SOURCES SOUGHT
B -- HRSA EVALUATION STUDIES
- Notice Date
- 9/22/2011
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541720
— Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Office of Acquisitions Management and Policy, 5600 Fisher Ln., Room 13A-19, Rockville, Maryland, 20857, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20857
- Solicitation Number
- 2012HRSAEvaluationIDIQSourceSought
- Point of Contact
- Diane, Phone: 3014432583
- E-Mail Address
-
dcoger@hrsa.gov
(dcoger@hrsa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- The Health Resources and Services Administration is issuing this sources sought notice as a tool for market research to determine the availability and capability of small businesses to provide the services described under all domains below. Background: This Indefinite-Delivery-Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) requirement will provide a contracting mechanism to facilitate the acquisitions of focused, high-priority, short-term and long-term evaluation activities in support of various Bureaus and Offices within the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). HRSA an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the primary Federal agency for improving access to health care services for people who are uninsured, isolated or medically vulnerable. Comprising six bureaus and nine offices, HRSA provides leadership and financial support to health care providers in every state and U.S. territory. HRSA has over 80 programs and more than 3,000 grantees; over 1,100 Health Centers; and approximately 200 hospitals, nursing homes and educational facilities in every U.S. State, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Pacific Basin. HRSA grantees and programs perform multiple vital functions including: • providing health care to uninsured people, people living with HIV/AIDS, and pregnant women, mothers and children, • training health professionals and improve systems of care in rural communities, • overseeing organ, bone marrow and cord blood donation, • supporting programs that prepare against bioterrorism, • compensating individuals harmed by vaccination, and • maintaining databases that protect against health care malpractice and health care waste, fraud and abuse. HRSA is continually working to improve health care access and quality, promote best practices, and eliminate health disparities across the nation. To accomplish this mission, HRSA evaluates a variety of information and data from multiple sources including patient demographics; services provided; staffing; health and clinical indicators; utilization rates; costs; and revenues. Evaluations allow HRSA to analyze the effectiveness and efficiency of its programs and identify program components and features that have or have not been effective. In addition, effective evaluation helps measure program performance, demonstrate program achievement of goals and other outcomes and identify areas that need improvement. Further, effective and well-designed evaluation can yield valuable information that can inform programmatic and fiscal decision-making, including helping funders to identify those programs and activities that should be supported. Finally, evaluation helps providers ensure that programs are implemented as conceptualized, operating efficiently and providing maximum benefit to their clients. The overall purpose of the Evaluation IDIQ is to assist the bureaus and offices with (1) assessment of the effectiveness and efficiency of HRSA-supported programs-operations, outcomes, and performance; (2) analysis of contextual/policy issues which may impact the effectiveness of HRSA-supported activities; (3) determination and strengthening of the capacity of health-related evaluation both within HRSA and among its programs; and (4) design, development, and assessment of the health-related evaluation data and information (IT) system. Services and experience: Domain One: NAICS: 541720 1. Assessment of Effectiveness and Efficiency of HRSA-Supported Programs - Operations, Outcomes and Performance These studies focus on the effectiveness and efficiency of HRSA-supported programs - including operations (i.e., the best way to accomplish program goals); achievement of specified objectives and goals (e.g., outcomes); and potential development of performance measures in light of the Agency's performance reporting requirements and the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010; and related public health practice activities of HRSA. Evaluation studies might address topics such as: implementation of planned program models or designs; program functioning, including assessment of the efficiency of program management; quality improvement approaches and results; client perception of program availability and accessibility; accomplishment of operational targets, meeting standards, and following national guidelines; and identification of "best practices" among a number of similar program sites. Additional examples of the types of studies that may be included are: measurement of basic outputs, such as improvements in access to health care through HRSA-supported activities; measurement of intermediate outputs, such as risk reduction and improvement in immunization status; measurement of longer-term outcomes, such as improvement in health status (e.g., patient, community, etc); assessment of validity/reliability of data and indicators used to measure performance; determination of unintended effects of HRSA-supported activities; assessment of the relationship between HRSA-supported activities and various observed outcomes; efficiency of program operations in achieving prescribed implementation; program cost effectiveness and cost efficiency outputs and cost effectiveness outcomes; and identification of participants, clients, or target audiences, determination of their expectations and levels of satisfaction with HRSA-supported activities. 