Patent ID: 8175901

Claim:
A computer-implemented method, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of claims for a plurality of health care services provided by a plurality of health care service providers to a patient, the receiving being performed by program logic implemented by the instructions stored in the machine-readable storage media, at least a portion of the claims being payable by a participant in a benefits plan and at least a portion of the claims being payable by a third party payor; remitting payment, by a payment services system logic implemented by the instructions stored in the machine-readable storage media, for each claim in the plurality of claims, payment of the entire claim in a single payment, including (i) remitting the portion of the claim payable by the third party payor, and (ii) remitting the portion of the claim payable by the participant, wherein the remitting step is initiated and performed by a payment services manager, the remitting step being performed before the participant has acknowledged the participant's obligation to pay for the health care service; and combining the claim from the health care provider and a plurality of additional health care providers into a master bill, and sending the master bill to the participant.