Patent Issued for Systems and methods for allocating resources via information technology infrastructure (USPTO 11367058): Alegeus Technologies LLC

2022 JUL 07 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Bull, John (Nashua, NH, US), Neuville, Mark (De Pere, WI, US), filed on December 27, 2019, was published online on June 21, 2022.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11367058 is Alegeus Technologies LLC (Waltham, Massachusetts, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors:

“Companies or health insurance providers can establish electronic benefits accounts such as flexible spending accounts for individuals such as employees or subscribers, which can provide a tax advantage. The individual can transfer or allocate funds to contribute to the flexible spending account. The individuals can purchase qualifying items at a merchant using funds in their flexible spending account in order take advantage of tax savings. As individuals increasingly utilize flexible spending accounts, it can be challenging for the individuals to manage complex electronic transactions involved in contributing to the flexible spending account from a plurality of heterogeneous electronic funding sources without exceeding IRS contribution threshold limits.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

“The systems and methods of the present solution are directed to the technical problems and challenges of implementing the functionality of resource allocation in electronic transaction portal based technology and platforms. Existing resource allocation based technologies and platforms do not effectively and efficiently make use of the computing and network resources deployed for electronic transaction portals. Without implementing such functionality, existing electronic transaction portal based technologies and platforms have the problems of excessive server-client requests and responses, processing delays, increase bandwidth usage, or erroneous resource allocations.

“The systems and methods of the present solution are directed to the improvement of the performance and operation of the electronic transaction portal based technology and platform and computing and networking resource used by such electronic transaction portals. In some aspects, the present solution improves and enhances the implemented functionality of the electronic transaction portal based technology and platform implemented on, integrated with and inherently tied to the processor, memory, network and computing resources of one or more computing devices. In some aspects, the present solution more effectively performs the functionality of the electronic transaction portal technology and platform thereby making and causing more effective use of the computing and networking resources to achieve the improved functionality of the present solution. The same computing and network resources used by such electronic transaction portal technology and platform will provide increased and improved functionality with implementation of the present solution.

“In some aspects, the present solution more efficiently uses the computing and networking resources to implement the improved functionality of the electronic transaction based technology and platform. For example, systems and methods of the present solution are directed to allocating resources via information technology infrastructure. Systems and methods of the present solution can manage electronic transaction portals connected to heterogeneous electronic funding sources for funding electronic benefits accounts. Systems and methods of the present solution can manage the electronic transaction portal to prevent single electronic benefits account transactions from exceeding threshold limits for contributions. Systems and methods of the present solution are directed to conducting electronic transactions using a multi-purse debit card. Systems and methods of the present solution can use a multi-purse transaction system that maintains an electronic account having multiple purses, such as an electronic benefits account and an electronic reimbursement account.

“Systems and methods of the present solution can adjudicate a single claim against the electronic benefits account (e.g., determine that the single claim is approved for reimbursing an electronic account by an amount of expenditures associated with the electronic transaction). An electronic account can be maintained by a server and include a database in memory or a storage device. The electronic account can include sub structures or fields. The electronic account can include multiple purses that are configured with one or more rules, parameters, restrictions, or policies. For example, the electronic account can include a first purse that is configured for benefits as an electronic benefits account purse. A purse configured for benefits can refer to a purse that is configured for transactions made using a tax benefit account such as a flexible spending account (“FSA”), Dependent Care Account (“DCA”), Transport Account (e.g., for parking or monthly passes). In some embodiments, the FSA, DCA, and Transport Account can be further separated into sub-purses within the electronic benefits account purse of the electronic account. A flexible spending account, or flexible spending arrangement, can refer to a tax-advantaged financial account that can be set up through a cafeteria plan of an employer and used to set aside a portion of earnings to pay for qualified expenses as established in the cafeteria plan. Types of FSA can include medical expense FSA, health FSA, health savings account (HSA), health reimbursement account (HRA), health reimbursement plan (HRP), etc. Qualified expenses can include, for example, medical expenses, dependent care, dental expenses, vision expenses, parking, monthly passes, etc. An FSA can be tax-advantaged because funds deducted from an employee’s account and transferred to the FSA is not subject to payroll taxes, resulting in payroll tax savings.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system, comprising: one or more servers comprising one or more processors configured to: receive, from a device corresponding to an electronic funding source, a first one or more packets comprising a request to initiate an electronic benefits account transaction to fund an electronic benefits account, the request identifying a transaction destination, a transaction code, a transaction amount, and an identifier identifying the electronic funding source, wherein the device is one of a plurality of devices and the electronic funding source is one of a plurality of electronic funding sources, and wherein each device is associated with a funding source; identify a threshold limit established for the electronic benefits account that is associated with the transaction code; identify, in an electronic transaction queue of the electronic benefits account maintained by the one or more servers, an in-process transaction amount and a reportable contribution amount; determine a virtual transaction balance by combining the transaction amount, the in-process transaction amount, and the reportable contribution amount identified from the electronic transaction queue of the electronic benefits account; determine, based on a comparison between the virtual transaction balance and the threshold limit associated with the transaction code, that the virtual transaction balance exceeds the threshold limit; and transmit, via a network to the device corresponding to the electronic funding source, an indication of a denial of the electronic benefits account transaction request responsive to the comparison exceeding the threshold limit and the transaction code, wherein the device or the one or more servers, in response to receiving the indication of the denial, terminates the electronic benefits account transaction and prevents exceeding the threshold limit established for the electronic benefits account.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: provide, to the plurality of devices corresponding to the plurality of electronic funding sources, an electronic benefits account transaction application programming interface (“API”) configured to receive transaction requests from the plurality of electronic funding sources.

