s assessment of the labor time involved in the repairs being lower than that in the body shop’s estimate, the insurer’s assessment of the prevailing labor rate being lower, and the insurer’s assessment that certain parts are available at lower expense, by way of example. There is also a risk that the body shop’s estimate includes one or more errors, such as replacement of a part which is not damaged, as well the possibility of fraud in the preparation of the estimate.

“In order to assess the body shop’s estimates, an insurer will typically assign an insurance adjuster to inspect, personally and on-site, the damaged vehicle. The adjuster will then prepare a report which can be used to generate the insurer’s own cost estimate for the repairs. The insurer’s cost estimate is then presented to the body shop. If the body shop disagrees with the insurer’s cost estimate, the body shop and a representative of the insurer will then negotiate to attempt to reach agreement. Only once agreement is reached will repairs on the vehicle commence.

“The insurer’s costs associated with vehicle repairs thus include the time and expenses associated with a personal inspection by an adjuster of the damaged vehicle, as well the preparation of an estimate by the adjuster. If the body shop does not accept the insurer’s cost estimate, the insurer’s costs further include costs associated with the time of insurer representatives in negotiations with the body shop.

“Systems and methods for verification of vehicle repair cost estimates submitted by repair facilities, while limiting the need for personal inspection by an insurance company adjuster of a damaged vehicle, would be desirable.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In embodiments, a computer system for processing data for processing data associated with vehicle repair estimates in connection with insurance claims includes one or more data storage devices storing an insurance claims database having data relating to a plurality of insurance claims; one or more computer processors; a data communications device in communication with the one or more computer processors; and a memory device in communication with the one or more computer processors, and storing computer-readable instructions, which instructions, when executed by the one or more computer processors, cause the one or more computer processors to: access, via the data communications device, a vehicle repair rules database storing data indicative of a plurality of vehicle repair rules; receive claim identifying data from a repair facility computer system; determine, based on the claim identifying data, an insurance claim associated with the claim identifying data; receive data indicative of a repair estimate associated with the insurance claim from the repair facility computer system; access data indicative of an evaluation of the received repair estimate; and responsive to the data indicative of an amount of the repair estimate being below a first threshold, determine an insurance workflow to include forwarding the estimate for approval; responsive to the data indicative of an amount of the repair estimate being at least the first threshold, and the evaluation being indicative of one or more rules being triggered, determine an insurance workflow to include forwarding the estimate to a claim handler device for review; and responsive to the data indicative of an amount of the repair estimate being at least the first threshold, and the evaluation being indicative of no rules being triggered, determine an insurance workflow to include forwarding the estimate for approval.

“In embodiments, a computer-implemented method of processing data relating to vehicle repair estimates associated with insurance claims includes: storing in one or more data storage devices an insurance claims database having data relating to a plurality of insurance claims; receiving, by one or more computer processors, claim identifying data from a repair facility computer system; determining, by the one or more computer processors, based on the claim identifying data, an insurance claim associated with the claim identifying data; receiving, by the one or more computer processors, data indicative of a repair estimate associated with the insurance claim, including data indicative of an amount, from the repair facility computer system; accessing, by the one or more computer processors, an evaluation of the received repair estimate, the evaluation being based on an application of a plurality of rules to the repair estimate; responsive to the data indicative of an amount of the repair estimate being below a first threshold, determining, by the one or more computer processors, an insurance workflow to include forwarding the estimate for approval; responsive to the data indicative of an amount of the repair estimate being at least the first threshold, and the evaluation being indicative of one or more rules being triggered, determining, by the one or more computer processors, an insurance workflow to include forwarding the estimate to a claim handler device for review; and responsive to the data indicative of an amount of the repair estimate being at least the first threshold, and the evaluation being indicative of no rules being triggered, determining, by the one or more computer processors, an insurance workflow to include forwarding the estimate for approval.

