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

B -- AMENDMENT TO HEDIS DATA COLLECTION IN MEDICARE MANAGED CARE DUE 053000 POC Dawn L. Tucker -- Contract Specialist -- 410-786-5162 E-MAIL: click here to contact the contract specialist, dtucker@hcfa.gov. AMENDMENT TO ANNOUNCEMENT W-140 SN456581 -- The Health Care Financing Administration's Acquisition and Grants Group intends to negotiate a sole source procurement with the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) to assist in the collection and management of HEDIS data for Medicare+Choice managed care organizations. HCFA is seeking a contractor that will develop the technical specifications and support necessary for implementation of HEDIS data collection in addition to the development and testing of new quality performance measures relevant to older Medicare beneficiaries. "Technical specifications" includes details of processes, calculations, and content of necessary training. "Support" includes providing technical assistance to HCFA and/ or its designee. The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) sponsors, supports, and maintains HEDIS in collaboration with HCFA and other representatives of major public and private payer, purchaser, managed care industry, provider/practitionerand health services research communities. HEDIS is a widely used set of health plan performance measures employed by both private and public health care purchasers to promote accountability and to assess the quality of care provided by managed care organizations. HCFA requires Medicare managed care organizations to report health care quality performance measures from HEDIS as part of its Medicare quality assurance strategy. NCQA is the industry leader in assessing and reporting on the quality of managed care organizations. This specialized expertise in developing health plan quality performance measures and prior experience with managing large data collection efforts for HCFA, uniquely qualifies NCQA for this proposed follow-on contract. The period of performance shall be a base year plus two one year options. Telephone requests will NOT be honored. THE RFP PACKAGE IS NOT AVAILABLE. Interested parties should submit a capability statement to Dawn L. Tucker, Contract Specialist, 7500 Security Boulevard, C2-21-15, Baltimore, MD 21244-1850 or E-mail address dtucker@hcfa.gov, and HCFA will make a determination regarding the applicant's qualifications. The Capability Statement shall be submitted NO LATER THAN MAY 30, 2000 by 2:00 EST, should address points outlined in this CBD announcement including contractor's ability to manage, maintain and update HEDIS, and be no longer than 10 pages inclusive of attachments. Also, the capability statement shall be submitted in Microsoft Word in courier 12 point. Posted 05/23/00 (W-SN457893). (0144)

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