Patent ID: 8332238

Claim:
A method for facilitating the delivery of electronic funds and displaying an explanation of benefits to a service provider comprising the steps of: intercepting, by a provider bank middleware application computer between the sender and the provider's bank, an adjudicated claim from a third party administrator containing both payment information and an explanation of benefits (EOB) encoded into an electronic funds transfer (EFT); decoding, by the middleware application, the intercepted EFT into the payment information and a separate EOB; generating, by the middleware application, an authentication code that links the payment information and the EOB; sending, by the middleware application, the payment information and the authentication code to a provider bank where it is stored on a bank data store; sending, by the middleware application, the explanation of benefits and authentication code to a third-party image processor where it is stored on an EOB data store; generating, by a third-party image processor separate from the provider bank, an EOB image file from the EOB, the EOB image file being compatible with an online check viewing application administered by the provider bank; embedding, by the third-party image processor, the EOB image file within a preexisting provider bank interface used for displaying posted paper check images, such that the EOB image is not directly provided by the bank; and responsive to an inquiry by the service provider through the online check viewing application for the payment information for the adjudicated claim, displaying, on a portal computer, the embedded EOB image file with the linked payment information based on the authentication code, whereby the payment information is retrieved from the bank data store and the explanation of benefits is retrieved from the EOB data store.