“In embodiments, a computer system for processing data for verification of vehicle repair estimates in connection with insurance claims, includes a claim handler computer system configured to receive estimate data and display estimate data, including data indicative of rules triggered by an estimate; and an insurance data system in communication with the claim handler computer system via a local area network, and including one or more data storage devices storing: an insurance claims database storing data relating to a plurality of insurance claims and repair estimates, including at least one field for storing data indicative of status of vehicle repair estimates in a vehicle repair estimate workflow; one or more computer processors in communication with the insurance claims database; a communications device in communication with the one or more computer processors and in communication with a network; a memory device in communication with the one or more computer processors, and storing computer-readable instructions, which instructions, when executed by the one or more computer processors, cause the one or more computer processors to: receive claim identifying data via the communications device and the network from a repair facility computer system; determine, based on the claim identifying data, an insurance claim associated with the claim identifying data; receive data indicative of a repair estimate associated with the insurance claim from the repair facility computer system; access data indicative of an evaluation of the repair estimate, the evaluation being based on application of a plurality of estimate rules to the repair estimate; responsive to the data indicative of an amount of the repair estimate being below a first threshold, determine an insurance workflow to include forwarding the estimate for approval; responsive to the data indicative of an amount of the repair estimate being at least the first threshold, and the evaluation being indicative of one or more rules being triggered, determine an insurance workflow to include forwarding the estimate to a claim handler device for review; and responsive to the data indicative of an amount of the repair estimate being at least the first threshold, and the evaluation being indicative of no rules being triggered, determine an insurance workflow to include forwarding the estimate for approval.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A computer system for processing data associated with vehicle repair estimates in connection with insurance claims, comprising: one or more data storage devices storing: an insurance claims database having data relating to a plurality of insurance claims; one or more computer processors; a data communications device in communication with the one or more computer processors; a memory device in communication with the one or more computer processors, and storing computer-readable instructions, which instructions, when executed by the one or more computer processors, cause the one or more computer processors to: access, via the data communications device, a vehicle repair rules database storing data indicative of a plurality of vehicle repair rules including two or more of staff threshold rules, compliance rules, gross estimate threshold rules, percentage of vehicle actual cash value rules, mechanical hours rules, mechanical total rules, and gross estimate difference rules; establish, via the data communications device, secure communications with the repair facility computer system by providing the repair facility computer system code for creation of a virtual drive on the repair facility computer system, wherein the virtual drive is configured to receive repair estimate data from the repair facility computer system and make the repair estimate data available to the computer system; receive claim identifying data from a repair facility computer system; determine, based on the claim identifying data, an insurance claim associated with the claim identifying data; receive data indicative of a repair estimate associated with the insurance claim from the repair facility computer system; access data indicative of an evaluation of the received repair estimate, the evaluation being based on an application of the plurality of vehicle repair rules to the repair estimate; and responsive to the data indicative of a value of the repair estimate being below a first threshold value, determine an insurance workflow to include forwarding the estimate for approval without forwarding the estimate to a claim handler device for review; responsive to the data indicative of the value of the repair estimate being equal to or greater than the first threshold value, and the evaluation being indicative of one or more of the plurality of vehicle repair rules being triggered; determine an insurance workflow to include forwarding the estimate to a claim handler device for review; and render, for display on the claim handler device, a user interface including a top portion and a bottom portion, the top portion displaying a listing of conditions requiring review and the bottom portion displaying a listing of each item of the estimate including separate columns for parts, labor cost, and applicable rate; responsive to the data indicative of the value of the repair estimate being equal to or greater than the first threshold value, and the evaluation being indicative of no rules being triggered, determine an insurance workflow to include forwarding the estimate for approval without forwarding the estimate to a claim handler device for review; store, in the one or more data storage devices, a plurality of digital image data estimate rules for comparing an estimate based on digital image data to data indicative of a repair estimate received from the repair facility computer system; receive, by the one or more computer processors, digital image data of the vehicle; analyze, by a vehicle image analysis module, the digital image data of the vehicle and a baseline image of a same make and model of the vehicle, to identify vehicle parts that are damaged; generate, based on the identified vehicle parts that are damaged, a digital image estimate to repair the damage; access data indicative of an evaluation of the digital image estimate, the evaluation being based on an application of the plurality of digital image data estimate rules to the digital image estimate; responsive to the data indicative of an identity of parts in the repair estimate differing from the identity of parts in the digital image estimate by greater than at least a second threshold, determine an insurance workflow to include forwarding the estimate to a claim handler device for review; and responsive to the data indicative of the identity of parts in the repair estimate differing from the identity of parts in the digital image estimate by less than the at least second threshold, determine an insurance workflow to include forwarding the estimate for approval without review by a claim handler.

“2. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising the claim handler device in communication with the one or more computer processors.

“3. The computer system of claim 2, further comprising a payment system in communication with the claim handler device, the payment system being configured to effect payment responsive to instructions received from the claim handler device.

“4. The computer system of claim 2, wherein the claim handler device is configured to, responsive to receiving the estimate for review, display claim information including a listing of triggered ones of the plurality of rules.

“5. The computer system of claim 4, wherein the claim handler device is further configured to receive claim handler instructions to provide a modified estimate to the repair facility computer system, and to provide data indicative of the modified estimate to the one or more computer processors, and wherein the instructions further cause the one or more computer processors to, responsive to receipt of the data indicative of the modified estimate, provide the modified estimate to the repair facility computer system.

“6. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising a communications device in communication with the one or more processors, the communications device being configured to provide estimate data to a claimant device.

“7. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the accessing data indicative of an evaluation associated with the repair estimate comprises receiving the evaluation from an intermediary computer system.

“8. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to apply the plurality of rules to the estimate data prior to the accessing the data indicative of an evaluation.

“9. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to: determine whether the repair facility is a network facility or a non-network facility, responsive to determining that the repair facility is a network facility, and the estimate amount being below a second threshold, higher than the first threshold, determine an insurance workflow to include forwarding the estimate for approval; and responsive to determining that the repair facility is a non-network facility, or that the estimate amount is not below the second threshold, determine an insurance workflow to include forwarding the estimate to a claim handler device for review.

“10. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the one or more computer processors are further configured to communicate modifications to a rules database for use in generating the evaluation.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Lawlor, Michael John; Siddall, Bethany. System And Method For Vehicle Repair Cost Estimate Verification. U.S. Patent Number 10,453,145, filed April 30, 2014, and published online on November 4, 2019. 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=10,453,145.PN.&OS=PN/10,453,145RS=PN/10,453,145

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