Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP)
This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice (SBSS). This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified small business sources; (2) whether they are small business; HUBZone small businesses; service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran-owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under the applicable NAICS code should not submit a response to this notice.
Purpose and Description
The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) is one of AHRQ’s flagship projects producing health care databases, related software tools and research products. HCUP features the largest collection of longitudinal hospital care data in the U.S., containing a wealth of all-payer, encounter-level information beginning in 1988. HCUP databases facilitate cutting-edge research on a broad range of health policy and health services issues, including cost and quality of health services, medical practice patterns, access to health care projects, hospital cost and utilization, and treatment outcomes at the national, state, and local market levels.
HCUP is made possible through a Federal-State-Industry partnership with AHRQ and HCUP could not exist without the contributions made by data organizations which voluntarily partner with AHRQ/HCUP and provide their data to the project. Through these voluntary partnerships HCUP, has grown from a single database limited to inpatient hospital care to a family of eight state- and national-level databases, covering inpatient, ambulatory surgery, emergency department, and pediatric encounters. As a result, HCUP is the largest all-payer resource of multi-year hospital discharge data from community, non-Federal, short-term (acute care), general, and specialty hospitals in the U.S. HCUP represents close to 600,000 individual files (40 terabytes) of operationally available data. The total amount of storage that would be required to accommodate all the project files would be approximately 1,200 terabytes.
These databases enable research on a broad range of health policy issues, including cost and quality of health services, medical practice patterns, access to health care, and outcomes of treatments at the national, state, and local market levels. The participation of state-wide public and private data Partners is essential for the success of the HCUP project and is based on cooperative, detailed agreements made between AHRQ and each data Partner. HCUP purchases data already collected at the state level and receives the data on various forms of media or download which are then reformatted into standardized research ready, uniform HCUP databases with a common set of data elements. Currently 49 Partners (48 States and the District of Columbia) provide HCUP with statewide inpatient data, 36 Partners provide ambulatory surgery and services data, and 42 Partners provide emergency department data. The large size and scope of HCUP databases enable unique analyses, such as in tracking utilization for population subgroups, such as minorities, children, women, and the uninsured, and HCUP databases include information on specific medical conditions and procedures, including rare events. HCUP databases include the State Inpatient Databases (SID), the State Ambulatory Surgery & Services (SASD), the State Emergency Department Databases (SEDD), National Inpatient Sample (NIS), the Kids' Inpatient Database (KID), the Nationwide Ambulatory Surgery Sample (NASS), the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS), and the Nationwide Readmission Database (NRD). Links to all HCUP databases and detailed descriptions are available at: https://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/databases.jsp.
In addition to the annual production of research databases, more than one dozen data and analytic software tools and supplemental files are also created and supported by the Contractor to facilitate users' ability to use the large administrative databases and to enhance use of any data based on ICD-10 coding. Contractor responsibilities also encompass such activities as creating timely information from the data, conducting data analytics, providing user support, electronic documentation, centralized data distribution, technical data training, publications, and producing statistical briefs, among others. The Contractor maintains on-line access to aggregate statistics through a sophisticated query system. Prospective purchasers and all persons with access to the databases are required to read and sign a Data Use Agreement and must agree to use the database for research and statistical purposes only and to make no attempts to identify individuals.
The HCUP databases are quite large and contain a core set of clinical and nonclinical information found in a typical discharge abstract including all-listed diagnoses and procedures, discharge status, patient demographics, and charges for all patients, regardless of payer (e.g., Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, uninsured). The information is translated into a uniform format to facilitate both multi-State and national-State comparisons and analyses. AHRQ has developed free software tools that can be used not only with the HCUP databases listed above, but also with other administrative databases. These tools can be downloaded without charge and include such clinical classification software, comorbidity software, cost-to-charge ratios, and chronic condition indicator. The Contractor also provides supplemental files that are made available for use uniquely with the HCUP databases to enhance a researcher's ability to conduct analyses. All the HCUP tools and supplemental files are described at: https://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/tools_software.jsp. In addition to data and tools, the Contractor’s responsibilities encompass such activities as creating timely information from the data, providing user support, electronic documentation, centralized data distribution, technical data training, publications, and research, among others. Many of these are described here: https://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports.jsp.
HCUP is a highly complex and multifaceted project. In the past five years, demand for and use of HCUP data and tools has grown significantly. Applications for databases have increased to approximately 1,800 per year, with about 7,000 databases disseminated annually. In a typical HCUP year, the Contractor will: acquire over 135 unique databases from 50 different organizations; process and create approximately 130 annual State-level HCUP databases; process and create a total of 80 quarterly databases; process and create a total of 120 Central Distributor databases; review and respond to over 1,500 public release database applications for over 6,500 HCUP databases; and answer over 4,000 technical assistance and data dissemination inquiries each year.
