“The rising cost of healthcare is having a dramatic effect on the
“These high deductible plans require patients to pay cash payments for medical services until the high deductible is satisfied, and once this deductible has been met, the insurance carrier begins to cover medical costs. As a result, many patients are seeing exponential increases in out-of-pocket expenses for medical procedures and services. In addition to more patients selecting high deductible plans, many patients cannot afford increased payments and are becoming uninsured or underinsured. As the number of patients who are uninsured, underinsured, or on high deductible plans grows, the need for a mechanism that allows patients to find discounted medical services increases and an efficient payment system.”
In addition to the background information obtained for this patent application, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “Herein presented is an apparatus and associated methods for presenting users a selection of at least one bundled set of healthcare services provided discretely and/or individually by a plurality of respective providers, determining a bundle price for the bundled set of healthcare services, receiving payment for the user selected bundled set, generating a purchase data record selectively redeemable by the user to receive each of the bundled healthcare services in the bundled set, transmitting a unique confirmation number generated for the purchase data record to track the redemption status of the purchase data record, disbursing payment allocated from the received payment to the plurality of respective providers and updating the redemption status of the purchase data record as each of the plurality of services of the bundled set are redeemed. The bundle price may be based on the user’s health insurance deductible as well as the location and/or time at which the bundled set of services will be provided. The purchase data record may be a voucher.
“The above-described and other features and advantages realized through the techniques of the present disclosure will be better appreciated and understood with reference to the following detailed description, drawings, and appended claims. Additional features and advantages are realized through the techniques of the present invention. Other embodiments and aspects of the invention are described in detail herein and are considered a part of the claimed invention.
“The detailed description explains exemplary embodiments of the present invention, together with advantages and features, by way of example with reference to the drawings, in which similar numbers refer to similar parts throughout the drawings. The flow diagrams depicted herein are just examples. There may be many variations to these diagrams, or the steps (or operations) described therein without departing from the spirit of the invention. For instance, the steps may be performed in a differing order, or steps may be added, deleted, or modified. All these variations are considered to be within the scope of the claimed invention.
“Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.”
The claims supplied by the inventors are:
“1. An apparatus comprising: a processor; a user interface, operably coupled with the processor; and a memory operably coupled to the processor, wherein the memory encodes processor executable program instructions and data to program and configure the processor to cause the apparatus to perform operations comprising: receive an electronic message comprising a user payment for a bundled set of a plurality of selectively redeemable healthcare services comprising at least one veterinary service to be provided by a plurality of respective providers, wherein the received payment is pre-paid in an amount of a bundle price based on a location at which at least one selectively redeemable healthcare service of the bundled set of healthcare services will be provided; and in response to receiving the electronic message comprising the user payment, generate an electronic health record comprising a purchase data record identified by and with a unique confirmation number; preset an initial individual redemption status in the purchase data record for each selectively redeemable healthcare service of the bundled set of healthcare services as purchased and unredeemed, and provide user access to the purchase data record to receive each selectively redeemable healthcare service of the plurality of healthcare services.
“2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the operations performed by the apparatus further comprise: in response to receiving the electronic message comprising the user payment, store the electronic health record in the memory; and send the electronic health record to at least one provider of the plurality of respective providers.
“3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the operations performed by the apparatus further comprise sending the unique confirmation number to the user.
“4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the received payment comprises real currency.
“5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the received payment comprises virtual funds.
“6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the received virtual funds payment further comprises promotional credit.
“7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the operations performed by the apparatus further comprise creating a virtual funds account for the user.
“8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the received payment is received from the virtual funds account created for the user.
“9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the operations performed by the apparatus further comprise disbursing payment to at least one of the plurality of respective providers.
“10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the at least one of the plurality of respective providers to which payment is disbursed further comprises at least one of a veterinarian, a veterinary technician, a dentist, a lab, a lab technician, an orthodontist, a periodontist, a surgeon, a radiologist, an anesthesiologist, a dental hygienist, a practice group, a veterinary hospital, a boarding facility, or an insurer.
“11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the disbursed payment comprises a plurality of payments allocated from the received payment, wherein the plurality of payments is disbursed to each of the plurality of respective providers.
“12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the user has a health insurance policy having a health insurance deductible and wherein the operations performed by the processor further comprise applying an amount of the received payment to the health insurance deductible.
“13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the amount of the received payment applied to the health insurance deductible is determined by the processor as a function of the health insurance policy.
“14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the operations performed by the apparatus further comprise setting the bundle price based on the health insurance deductible.
“15. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the purchase data record persists in a data store operably coupled with the processor and wherein the purchase data record is redeemable at least until each of the plurality of healthcare services in the bundled set is redeemed.
“16. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the operations performed by the apparatus further comprise: presenting to the user a plurality of healthcare services comprising at least one bundled set of the plurality of healthcare services to be performed separately by the plurality of respective providers; and receiving an indication of at least one bundled set of healthcare services selected by the user, wherein the bundle price is further determined by the processor based on a time at which at least one of the plurality of services will be provided.
“17. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one bundled set further comprises a drug.
“18. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one bundled set of healthcare services further comprises a primary service and a secondary service associated with the primary service, and wherein the received payment further comprises payment for the secondary service.
“19. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the purchase data record is the electronic health record.
“20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the purchase data record is selectively redeemable for each healthcare service individually.
“21. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one veterinary service further comprises prescribing a drug.
“22. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one veterinary service further comprises examination.
“23. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one veterinary service further comprises vaccination.
“24. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one veterinary service further comprises room and board.
“25. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one veterinary service further comprises a service related to surgery.
“26. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the operations performed by the apparatus further comprise associating an identification code received from a transponder in a non-human animal patient with the unique confirmation number using the purchase data record.
“27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the bundled set of healthcare services further comprises at least one service related to room and board for the non-human animal patient.
“28. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the bundled set of healthcare services further comprises an additional pre-paid amount of funds redeemable to a person who found the non-human animal patient.
“29. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one veterinary service further comprises imaging.
“30. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the bundled set of the plurality of healthcare services further comprises at least one veterinary service determined by the processor in response to a patient lifecycle event detected as a function of updated data received in an Electronic Health Record (EHR).”
URL and more information on this patent application, see: Ketchel, III,
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