Patent Issued for Systems and methods for pet insurance underwriting, rating, adjustments, and enrollment (USPTO 11508013): ADubb LLC

2022 DEC 09 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Andreae, Alexander James (Punta Gorda, FL, US), Dubbaneh, Anthony C. (Punta Gorda, FL, US), Nonis, Sebastian Milton (El Dorado Hills, CA, US), Rice, Megan Madalynne (Punta Gorda, FL, US), filed on August 25, 2020, was published online on November 22, 2022, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11508013 is assigned to ADubb LLC (Punta Gorda, Florida, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Pet ownership in the United States has more than tripled since the 1970s with over 60% of U.S. households now including at least one pet. In general, Americans care deeply about their pets; over 80% of Americans view their pet as a member of the family. This increased popularity in and affection towards pets has resulted in increased spending on pets. More than $55 billion was spent on pets in the United States in 2013, and a 40% rise in veterinary costs has been observed in the last five years.

“Keeping pets healthy and safe can be a challenge. For example, an owner’s sedentary lifestyle may lead to a sedentary lifestyle for the owner’s pets. Over 50% of dogs and cats in the United States are overweight or obese due to improper nutrition and/or lack of daily activity. As with humans, sedentary lifestyles and obesity in pets increases the risk of developing chronic conditions such heart disease, high blood pressure, Type II diabetes, and osteoarthritis. Additionally, certain pet breeds are prone to various genetic conditions and diseases.

“In addition to preventing and treating chronic and acute illnesses, pet owners striving to keep their pets healthy and safe may have to devote considerable resources and attention to ensuring their pets do not wander away from home. Pets that wander away face serious risks; for example, such pets may be hit by a vehicle or permanently lost or stolen. In the United States, ten million pets are lost each year and fewer than ten percent ever return home.

“Pet insurance is one of the best ways to reduce healthcare costs and keep pets safe, yet pet insurance is underutilized in the United States. Only 1.5% of U.S. pets are covered by insurance. Such underutilization may contribute to inflated health insurance prices. For example, many owners who self-select for pet insurance may be those with high risk pets, and such risks are currently spread across a relatively small population pool.

“A limited amount of reliable data and a lack of advanced actuarial models may also contribute to inflated health insurance prices. Typically, insurance providers engage in insurance underwriting and rating processes in which they assess a risk level associated with the asset to be insured and determine an appropriate insurance policy price to protect against that risk. Human health insurance and auto insurance policy providers rely on highly refined actuarial models, based on tens of millions of insured bodies and reliable data from medical records, police reports, etc., to determine appropriate insurance premiums. In contrast, pet insurance premiums may be set without access to reliable data. Pet insurance policy providers often rely primarily on basic data provided by a pet owner, such as a pet’s breed, age, sex, location of residence, general health, and preexisting conditions. Pet insurance providers often lack effective means to verify the accuracy of the owner-provided data. As a result, a pet’s insurance rating may have a relatively high level of uncertainty. Insurance premiums may be inflated to protect the insurance provider from financial loss in light of this uncertainty.

“Consequently, the relatively high cost of pet insurance deters many pet owners from obtaining insurance for their pets. Moreover, for those interested in pet insurance, the process of comparing quotes and enrolling in pet insurance can be cumbersome.

“Accordingly, a need exists for improvements in the field of pet insurance.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In particular, needs exist for improved data acquisition, data verification, actuarial models, and user experiences in the field of pet insurance. The present disclosure is directed to devices, systems, and methods that fill one or more of these needs.

“One aspect of the disclosure is directed to a method of individualizing pet insurance premiums based on acquired pet monitoring data. In various embodiments, the method includes receiving pet monitoring data for a pet from at least one sensor on a pet monitoring device. The pet monitoring data may include, for example, a detected location, activity level, extreme temperature event, or impact event. The method further includes transmitting pet monitoring information to an insurer computing device. The pet monitoring information of various embodiments includes all or a portion of the pet monitoring data. For example, the pet monitoring information may include a stream of all collected pet monitoring data, a stream of one or more parameters of interest, an aggregation of pet monitoring data collected in a given timeframe, an aggregation of pet monitoring data collected from a population of pets, or plots, averages, or other metrics calculated from aggregate data. The method further includes receiving an adjusted premium rate for the pet from the insurer computing device. The adjusted premium rate of various embodiments is determined by the insurer computing device by adjusting a preliminary premium rate based on the pet monitoring information.

“In some embodiments, the method also includes: first receiving background data about the pet from a user via a user input, transmitting the background data to the insurer computing device such that the insurer can calculate the preliminary premium rate based on the background data, and presenting an insurance offering that includes the preliminary premium rate to the user for purchase via a user interface.

“In some such embodiments, transmitting the background data to the insurer computing device includes transmitting the background data to a plurality of insurer computing devices. In such embodiments, the method further includes: receiving an insurance quote from each of the plurality of insurer computing devices, and selecting the best quote and corresponding preliminary premium rate to present to the user. In some such embodiments, the method also includes negotiating, with an insurer, the best quote on the user’s behalf. The best quote may be the lowest quote and/or a quote that best matches the insurance preferences of the user.

