Patent Issued for Systems and methods for allocating resources via information technology infrastructure (USPTO 11727370): Alegeus Technologies LLC

2023 SEP 05 (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 June 17, 2022, was published online on August 15, 2023.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11727370 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: a data processing system comprising one or more processors, coupled with memory, to: receive, from a device remote from the data processing system, a request to initiate an electronic benefits account transaction to fund an electronic benefits account from an electronic funding source, the request comprising a transaction code and a transaction amount; access, for the electronic benefits account, an electronic transaction queue comprising a plurality of amounts; determine a virtual transaction balance based at least in part on the transaction amount and the plurality of amounts in the electronic transaction queue; identify, based at least in part on the transaction code, a threshold limit established for the electronic benefits account and used, by the data processing system, to approve the electronic benefits account transaction or deny the electronic benefits account transaction to prevent exceeding the threshold limit established for 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, an indication of a denial of the electronic benefits account transaction responsive to the comparison exceeding the threshold limit and the transaction code, wherein the device, in response to receiving the indication of the denial, is controlled by the indication of the denial to terminate the electronic benefits account transaction from the electronic funding source to prevent exceeding the threshold limit established for the electronic benefits account.

“2. The system of claim 1, 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 respective one of the plurality of electronic funding sources.

“3. The system of claim 1, comprising: the data processing system to identify, in the electronic transaction queue, the plurality of amounts comprising an in-process transaction amount and a reportable contribution amount.

“4. The system of claim 3, comprising: the data processing system to determine the virtual transaction balance based on the combination of the transaction amount, the in-process transaction amount, and the reportable contribution amount.

“5. The system of claim 1, comprising the data processing system to: receive, from the device, a second request to initiate a second electronic benefits account transaction to fund the electronic benefits account, the second request identifying a second transaction amount and the transaction code; determine a second virtual transaction balance based at least in part on a combination of the second transaction amount and the plurality of amounts in the electronic transaction queue; determine, based on a second comparison between the second virtual transaction balance and the threshold limit associated with the transaction code, that the second virtual transaction balance satisfies the threshold limit; and transmit, to the device, an indication of an approval of the second request responsive to the second comparison satisfying the threshold limit and the transaction code.

“6. The system of claim 5, wherein the device or the data processing system, in response to the approval, executes the second electronic benefits account transaction and without exceeding the threshold limit established for the electronic benefits account.

“7. The system of claim 1, comprising the data processing system 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 request.

“8. The system of claim 5, wherein the second virtual transaction balance is less than the virtual transaction balance.

“9. The system of claim 1, comprising the data processing system to: determine that the transaction code maps to one of a current year or a previous year; and select the threshold limit established for the one of the current year or the previous year to which the transaction code maps.

“10. The system of claim 1, comprising the data processing system to: determine an enforcement rule based on the request to initiate the electronic benefits account transaction; and identify the threshold limit based on the enforcement rule.

“11. The system of claim 5, comprising: the data processing system to, 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.

“12. A method, comprising: receiving, by a data processing system comprising one or more processors coupled with memory, from a device remote from the data processing system, a request to initiate an electronic benefits account transaction to fund an electronic benefits account from an electronic funding source, the request comprising a transaction code and a transaction amount; accessing, by the data processing system for the electronic benefits account, an electronic transaction queue comprising a plurality of amounts; determining, by the data processing system, a virtual transaction balance based at least in part on the transaction amount and the plurality of amounts in the electronic transaction queue; identifying, by the data processing system based at least in part on the transaction code, a threshold limit established for the electronic benefits account and used, by the data processing system, to approve the electronic benefits account transaction or deny the electronic benefits account transaction to prevent exceeding the threshold limit established for the electronic benefits account; determining, by the data processing system 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 data processing system via a network to the device, an indication of a denial of the electronic benefits account transaction responsive to the comparison exceeding the threshold limit and the transaction code, wherein the device, in response to receiving the indication of the denial, is controlled by the indication of the denial to terminate the electronic benefits account transaction from the electronic funding source to prevent exceeding the threshold limit established for the electronic benefits account.

“13. The method of claim 12, 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 respective one of the plurality of electronic funding sources.

“14. The method of claim 12, comprising: identifying, by the data processing system in the electronic transaction queue, the plurality of amounts comprising an in-process transaction amount and a reportable contribution amount.

“15. The method of claim 14, comprising: determining, by the data processing system, the virtual transaction balance based on the combination of the transaction amount, the in-process transaction amount, and the reportable contribution amount.

“16. The method of claim 12, comprising: receiving, by the data processing system from the device, a second request to initiate a second electronic benefits account transaction to fund the electronic benefits account, the second request identifying a second transaction amount and the transaction code; determining, by the data processing system, a second virtual transaction balance based at least in part on a combination of the second transaction amount and the plurality of amounts in the electronic transaction queue; determining, by the data processing system, based on a second comparison between the second virtual transaction balance and the threshold limit associated with the transaction code, that the second virtual transaction balance satisfies the threshold limit; and transmitting, by the data processing system to the device, an indication of an approval of the second request responsive to the second comparison satisfying the threshold limit and the transaction code.

“17. The method of claim 12, comprising: determining, by the data processing system, that the transaction code maps to one of a current year or a previous year; and selecting, by the data processing system, the threshold limit established for the one of the current year or the previous year to which the transaction code maps.

“18. The method of claim 12, comprising: determining, by the data processing system, an enforcement rule based on the request to initiate the electronic benefits account transaction; and identifying, by the data processing system, the threshold limit based on the enforcement rule.”

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

For additional information on this patent, see: Bull, John. Systems and methods for allocating resources via information technology infrastructure. U.S. Patent Number 11727370, filed June 17, 2022, and published online on August 15, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11727370)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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