SOURCES SOUGHT
B -- AHRQ Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP)
- Notice Date
- 12/20/2011
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541690
— Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Contracts Management, 540 Gaither Road, Rockville, Maryland, 20850
- ZIP Code
- 20850
- Solicitation Number
- HHS-AHRQ-SBSS-12-001
- Point of Contact
- Kathryn Espenshade, Phone: 301-427-1788, Jessica Alderton, Phone: 301-427-1783
- E-Mail Address
-
kathryn.espenshade@ahrq.hhs.gov, jessica.alderton@ahrq.hhs.gov
(kathryn.espenshade@ahrq.hhs.gov, jessica.alderton@ahrq.hhs.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- AHRQ Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) 2013-2018 Sources Sought Description: This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice. 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 small business sources; (2) whether they are small businesses; HUBZone small businesses; service disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) 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, including whether a set aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under the applicable NAICS code should not submit a response to this notice. NAICS: 541690 Classification Code: B Background: The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research was established in 1989. Its reauthorizing legislation (42 U.S.C. 299 et seq; "Healthcare Research and Quality Act of 1999") renamed it the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and established it as the lead Federal agency whose mission was to enhance the quality, appropriateness, and effectiveness of health services and access to such services for all Americans. AHRQ's mission is to produce "measurable improvements in health care in America, gauged in terms of improved quality of life and patient outcomes, lives saved, and value gained for what we spend." Under the Healthcare Research and Quality Act of 1999 (S 580), which reauthorized AHRQ, AHRQ's reauthorizing legislation stated that, "The Agency shall promote health care quality improvement by conducting and supporting- (1) research that develops and presents scientific evidence regarding all aspects of health care, including- (2) methods for measuring quality and strategies for improving quality; and (3) initiatives to advance private and public efforts to improve health care quality." (http://www.ahrq.gov/hrqa99a.htm ) The Agency conducts and supports a broad base of scientific research and promotes improvements in clinical and health system practices, including the prevention of diseases and other health conditions. AHRQ sponsors and conducts research that develops and presents evidence-based information on healthcare outcomes, quality, comparative effectiveness, patient safety, cost, use and access. Included in AHRQ's mandate is support of the generation, synthesis, and dissemination of scientific evidence, including effectiveness research and analytic methods. The mission of AHRQ is to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans. To help fulfill this goal, AHRQ sponsors the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), a family of health care databases and related software tools, products, and statistical reports to inform policy makers, health system leaders, researchers, and the public. Through voluntary partnerships with a number of State, Federal, and Industry organizations, HCUP has grown from a single database limited to inpatient hospital care to a family of six state- and national-level databases, covering inpatient, ambulatory surgery, emergency department, and pediatric encounters. As a result, HCUP has become the largest all-payer resource of multi-year hospital discharge data from community, non-Federal, short-term (acute care), general, and specialty hospitals in the U.S. The participation of state-wide public and private data Partners is essential for the success of the HCUP project and is based on cooperative, detailed agreements made between AHRQ and each data Partner. Currently, there are 45 States with data organizations that participate as HCUP Partners by sharing their inpatient data. Of those 45 States, 30 also share their ambulatory surgery data and 29 also share their emergency department data with AHRQ. HCUP databases continue to grow in response to this vital partnership: Every year since 1988, HCUP has released new, expanded information on inpatient, emergency department, and ambulatory surgery services. HCUP's inpatient databases now include over 95 percent of all community hospital discharges in the U.S. HCUP is positioned to assist in understanding many of the hospital-related health care challenges that Americans will face in the future. As the U.S. embarks on a major health reform initiative to cover the uninsured, expand coverage for other populations, and continue its effort to improve the quality and value of care, AHRQ's successful collaboration with its HCUP Partners will continue to provide essential hospital information to measure progress towards these goals. Detailed descriptions of the project and data can be found at the HCUP Web site at: www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov. Databases The HCUP databases are quite large in size and contain a core set of clinical and nonclinical information found in a typical discharge abstract including all-listed diagnoses and