DHHS, Office of the Secretary, Office of Acquisition Management; Room 443H, Humphrey Building; 200 Independence Avenue, S.W.; Washington, D.C. 20201

R -- PROVIDE ASSISTANCE TO DEVELOP AND TEST ALTERNATIVE MODELS FOR CLARIFYING MEDICARE HOME HEALTH CARE COVERAGE DEFINITIONS. POC Point of Contact: Cheryl Howe, Contract Specialist, 202-690-5552 The Department of Health and Human Services intends to negotiate with the Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNS), 5 Penn Plaza, New York NY 10001-1810, on a sole source basis under the authority of FAR 6.302-1 to award a contract to provide the assistance required by the DHHS Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE)to develop and test alternative models for clarifying the definitions of two Medicare home health care coverage criteria: the "homebound" and the "medical necessity" criteria. The proposed project will involve seeking input from clinical experts, developing decision algorithms, and using Outcome & Assessment Information Set (OASIS) data from three or four additional providers to test the reliability of the algorithms. The contractor will complete the analytic work and prepare a final report within one year from the contract award date. The VNS staff have extensive experience in modeling OASIS items for clinical applications and have access to a large repository of OASIS data. Staff experience and access to data will enable the VNS to carry out this project at a lower cost to the government and in a more timely manner, than a firm with limited experience and limited access to appropriate data sources. The purpose of this synopsis is to determine whether there may be other sources with the requisite qualifications to perform the work described above. Any organization capable of performing similar services should submit a cost estimate and a statement of capabilities with documentation supporting its ability to meet the Government's requirements as described above. No solicitation document is available. Capability statements should be submitted with 45 days of the publication of this synopsis to the contact point and address given above. See Note 22. Posted 06/18/99 (D-SN344682). (0169)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0074 19990622\R-0014.SOL)