2. Analysis of Contextual/Policy Issues which may Impact HRSA-Supported Activities These studies will primarily focus on either 1) the external context of programs and how forces in the larger society affect HRSA programs and their progress toward achieving goals and objectives (e.g., health and human service system changes, such as the increase in managed care or the changes in the welfare system; social, economic and political changes, such as the increase in population(s) without health insurance, etc.) or 2) the development and assessment of various policy alternatives related to HRSA programs or interests (i.e., how actual, planned, or potential changes in current public and private policies and implementation strategies would affect attainment of program goals and objectives. Examples of evaluation studies with this emphasis may include 1) interaction of local, state, and Federal policies with HRSA-supported activities; or 2) impact of changes in financial policy by Federal, State, local and/or private payers on the recipients of HRSA funds and their clients or patients. In the completion of evaluation studies in this domain, working with data at the National, State and local levels may be required. Examples may include: 1) exploration, development and implementation of methodologies for linking national data sets; and 2) linking national data sets with State data and/or linking data across states (e.g., analysis of linked Medicaid and public health data sets (e.g., Medicaid claims data and vital records). For both components of Domain One, it is expected that the data to determine impact and outcome are collected from the 80-plus programs, 3,000 grantees; more than 1,100 Health Centers; approximately 200 hospitals, nursing homes and educational facilities in every U.S. State, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Pacific Basin. Required expertise/experience for Domain One: • Subject matter expertise in all of the populations that HRSA serves (e.g., safety net communities - uninsured, isolated or medically vulnerable) as well as in all major HRSA programmatic areas. Specific focus should be on the populations that are served by the following bureaus and offices: Bureau of Clinician Recruitment and Service; Bureau of Health Professions; Bureau of Primary Health Care; Healthcare Systems Bureau; HIV/AIDS Bureau; Maternal and Child Health Bureau; Office of Rural Health Policy; and the Office of Special Health Affairs. • Expertise and experience serving as the primary lead in designing and conducting national evaluation studies and large scale complex surveys (e.g., several hundred to several thousand participants) designed to evaluate health-related and public health programs similar to those administered by HRSA. • Experience in the following areas: complex survey design; sampling methodology; identifying and implementing innovative methodological approaches; developing, assessing and manipulating large data sets; collecting data; reducing non-response; dealing with item variance estimation for data gathered using complex survey designs; and developing technical reports. • Expertise in the areas of policy analysis, policy research, and evaluability assessment as well as experience in conducting policy analysis on issues that may affect HRSA programs at the macro level (nationwide) and micro level (community). • Assessing the impact of public health practice programs at the community, county, or state level in public health programs. • Ability to conduct multiple projects concurrently, complete complex tasks within narrow time spans, assure quality of projects, initiate new orders within two weeks, have sufficient on-board capacity with regard to technical evaluation and research skills. • Have established links with a range of organizations and subcontractors with demonstrable related expertise. • Potential contractors must have in-depth knowledge and thorough understanding of the inner workings with educational institutions to ensure that studies benefit from the cost saving derived by joint projects and expertise from environmental/policy issues which may impact effectives of HRSA supported programs. Domain Two: NAICS: 541720 Strengthening Evaluation Capacity Tasks related to this domain, specifically, the determination and strengthening of capacity for health-related evaluation, could focus on the following types of activities: identifying current needs and recommendations for activities both within HRSA and among its programs to conduct effective evaluation, including new program and policy-related data needs; providing technical assistance and training to build evaluation capacity among HRSA programs and HRSA staff to enhance both the ability of programs to conduct evaluation and the ability/capacity of HRSA to conduct evaluations on its programs (e.g., the assessment of program's capacity and willingness to respond to changes in HRSA program data and performance reporting requirements; and supporting activities that strengthen local health-related evaluation efforts). It is expected that the data to determine impact and outcome are collected from the 80-plus programs, 3,000 grantees; more than 1,100 Health Centers; approximately 200 hospitals; nursing homes and educational facilities in every U.S. State, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Pacific Basin. Required expertise/experience for Domain Two: • Subject matter expertise in all the populations that HRSA serves (e.g., safety net communities - uninsured, isolated or medically vulnerable) as well as in all major HRSA programmatic areas. Specifically, the populations that are served by the following bureaus and offices: Bureau of Clinician Recruitment and Service; Bureau of Health Professions; Bureau of Primary Health Care; Healthcare Systems Bureau; HIV/AIDS Bureau; Maternal and Child Health Bureau; Office of Rural Health Policy; and the Office of Special Health Affairs. • Primary lead in assessing capacity of health and public health related programs to conduct evaluation of their