DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 02/12/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s “Amendment” filed on 02/12/2026 has been considered.
Claims 1 and 14 are amended. Claims 1-19 remain pending in this application and an action on the merits follow.
Applicant’s response by virtue of amendment to claims has not overcome the Examiner’s rejection under 35 USC § 101.
Applicant’s response by virtue of amendment to claims 1 and 14 has overcome the Examiner’s rejection under 35 USC § 112.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. The newly added limitation includes a “normalizing step”. However, the “normalizing” step is not described or supported in the specification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1, 13, and 14 are rejected under 35 USC 101. The claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter because claims 1, 13, and 14 are directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. Claims 2-12 and 15-19 fail to remedy these deficiencies.
The claims 1, 13, and 14 recite receiving financial data, automatically parsing, normalizing, performing reconciliation that compares daily deposit figures with reported or posted income, generating a discrepancy alert, automatically tracking, in real time, practice-specific productivity and expense metrics across multiple geographical or physical practice locations, storing separate data, aggregating the separately stored data for analysis, encrypting the stored metrics, maintaining the records for later audit, computing one or more key performance indicators (KPIs); aggregating the KPIs for overall performance analytic;, generating and displaying, via a user interface, one or more interactive reports; providing selectable time ranges and filters in the user interface to prepare year-end accounting and tax-year reports; and storing the generated reports in association with secure user accounts; permitting the non-administrator user to perform designated data-entry tasks; creating an account record including at least a practice location, a practice name, and a doctor name; generating, for each doctor name, one or more expense entries linked to the account record; activating a personal financial module associated with each doctor name to permit the inputting, monitoring, and reconciliation of a personal financial identifier or number; receiving/entering, via the user interface, a plurality of daily practice productivity data entries corresponding to the healthcare entity's operational performance; receiving/inputting, via the user interface, a plurality of monthly practice business expense data entries corresponding to practice liabilities and overhead; utilizing the plurality of daily practice productivity data and the plurality of monthly practice expense data to compute and update one or more key performance indicators (KPIs); generating and storing compliance-ready tracking and analysis reports, wherein the reports are formatted for distribution to administrators and regulatory bodies and compiled into one or more documents for audit purposes.
Claims 1, 13, and 14 recite automatically parsing, normalizing, comparing, alerting, tracking, storing, aggregating, encrypting, maintaining, computing, aggregating the KPIs, generating and displaying, preparing, storing, permitting, creating, generating an expense entry, activating to permit the inputting, utilizing, tracking, compiling, and generating and storing compliance-ready tracking and analysis reports steps as drafted, are processes that under broadest reasonable interpretation, cover performance of managing personal behavior, but for the recitation of generic computer components. That is, other than reciting “executing, by at least one processor of a computer system, instructions stored in a non- transitory computer-readable memory that cause the processor to”, “an input device”, “a secured platform”, “a platform database”, “a remote platform”, “a web-server based platform in client-server communicating with user devices”, and “the system comprising: at least one user computing device in operable connection with a user network; an application server in operable communication with the user network, the application server configured to host an application program for automatically monitoring financial data in the healthcare industry, the application program having a user interface module for providing access to the application program via the at least one computing device; a processor in communication with the application server and the user computing device, the processor configured to execute instructions stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium that cause the processor to:”, nothing in the claim element precludes the steps from practically being performed by organizing human activity for personal behavior. For example, but for “a system comprising at least one user computing device, a user network, an application server, a user interface module, a processor, a non-transitory computer-readable memory, a secure platform, an input device, a platform database, a remote platform, a web-server based platform in client-server, and user devices” in the context of these claims encompasses a person manually parses and normalizes the imported report data, manually compares daily deposits figures with reported or posted income, alerts when a mismatch is determined, tracks practice-specific productivity and expense metrics, stores the separate data, aggregates the stored data for analytics, encrypts and maintains the stored data, computes one or more key performance indicators (KPIs), aggregates the KPIs, generates and displays one or more interactive reports, prepares reports via the user interface, stores the generated reports in association with secure user accounts, permits