Patent ID: 8041635

Claim:
An apparatus for providing automated payments having a computing device with a processor and memory for storing computing device executable instructions, the apparatus comprising: a data store communicatively coupled to the computing device, wherein the data store maintains information related to a loss, wherein the loss is due to an automobile accident, and wherein the loss includes multiple exposures, each exposure representing a discrete portion of the loss that can be processed separately, where each exposure may independently expose an insurance company to liability, and wherein the data store includes at least one of the following: an incident data store that maintains information related to specifics of the loss; an insured data store that maintains information about an insured party involved in the loss; and a policy data store that maintains policy specific information that may modify coverage amounts for the loss; a rules engine communicatively coupled to the computing device, wherein the rules engine receives information from the data store to derive a context of the loss, and processes a rule related to the loss to derive a payment for an exposure of the multiple exposures of the loss based on the context; an audit engine communicatively coupled to the computing device, wherein the audit engine provides an audit function to the rules engine including verifying an accuracy of the derived payment of the exposure; and a payment engine communicatively coupled to the computing device, wherein the payment engine processes the derived payment subject to the audit engine verifying the accuracy of the derived payment, wherein the rules engine periodically determines whether information to derive the payment for the exposure of the multiple exposures of the loss is complete, and when the information to derive the payment for the exposure of the loss is complete, notifies the payment engine to process the derived payment for the exposure, and wherein the rules engine, audit engine, and payment engine operate to process the multiple exposures in parallel.