SPECIAL NOTICE
99 -- The TRICARE Management Activity (TMA), Pharmaceutical Operations Directorate is seeking information regarding a formulary publication and management application to provide access to appropriate individuals.
- Notice Date
- 11/7/2006
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- Contracting Office
- US Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, ATTN: MCMR-AAA, 820 Chandler Street, Frederick, MD 21702-5014
- ZIP Code
- 21702-5014
- Solicitation Number
- USA-SNOTE-061107-001
- Archive Date
- 2/5/2007
- Description
- THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS OR A REQUEST FOR QUOTATIONS, IT IS STRICTLY A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI). NEITHER UNSOLICITED PROPOSALS NOR ANY OTHER KINDS OF OFFERS WILL BE CONSIDERED IN RESPONSE TO THIS RFI. NO CONTRACT WILL BE AWARDED PUR SUANT TO THIS ANOUNCEMENT. Request for Information (RFI) for a Department of Defense (DoD) Formulary Publication & Management Commercial Product 1.0 SUBJECT The TRICARE Management Activity (TMA), Pharmaceutical Operations Directorate is seeking information regarding a formulary publication and management application to provide access to appropriate individuals. TMA is conducting market research to determine cu rrent capability of commercial applications offering electronic formulary services to enable the electronic publication and overall management of TRICARE formulary information. Our intent is to make the TRICARE formulary available for download to medical providers of TRICARE beneficiaries throughout the United States. Responses are due to this RFI by 4:00 PM on November 28, 2006. See section 6.0 for further information. 2.0 DISCLAIMER This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation. Neither unsolicited proposals nor any other kinds of offers will be considered in response to this RFI. Responses to this notice are not offers and wi ll not be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI. All information received in response to this RFI that is marked proprietary, will be handled accor dingly. Responses to the RFI will not be returned. At this time, questions concerning the composition and requirements for a future Request for Proposal (RFP), as well as those regarding the nature of the products reviewed for this initiative will not be entertained. 3.0 DESCRIPTION TRICARE Management Activity, a Defense Department agency, administers the health care plan for the uniformed services, retirees and their families, and serves more than 9.2 million eligible beneficiaries worldwide. The approximate 300 Military treatment fa cilities (MTFs) are the primary delivery portal for care augmented by a civilian provider network. Pharmacy benefits are provided through three points of service: 1) MTFs; 2) Mail order pharmacy; and 3) a retail network. Beneficiaries are able to receive prescriptions from both military and civilian providers and fill their prescriptions at any points of service. Prescriptions filled at a retail pharmacy network or through the authorized mail order pharmacy are subject to a three tier copay structure corresponding to the products TRICARE Uniform Formulary status. The TRICARE formulary is subject to quarterly incr emental changes based DoD P&T recommendations. Availability of medication and cost-shares are also subject to the beneficiarys category (e.g. active duty military or retiree) and various formulary management tools, such as prior authorizations and quanti ty limitations. The TRICARE Formulary is currently available through a web based search tool hosted on the TMA website, but is not in a format accessible for electronic download. Web link to DoD formulary tool: http://www.tricareformularysearch.org Additionally, the Government is seeking information regarding specific functionality of formulary publication tools and/or management applications, to include: * The functional specifications, such as the application platform (e.g. web-based) * The Operational specifications for updating and maintaining formulary information in the application, such as the timing of updates, ability to accommodate DoD drug classification system * Integration features such as the capability to synchronize with prescription claims adjudication systems * Ability to connect with existing switches (e.g. RxHub, SureScripts) or other entities utilizing formulary information * Ability for all formats to be supported, such as NCPDP and web-ready * Applicable security specifications to include certifications and/or privacy functions * Specify whether a free text field or qualifying field is available to designate additional medication requirements such as prior authorization, quantity limits, or step therapy requirements TMA also encourages responses to include information on other capabilities and functions of a commercial product that can contribute to an overall formulary management strategy for the Military Health System (MHS). 4.0 REQUIREMENTS This section enumerates the functional requirements for a TRICARE formulary publication and management application: Publication of the TRICARE formulary incorporating industry standard (i.e. NCPDP) format which can be downloaded by providers for use in the local electronic medical record (EMR), prescribing device, PDA or similar devices Capability to communicate a wide variety of formulary management functions, such as: Identifying formulary alternatives for Non-Formulary (Tier 3) medications Annotating medications that are not covered by the TRICARE benefit Annotating medications that are only covered by the medical benefit Communicate preferred product within a particular drug class Capability to provide formulary information applicable to the pharmacy point of service and the beneficiary category. Capability to incorporate multiple formulary management tools, such as quantity limits, prior authorization requirements, and a 3-tiered copay status. Capability to provide differential formulary categories relating to the point of service (e.g. TRICARE Uniform Formulary for the retail network and Basic Core Formulary for individual/specific MTF pharmacies). The Government is open to alternative concepts for solutions that meet these requirements. The Government encourages creativity and outside the box thinking in responses to this RFI. This RFI seeks information about approaches that could meet the functional requirements with additional levels of sharing of personnel, equipment, and connectivity paths. In doing so, the Government seeks to understand the tradeoffs among risks, costs (in itial and ongoing) and alternative technical architectures that incorporate increasing degrees of sharing. The purpose of this RFI is to gather information about those requirements enumerated above. To the extent simplifying assumptions are needed, respondents are encouraged to make and document such assumptions in their responses. 5.0 CONTACT INFORMATION Following is the Point of Contact (POC) for this RFI: Kelly R. Green Please submit responses via e-mail in Microsoft Office 2000 (at a minimum) format by 4:00 PM on November 28, 2006, to kelly.r.green@det.amedd.army.mil. You may also submit supplemental hardcopy materials such as brochures, etc to Kelly R. Green, 820 Chand ler Street, Fort Detrick, Maryland 21702-5014.
- Web Link
-
USAMRAA web page
(http://www.usamraa.army.mil)
- Record
- SN01177570-W 20061109/061107221001 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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