different users to perform designated data-entry tasks based on access limitations, creates an account record including at least a practice location, a practice name, and a doctor name, generates, for each doctor name, one or more expense entries linked to the account record; activates to permit the inputting, monitoring, and reconciliation of a personal financial identifier or number, utilizes the plurality of daily practice productivity data and the plurality of monthly practice expense data to compute and update one or more key performance indicators (KPIs), generates and stores compliance-ready tracking and analysis reports. The ability of a graphical user interface to receive selections (i.e., selectable time ranges and filtering options) and output data (i.e., preparing reports) is generic. If a claim limitation, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation by managing personal behavior but for the recitation of generic computer components, then it falls within the “Certain Methods of Organizing Human Activity” grouping of abstract ideas. Accordingly, the claims recite an abstract idea.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because receiving and entering steps are recited at a high level of generality (i.e., as a general means of receiving/collecting financial data, daily practice productivity data and monthly practice expense data steps) and amounts to mere data gathering, which is a form of insignificant extra-solution activity. This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the claims as a whole merely describe how to generally “apply” the concept of receiving/entering, parsing, normalizing, comparing, alerting, tracking, storing, aggregating, encrypting, maintaining, computing, aggregating the KPIs, generating and displaying, preparing, storing, permitting, creating, generating an expense entry, activating to permit the inputting, utilizing, tracking, compiling, generating, and storing steps in a computer environment. The claimed computer components such as the user computing device, the user network, the application server, the user interface module, the processor, the non-transitory computer-readable memory, the secure platform, the input device, the platform database, the remote platform, the web-server based platform in the client-server, and the user devices are recited at a high level of generality and are merely invoked as tools to perform receiving/entering, parsing, normalizing, comparing, alerting, tracking, storing, aggregating, encrypting, maintaining, computing, aggregating the KPIs, generating and displaying, preparing, storing, permitting, creating, generating an expense entry, activating to permit the inputting, utilizing, tracking, compiling, generating, and storing steps. Simply implementing the abstract idea on a generic computer is not a practical application of the abstract idea. Accordingly, this additional element does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because it does not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. The claims 1, 13 and 14 are directed to an abstract idea.
The claims 1, 13, and 14 do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. As discussed above with respect to integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional elements of using the user computing device, the user network, the application server, the user interface module, the processor, the non-transitory computer-readable memory, the secure platform, the input device, the platform database, the remote platform, the web-server based platform in the client-server, and the user devices to perform receiving/entering, parsing, normalizing, comparing, alerting, tracking, storing, aggregating, encrypting, maintaining, computing, aggregating the KPIs, generating and displaying, preparing, storing, permitting, creating, generating an expense entry, activating to permit the inputting, utilizing, tracking, compiling, generating, and storing steps amount to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using generic computer components. Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept. Therefore, the claims do not amount to significantly more than the recited abstract idea (Step 2B: NO). The claims 1, 13, and 14 are not patent eligible.
Claims 2-12 and 15-19, disclose insignificant helpful content to further describe content, such as the healthcare entity is a doctor or a dentist and a healthcare practice, the computer with multiple modules to display a plurality of business expenses, a plurality of profit and loss metrics associated with the healthcare entity, a plurality of tax metrics, a plurality of daily tasks include entering a practice productivity report and entering a practice deposit report, a plurality of monthly tasks include entering a practice expense report and a plurality of practice financial data, which are merely descriptive content to further limit the abstract idea but not make it less abstract. Thus, the claims 2-12 and 15-19 are directed to an abstract idea.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because descriptive content in claims 2-12 and 15-19 further limit the abstract idea but not make it less abstract. Thus, the claims 2-12 and 15-19are directed to an abstract idea.
There are no additional claim element limitations recited in the claims 2-12 and 15-19. Therefore, the claim does not amount to significantly more than the recited abstract idea (Step 2B: NO). The claims 2-12 and 15-19 are not patent eligible.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-5 and 7-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2015/0073823 to Ladd et al., in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2018/065780 to Romeo, and further in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0077530 to Banas et al.
