Abstract: Methods and apparatus for automated insurance claims and eligibility/benefits communication, audit, and research are described. This application relates to methods and apparatus for automated insurance claims and eligibility/benefits communication, audit, and research. These methods include processing an insurance claim, comprising creating a claim for payment of medical services for a patient from a medical provider, submitting the payment claim to an insurance carrier, adjudicating the claim; and submitting the payment to the medical provider, wherein during the process of adjudicating the claim, data is collected about the efficiency of the payment process and it is reported back to the medical provider and used to improve the information used to create the claim. Other embodiments are described.