Abstract: A system for responding to natural-language inquiries is described. The system accesses a textual natural language inquiry originated by a user. For each of one or more inquiry attributes, the system extracts from the textual natural language query a value for the inquiry attribute. The system uses the extracted inquiry attribute values to construct one or more HIPAA requests seeking information relevant to the inquiry. The system submits the constructed requests to a payer computer system. In response to submission of the constructed requests, the system receives from a payer computer system one or more HIPAA responses. Using information contained by at least one of the received HIPAA responses, the system generates a textual natural language response.