With regard to claim 1, Ladd discloses a computer-implemented method for automatically monitoring financial data in the healthcare industry, the method comprising the steps of: executing, by at least one processor of a computer system, instructions stored in a non-transitory computer-readable memory that cause the processor to (Fig. 1-2, paragraph 32):
receive, via an input device or automated data import, financial data from one or more external sources including bank feeds, credit card CSV reports, and practice-specific reports associated with healthcare entities (paragraphs 46 and 55, The data import system 84 imports and processes third-party databases and compliance-related records. The accounting system 86 manages the recording of time, expenses and deliverables, invoicing, collections, payments, and other accounting-related transactions. In general, the data import system 84 operates in a similar manner as various cloud-based financial and document retrieval systems offered by software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers such as Yodlee.RTM., Fiserv.RTM., Intuit.RTM., BankLink.RTM., and FetchThis.RTM.);
automatically parse and normalize the imported CSV and PDF practice report data into record structures stored in a platform database, wherein the CSV reports are imported directly from bank and credit card accounts used to pay practice expenses without requiring secondary or third-party software integration, and the parsed data is saved on a per-month basis to enable customized bookkeeping on the platform (Fig. 4, paragraphs 42, 46, 48, 54, 58, and 98, performing optical character recognition (OCR) on document images, extracting the data. The legal report system 126 formats the results produced by the legal review system 124 into standardized reports and electronic communications. The data import system 84 imports and processes third-party databases and compliance-related records. In general, the content repository 92 is a generic application "data store" that can be used for storing both text and binary data (e.g., word processor documents, PDFs, images, videos). the reminder system 160 provides users with daily and weekly summaries of entries by the users in the accounting system 86 along with links to make additional entries.);
perform an automated reconciliation that compares daily deposit figures from the bank or card statements with reported or posted income in end-of-day practice reports and, when a mismatch is detected, generate a discrepancy alert to designated users for fraud prevention and require user approval of the reconciled data, while timestamping user identities and access times in memory, wherein the end-of-day reports are independently stored on the platform for future audit reference independent of any third-party software (paragraphs 46, and 77-78, The accounting system 86 manages the recording of time. The analysis system 210 compares physician-entered data (i.e., posted income) with information obtained from the third-party databases (i.e.,, bank statemen of payments) and with compliance guidelines. For example, the physician can acquire payment information from a third-party database that reflects what the third party considers to have paid the physician, and the analysis system 210 can flag discrepancies between the payment as understood and entered by the physician and the third-party database. The dispute system 212 enables physicians (professionals, in general) to view, challenge, and explain information flagged by the analysis system 210. The audit report system 214 generates reports that show deviations in user-entered data with information in third-party databases and compliance guidelines. The dispute system 212 permits the physician to selectively enter corrections to the information in the third-party database, and to communicate the corrections to a third-party database. The reminder system 160 provides users with daily and weekly summaries of entries by the users in the accounting system);
automatically track, in real time, practice-specific productivity and expense metrics across multiple geographical or physical practice locations, wherein the metrics are stored on a secured platform and updated to generate compliance-ready daily and end-of-day reports (paragraphs 71, 73-74, and 79, In general, the report system 88 enables users (e.g., a physician, hospital personnel, legal representative) to generate automatically real-time reports of, for example, activities, payments and conflicts-of-interest, using real-time data, and in a variety of formats, based on contract details (i.e., engagements) and payment records stored in the content repository 92 (FIG. 9). and through the report system 88, physicians can generate reports on their time, invoices, receivables, and payments. Hospitals can generate reports on the time spent by physicians over a specified date range, on the payments received by physicians over a specified date range, and on the payments made by organizations over a specified date range. During the engagements, deliverables, time, expenses and receipts must be tracked.);
generate and display, via a user interface, one or more interactive reports, wherein the reports are formatted for review by administrators and regulatory bodies (paragraphs 73-74 and 84, through the report system 88, physicians can generate reports on their time, invoices, receivables, and payments. Hospitals can generate reports on the time spent by physicians over a specified date range, on the payments received by physicians over a specified date range, and on the payments made by organizations over a specified date range. As another example, hospital personnel can run a report that produces a research and collaboration report (may also be referred to as a conflict-of-interest report) for a given physician. The results of the document review of the legal representative, including the review summary and critical data, may be stored in a standardized format (e.g., document repository 176 (FIG. 9)).);
provide selectable time ranges and filters in the user interface to prepare year-end accounting and tax-year reports for government reporting (paragraphs 71-72, The report selection system 204 allows the user to select from a specific report from the list of available reports and to customize the report parameters such as date range, minimum and maximum value, and sorting order. The report generation system 204 generates reports per user-specified selections and parameters.);and
store the generated reports in association with secure user accounts, such that administrators or other authorized healthcare personnel can approve, reconcile, and distribute the reports for compliance (paragraph 78, , The audit report system 214 generates reports that show deviations in user-entered data with information in third-party databases and compliance guidelines.), wherein the receiving, reconciling, reporting, and storing operations are executed by a web-server based platform in client-server communication with user devices (Fig. 1, paragraph 27, For purposes of illustrating the principles described herein, a healthcare professional (e.g., physician) accesses the web server system 14 through one web browser system 12).