National and State policymakers use these data and tools in their decision making. HCUP data is regularly called upon by DHHS and other Federal entities to provide insights to emerging health issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic, substance use crisis, and natural disasters.
The next phase of HCUP will build on the structure of the project that has been developed over the past 35 years and add to the project's capacity to provide information that can be used by researchers and policymakers to assess and evaluate health care delivery in the United States. By maintaining and strengthening the foundation, which includes a successful partnership with HCUP Partners, and by maintaining and creating new enhancements to the project, AHRQ will broaden the reach and impact of HCUP data and products. Strengthening and enhancing the project enables improvement in its ability to inform, evaluate, analyze, and measure healthcare delivery and safety improvements, and provides the possibility of developing new collaborative efforts within HHS and other federal and State partners, thereby adding to HCUP's value and visibility.
Project Requirements
Maintain voluntary data partners, negotiate, or update Memorandums of Agreement for participation, purchase data from HCUP Partners, recruit additional data from existing partners, and establish new partnerships when possible
Process and create uniformly formatted state inpatient and outpatient encounter-level data files obtained from HCUP Partners organizations
Sample the HCUP state databases to create derivative national databases
Maintain and update the HCUP website (HCUP-US) which serves as the project's primary vehicle for public outreach, and a virtual repository for project information and documentation
Develop products, tools, and services to assist with the productive use of the data including potential data linkages and new databases
Facilitate the collaborative learning among all members of the project (AHRQ, HCUP Partner organizations, data users, health systems, and stakeholders) by providing technical support and training
Provide technical expertise and analytic files to AHRQ to facilitate understanding and use of the HCUP databases, documentation, and products
Deliver technical support to users on HCUP databases, software tools, linkable files, written reports, and all other products developed for the HCUP project
Prepare technical reports and publications
Prepare data tables for visualizations, query sites, and HCUP-US website
Conduct outreach and presentations to increase use and impact from HCUP
Support the generation of estimates derived from HCUP data for other federal use, e.g., Congressionally mandated reports such as the National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports
Evaluate, design, and develop new databases, and expand data for online queries
Develop processes for monitoring and maintaining secure and efficient computing environment
Project management reporting, including progress and cost reports, work planning, and management meetings
Anticipated Period of Performance
The anticipated period of performance is five years.
Other Important Considerations
Firms should note that AHRQ is not seeking an online system for the electronic receipt or transfer of data directly from hospitals or data Partners. HCUP data Partners provide quarterly, and annual formatted and processed data as collected for their own program use. HCUP does not currently provide any external access to the computing system used for hosting or processing of HCUP data, nor does AHRQ currently provide any external access to the databases on-line. Considering the current unknown prognosis of COVID-19 nationally, regionally, and locally, consideration must be given to an infrastructure supportive of flexible operations (i.e., full/partial on-site and full/partial remote) in meeting overall project goals.
Capability Statement/Information Sought
Interested qualified small business organizations should submit a tailored capability statement for this requirement, not to exceed 10 single-sided pages (including all attachments, resumes, charts, etc.), presented in single-space and using a 12-point font size minimum, that clearly details the ability to perform the aspects of the notice described above. Statements should include information regarding respondents’:
Staff expertise, including their availability, experience, and formal and other training.
Current in-house capability and capability to perform the work at the scale/magnitude of the HCUP Project.
Corporate experience and management capability.
Prior completed projects of similar nature that involved maintaining and managing multiple, multi-faceted activities concurrently at the highest level of professional and scientific quality.
Evidence of developing and analyzing a large-scale (millions of records) administrative encounter-level database.
Examples of prior completed Government contracts, and references.
Capability statements should also include an indication of current certified small business status; this indication should be clearly marked on the first page of your capability statement, as well as the eligible small business concern’s name, point of contact, address, DUNS number and SAM UEI number.
Information and Submission Instructions
Interested qualified small business organizations should submit a tailored capability statement for this requirement.
The cover page must include the following:
DUNS and SAM UEI number
Organization name
Organization address
Size and type of business (e.g., 8(a), HUBZone, etc.) pursuant to NAICS code 541690.
Technical point(s) of contact, including names, titles, addresses, telephone, and e-mail addresses.
All capability statements sent in response to this SMALL BUSINESS SOURCES SOUGHT notice must be submitted electronically (via email) to Scott Henderson, contract Specialist at scott.henderson@ahrq.hhs.gov in Word (MS) or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), by April 18, 2022 12:00 PM EST. All responses must be received by the specified due date and time to be considered. ANY RESPONSES RECEIVED AFTER THAT DATE AND TIME WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED.
Disclaimer and Important Notes
This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization’s qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation will be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.
Confidentiality
No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).
HHS-AHRQ-SBSS-22-10002 Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
4/1/22, 11:11 AM