Patent ID: 7962350

Claim:
In a financial entity system that is capable of communicating with a payment entity that is in communication with a server system that receives insurance claims from a health care provider, a method of advancing a carrier's portion of payment for health care services rendered by the health care provider prior to the carrier making payment on the insurance claim for the rendered health care services, the method comprising: at the financial entity system including computer systems and/or servers comprising one or more processors and one or more memory storage devices, configured for receiving from the payment entity a single fund distribution request via an electronic medium, wherein the payment entity has pre-adjudicated one or more insurance claims to determine how much money of the carrier's expected payment is eligible to be advanced in an advanced payment for rendered health care services, the single fund distribution request specifying how that advanced payment should be distributed between an operational account and a reserve account both located at the financial entity system, wherein the payment entity pre-adjudicates the one or more insurance claims prior to the carrier adjudicating the one or more insurance claims, and wherein the advanced payment is advanced by the financial entity system and corresponds to the carrier's expected payment as distinct from the patient's expected payment; crediting a first portion of the advance payment to the operational account according to the single fund distribution request, such that a data structure representing the operational account is updated to indicate that the first portion of the advance payment has been advanced, wherein the first portion of the advanced payment corresponds to a portion of the carrier's expected payment and wherein the first portion of the advanced payment is immediately accessible to the health care provider; crediting a second portion of the advanced payment to the reserve account according to the single fund distribution request, such that a data structure representing the reserve account is updated to indicate that the second portion of the advanced payment has been advanced, wherein the second portion of the advanced payment corresponds to another portion of the carrier's expected payment and wherein the second portion of the advanced payment is not immediately accessible to the health care provider; and after the carrier processes the insurance claim, subsequently receiving payment for the insurance claim from the carrier.