However, Ladd does not disclose compute one or more key performance indicators (KPIs) based on the tracked productivity and expense metrics across the multiple locations and providers, wherein the KPIs are dynamically updated and customizable over user-defined date ranges; aggregate the KPIs per location and across locations for overall performance analytics; the one or more interactive reports including a profit and loss statement, tax preparation report, or productivity analysis; and the reports for operational decision-making; wherein separate data stores are maintained for each physical location and for each doctor or dentist associated with each location, and the system aggregates the separately stored data across locations and providers for analytics related to overall performance; encrypt the stored metrics at rest on a remote platform and maintain the records in a manner suitable for later audit, including storage of end-of-day reports and downloaded bank statements; and wherein a non-administrator user profile is assignable with customizable access limitations set by an administrator user to permit the non-administrator user to perform designated data-entry tasks while restricting access to the administrator's personal financial data.
However, Romeo teaches compute one or more key performance indicators (KPIs) based on the tracked productivity and expense metrics across the multiple locations and providers (Accordingly, electronic records and other data can be shared among the various resources to facilitate performance of a given resource's determined functions. a healthcare provider or clinic entity may wish to assess the business-related performance of the clinic. As another example, the business administrator may be presented with “overall” clinical data that may be aggregated from each facility operated by the clinic, and the business administrator may interactively select a particular facility to obtain more detailed clinical data specific to that particular facility. This business performance evaluation, trending, or suggestive action may be output on the display 209 of client device 202 via user interface 207 for business intelligence application 206. Paragraphs 26, 49, 55, and 59), wherein the KPIs are dynamically updated and customizable over user-defined date ranges (As described above, a healthcare provider or clinic entity may wish to assess the business-related performance of the clinic by obtaining and analyzing clinical data to promote efficient management of the healthcare practice, reduce costs, identify areas for improvement, and receive suggestions to realize such improvements. Financial data stored at billing system may include, for example, data relating to billing records for each product, profits, revenues and margins, accounts receivable. Additionally, such displays of data can be interactive, such that a user may adjust the pulled data by, e.g., adjusting certain variable factors (which can also be specified in the set of filters for pulling clinical data). terms of similar meaning should not be construed as limiting the item described to a given time period or to an item available as of a given time, paragraphs 49, 51, 55, 61, and 94);
aggregate the KPIs per location and across locations for overall performance analytics (the business administrator may be presented with “overall” clinical data that may be aggregated from each facility operated by the clinic. A plurality of client devices 201 may communicate with clinical data management system 210 over network 205 for the remote analysis of clinical data (for example, orthopedic data, local, industry, or regional-based) for business performance, trending, and suggestive action based at least in part, on clinical data provided by a clinic. paragraphs 55-56);
the one or more interactive reports including a profit and loss statement, tax preparation report, or productivity analysis (For example, a business administrator of the clinic, may be presented with a graphical representation of a clinic's profits as a function of particular prescribed braces. As another example, the business administrator may be presented with “overall” clinical data that may be aggregated from each facility operated by the clinic, and the business administrator may interactively select a particular facility to obtain more detailed clinical data specific to that particular facility, paragraph 55);
the reports for operational decision-making (As described above, a healthcare provider or clinic entity may wish to assess the business-related performance of the clinic by obtaining and analyzing clinical data to promote efficient management of the healthcare practice, reduce costs, identify areas for improvement, and receive suggestions to realize such improvements., paragraph 49);
wherein separate data stores are maintained for each physical location and for each doctor or dentist associated with each location, and the system aggregates the separately stored data across locations and providers for analytics related to overall performance (because there can be a variety of different data types accessed by the system and the data can be stored at different data storage locations, the data retrieved by data interface 72 may be in different formats. Paragraph 36); and