“In some embodiments, background data about the pet includes at least one of an age, sex, breed, place of residence, proportion of time spent outdoors, vaccine record, neuter record, microchip record, preexisting health condition, other medical history, or owner insurance preference. In some embodiments, the background data about the pet is manually entered by a user through a graphical user interface on a personal computing device. In some embodiments, the background data about the pet is automatically pulled from a web-based medical record or an image of a physical medical record. In some embodiments, the pet monitoring data received from the sensor is used to verify and supplement the background data received from the user.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method for individualizing pet insurance premiums based on acquired pet monitoring data performed by a server of a computing system, the method comprising: receiving pet monitoring data from at least one sensor on a pet monitoring device worn by a pet, wherein the pet monitoring data comprises an activity level received from at least one of a gyroscope or an accelerometer; transmitting at least a portion of the pet monitoring data to an insurer computing device; receiving background data about the pet via a user input or from the pet monitoring device, wherein the background data comprises at least one of: an age, sex, breed, place of residence, proportion of time spent outdoors, vaccine record, neuter record, preexisting health condition, other medical history, or owner insurance preference; transmitting the background data to the insurer computing device, wherein the pet monitoring data is used to verify or supplement the background data received from the user input, and wherein the insurer computing device calculates a preliminary premium rate based on the background data; and receiving an adjusted premium rate for the pet from the insurer computing device, wherein the adjusted premium rate is determined by the insurer computing device by adjusting the preliminary premium rate based on the pet monitoring information.

“2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: presenting an insurance offering to the user for purchase via a user interface, wherein the insurance offering comprises the preliminary premium rate.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the background data to the insurer computing device comprises transmitting the background data to a plurality of insurer computing devices, and wherein the method further comprises: receiving an individual insurance quote from each of the plurality of insurer computing devices, and selecting a best quote and corresponding preliminary premium rate to present to the user.

“4. The method of claim 3, further comprising negotiating, with an insurer, the best quote on the user’s behalf.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein the background data about the pet is manually entered by a user through a graphical user interface on a personal computing device.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the background data about the pet is automatically pulled from a web-based medical record or an image of a physical medical record.

“7. The method of claim 2, further comprising: transmitting the at least a portion of the pet monitoring data and the background data to an alternative insurer; receiving an alternative quote from the alternative insurer, wherein the alternative quote is determined based, at least in part, on the at least a portion of the pet monitoring data and the background data; comparing the adjusted insurance rate and the alternative quote to determine which insurance package is better for the user; and transferring the user’s insurance coverage to the alternative insurer if the alternative quote is better for the user than the adjusted insurance rate.

“8. The method of claim 1, wherein the pet monitoring data further comprises one or more of: extreme temperature event data received from a thermistor or other temperature-responsive sensor; impact event data received from the accelerometer; a repetitive motion of the pet, wherein the repetitive motion is selected from a group consisting of: breathing, heart beating, and scratching; a detected location received from a GPS monitor; or a combination thereof.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least a portion of the pet monitoring data comprises a compilation of relevant pet monitoring data acquired over a period of time.

“10. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least a portion of the pet monitoring data further comprises an analysis of the pet monitoring data.

“11. The method of claim 1, further comprising building an actuarial model based on the pet monitoring data.

“12. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is repeated periodically to update the adjusted premium rate based on recently acquired pet monitoring data.

“13. A method of individualizing pet insurance premiums based on acquired pet monitoring data performed by a server of a computing system, the method comprising: receiving pet monitoring data from at least one sensor on a pet monitoring device worn by a pet, wherein the pet monitoring data comprises an activity level received from at least one of a gyroscope or an accelerometer; transmitting at least a portion of the pet monitoring data to an insurer computing device; receiving background data about the pet that comprises at least one of: an age, sex, breed, place of residence, proportion of time spent outdoors, vaccine record, neuter record, preexisting health condition, other medical history, or owner insurance preference, wherein the background data is received from the pet monitoring device or automatically pulled from a web-based medical record or an image of a physical medical record; transmitting the background data to the insurer computing device, wherein the pet monitoring data is used to verify or supplement the background data, and wherein the insurer computing device calculates a preliminary premium rate based on the background data; and receiving an adjusted premium rate for the pet from the insurer computing device, wherein the adjusted premium rate is determined by the insurer computing device by adjusting the preliminary premium rate based on the pet monitoring information.

“14. A method of individualizing pet insurance premiums based on acquired pet monitoring data performed by a server of a computing system, the method comprising: receiving pet monitoring data from at least one sensor on a pet monitoring device worn by a pet, wherein the pet monitoring data comprises an activity level received from at least one of a gyroscope or an accelerometer; transmitting at least a portion of the pet monitoring data to an insurer computing device; receiving background data about the pet via a user input or from the pet monitoring device, wherein the background data about the pet comprises at least one of: an age, sex, breed, place of residence, proportion of time spent outdoors, vaccine record, neuter record, preexisting health condition, other medical history, or owner insurance preference; transmitting the background data to the insurer computing device, wherein the pet monitoring data is used to verify or supplement the background data received from the user input, and wherein the insurer computing device calculates a preliminary premium rate based on the background data; receiving an adjusted premium rate for the pet from the insurer computing device, wherein the adjusted premium rate is determined by the insurer computing device by adjusting the preliminary premium rate based on the pet monitoring information; and adjusting an auto-pay amount associated with the preliminary premium rate to correspond to the adjusted premium.

“15. The method of claim 14, wherein the pet monitoring data further comprises extreme temperature event data, and wherein the extreme temperature event data is received from a thermistor or other temperature-responsive sensor.

“16. The method of claim 14, wherein the pet monitoring data further comprises impact event data, and wherein the impact event data is received from the accelerometer.

“17. The method of claim 14, further comprising building an actuarial model based on the pet monitoring data.

“18. The method of claim 14, wherein the pet monitoring data further comprises a detected location received from a GPS monitor.

“19. The method of claim 14, wherein the background data about the pet is manually entered by a user through a graphical user interface on a personal computing device.

“20. The method of claim 14, wherein the background data about the pet is automatically pulled from a web-based medical record or an image of a physical medical record.”

URL and more information on this patent, see: Andreae, Alexander James. Systems and methods for pet insurance underwriting, rating, adjustments, and enrollment. U.S. Patent Number 11508013, filed August 25, 2020, and published online on November 22, 2022. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11508013)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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