HHS-AHRQ-SBSS-20-10011.final.docx

Small Business Sources Sought Notice – HHS-AHRQ-SBSS-20-10011 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey – Medical Provider Component

Introduction:

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.

Background

The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household Component (HC), Medical Provider Component (MPC), and Insurance Component (IC), which began in 1996, is a set of large-scale surveys of families and individuals (MEPS-HC), their medical providers (doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, etc.) (MEPS-MPC), and employers across the United States (MEPS-IC). MEPS collects data on the specific health services that Americans use, how frequently they use them, the cost of these services, and how they are paid for, as well as data on the cost, scope, and breadth of health insurance held by and available to U.S. workers. For further discussion of the MEPS family of surveys as well as historical context please see: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/about_meps/survey_back.jsp

Purpose and Objectives

The primary objective of the MPC is to collect data from medical providers (hospitals, physicians, home care agencies, pharmacies, and long term health care facilities) on expenditures for medical services provided to MEPS Household Component (HC) respondents. The MPC data are essential to improve the accuracy of the national medical expenditure estimates derived from the MEPS HC, since household respondents are not always the most reliable source of information on medical expenditures. The MPC data also serve as the primary imputation source of medical expenditure data to correct for the item nonresponse on this measure by the MEPS household respondents and overall helping to reduce potential bias in the survey estimates of medical expenditures. The MPC data also serve as source of expenditure information on physician charges that are associated with hospital care but not billed by the hospital (i.e., Separately Billing Doctors, or SBDs), as well as serving the primary source of expenditure information for Medicaid recipients.

Project Requirements

Providers for the MPC sample for one year includes all hospitals, emergency rooms, home care agencies, outpatient departments, pharmacies, and long term health care facilities reported by HC respondents, as well as all physicians who provide services for patients in hospitals but bill separately from the hospital (SBDs are identified by the hospitals not the HC respondents). HMOs are included in the MPC data collection. Office based medical providers where the provider is either a doctor of medicine (MD) or Osteopathy (DO) or practices under the direct supervision of an MD or DO are included in the MPC as well. Data collection consists of contacting and collecting medical record and billing data from approximately 5,500 hospitals, 13,000 office-based providers, 600 home care providers, and 100 institutions, 20,000 physicians who provide services for patients in hospitals but bill separately from the hospital (SBDs), and 8,000 pharmacies. Data collection methods may include phone, fax, mail, self-administration, and electronic transmission (including CD-ROMS and secure transmission via FTP and email). Each year of the MPC, all providers shall be screened to ascertain their eligibility, their association with the MEPS household respondent, and to obtain information to facilitate the conduct of the core MPC interview. Currently, an Integrated Data Collection System (IDCS) that includes a Web component in which the MEPS-MPC forms are programmed for computer-assisted data entry (CADE) and a case management system (CMS) is used for data collection. Recruiting, training and managing a data collection staff that includes staff with phone data collection skills and staff with the ability to abstract data from financial and medical records is expected. The sample of the MEPS MPC is designed to provide data on events for which household respondents are less likely to be fully aware of the financial transactions regarding the medical care received, to enrich the sample of events available as donors for imputation, and to provide a basis for methodological analysis of household reported payments for all types of events. The contractor shall also develop specifications for matching data collected in the MPC with complementary data collected in the HC. The Contractor shall organize the data collected in the MPC into data files usable with the SAS statistical software package with documentation. The contractor shall produce and deliver internal MPC files that include matched and unmatched data and produce matched files in the prescribed format and necessary matching variables and documentation. Appropriate security measures must be demonstrated with regards to maintaining the confidential protection of data collected.

The contractor shall perform the following types of services under this contract:

Survey/project management

· Continue operations of MEPS MPC

· Liaison and cooperation with MEPS principals

· Project Management/EVM

· Preparation of MEPS MPC documentation

· Cooperation and liaison with the HC contractor assuring timely, accurate and complete file transfers so the HC contractor can complete editing/imputation work (for all files but prescribed medicines) and public use file development for all MEPS event files on schedule

· Cooperation with AHRQ to obtain OMB clearances (as necessary)

· Meeting arrangements

· Project closeout/transfer of operations

· Reporting, including progress and cost reports, work planning, and management meetings

Medical Provider Data Collection and Abstraction

· Receiving and receipting completed household authorization forms (from the HC) that are used in establishing the non-SBD portion of the MPC sample

· Implementing and documenting both the non-SBD and SBD portions to the MPC sample

· Unduplicating the sample

· Identifying hospital physicians (SBDs)

· Maintaining the MPC provider directory including SBDs and pharmacies

· Producing data collection forms, advance letters, and other respondent and supporting materials

· Recruiting, training, and managing data collection specialists and abstractors

· Collecting data from medical and billing offices of providers

· Abstracting data from billing and medical records

· Coding of ICD-10-CM, verbatim medical conditions, CPT-4, verbatim medical procedures and supplies, prescribed medicines, and providers including hospital physicians that bill separately

· Identify duplicate events and remove from data file

Data Management and Processing, and Data File Production and Documentation

· Providing data security

· Forms control and receipt

· Data entry

· Recruiting and conducting training program for coders, verifiers and supervisors

· Recruiting and conducting training program for abstractors, verifiers and supervisors

· Data matching for all MPC provider types except prescribed medicines

· Producing matched files for use in the production of edited/imputed analytic files

· Producing input files for direct feed into the expenditure editing and imputation programs

· Benchmarking to outside data sources and previous years MEPS estimates several times throughout data collection

· Run edit checks throughout the field period and correct data as needed

· Developing MPC internal files (include matched and unmatched data) including a prescribed medicines file

· Quality control including interim checks on data quality throughout the field period

Further discussion and detail pertaining to the MEPS-MPC may be found at:

http://meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/survey_comp/mpc.jsp

Anticipated period of performance:

Total period of performance is five years with a base period and four option periods.

Other important considerations:

In light of 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.

Information Sought:

The tailored response to this Small Business Sources Sought notice should describe the requested information below.

Respondents must provide, as part of their response, information concerning:

(a) staff expertise, including their availability, experience, and formal and other training;

(b) current in-house capability and capacity to perform the work;

(c) prior completed projects of similar nature;

(d) corporate experience and management capability; and

(e) examples of prior completed Government contracts, references, and other related information.

Contractors must describe both their capabilities for performing the work as well as their experience working in all the areas and with all the professionals described above.

Information Submission Instructions:

Interested qualified small business organizations should submit a tailored capability statement for this requirements.

The cover page must include the following:

· DUNS number

· Organization Name

· Organization Address

· Size and type of business (e.g., 8(a), HUBZone, etc.) pursuant to NAICS code 518210.

· 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 e-mail) to Tara Bertolini, Contract Specialist, tara.bertolini@ahrq.hhs.gov in MS Word, or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), no later than 12:00 PM on August, 18, 2020. Responses should not exceed 15 single-sided pages (including the cover page, 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.

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).