encrypt the stored metrics at rest on a remote platform and maintain the records in a manner suitable for later audit, including storage of end-of-day reports and downloaded bank statements ( With Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in particular and other privacy concerns in general, information storage in the various data storage locations associated with and external to the healthcare practice may be encrypted or otherwise protected. Locations module 202 may be configured to graphically display each physical location in a client's clinic and allow for deeper analytics for each location. For example, if a user clicks on any location in the location display, for that particular location the daily metrics for the following may be output: earnings, number of patients, number of transactions, and specific patients that received treatment. paragraphs 36 and 79).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ladd to include, compute one or more key performance indicators (KPIs) based on the tracked productivity and expense metrics across the multiple locations and providers, wherein the KPIs are dynamically updated and customizable over user-defined date ranges; aggregate the KPIs per location and across locations for overall performance analytics; the one or more interactive reports including a profit and loss statement, tax preparation report, or productivity analysis; and the reports for operational decision-making; wherein separate data stores are maintained for each physical location and for each doctor or dentist associated with each location, and the system aggregates the separately stored data across locations and providers for analytics related to overall performance; and encrypt the stored metrics at rest on a remote platform and maintain the records in a manner suitable for later audit, including storage of end-of-day reports and downloaded bank statements, as taught in Romeo, in order to report clinical data for business performance (Romeo, paragraph 2).
However, Banas teaches wherein a non-administrator user profile is assignable with customizable access limitations set by an administrator user to permit the non-administrator user to perform designated data-entry tasks while restricting access to the administrator's personal financial data (In another example, an organization might need to certify to the government that its financial statements are accurate. A company must certify that all reported financial data and information is accurate, thereby resulting in regular monitoring by organizations of changes to their processes and internal control environment. In accordance with various aspects of the present invention, the system may be designed to allow for multiple levels of access which may be referred to as roles. Referring now to FIG. 10, in a representative embodiment of the present invention, different roles 1040 may include those of administrators 1005, users 1010, read-only users 1015, guests 1020, project coordinators 1025 and/or installation experts. Various users 1030 may be assigned to roles 1040. However, individual users 1035 may generally only be assigned to one role 1040. Additionally, a role 1040 may determine whether a user has read-only access or read/write access to various pages 1050. Additionally, the user may construct a search by selecting any number of filters, such that only documents that meet all of the restrictions are displayed. paragraphs 3, 24, 119 and 373).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ladd to include, wherein a non-administrator user profile is assignable with customizable access limitations set by an administrator user to permit the non-administrator user to perform designated data-entry tasks while restricting access to the administrator's personal financial data, as taught in Banas, in order to improve, enhance or maintain the efficiency and/or effectiveness of the document processes (Banas, paragraph 4).
With regard to claim 2, Ladd discloses the healthcare entity is a doctor or a dentist (paragraph 45).
With regard to claim 3, Ladd discloses the healthcare entity is a healthcare practice (paragraph 44).
With regard to claim 4, Ladd discloses a business expense tracking module interface, facilitated by a display module, to display a plurality of business expenses (paragraphs 30 and 100, the web browser system 12 receives and transmits user inputs to the web server system 14 and receives and displays system outputs from the web server system 14 over the network 18.).
With regard to claim 5, the combination of references discloses a profit and loss statement interface, facilitated by the display module, to display a plurality of profit and loss metrics associated with the healthcare entity (Romeo, paragraphs 48 and 55).
With regard to claim 7, Ladd discloses a plurality of daily tasks (paragraphs 64-65 and 74).
