Measure & Instrument Development and Support (MIDS)

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is issuing this Sources Sought Notice as a means of conducting market research to identify parties having an interest in and the resources to support the program entitled "Measure and Instrument Development and Support (MIDS)." This program promotes the quality of healthcare by emphasizing major strategies for evaluating and improving care. Under multiple task orders, the contractors shall assist CMS in developing , testing, refining, revising, maintaining, implementing, and publically reporting quality healthcare-specific measures. The development and use of clinical quality measures remains a critical healthcare priority and the tool of choice for improving quality of care at the national, community and facility levels. The MIDS contract provides a vehicle to objectively evaluate and promote quality of care within the Federal quality reporting programs by aligning with the Measures Management Blueprint, a comprehensive and structured process for developing and maintaining evidence-based clinical quality measures. The nature of highly technical work requires the expertise and services of qualified personnel, facilities, equipment, materials, and supplies not otherwise provided by the government, as needed to perform quality measurement program support activities. Development, revision, and/or maintenance of assessment instrument data items, data collection vehicles, and quality measures (and their corresponding manuals, public outreach and coordination of data elements and measures with other MIDS contractors) comprise the fundamental activities under the IDIQ contract. The MIDS Contractor is required to gather and analyze data and information relating to activities specified in the Task Order Statement of Work in the form of an environmental scan and empirical data analysis of all pertinent data/information sources. Please refer to Appendix I and II for a sample description of services and potential task orders for this requirement. The contractor must be free of conflicts of interest or prepare an OCI mitigation plan to address any actual, potential or apparent organizational conflicts of interest that could arise if the contractor won the award. Organizational conflicts of interest can be broadly categorized into three groups: (1) -unequal access to information cases, (2) -impaired objectivity cases, and (3) -biased ground rules cases. Possible other conflicts of interests for a MIDS contractor may include any interest in the development of a measure that leads to a personal or organizational advantage that might therefore, in actuality or appearance, compromise the integrity of the measure. Unequal Access to Information ("Unfair" access to non-public information) - Consists of situations in which a firm has access to nonpublic information (including proprietary information and non-public source-selection information) as part of its performance of a Government contract and that information may provide the firm with a competitive advantage in a later competition for a Government contract. In these "unequal access to information" cases, the concern is limited to the risk of the firm gaining an unfair competitive advantage; there is no issue of bias. Biased Ground Rules Consists of situations in which a firm, as part of its performance of a Government contract, has helped (or is in a position to help) set the ground rules for another Government contract by, for example, writing the statement of work or the specifications, or establishing source-selection criteria. In these "biased ground rules" cases, the primary concern is that the firm could skew the competition, whether intentionally or not, in favor of itself and/or its affiliates. These situations may also involve a concern that the firm, by virtue of its special knowledge of the agency's future requirements, would have an unfair competitive advantage in the competition for those requirements. Impaired Objectivity Consists of situations where a firm has an interest (typically financial) that may conflict with the interest of the Government to whom the firm has a contractual obligation, and the firm's work under the Government contract could give the firm the opportunity to benefit its other business interests. If the firm is using subjective judgment or giving advice, and its other business interests could be affected by that judgment or advice, the firm's objectivity may be impaired. An example would be if the firm was evaluating itself, an affiliate or a competitor, either through an assessment of performance under another contract or an evaluation of proposals. In these "impaired objectivity" cases, the concern is that the firm's ability to render impartial advice to the Government could appear to be undermined by its relationship with the entity whose work product is being evaluated. It is anticipated that a pre-solicitation conference will take place and Request for Proposals will be issued in January, 2013. Contract awards are anticipated by June, 2013. The result of this market research will contribute to determining the method of procurement. The estimated period of performance for this requirement is a base year plus four one-year options. The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code assigned to this procurement is 541690. THERE IS NO SOLICITATION AT THIS TIME. This request for capability information does not constitute a request for proposals; submission of any information in response to this market survey is purely voluntary; the government assumes no financial responsibility for any costs incurred. CMS will evaluate market information to ascertain potential market capacity to 1) provide services consistent in scope and scale with those described in this notice and otherwise anticipated; 2) secure and apply the full range of corporate financial, human capital, and technical resources required to successfully perform similar requirements; and 3) implement a successful project management plan that includes: compliance with tight program schedules; cost containment; meeting and tracking performance; hiring and retention of key personnel and risk mitigation. Telephone inquiries will not be accepted or acknowledged, and no feedback or evaluations will be provided to companies regarding their submissions. Submission Instructions: If your organization has the potential capacity to perform the services described in the appendices, please provide the following information: 1. Organization information including name, point of contact, address, website address, telephone number, size and type of ownership. 2. Based upon the NAICS code specified herein, indicate whether your firm is classified as a large business, small business, small disadvantaged business, 8(a) concern, women-owned small business, HUBZone small business, veteran-owned small business, service-disabled veteran-owned small business and whether the firm is U.S. or foreign owned. 3. Tailored capability statement addressing the particulars of this effort, with clear documentation supporting claims of organizational capability and staff qualifications and expertise. If subcontracting or teaming is anticipated in order to deliver technical capability, the documentation shall address the administrative, management, and communication structure of such arrangements in appropriate detail 4. Interested firms shall have strong knowledge, educational background, and documented expertise related to project management, quality measure development, specification and testing, instrument and tool development, maintenance and application, statistical analysis and modeling, consensus entity endorsement and federal policy and program implementation related to national healthcare strategies. 5. Please briefly discuss any potential conflicts that may preclude your company from performing any such work under this requirement. Submissions are to be delivered no later than December 20, 2012, 2:00 p.m. EST and shall be e-mailed to Kimberly Tatum at Kimberly.Tatum@cms.hhs.gov or Jonathon Chattler at Jonathon.Chattler@cms.hhs.gov. Submissions received after this date and time may not be included as part of the market research analysis.