Patent ID: 8271295

Claim:
An automated method of setting of appointments for health care services, comprising: receiving, by a computer, a health care service request from a first health care service requester, the health care service request including a description of symptom; determining, by the computer, an urgency of the health care service request based on the description of symptoms; performing by the computer a pre-diagnosis interaction with the first health care service requester, wherein the pre-diagnosis interaction comprises: querying a second set of information from the first health care service requester, receiving at least one response comprising the second set of information from the first health care service requester, wherein the second set of information includes at least one of a duration of the symptom, a trend in the symptom, and an acuity of the symptom, analyzing by the computer the at least one response provided by the first health care service requester, applying weights to the at least one response, and consulting at least one diagnostic database; identifying, by the computer, candidate health care service appointments based on searching a database of health care service offerings using a location filter, the preferences received, the urgency of the health care service request, and the at least one response; communicating, by the computer, to the health service requester appointment choices for health care service offerings; receiving, by the computer, a choice of appointment; confirming, by the computer, the chosen appointment; monitoring, by the computer, a plurality of health care resources across time slots and facilities; identifying, by the computer, an opportunity to change one or more appointments to more efficiently use the health care resources; determining by the computer a second health care service requester to offer an incentive to based on historical information about the willingness, inclination, or propensity of the second health care service requester to change a previously booked appointment and the types of incentives used to induce the second health care service requester to accept an appointment change; determining, by the computer, a financial incentive to tender to the second health care requester as an inducement to change an appointment of the second health care requester based on the historical information, the value of the financial incentive related to the benefit presented by the opportunity to change the appointment, wherein the financial incentive comprises at least one of a waiver of a co-payment and a reduction of a co-payment; and communicating, by the computer, to the second health care requester, the financial incentive to change the appointment based on load balancing across time slots and facilities and further based on adjusting an overbooked condition of a health care service provider.