With regard to claim 8, Ladd discloses the plurality of daily tasks include entering a practice productivity report manually or by way of import (no integration necessary) (paragraphs 64-65).
With regard to claim 9, Ladd discloses the plurality of daily tasks include entering a practice deposit report manually or by way of import (no integration necessary) (paragraphs 64-65).
With regard to claim 10, Ladd discloses a plurality of monthly tasks (paragraphs 64-65 and 74).
With regard to claim 11, Ladd discloses the plurality of monthly tasks include entering a practice expense report manually or via importing and automatically assigning wage expenses to each employee (paragraphs 66 and 100).
With regard to claim 12, Ladd discloses the plurality of monthly tasks include entering a plurality of practice financial data using data from daily and monthly modules (paragraphs 66 and 100).
With regard to claim 13, Ladd discloses the steps of: creating an account including a location, a name, and a doctor name (paragraphs 44 and 59);
generating an expense entry associated with each doctor name and each location (paragraph 66);
activating a personal financial module for each doctor name to permit the inputting and monitoring of a personal number associated with each doctor name (paragraph 80);
entering, via a user, a plurality of daily practice productivity data (paragraph 64);
entering, via the user, a plurality of monthly practice business expense data (paragraph 66);
utilizing the plurality of daily practice productive data and the plurality of monthly practice business expense data to generate tracking and analysis information (paragraphs 73-74);
tracking a plurality of report data and compiling the plurality of report data into one or more documents (paragraphs 73-74 and 84).
Claims 14-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2015/0073823 to Ladd et al., in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2018/065780 to Romeo.
With regard to claim 14, Ladd discloses a system for automatically monitoring financial data in the healthcare industry, the system comprising:
at least one user computing device in operable connection with a user network (Fig. 1-2); an application server in operable communication with the user network, the application server configured to host an application program for automatically monitoring financial data in the healthcare industry, the application program having a user interface module for providing access to the application program via the at least one computing device (Fig. 1-2, paragraph 32); a processor in communication with the application server and the user computing device, the processor configured to execute instructions stored in a non- transitory computer-readable medium that cause the processor to (Fig. 1-2):
create, for a healthcare entity, an account record including at least a practice location, a practice name, and a doctor name, the account record stored within a secure platform accessible to administrators for compliance review, wherein the system creates separate account records associated with each physical location of the practice and creates selectable doctor or dentist name tabs associated with each location (Fig. 4, paragraphs 43-44 and 59, the portal system 80 provides access to portions of the compliance processing system 16 to authorized users, such as physicians, legal representatives and other types of representatives, and hospital administrators, university professors, and universities. Each portal presented to a given individual (professional, representative) or institution is customized for that particular individual or institution. For example, a given physician has access, through a physician portal and his or her own account, confidential information pertaining to that physician, but to no other physicians. A medical institution has access, through a hospital portal and its own account, to information, including confidential and proprietary information, of each physician employed by that medical institution.);
generate, for each doctor name, one or more expense entries linked to the account record, the expense entries comprising practice-specific business expense categories and personal expense tracking fields (paragraphs 58 and 66, The time entry system 152 provides users a means to record properly categorized time spent on engagement-related activities. The expense repository 184 stores expense data entered by physicians. For each entry, the expense repository 184 includes cost, date, engagement, note, type of expense (airfare, auto mileage, bus, car rental, education, lodging, meals, other, parking, postage and freight, subway, taxi, tips, tolls, train and travel agent fees), and receipt image. Examiner notes that type of expense (meals) can be considered as “personal expense tracking fields”.);
activate a personal financial module associated with each doctor name to permit the inputting, monitoring, and reconciliation of a personal financial identifier or number, wherein the module integrates imported data from external sources including bank feeds and credit card CSV reports imported directly without requiring secondary or third-party software integration (Fig. 4, paragraphs 42, 46, 48, 54, 58, and 98, performing optical character recognition (OCR) on document images, extracting the data. The legal report system 126 formats the results produced by the legal review system 124 into standardized reports and electronic communications. The data import system 84 imports and processes third-party databases and compliance-related records. In general, the content repository 92 is a generic application "data store" that can be used for storing both text and binary data (e.g., word processor documents, PDFs, images, videos). the reminder system 160 provides users with daily and weekly summaries of entries by the users in the accounting system 86 along with links to make additional entries.);
import CSV files from bank and credit card accounts used to pay practice expenses and automatically save the imported data on a per-month basis to enable customized bookkeeping on the platform, and generate accounting reports including reports for tax reporting purposes (Fig. 4, paragraphs 42, 46, 48, 54, 58, and 98);