procedures, discharge status, patient demographics, and charges for all patients, regardless of payer (e.g., Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, uninsured). The information is translated into a uniform format to facilitate both multi-State and national-State comparisons and analyses. Links to all HCUP databases and detailed descriptions are available at: https://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/databases.jsp. HCUP databases include: The Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) with inpatient data from approximately 8 million hospital stays from a national sample of over 1,000 hospitals. The Kids' Inpatient Database (KID) is a nationwide sample of pediatric inpatient discharges and contain a sample of over 3 million discharges from more than 4,100 U.S. community hospitals. The Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) is a database that yields national estimates of emergency department (ED) visits and contain more than 29 million unweighted records for ED visits at about 1,000 U.S. community hospitals. The State Inpatient Databases (SID) contain the universe of inpatient discharge abstracts from participating states. Currently, the total of all the state inpatient records in a given year is approximately 36 million. The State Ambulatory Surgery Databases (SASD) contain data from ambulatory care encounters from hospital-affiliated and sometimes freestanding ambulatory surgery sites. The total of all HCUP ambulatory surgery records in a given year is approximately 35 million. The State Emergency Department Databases (SEDD) contain data from hospital-affiliated emergency departments for visits that do not result in hospitalizations. The total of all HCUP emergency department records in a given year is approximately 85 million. Prospective purchasers and all persons with access to the databases are required to read and sign a Data Use Agreement and must agree to use the database for research and statistical purposes only and to make no attempts to identify individuals. Software Tools AHRQ has developed free software tools that can be used not only with the HCUP databases listed above, but also with other administrative databases. These tools can be downloaded without charge and include such clinical classification software, comorbidity software, cost-to-charge ratios, and chronic condition indicator. All the HCUP tools are described at: http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/tools_software.jsp. In addition to data and tools, HCUP also encompasses such activities as creating timely information from the data, providing user support, electronic documentation, centralized data distribution, technical data training, publications, and research, among others. It is anticipated that the next five years will also be a period of immense change as well and will require innovative and forward thinking approaches to conducting this highly complex and multifaceted project. Purpose and Objectives: As currently designed, the HCUP contract annually produces over 100 inpatient, ambulatory surgery, and emergency department state-level databases, three nationwide databases, over 60 publicly disseminated databases, ten software tools, seven supplemental files and numerous presentations and trainings; receives over one million visits per year on the HCUP Web site; and responds to approximately 3,000 technical assistance and data support inquiries per year. It is anticipated that during the base year of the contract, considerable effort and expertise will be needed for the contractor to establish and build the infrastructure to simultaneously contact and build a relationship with HCUP Partners, obtain, process, document, and deliver multiple databases of varying structures, and complete the process of collecting and preparing the 2011 databases (data for discharges occurring in calendar year 2011), and beginning the 2012 data cycle. It is also expected that the Contractor shall prepare and disseminate HCUP Central Distributor files; conduct special analyses, provide technical support and training, and prepare the HCUP-based materials and statistics for the National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports. Most tasks will be repeated annually, with specific activities conducted periodically throughout the 4 optional years. The Contractor shall perform the following types of services under this contract: • Process and create uniformly formatted State inpatient and outpatient encounter-level data files obtained from HCUP Partners created from billing records and derivative nationwide databases; • Conduct research and policy analyses using the breadth and depth of HCUP data to explore the impact of changes in health policy on health care, to document and analyze explanations for trends in health care, and to propose and test alternate hypotheses about the relative importance and impact of a variety of structural and clinical factors on health care outcomes; • Prepare technical reports and publications; • Recruit data partners, complete data applications, negotiate or update Memorandums of Agreement for participation, and purchase data from HCUP Partners; • Operate the HCUP Central Distributor, which handles all activities directly related to the sales and dissemination of the restricted access public release HCUP databases (the NIS, KID, NEDS, and a sub-set of the