programs, including modification of current evaluation strategies to accommodate such things as new program and policy-related data reporting needs and requirements • Primary lead in development of recommendations for strengthening of evaluation capacity and implementation among health related and public health programs such as those administered by HRSA • Primary lead in provision of supporting activities such as technical assistance and training to build evaluation capacity to conduct all aspects of a health related evaluation - including but not limited to evaluability assessment, identification of issues to be evaluated, development of tools and techniques to implement an evaluation, analysis of results and identification and communication of results/findings. • Experience in the various components of enhancing capacity and provision of technical assistance for evaluations of health related and public health programs similar to those administered by HRSA should be demonstrated for organizations at a national, state and local level. • Ability to conduct multiple projects concurrently, complete complex tasks within narrow time spans, assure quality of projects, initiate new orders within two weeks, have sufficient on-board capacity with regard to technical evaluation and research skills • Have established links with a range of organizations and subcontractors with demonstrable related experience. • Potential contractors must have in-depth knowledge and thorough understanding of the inner workings with educational institutions to ensure that studies benefit from the cost saving derived by joint projects and expertise from environmental/policy issues which may impact effectives of HRSA supported programs. Domain Three: NAICS: 541512 Design and Development of Evaluation Data and Information Technology (IT) Systems Tasks related to this domain, related to the design, development, and assessment of health-related evaluation data and information technology systems, will focus on studies such as the following: the design of data/IT systems that could be used for program monitoring and to measure the performance and impact of HRSA-supported activities; the development and testing of these data/IT systems; the evaluation, modification, or refinement of existing HRSA data systems to make them more useful for monitoring and evaluation purposes; the examination and assessment of methodological issues pertaining to the design and development of these data systems; and the assessment of programs' capability from a management information system (MIS) perspective to collect and report to HRSA data necessary to measure HRSA's program requirements including performance reporting requirements and the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010. Required expertise/experience for Domain Three: • Assessing and developing evaluation-related IT data systems. "Developing professionally-validated IT programs to support program functioning." • Developing professionally-validated data linking algorithms to support program functioning. • Information technology capacity development among small and medium sized public health organizations similar to those administered by HRSA. • Ability to meet the IT requirements specified by the HRSA Office of Information Technology, such as: o Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines. o Ability to build, design, and deploy IT systems and applications with common software development life cycle (SDLC) standards. o Compliance with Section 508 requirements for all reports, documents or content published on the Internet. • Have established links with a range of organizations and subcontractors with demonstrable related expertise. • Familiarity with Federal Enterprise Project Lifecycle (EPLC) such as project management; project execution; and in-depth technical review of project deliverables. The contractor shall provide capability statements that address one or multiple domains. The capabilities statements must address the following points: 1. Demonstrate ability to provide services described under the domain including addressing in-depth all the required expertise/experience. 2. Business information: DUNS Number Company Name Company Address. Company Point of Contact, phone number and email address Type of company under NAICS/PSC, as validated via the Central Contractor Registration (CCR). Additional information on NAICS codes can be found at www.sba.gov. Corporate structure (corporation, LLC, sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability partnership, professional corporation, etc.); Point of Contact, phone number and email address of individuals who can verify the demonstrated capabilities identified in the responses. Responders should also include a statement about whether or not they have an approved Federal audited accounting system. If the responder has an approved accounting system, please provide the certification in which the accounting system was deemed adequate (e.g. the name of the audit agency and audit number). You may submit as an attachment. Interested organizations that have the capabilities to perform the above services will email their capabilities statement to Ms. Diane Coger at dcoger@hrsa.gov of their interest in this requirement within 10 calendar days of this notice. Responses shall be limited to 30 pages. NO QUESTIONS WILL BE ENTERTAINED AT THIS TIME. THIS NOTICE IS FOR MARKET RESEARCH ONLY. Disclaimer and Important Notes. This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. Responses to this notice will not, however, be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. IMPORTANT: This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified offerors to perform the proposed acquisition; and (2) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method. Confidentiality. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information included within any resultant solicitation(s).
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