Patent ID: 8078481

Claim:
An automated benefits administration system of the type used to administer benefits subject to business rules for such benefits, the benefits being organized as multiple benefit plans offered from multiple carriers, the benefits administration system comprising: a processor; memory; and storage storing plural applications that include: (A) an automated business rules application including software instructions for automatically applying multiple business rules to data input for enrollment data, eligibility data, and group maintenance data, and further including software instructions for making business rule decisions based on said data input, wherein the multiple business rules include: one or more enrollment rules, each of the one or more enrollment rules pertaining to enrollment in one of the multiple benefit plans from one of the multiple carriers, each of the multiple benefit plans including at least one health care benefit; one or more eligibility rules, each of the one or more eligibility rules pertaining to eligibility for at least one health care benefit available as part of one of the multiple benefit plans from one of the multiple carriers; and one or more group maintenance rules, each of the one or more group maintenance rules pertaining to enrollment or eligibility activities for a group of one or more members; and (B) an automatic action application including software instructions for issuing notices for business rule discrepancies based on said data input; wherein the storage also stores an accounting module that includes software instructions for: receiving a change notification that indicates a change in enrollment for a group for which an invoice has been generated, the invoice indicating an invoice amount; receiving a payment notification that indicates a payment amount from the group for which the invoice has been generated; determining that the payment amount differs from the invoice amount; and automatically accounting for the change in enrollment for the group for which the invoice has been generated by adjusting an amount due to reconcile the payment amount and the invoice amount.