full State files used by AHRQ) and related HCUP files; • Provide AHRQ staff and HCUP Partners with technical support; • Deliver user technical support on HCUP databases, software tools, linkable files, written reports and all other products developed for the HCUP project; • Develop and update ICD-9 based software tools that enhance the value of HCUP data and other administrative data; • Supply medical coding expertise to maintain health care software tools such as ICD-10 and CPT/HCPCS coding; • Provide statistical and sampling methodology • Create documentation and maintain and enhance the HCUP documentation system; • Maintain and further develop the HCUP Web site (HCUP-US) which serves as the project's primary vehicle for public outreach, and a virtual repository for project information and documentation; • Support the generation of estimates derived from HCUP data for the Congressionally- mandated reports: National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports primarily through applying the AHRQ Quality Indicators (QI) software to the HCUP national and State databases; • Adhere to HHS Security and Privacy Policy commensurate with the risk associated with HCUP; • Developing systems for monitoring and maintaining secure and efficient computing environment (including programmer resources); and • Reporting, work planning, management meetings. Firms should note that HCUP research data and databases are not stored on-line nor are they available for download on the HCUP-US Web site. HCUP generally does not receive electronic transfer of data nor does it provide any external access to the computing system used for collection or processing of HCUP data. Capability Statement/Information Sought AHRQ is looking for firms which have the capability to conduct the next phase of the HCUP contract and can ensure the timely, high-quality, secure production of health research databases annually while simultaneously conducting complex clinical, economic and health services research through analytic and technical reports. In their capability statement, qualified firms must demonstrate the organization's ability to achieve the above stated objectives at the scale/magnitude of the HCUP Project. Firms must also demonstrate substantial experience in maintaining and managing multiple, multi-faceted activities concurrently at the highest level of professional and scientific quality. They must also provide demonstrated evidence of developing and analyzing a large scale administrative encounter-level database. Also, potential offerors must show that they have all the capabilities in-house, or be able to obtain (in-house or through subcontracting/consulting arrangements), the staff and other resources necessary to perform the work described in this document to expeditiously carry out the different types of activities listed above. Anticipated Period of Performance: The anticipated Period of Performance will be for one year from January, 2013 through January 2014 with four (4) one year option periods. Capability statements: Interested, qualified small business organizations should submit a tailored capability statement for this requirement in writing and accompanied by a CD provided in Microsoft Word format. The statement must not exceed 12 single sided pages (including all attachments, resumes, charts, etc.), presented in double-space format and using a 12 point font size minimum, that clearly details the ability to perform the aspects of the notice described above. (Telephone and facsimile response will not be accepted.) Statements should include information regarding respondents': (a) Staff expertise, including their availability, experience, and formal and other training; (b) current in-house capability and capacity to perform the work; (c) prior completed projects of similar nature; (d) corporate experience and management capability; and (e) examples of prior completed Government contracts, references and other related information. Only capability statements tailored to this specific requirement will be deemed responsive. Statements should CLEARLY INDICATE IN THE FRONT COVER OF THE CAPABILITY STATEMENT, the responding entity's DUNS number, organization name, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, email addresses, point of contact, and size and type of business (e.g., 8(a), HUBZone, etc) pursuant to the applicable NAICS code. The respondents' technical and administrative points of contact, including names, titles, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses should also be provided. Capability statements should be submitted in an original and four (4) copies and must be received by ARHQ no later than January 4th, 2012. The statement should be submitted to: Jessica Alderton Contracting Officer AHRQ/OPART/CM 540 Gaither Road Rockville, MD 20850 301-427-1783 301-427-1740 (fax) "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. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. 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 in any resultant solicitation(s)."
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/HHS/AHRQ/DCM/HHS-AHRQ-SBSS-12-001/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: United States
- Record
- SN02642998-W 20111222/111220234953-a5cdf2304496c76d51f6f183f71f13e1 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
| FSG Index | This Issue's Index | Today's FBO Daily Index Page |