National Institute of Mental Health, Contracts Management Branch, 6001 Exective Blvd., MSC 9603, Rm. 6S-6107, Bethesda, MD 20892-9603

B -- COST SURVEY OF MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT FOR CHILDREN (CMC) SOL NIMH-99-DS-0004 POC Patricia Gibbons; (301) 443-2696 WEB: http://www.nimh.nih.gov, http://www.nimh.nih.gov. E-MAIL: pgibbons@nimh.nih.gov, pgibbons@nimh.nih.gov. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) proposes to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) No. NIMH-99-DS-0004 entitled "Cost Survey of Mental Health Treatment for Children (CMC)" Issue date of the RFP will be on or about Friday, July 2, 1999 with receipt of proposals due on or about Monday, August 2, 1999. It is anticipated that award will be made on or about September 30, 1999. Proposals are being solicited under Full and Open Competitive Procedures using Standard Industry Code 8732/8733. A four (4) year cost-reimbursement type contract is contemplated. This RFP will utilize the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' (NIAID) Contract Review On-line (CRON) system. Offerors will submit their proposals ELECTRONICALLY. In addition to your electronic submission, Offerors will be required to submit one complete original signed HARDCOPY of their proposal. Please note that the electronic copy of your proposal will need to be submitted in Adobe Acrobat portable document format (PDF). Adequate security for electronic transmission will be provided by using a dedicated server with access restricted through passwords. This RFP invites proposals for the initiation of a national survey of the type of services used by children in treatment, the costs of these services, and how benefit coverage affects access, use and cost of mental health services. NIMH intends to award a single contract with multiple scientific and administrative components to conduct a cost survey of children and adolescents who are high users of mental health services, to develop sophisticated research design to answer policy relevant questions, and to conduct data analyses. The survey should have the capacity to generalize to the national population and collect and analyze data relevant to answer the research questions outlined below: 1. What are the costs of mental health services for youth in inpatient, residential, partial care (IRP) and intensive outpatient treatment (ages 4-17). How do costs vary by sociodemographic groups? How do costs vary by type of mental disorder? 2. How do financing arrangements and insurance benefits influence the use of services and the costs of care? 3. What kinds of treatment services are delivered to children in these treatment settings and what is the quality of those services? 4. What mental disorders do children have in these settings? According to preliminary estimates approximately 1,500 children who are high users of mental health services will need to be selected from approximately 800 inpatient, residential and partial care treatment settings. No preliminary estimates are available concerning the sample size of the intensive outpatient survey sample. It is planned that this study will have three major survey components: 1. Survey of children who are high users of mental health services (and their parent/guardian) treated in inpatient, residential and partial treatment settings, 2. Survey of similar children (and their parent/guardian) treated in outpatient settings, and 3. Insurance followback survey to obtain health insurance information for the child from the insuring private company or public program. The NIMH envisions that the methodology of the contract should pay considerable attention to: a. Sampling of youth from different mental health service settings, b. Existing instruments that could be used for collecting cost data, data on use of services, quality of care, type of mental health problem and insurance coverage, c. Collecting survey data on children and adolescents and their parent/guardian and data processing, d. Developing research design in order to answer Questions 1 through 4 outlined above, e. Conducting data analyses to provide empirical answers for Questions 1 and 4. THE RFP WILL BE AVAILABLE IN ELECTRONIC FORMAT at URL http://www.nimh.nih.gov select "Funding Opportunities" then "Contracts" then "NIMH Request for Proposals (RFP)" then select "NIMH-99-DS-0004." It will be available fifteen or more calendar days after the issuance of this synopsis. OFFERORS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ROUTINELY CHECKING THE NIMH WEBSITE FOR ANY POSSIBLE SOLICITATION AMENDMENTS THAT MAY BE ISSUED. NO INDIVIDUAL NOTIFICATION OF ANY AMENDMENTS WILL BE PROVIDED. All responsible sources may submit a proposal that will be considered by the agency. Posted 06/17/99 (W-SN344190). (0168)

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