1. A method comprising:
receiving an account receivable (AR) for certain medical testing services performed by a medical practice;
paying an AR payment to the medical practice, wherein the AR payment is a percentage of a presumed value of the AR;
submitting a medical claim, corresponding to medical services performed by the medical practice creating the AR, with a carrier responsible for paying a medical claim with respect to the AR; and
receiving a claim payment for the medical claim on the AR as assignee of the AR.
2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of receiving an assignment of a plurality of accounts receivable for certain medical testing services performed by the medical practice, wherein the AR is one of the plurality of accounts receivable.
3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of determining if the assigned account receivable is a qualified account, and, if not, denying the purchase of that AR from the medical practice.
4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising receiving medical-associated billing and claims information from medical practice required for submitting the medical claim.
5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising adjudicating the medical claim with the carrier following submitting the medical claim.
6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of receiving a claim payment comprises receiving the claim payment indirectly through a lockbox bank account held in trust for the medical practice.
7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of paying is performed prior to receiving the claim payment.
8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of paying a lease payment for medical testing equipment on behalf of the medical practice equal to a predetermined percent of the lease payment, wherein the medical testing equipment is used in conjunction with the medical services performed by the medical practice creating the AR.
9. A system comprising:
a processing element;
a storage element;
one or more medical devices; and
program logic embedded in the storage element for performing the steps of:
sending an account receivable (AR) for certain medical testing services performed by a medical practice utilizing the one or more medical devices to a company that receives a claim payment for a medical claim on the AR as assignee of the AR, wherein the company submits the medical claim, corresponding to medical services performed by the medical practice creating the AR, with a carrier responsible for paying a medical claim with respect to the AR; and
receiving an AR payment from the company, wherein the AR payment is a percentage of a presumed value of the AR.
10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the program logic further sends the company medical-associated billing and claims information from medical practice required for submitting the medical claim.
11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising adjudicating the medical claim with the carrier following submitting the medical claim.
12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of receiving an AR payment comprises receiving the AR payment indirectly through a bank.
13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of receiving the AR payment is performed prior to the company receiving the claim payment.
14. An article of manufacture comprising machine-readable medium including program logic embedded therein that performs the steps of:
receiving an account receivable (AR) for certain medical testing services performed by a medical practice;
paying an AR payment to the medical practice, wherein the AR payment is a percentage of a presumed value of the AR;
submitting a medical claim, corresponding to medical services performed by the medical practice creating the AR, with a carrier responsible for paying a medical claim with respect to the AR; and
receiving a claim payment for the medical claim on the AR as assignee of the AR.
15. The article of manufacture according to claim 14, further comprising the step of determining if the assigned account receivable is a qualified account, and, if not, denying the purchase of that AR from the medical practice.
16. The article of manufacture according to claim 14, further comprising receiving medical-associated billing and claims information from medical practice required for submitting the medical claim.
17. The article of manufacture according to claim 14, further comprising adjudicating the medical claim with the carrier following submitting the medical claim.
18. The article of manufacture according to claim 14, wherein the step of receiving a claim payment comprises receiving the claim payment indirectly through a lockbox bank account held in trust for the medical practice.
19. The article of manufacture according to claim 14, wherein the step of paying is performed prior to receiving the claim payment.
20. The article of manufacture according to claim 14, further comprising the step of paying a lease payment for medical testing equipment on behalf of the medical practice equal to a predetermined percent of the lease payment, wherein the medical testing equipment is used in conjunction with the medical services performed by the medical practice creating the AR.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A direct visual monitoring system for sensing the interior of a rotary mineral mill or the like, said system comprising a monitoring unit, a main control unit and an operation and management unit wherein the monitoring unit is located inside a feed Hopper by means of which the mill is fed from a vessel and the location of the monitoring unit inside the feed Hopper is adjusted according to the physical characteristics of said feed Hopper and in accordance with the dimensions of the mill, so as to allow for a direct view of the interior of the mill.
2. The monitoring system as in claim 1, wherein the monitoring unit is subject to vibrations during the loading of the mill, which determines along with the aggressive environment of the load passing below the monitoring unit, a protection for its operation which comprises an outer housing having a defined shape given by the volume occupied inside the feed hopper and protects a container of sensors which are visually oriented towards the inside of the mill.
3. The monitoring system as in claim 2, wherein the outer housing is built as a steel shielding having a high degree of hardness also, for absorbing any kind of impact it has a rubber lining and for absorbing the vibrations it also has low passive frequency shock absorbers and optionally active shock absorbers can be also used.
4. The monitoring system as in claim 2, wherein the container of sensors which are visually oriented towards the inside of the mill, comprises sensor means arranged in said container of sensors, comprising a recipient which in its interior is composed by a laser scanner, a thermographic camera, a digital camera, a plurality of illumination means, a thermocouple and an accelerometer.
5. The monitoring system as in claim 4, wherein the container of sensors has a face oriented towards the interior of the mill, which is a display panel containing perforations with the shape of each element or sensor which are left at a surface level, thus, the laser scanner has a scanner opening, the thermographic camera is associated to a thermal opening, the digital camera has an opening and along this digital camera is located an illumination opening wherein the illumination opening is defined by the arrangement being adopted when the digital camera is calibrated for a better visual approach towards the inside of the mill, with which the illumination means can be arranged at a side, below, above or surrounding the digital camera.
