NCQA, 2000 L Street, NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20036

B -- TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION OF VENDORS TO ADMINISTER THE HEALTH OF SENIORS HEDIS MEASURE TO MEDICARE MANAGED CARE MEMBERS SOL HOS-001 DUE 103197 POC NCQA Product Support department 202/955-5697 WEB: National Committee for Quality Assurance home page, www.ncqa.org. E-MAIL: Health of Seniors mail box, hos.ncqa.org. The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) is soliciting proposals from multiple qualified organizations to survey selected members in Medicare managed care plans. The Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) requires all Section 1876 contractors with Medicare risk or cost contracts in effect during any portion of 1996 to report quality measures as contained in NCQA's Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS). A HEDIS 3.0 outcome measure, Health of Seniors employs a survey based largely on the SF-36 and seeks to obtain self-reported information on functional health status from Medicare beneficiaries. NCQA will conduct a training and certification program for selected organizations in early January 1998. Once certified, organizations may enter into contracts with Medicare managed care organizations to survey selected members: 1,000 from each health plan. Approximately 290 Medicare plans will participate in the survey. The Health of Seniors will be fielded in early February 1998, and be readministered to national survey respondents two years later. Interested organizations should have sufficient in-house capacity to perform large-scale mailings and telephone interviews, experience working with elderly populations, experience in the administration and scoring of the SF-36 (preferred) or SF-12, and the capacity to electronically process a large volume of surveys. RFP will be available on or around October 15, 1997, with a due date of October 31. Expressions of interest should be forwarded to: NCQA, 2000 L Street, NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20036, Att'n: HOS RFP. Please include contact name, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, and email address. Expressions may also be emailed to hos@ncqa.org. The RFP may be downloaded from NCQA's web site at www.ncqa.org. (0281)

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