Innovation in Data Dissemination Award

2026 Recipient

L to R: Norm Thurston, Jonathan Handsborough, Joanna Duncan, Chris Krawczyk

Indiana APCD Chatbot

The Indiana Department of Insurance and the Indiana All-Payer Claims Database are being recognized for a tool that reimagines what it means to make health data truly public: the IN APCD Website Chatbot.
Rather than presenting consumers with static dashboards or downloadable reports, Indiana built a conversational interface that meets users where they are — allowing anyone to ask plain-language questions about healthcare costs, procedures, providers, and quality, and receive accurate, real-time responses drawn from the IN APCD and other approved public sources. Powered by large language model technology and a multi-agent, retrieval-augmented generation architecture, the chatbot is sophisticated under the hood while remaining simple and accessible on the surface.
Accessibility was not an afterthought. The tool was designed with ADA compliance, guided prompts, and a conversational tone that serves users across a wide range of health literacy levels. At the same time, it maintains rigorous HIPAA compliance, CMS data suppression standards, and reports only aggregated data — demonstrating that innovation and data stewardship are not in tension.
The project also reflects a model of cross-agency collaboration, with broad stakeholder engagement built into its governance from the start.
In a field where the gap between data availability and public understanding has long been a challenge, Indiana's chatbot offers a compelling answer. NAHDO is proud to recognize the Indiana Department of Insurance and the IN APCD for setting a new standard in health data dissemination.