RFI_-_Employer-Based_Health_Plan_Data_Final.pdf

BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS

Employer-Based Health Plan Data

A. ACQUISITION BACKGROUND:

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), part of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), seeks

Request for Information (RFI)/Sources Sought for Employer-Based Health Plan Data.

BLS is the principal Federal statistical agency responsible for measuring labor market activity, working conditions, and price changes in the economy. Its mission is to collect, analyze, and disseminate essential economic information to support public and private decision-making that forms the basis of our democratic, free-enterprise system. Like all Federal statistical agencies, BLS executes its statistical mission with independence, serving its users by providing products and services that are accurate, objective, relevant, timely, and accessible.

B. SERVICE REQUIREMENTS:

The Office of Compensation and Working Conditions (OCWC) at BLS has an ongoing need for detailed health data in order to study the premiums and provisions of employer-based health plans, their costs to employers, and their actuarial values. OCWC seeks a Contractor to provide data on the employer-based health plans of private employers that can support the National

Compensation Survey (NCS) and/or the Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities program (IIF).

C. PROGRAM BACKGROUND:

OCWC’s mission is to provide timely, relevant, and accurate information on pay, benefits, workers’ safety and job requirements in an objective and accessible manner. It meets this mission, in part, through the NCS and the IIF programs.

The NCS provides occupation-based measures describing employee compensation.

Employer-based health benefits make up a prominent component of employee compensation. The NCS tracks employee access to and participation in employer-based health plans, employer and employee health plan premiums, health plan provisions, and employer health insurance costs. The IIF program tracks data on nonfatal injuries and illnesses and fatal injuries by industry, occupation, type of harmful event, source of injury, and nature of injury or illness.

D. DATA SOUGHT:

OCWC continually seeks opportunities to improve its offerings by incorporating alternative data sources, evaluating underlying assumptions and expanding data products.

In the current project, OCWC seeks data to create new estimates relating to private employer-based health plans. These new estimates will allow OCWC to evaluate NCS and IIF data, as well as measure how different employer, job and plan characteristics may relate to one another.

OCWC will conduct studies to evaluate employer-provided health plan data and analyze potential correlates of plan characteristics. It requires data for studies to evaluate the accuracy of and further research the following aspects of private employer-based health insurance:

1. Deductibles, out-of-pocket maxima, copayments and co-insurances

2. Premiums paid by employees and plan sponsors

3. Costs incurred by employers

4. Employee access and participation in plans

5. Plan Provisions

6. Injuries, illnesses, and fatalities evident in claims data

An important consideration for the project is that NCS data are collected separately by establishment (a single economic unit that engages in one, or predominantly one type of economic activity). Consequently, the project prefers data identifying individual establishments.

OCWC would prefer to purchase all datasets to be used in perpetuity for BLS research but will consider alternate timeframes, such as a fixed period lease with options to re-access the data in subsequent years.

E. INSTRUCTIONS FOR POTENTIAL OFFERORS:

1. Please review the requirements, background, and data sought in Sections B-D and respond with a Statement of Capabilities and the answers to the questions in Section F if you are an interested party. Participation in this RFI is optional and not required in order to respond to any subsequent procurement that this contracting agency may take.

2. The intended acquisition approach at this time is undetermined.

3. After reviewing this document, if you desire to participate in this RFI, you should reply via the email with the requested information to Michael DeAngelis deangelis.michael@bls.gov and Kelly Graves graves.kelly@bls.gov no later than March 5, 2020. All questions should be submitted no later than February 14, 2020.

4. Responses shall be clearly marked “RFI BLS-Employer-Based Health Plan Data-

[Company Name]” in the subject line of the e-mail. BLS will not return any information submitted in response to this notice. A consolidated document of BLS' response to all questions (without identifying the source of the inquiry) will be made available to all participants on the website where the RFI is posted.

5. Please be advised that telephone inquiries will not be accepted. Please note, this is not a

Request for Proposal/Quote.

6. Failure to provide documentation may result in the Government being unable to adequately assess your product. The Government is under no obligation to consider information received after the due date as part of the formal market research for this Sources Sought synopsis.

mailto:deangelis.michael@bls.gov mailto:graves.kelly@bls.gov

F. INFORMATION REQUESTED:

a. Provide the following Point of Contact information along with your responses:

Company Name:

DUNS Number:

Address:

Point of Contact:

Point of Contact position:

Phone Number:

Email Address:

b. Please indicate your business classification and NAICS code for your product:

Small Business Other Than Small Business

NAICS Code(s):

c. If your business classification is Small Business, do you qualify* under any of the following certification programs and socio-economic categories?

HUBZone

Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB)

Women Owned Small Business (WOSB)

8(a)

Other:

Not Applicable

*Please be aware, any contract or agreement awarded from this RFI can only be awarded to registered vendor(s) in the System for Award Management that have an active SAM status and verified Small Business classification. For more information on registering, visit www.SAM.gov.

d. BLS is interested in any data that a vendor may supply that covers the areas described in section D. What is your dataset and how does it relate to the areas described in section D? When answering, include information on the following aspects of your dataset:

i. Reference period

ii. Industrial supersectors, as defined by the North American Classification

System (NAICS), represented

iii. Establishment sizes (small 1-99 employees, medium 100-499 employees, and large 500+ employees) represented

iv. Availability of identifiers of the establishments at which employees offered the plan work

v. Availability of data variables pertaining to diagnoses, services provided, and payments for plan-claim-year records included

vi. Availability of plan and establishment identifiers that are sufficient to link records between datasets http://www.sam.gov/

e. What are the purchase period options (in perpetuity or a fixed-period lease with options to re-access the data in subsequent years) for your dataset?

f. What is the file format(s) of your dataset?

g. What is the estimated cost of your dataset?

G. SUMMARY:

This RFI/Sources Sought notice is issued solely for information and planning purposes only, it does not constitute a solicitation and in no way obligates the Government to award a contract. All information received in response to this RFI/Sources Sought that is marked as proprietary will be protected and handled accordingly. BLS will not pay for information received in response to this RFI. Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI/Sources Sought notice. All information received will be protected and safeguarded as acquisition/source selection sensitive in accordance with FAR Part 2.101 and 3.104, Procurement Integrity.