Patent ID: 8219424

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for determining amounts for use in settling insurance claims, comprising: automatically identifying on an insurance claims processing system one or more closed claims that match an open claim based on one or more characteristics of the open claim; automatically determining on the insurance claims processing system a likelihood value associated with at least one of the matching closed claims, wherein the likelihood value is a numerical value whose magnitude is a quantitative measure of the likelihood that a monetary amount associated with the closed claim represents an appropriate monetary amount for settling an open claim, wherein a greater magnitude of the likelihood value corresponds to a higher likelihood that the monetary amount associated with the closed claim represents an appropriate monetary amount for settling the open claim, and wherein a lesser magnitude of the likelihood value corresponds to a lower likelihood that the monetary amount associated with the closed claim represents an appropriate monetary amount for settling the open claim; and determining an amount for the open claim based at least in part on the likelihood value for at least one of the matching closed claims.