Health Care Financing Administration, Acquisition and Grants Group, C2-21-15, 7500 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, MD., 21244-1850

A -- CARDIAC REHABILITATION EPIDEMIOLOGIC EVALUATION(CREE) SOL RFP-HCFA-00-0042 POC Dave Barbato, Contract Specialist (410)-786-5145 The Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) is seeking to contract with a qualified research organization for a two-stage project entitled "the Cardiac Rehabilitation Epidemiologic Evaluation" (CREE). CREE will be conducted over 36 months. HCFA expects the contract awardee to participate in the design of CREE and carry out all aspects of the study, which will include collecting data about cardiac rehabilitation programs, ascertaining and interviewing patients with coronary artery disease, abstracting medical records, and conducting sophisticated cost effectiveness and longitudinal analyses. The first stage of CREE is a descriptive study of cardiac rehabilitation programs. Because current concepts of cardiac rehabilitation have changed from simply exercise to risk factor reduction, the first stage of CREE will provide HCFA with thorough knowledge of the types of cardiac rehabilitation available to its beneficiaries. The second stage of CREE is an evaluation of health outcomes and cost effectiveness of cardiac rehabilitation. This shall be a historic cohort study of patients with documented coronary artery disease who participated in a cardiac rehabilitation program sometime in the past, compared with similar patients who did not participate in cardiac rehabilitation as controls. The cardiac rehabilitation programs in question will be drawn from the first state of CREE. Using classic epidemiologic techniques, these patients will be tracked from entry into a cardiac rehabilitation program until the present. Interviews and medical record abstraction will be used to provide information on such outcomes as mortality, hospitalizations, revascularization procedures (CABG and PTCA) and outpatient service use; outpatient services and cardiac rehabilitation services; and out-of-pocket expenditures for premiums, deductibles, prescription drugs, and other direct costs. Methods of estimation will be used to predict costs, which in turn will be used in a cost effectiveness analysis. Longitudinal techniques will be used to analyze the health outcome data collected during the second stage of CREE. Offerors should have epidemiologic, health economic, clinical, and biostatistical expertise. Requests for the RFP must be in writing and must be received by the above office within 15 days of this notice. No telephone requests will be honored. The RFP will be available on a first come first serve basis until supply is exhausted. Please mail requests to Dave Barbato, Health Care Financing Administration, 2-21-15 Central Bldg., 7500 Security Blvd. Baltimore, MD 21244-1850 Posted 03/28/00 (W-SN438834). (0088)

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