Patent ID: 8589274

Claim:
A method of managing healthcare costs, said method comprising: storing, via a storage device, information regarding a plurality of healthcare related economic data sources; accessing, via a computer, information of each of the plurality of healthcare related economic data sources with the healthcare related economic data sources having historical information regarding health transactions of both a plurality of buyers of healthcare services and a plurality of suppliers of healthcare services; applying, via a computer, a statistical software program to the plurality of healthcare related economic data sources to determine the relevance of the plurality of healthcare related economic data sources to a healthcare trend; based on the determined relevance, selecting, via a computer, information of at least one healthcare related economic data source of the plurality of healthcare related economic data sources that correlates with the healthcare trend; calculating and storing, via the storage device, information regarding a healthcare index value for the selected at least one healthcare related economic data source; calculating information regarding a first value of a healthcare derivative instrument as a function of the healthcare index value for the selected at least one healthcare related economic data source; storing, via the storage device, the information regarding the first value of the healthcare derivative instrument; issuing a quantity of the healthcare derivative instrument at a first time period at a first price; correlating price fluctuations of the healthcare derivative instrument with fluctuations in the healthcare index value; determining a second price of the healthcare derivative instrument at a later settlement period as a function of the healthcare index value at the settlement period; and purchasing the quantity of the healthcare derivative instrument at the second price at the settlement period.