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COMMERCE BUSINESS DAILY ISSUE OF FEBRUARY 20,1997 PSA#1786Health Care Financing Administration 7500 Security Blvd., Baltimore, MD
21244-1850 R -- NATIONAL 1-800 BENEFICIARY TELEPHONE CUSTOMER SERVICE INQUIRY
OPERATION SOL RFP-97-0006/DSS DUE 040897 POC Debbie Strittmatter,
Contract Specialist, (410)786-5136. The Health Care Financing
Administration (HCFA) intends to award multiple Indefinite Delivery
Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts to operate a national 1-800
beneficiary telephone customer service inquiry operation. The objective
of the national 1-800 telephone number is to improve service to HCFA
beneficiaries by initially providing beneficiaries the convenience of
one number and ultimately by standardizing customer telephone contacts.
The current beneficiary call volume experienced by HCFA's existing
agents exceeds 30 million annually and may increase when the 1-800
number becomes fully operational. The 1-800 number will undergo three
phases of implementation: 1) Operation of a currently existing hotline
to answer inquiries from beneficiaries and the general public
regarding the Medicare health insurance program, especially questions
regarding health insurance to supplement Medicare (Medigap policies),
complaints of Medigap sales practices, reports of suspected Medicare
waste, fraud and abuse, second opinions for non-emergency surgery, and
distribution of requested publications. Operators will answer basic
beneficiary inquiries and refer calls to appropriate Agents/Partner,
including: Carriers, Fiscal Intermediaries, End Stage Renal Disease
Network Organizations, Peer Review Organizations, Information,
Counseling and Assistance Grantees, State Medicaid Agencies, or HCFA's
Central or Regional Offices. 2) Operation of a new single point of
access 1-800 beneficiary telephone number. Customer service
representatives will route voice calls coming into the 1-800 number
from 1 to 10 states initially to the appropriate HCFA Agent/Partners.
This receipt/routing function will be expanded to cover the United
States, Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. The purpose of the single
point of access is to improve customer service for Medicare
beneficiaries, however, we anticipate that there will be some calls not
directly related to Medicare, e.g. dual eligible beneficiary inquiries
about Medicaid. 3) Piloting approaches and potentially expanding
services to deliver structured responses to non-complex, beneficiary
non-claim inquiries beyond those described above. These pilots and
services could include responding to inquiries through a variety of
media (Internet, fax, U.S. mail, and telephone) for HCFA-related
programs and information. Full expanded service capacity could result
in excess of 20 million inquiries. In addition, the contractor will
continue to route all beneficiary claims calls to appropriate Agents/
Partners. Information and experience gained from these pilots and for
the services provided under this contract will be used to develop and
award contracts for full-service customer service centers. These full
customer service center contracts are anticipated no earlier than FY
2000. HCFA is seeking qualified, expert customer service vendors with
demonstrated abilities in national 1-800 telephone call management of
a similar scale. Some knowledge of health care and HCFA is preferred,
and extensive knowledge of 1-800 telephone call operations and
management, as well as customer service, is necessary. The vendor must
also possess experience in all logistical aspects of national 1-800
telephone startup, operations and management. Vendors must not have any
relationships or arrangements through its business operations or its
employees that could be considered as lessening the company's
objectivity concerning any aspect of the referrals or information
provided to the beneficiaries. The contractor must provide information
that demonstrates it is free of any potential biases and disclose any
potential conflicts for evaluation by HCFA. Vendors should send their
requests to be included on the bidder's list to the address listed
above. Please note that those vendors responding to the initial draft
solicitation synopsis (HCFA-97-DRAFT/DSS) are already included on the
bidders list and need not resubmit. This procurement will be a full and
open competition. Telephone requests for the RFP will not be accepted.
The solicitation will be available on or about Mar 07, 1997. An
electronic copy of the solicitation will be available via the Internet
at http://www.hcfa.gov/about.htm. In an effort to reduce copying costs
hardcopies will only be made available upon request to those vendors
who do not have internet access, or for some other reason cannot
download the RFP. For technical assistance in downloading from the
Internet contact Jeff Stedding at (410) 786-0754. Procurement questions
can be directed to Debbie Strittmatter, Contract Specialist, at
(410)786-5136. (0049) Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0082 19970220\R-0013.SOL)
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