receive, via the user interface, a plurality of daily practice productivity data entries corresponding to the healthcare entity's operational performance (paragraph 64, the time repository 180 stores time data entered by physicians. For each entry, the time repository 180 includes time (in hours), date, task, and note);
receive, via the user interface, a plurality of monthly practice business expense data entries corresponding to practice liabilities and overhead (paragraphs 66 and 74, the expense repository 184 stores expense data entered by physicians. For each entry, the expense repository 184 includes cost, date, engagement, note, type of expense (airfare, auto mileage, bus, car rental, education, lodging, meals, other, parking, postage and freight, subway, taxi, tips, tolls, train and travel agent fees), and receipt image. Additionally, physicians often report the time that they spend on their various responsibilities, such as administrative, clinical and research work, on a quarterly or annual basis);
perform an automated reconciliation of daily deposits against reported income from end- of-day practice reports, generate a discrepancy alert to designated users when a mismatch is detected, and require user approval of reconciled data while timestamping user identities and access times, wherein end-of-day reports are stored for future audit reference independent of any third-party software (paragraphs 46 and 77-78); and
generate and store compliance-ready tracking and analysis reports wherein the reports are formatted for distribution to administrators and regulatory bodies and compiled into one or more documents for audit purposes (paragraphs 73-74, 78, and 84, The audit report system 214 generates reports that show deviations in user-entered data with information in third-party databases and compliance guidelines. through the report system 88, physicians can generate reports on their time, invoices, receivables, and payments. Hospitals can generate reports on the time spent by physicians over a specified date range, on the payments received by physicians over a specified date range, and on the payments made by organizations over a specified date range. As another example, hospital personnel can run a report that produces a research and collaboration report (may also be referred to as a conflict-of-interest report) for a given physician. The results of the document review of the legal representative, including the review summary and critical data, may be stored in a standardized format (e.g., document repository 176 (FIG. 9)).
However, Ladd does not disclose utilize the plurality of daily practice productivity data and the plurality of monthly practice expense data to compute and update one or more key performance indicators (KPIs) one or more geographical practice locations; the tracking and analysis reports including at least a profit and loss statement, tax preparation report, or productivity analysis; wherein the system separately stores financial data and tracking metrics for each location and each doctor and aggregates the separately stored data across locations for analytics related to overall performance; wherein the data is encrypted and stored on a remote platform accessible by authorized users; .
However, Romeo teaches utilize the plurality of daily practice productivity data and the plurality of monthly practice expense data to compute and update one or more key performance indicators (KPIs) including profitability, expense ratios, tax obligations, and liabilities, across one or more geographical practice locations (As described above, a healthcare provider or clinic entity may wish to assess the business-related performance of the clinic by obtaining and analyzing clinical data to promote efficient management of the healthcare practice, reduce costs, identify areas for improvement, and receive suggestions to realize such improvements. Still another example can entail evaluating data associated with each location of a clinic. Financial data stored at billing system may include, for example, data relating to billing records for each product, profits, revenues and margins, accounts receivable. Scheduling data stored at scheduling system may include, for example, data relating to patient name, physician, appointment time, appointment data, a physician's appointment calendar, and the clinic's appointment calendar. EHR may include data relating to patient treatment such as medical history, medication and allergies, laboratory test results, immunization status, vital signs, radiology images, demographics, age, weight, gender, residence, and income. paragraphs 49, 51, and 61); and the tracking and analysis reports including at least a profit and loss statement, tax preparation report, or productivity analysis (For example, a business administrator of the clinic, may be presented with a graphical representation of a clinic's profits as a function of particular prescribed braces. As another example, the business administrator may be presented with “overall” clinical data that may be aggregated from each facility operated by the clinic, and the business administrator may interactively select a particular facility to obtain more detailed clinical data specific to that particular facility, paragraph 55);
wherein the system separately stores financial data and tracking metrics for each location and each doctor and aggregates the separately stored data across locations for analytics related to overall performance (Paragraph 36); and
wherein the data is encrypted and stored on a remote platform accessible by authorized users (paragraphs 36 and 79).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ladd to include, utilize the plurality of daily practice productivity data and the plurality of monthly practice expense data to compute and update one or more key performance indicators (KPIs) including profitability, expense ratios, tax obligations, and liabilities, across one or more geographical practice locations; the tracking and analysis reports including at least a profit and loss statement, tax preparation report, or productivity analysis; wherein the system separately stores financial data and tracking metrics for each location and each doctor and aggregates the separately stored data across locations for analytics related to overall performance and wherein the data is encrypted and stored on a remote platform accessible by authorized users, as taught in Romeo, in order to report clinical data for business performance (Romeo, paragraph 2).
