Healthcare eligibility transactions

A method of providing eligibility information to a healthcare provider, the eligibility information indicating eligibility of a subscriber to receive a service from the healthcare provider in accordance with a policy of an insurer, the method comprising:

• receiving registration information over an ATM network from a point-of-sale terminal, the registration information including a first identifier associated with the point-of-sale terminal and an identification of the healthcare provider, wherein the registration information was extracted from a magnetic-stripe registration card read by the point-of-sale terminal;
• associating the first identifier with information identifying a fax machine or computer disposed at a location of the healthcare provider in a database;
• establishing a communication path to the fax machine or computer with the information identifying the fax machine or computer;
• transmitting a confirmation of registration of the point-of-sale terminal to the fax machine or computer over the communication path;
• receiving an authorization request over the ATM network from the point-of-sale terminal, the authorization request including the first identifier and a second identifier associated with the subscriber, wherein the second identifier comprises an identifier extracted from a magnetic-stripe card issued to the subscriber;
• determining an authorization transaction type based on the authorization request, the authorization transaction type indicating whether the transaction is a nominal purchase or an eligibility verification;
• retrieving the eligibility information from a data store using the second identifier, the retrieving the eligibility information based on the determined authorization transaction type;
• retrieving the information identifying the fax machine or computer from the database;
• establishing a second communication path to the fax machine or computer with the information identifying the fax machine or computer;
• transmitting the eligibility information over the second communication path to the fax machine or computer;
• and
• transmitting a response to the authorization request over the ATM network to the point-of-sale terminal.

A system for providing eligibility information to a healthcare provider, the system comprising:

• a communications device coupled with an ATM network;
• a processor;
• a storage device;
• a memory coupled with the processor, the memory comprising a computer-readable medium having a computer-readable program embodied therein for directing operation of the system, the computer-readable program including:
• instructions for receiving registration information with the communications device over the ATM network from a point-of-sale terminal, the registration information including a first identifier associated with the point-of-sale terminal and an identification of the healthcare provider;
• instructions for associating the first identifier with information identifying a fax machine or computer disposed at a location of the healthcare provider on the storage device;
• instructions for establishing a communication path from the communications device to the fax machine or computer with the information identifying the fax machine or computer;
• instructions for transmitting a confirmation of registration of the point-of-sale terminal to the fax machine or computer over the communication path with the communications device;
• instructions for receiving an authorization request with the communications device over the ATM network from the point-of-sale terminal, the authorization request including the first identifier and a second identifier associated with a subscriber;
• instructions for determining an authorization transaction type based on the authorization request, the authorization transaction type indicating whether the transaction is a nominal purchase or an eligibility verification;
• instructions for retrieving eligibility information from the storage device using the second identifier, wherein the eligibility information indicates eligibility of the subscriber to receive a service from the healthcare provider in accordance with a policy of an insurer, the retrieving eligibility information based on the determined authorization transaction type;
• and
• instructions for transmitting the eligibility information to the healthcare provider with the communications device.