“3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: determine whether the transaction code maps to a predetermined time interval of a plurality of predetermined time intervals; and determine an associated threshold limit set for the predetermined time interval.

“4. The system of claim 3, wherein the plurality of predetermined time intervals comprise a current year or a previous year, the predetermined time interval is one of the current year or the previous year, and the one or more processors are further configured to: determine that the transaction code maps to the one of the current year or the previous year responsive to identifying that the electronic funding source enforces electronic benefits account limits.

“5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: determine an enforcement rule based on the electronic benefits account transaction request; and identify the threshold limit based on the enforcement rule.

“6. The system of claim 1, wherein the indication includes instructions to terminate the electronic benefits account transaction initiated by the request to prevent exceeding the threshold limit established for the electronic benefits account.

“7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: select an alert format configured for an interface corresponding to the electronic funding source; and transmit the indication of the denial in the alert format within a predetermined time interval from receiving the electronic benefits account request.

“8. The system of claim 3, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: receive a second electronic benefits account transaction request for the same predetermined time interval; determine, for the second electronic benefits account transaction request, a second virtual transaction balance satisfies the threshold limit; and responsive to the second virtual transaction balance satisfying the threshold limit, memo-post the second electronic benefits account transaction and add the second virtual transaction balance to an in-process transaction queue.

“9. The system of claim 8, wherein the second virtual transaction balance is less than the virtual transaction balance.

“10. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: receive a second request to initiate a second electronic benefits account transaction to fund a second electronic benefits account; determine whether the second electronic benefits account lacks an enforcement rule; and responsive to the second electronic benefits account lacking the enforcement rule, post the second electronic benefits account transaction.

“11. A method, comprising: receiving, by one or more processors, from a device corresponding to an electronic funding source, a first one or more packets comprising a request to initiate an electronic benefits account transaction to fund an electronic benefits account, the request identifying a transaction destination, a transaction code, a transaction amount and an identifier identifying the electronic funding source, wherein the device is one of a plurality of devices and the electronic funding source is one of a plurality of electronic funding sources, and wherein each device is associated with a funding source; identifying, by the one or more processors, a threshold limit established for the electronic benefits account and that is associated with the transaction code; identifying, by the one or more processors, in an electronic transaction queue of the electronic benefits account maintained by the one or more processors, an in-process transaction amount and a reportable contribution amount; determining, by the one or more processors, a virtual transaction balance by combining the transaction amount, the in-process transaction amount and the reportable contribution amount identified from the electronic transaction queue of the electronic benefits account; determining, by the one or more processors, based on a comparison between the virtual transaction balance and the threshold limit associated with the transaction code, that the virtual transaction balance exceeds the threshold limit; and transmitting, by the one or more processors, via a network to the device corresponding to the electronic funding source, an indication of a denial of the electronic benefits account transaction request responsive to the comparison exceeding the threshold limit and the transaction code, wherein the device or the one or more processors, in response to receiving the indication of the denial, terminates the electronic benefits account transaction and prevents exceeding the threshold limit established for the electronic benefits account.

“12. The method of claim 11, comprising: providing, to the plurality of devices corresponding to the plurality of electronic funding sources, an electronic benefits account transaction application programming interface (“API”) configured to receive transaction requests from the plurality of electronic funding sources.

“13. The method of claim 11, comprising: determining whether the transaction code maps to a predetermined time interval of a plurality of predetermined time intervals; and determining an associated threshold limit set for the predetermined time interval.

“14. The method of claim 13, wherein the plurality of predetermined time intervals comprise a current year or a previous year, the predetermined time interval is one of the current year or the previous year, comprising: determining that the transaction code maps to the one of the current year or the previous year responsive to identifying that the electronic funding source enforces electronic benefits account limits.

“15. The method of claim 11, comprising: determining an enforcement rule based on the electronic benefits account transaction request; and identifying the threshold limit based on the enforcement rule.

“16. The method of claim 11, wherein the indication includes instructions to terminate the electronic benefits account transaction initiated by the request to prevent exceeding the threshold limit established for the electronic benefits account.

“17. The method of claim 11, comprising: selecting an alert format configured for an interface corresponding to the electronic funding source; and transmitting the indication of the denial in the alert format within a predetermined time interval from receiving the electronic benefits account request.

“18. The method of claim 13, comprising: receiving a second electronic benefits account transaction request for the same predetermined time interval; determining, for the second electronic benefits account transaction request, a second virtual transaction balance satisfies the threshold limit; and responsive to the second virtual transaction balance satisfying the threshold limit, initiating a memo-post of the second electronic benefits account transaction and adding the second virtual transaction balance to an in-process transaction queue.

“19. The method of claim 18, wherein the second virtual transaction balance is less than the virtual transaction balance.

“20. The method of claim 11, comprising: receiving a second request to initiate a second electronic benefits account transaction to fund a second electronic benefits account; determining whether the second electronic benefits account lacks an enforcement rule; and responsive to the second electronic benefits account lacking the enforcement rule, initiating a post of the second electronic benefits account transaction.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Bull, John. Systems and methods for allocating resources via information technology infrastructure. U.S. Patent Number 11367058, filed December 27, 2019, and published online on June 21, 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=11367058.PN.&OS=PN/11367058RS=PN/11367058

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)