6. The monitoring system as in claim 5 wherein the display panel has in its upper part a visor which is hollow and that is integrated into the container of sensors which is internally connected to a clean air duct under pressure; wherein the air injected by the air duct under pressure, flows through the visor and exits through a plurality of orifices, thereby generating a plurality of air jets flowing from the top of the visor towards the bottom, maintaining the external face of the display panel clean and preventing the material of different sensors and illumination means from being embed.
7. The monitoring system as in claim 4, wherein the thermocouple generates a continuous voltage signal which value is unambiguously related to the temperature which the thermocouple is subject to and which corresponds to the interior of the container of sensors; this temperature signal is Obtained by the main control unit for storing the behavior of the temperature in time and alert in regard to the operation of the mill, whether manually or automatically, in relation to the not so appropriate temperature conditions for the operation of the rest of the sensors inside the container of sensors and eventually for controlling the conditioning air flow in its interior and maintaining an adequate temperature for the operation of all the sensors located inside the container of sensors through the openings one for the climate air to enter and one for the climate air to exit.
8. The monitoring system as in claim 4, wherein the accelerometer generates a digital signal containing three variables according to the time, proportional to the acceleration which the accelerometer is subject to on the vertical axis, on the lateral horizontal axis and on the front horizontal axis, said digital signal, which combines the three accelerations is obtained by the main control unit for storing the behavior of the vibration in time and alerting the operation of the mill, whether manually or automatically, with regard to the vibration conditions which are not so appropriate for the operation of the rest of the sensors inside the container of sensors and eventually for controlling the rigidity of the active shock absorbers on which the box containing the sensors is supported, thus maintaining an appropriate vibration level for the operation of all sensors inside the container of sensors.
9. The monitoring system as in claim 4, wherein the laser scanner executes a detection of distance in one or more planes by means of the detection of distances, for instance, detection of time of flight, by using laser beams which are moved in angle in time by means of a mirror rotating at high speed, for obtaining one or more three-dimensional geometric profiles of the surrounding in predefined angle positions, the operation of the laser scanner is commanded from the main control unit thus allowing to obtain three-dimensional geometric profiles at an appropriate frequency for the operation of the mill, the values in the time of distance and angle of each laser beam, generated by the laser scanner, are automatically stored and processed in the main control unit and with these laser beams are performed analysis procedures by means of known techniques for measuring spatial positions and dimensions of elements of interest inside the mill, for detecting the presence or absence of elements, for detecting the integrity of constituent parts of the liner, for determining the location of the load the geometric profile of its surface and its volume.
10. The monitoring system as in claim 4, wherein the digital camera obtains two-dimensional images from the interior of the mill in the visible spectrum through a lens with appropriate optical characteristics for the geometric conditions of the mill, the digital camera has appropriate characteristics for the movement speed of the load and mill, and for the illumination produced by the illumination means, the operation of the digital camera is commanded from the main control unit thus allowing to obtain photographs at a predetermined frequency for the operation of the mill, wherein the images captured by the digital camera are automatically stored and processed in the main control unit and by means of analysis procedures using known techniques for measuring dimensions of elements of interest inside the mill, it is possible to detect the presence or absence of elements, the integrity of constituent parts of the liner, determining the location of the load and the geometric profile of its surface.
11. The monitoring system as in claim 4, wherein the thermographic camera obtains two-dimensional images of the interior of the mill in the thermal spectrum, which implies that the color or tonality of each pixel is related to the temperature of the photographed object and the capture of these images is performed by means of a lens having appropriate optical characteristics for the geometric conditions of the mill, which in turn is protected by a window which material has molecular characteristics which makes it particularly permeable to the thermal frequencies, for instance, germanium; the thermographic camera is commanded from the main control unit thus allowing to obtain thermal images at a predetermined frequency for the operation of the mill, which are automatically stored and processed in the main control unit so as to perform with them analysis procedures using known techniques, on the one hand, allowing a redundant measurement plus the option of having images in case the illumination means are not in operation, and on the other hand, identifying abnormal thermal gradients in the components pieces of the liner of the mill for early identifying structural failure points while searching for in the load elements of higher temperature in comparison with the rest thus determining the relative quantity of steel balls according to the mineral quantity.
12. A direct visual monitoring method for sensing the interior of a mill, wherein it comprises the arrangement of a monitoring unit for the direct visual monitoring in order to sense the interior of a mill, wherein the monitoring unit contains in its interior a container of sensors which allows:
sensing the inner temperature thereof by means of a thermocouple;
determining the acceleration on the vertical axis, on the horizontal lateral axis and on the front horizontal axis based on time, by means of an accelerometer;
obtaining two-dimensional images of the interior of the mill by means of a digital camera with regard to the geometric conditions of the interior of the mill; obtaining two-dimensional images of the interior of the mill in the thermal spectrum by means of a thermographic camera, thereby getting thermal images of the interior of the mill; and executing a detection of the distance in one or more planes by means of the detection of distances, for instance, detection of the time of flight by using laser beams through a laser scanner for obtaining one of more three-dimensional geometric profiles of the surrounding in predefined angle positions of the interior of the mill.