Nova Patents
US20100324924A1

Medical Billing Systems and Methods

Claim Score by NHIP

Read claim 1, the broadest

Abstract

The invention relates to medical billing systems, software, and methods. In the methods, a patient is told how much he or she owes to a hospital prior to or after discharge. The hospital then sells the right to collect the patient debt to a billing service. The billing service establishes an ad hoc credit rating for the hospital by analyzing an existing credit rating scale and fitting the hospital's financial data to that rating scale, and also establishes the patient's credit rating, expected recovery index (ERI) or other scoring metric. The hospital is advanced an amount that depends on the hospital's credit rating and the patient's credit scoring metric, and the billing service collects the debt from the patient, typically by regular automatic transactions. The billing service may interact with patients and hospitals through automated interfaces, and in some embodiments, may act as an affiliate of a health insurer.

US20100324924A1, drawing sheet 1
Sheet 1 of 7

Term

Projected expiry 22 June 2029.

  1. Priority and filed
  2. Published
  3. Today
  4. Projected expiry

12 claims: 2 independent, 10 dependent

  1. 1
    Broadest claimClaim Score 73, broad(NHIP)A billing method, comprising:establishing a hospital credit rating by analyzing an existing rating scale and fitting hospital financial data to the existing rating scale;establishing a discount based on the hospital credit rating;receiving patient billing data indicating at least patient identifying information and amount owed by the patient;establishing a patient credit scoring metric for the patient;establishing a reserve based on the patient credit scoring metric;advancing the hospital an amount at least approximately equal to the amount owed by the patient less the discount rate and the reserve;and collecting the amount owed from the patient.
  2. 7
    A medical billing system, comprising:a billing service that defines an ad hoc credit rating for a medical provider by analyzing an existing rating scale and fitting medical provider financial data to the existing rating scale, and defines a credit scoring metric for a patient, wherein the billing service receives financial data from a third party indicating an amount owed for medical services and patient data for the patient;a patient interface server associated with the billing service, the patient interface server providing an interface to the patient through a communications network, the interface indicating the amount owed for medical services, allowing the patient to modify at least some of the patient data, and allowing the patient to enter or edit payment information;wherein the medical billing system collects the amount owed for medical services from the patient at least substantially automatically using the patient interface server and remits to the medical provider a portion of the amount owed for medical services based on the ad hoc credit rating and the credit rating for the patient.
Independent claims2