The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is conducting a market survey to seek potential sources from ALL qualified small business firms (particularly 8(a), Women Owned, SBA Certified HUBZone and/or Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses) under North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code 514210 ($6.5 million) which have the capability to perform the Maintenance and Fielding of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Support ? Household Components (HC). The Contractor will be responsible for collecting editing and inputing data collected from Households. The Contractor will also be responsible for survey weight and estimation variable development and construction as well as analytic file development, including documentation and codebooks. The contract will be performance based for an initial period of performance of three and one-half years with three one-year options. The primary objective of the MEPS HC is to provide high quality data that can be used to produce both point estimates as well as distributional estimates of health care use, medical expenditures, health insurance status and sources of payment for medical care. In addition, the MEPS HC is designed to produce measures of health care quality associated with several high prevalence conditions. The health care services use, medical expenditures, and health insurance data can also be linked to the demographic, employment, economic, and health status of survey participants. The longitudinal feature of the MEPS HC permits analyses of transitions in health insurance coverage, health status, and other characteristics over a two year period. Offerors must meet requirements of the Pro-Children Act of 1994, Buy American Act, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Privacy Act, Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), federal policy for the protection of human research subjects (45CFR46) which will include an Institutional Review Board (IRB) review, and the Paperwork Reduction Act. Tasks will revolve around the MEPS-HC which collects detailed information on health care use and payment for health care services from a nationally representative sample of the U.S. civilian non-institutionalized population. In the MEPS HC, data are collected for each new sample (pane/ roundl) of households to cover a two-year period, and a new panel is started each year. To produce health care estimates for a calendar year, data are combined across two distinct nationally representative MEPS HC samples. More specifically, annual estimates are based on data from the first year of a current panel combined with data from the second year of a previous year?s panel. Capable offerors must demonstrate they possess expertise in data collection (computer assisted and paper and pencil), statistical and analytical editing and imputation, survey weight and estimation variable development and construction, as well as analytical file development and documentation. Respondents to this sources sought must demonstrate the following capabilities: a) sample implementation and documentation; b) development of weights and variables for variance estimation; c) development of sampling unit data (geo-coding); d) development of materials and CAPI maintenance; e) interviewer recruitment and training for Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, and Round 5; f) data collection for Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, and Round 5; g) Spanish interviewer training and materials development; h) data processing; i) development of security plan; j) between round processing; k) forms control and receipt; l) data entry; m) data coding; and n) preparation and delivery of analytic files including archival versions of the full operational database, and point-in-time, full year use, full year use and expenditure, event, condition, jobs and a appendix files. Offeror must also demonstrate their understanding and knowledge of how to develop an overall plan for coordinating deliverables including data files and materials between the HC and MPC (Medical Provider Component ? to be a separate requirement) contractors, particularly those occurring concurrently or in a linked manner; integration of CAPI applications, post data collection processing, and analytic editing and imputation tasks; the statistical and substantive soundness of the data editing and imputation techniques proposed; the soundness of proposed weighting and variance estimation strategies and strategies to maximize survey response and minimize non-response bias; and the soundness of the data management plan. Examples of all of the above will be requested in the resultant RFP. The MEPS is to be comprised of core staff of seasoned professionals with education and experience in areas such as data collection (computer assisted and paper questionnaires) from household respondents of demographic characteristics, health conditions, health status, use of medical services, charges and sources of payments, access to care, satisfaction with care, health insurance coverage, income, and employment information. In addition, respondents must demonstrate they have the expertise and experience in developing analytic files, including documentation of public use files, as well as survey weight and variance estimation development and construction, and analytical and statistical data editing and imputation. A PMI-certified Project Manager is required as well as demonstrated ability to provide EVM information. In the event that the MEPS core staff does not include particular expertise needed to accomplish a particular task, the contractor must demonstrate their capability to obtain such expertise through consultants and/or subcontracts. Potential respondents are encouraged to visit the MEPS website at www.meps.ahrq.gov . Interested small businesses should e-mail their capability statements to Mary Haines, Contracting Officer at [email protected] no later than 12 noon eastern time on November 26, 2007. Organization must tailor their capability statements to this request and must include their small business designation (i.e. HUBZone, 8(a), Women Owned, etc) on the cover page.

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