With regard to claim 15, Ladd discloses a plurality of daily tasks include entering a practice productivity report (paragraphs 64-65).
With regard to claim 16, Ladd discloses the plurality of daily tasks include entering a practice deposit report (paragraphs 64-65).
With regard to claim 17, Ladd discloses a plurality of monthly tasks (paragraphs 64-65 and 74).
With regard to claim 18, Ladd discloses the plurality of monthly tasks include entering a practice expense report (paragraphs 66 and 100).
With regard to claim 19, Ladd discloses the plurality of monthly tasks include entering a plurality of practice financial data (paragraphs 66 and 100).
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2015/0073823 to Ladd et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2018/065780 to Romeo, and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0077530 to Banas et al., and further in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0243441 to Bocionek.
With regard to claim 6, the combination of references substantially discloses the claimed invention, however, the combination of references does not disclose a tax year report interface, facilitated by the display module, to display a plurality of tax metrics.
However, Bocionek teaches a tax year report interface, facilitated by the display module, to display a plurality of tax metrics (FIG. 9 illustrates a display window on a user interface permitting the subscriber to access tax reports for the healthcare encounters recorded in the system. The personal system 106 provides reports including, without limitation, patient visit/service history 130 with the healthcare provider, a flexible spending account summary 132, and a medical tax summary 134., Paragraphs 17 and 34).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combination of references to include, p a tax year report interface, facilitated by the display module, to display a plurality of tax metrics, as taught in Bocionek, in order to organize the information for payment, tax purposes, or health maintenance (Bocionek, paragraph 3).
Response to Arguments
Applicants' arguments filed on 02/12/2026 have been fully considered but they are not fully persuasive especially in light of the new prior art applied in the rejections.
Applicants remark that “As amended, the claims are not directed to the general concept of tracking financial data. Rather, they recite a specific technical architecture for healthcare financial data processing that includes, in ordered combination: (a) Direct import and parsing of CSV files, (b) Automated reconciliation that compares daily deposit figures, (c) A per-location, per-provider data storage architecture, and (d) Non-administrator user profiles with customizable access limitations set by an administrator. These are not generic data processing steps that could be "practically performed by organizing human activity." For the foregoing reasons, the amended claims are directed to a specific technical system and method for healthcare financial data management, not to an abstract idea. The claims recite a particular data architecture, specific import and reconciliation mechanisms, independent audit storage, and granular access controls that together represent a meaningful improvement in the technology of healthcare practice financial management. Applicant respectfully requests withdrawal of the § 101 rejection.”
Examiner directs Applicants' attention to the office action above.
Applicants remark that “Independent claims 1 and 14 have been amended to include subject matters including (a) Direct import and parsing of CSV files, (b) Automated reconciliation that compares daily deposit figures, (c) A per-location, per-provider data storage architecture, and (d) Non-administrator user profiles with customizable access limitations set by an administrator”.
Examiner directs Applicants' attention to the office action above.
Conclusion
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/ARIEL J YU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3627
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