Development of State Health Policy Database (SHPD) to Advance Health Economics Research on Health Care Reform

STATE HEALTH POLICY DATA BASE (SHPD) The purpose of this amendment #02 to the small business sources sought notice is to correct the size standard for NAICS code 541720 (under Capability Statement/Information Sought, below), and to extend the due date for capability statements. The correct size standard for NAICS code 541720 is $7M average annual receipts (the 500 employees size standard stated in the original notice is INCORRECT). This amendment 02 hereby EXTENDS the due date for capability statements for 2 additional calender weeks until NOVEMBER 24, 2011. The purpose of amendment #01 to the original small business sources sought notice posted on 10/25/11 was to provide minor clarification to the Project Requiremnents, Item 2.a., below. Revised verbiage is included in the updated Notice below. The due date for capability statements was not changed by amendment 01. (it remained 11/10/2011). The following is an updated currrent version of the Small Business Sources Sought Notice, repeated in its entirety, to include amendments 01 and 02: This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice. 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) the classification/ type of small business (e.g., whether they are small businesses, 8(a) small businesses, HubZone small businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, veteran-owned small business, economically disadvantaged women-owned small business (EDWOSB) or women-owned small business (WOSB)) 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. Teaming and partnering arrangements among small businesses is encouraged. Background. The NIH Common Fund was enacted into law by Congress through the 2006 NIH Reform Act to support cross-cutting, trans-NIH programs that require participation by NIH Institutes/Centers or would otherwise benefit from strategic planning and coordination. In October 2010 the NIH Common Fund launched Health Economics Initiative to address the evolving needs of the health care sector for economic research. One of the goals of the Program is to foster the collection/compilation of data that will be most useful for policy relevant empirical scientific research (www.commonfund.nih.gov/healtheconomics). The implementation of health care reform poses numerous challenges and will need to examine the innovation in State health policy statutes concerning health insurance market regulations, the organization of health care services and approaches of controlling costs. One of the major challenges in health policy relevant economics research is to interpret the economic and clinical incentives structure inherent in State statutes which can be converted into statistically analyzable variables of raw data files. The NIH now intends to develop a State Health Policy Database (SHPD) to address this challenge. Further information about the purpose of the project can be obtained from the NIH Common Fund Health Economics Initiative Request for Information to Solicit Input on the Feasibility, Scope and Design of a State Health Policy Database which was issued on June 29, 2011 (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-RM-11-019.html) Purpose and Objectives. NIMH is seeking information on all small businesses capable of providing potential contract services for a project entitled: "Development of State Health Policy Database (SHPD) to Advance Health Economics Research on Health Care Reform". The purpose of this initiative is to develop a research tool that will document state-level policies in a manner that facilitates valid comparisons across states and over time. Insurance regulation, Medicaid policy, financing public health services, and, many reproductive health policies are all under state jurisdiction. Health care reform will add two major activities for states: 1) the establishment of state health insurance exchanges and 2) the Medicaid extension - both of them are aimed at reducing the number of uninsured. Currently no State Health Policy Database (SHPD) exists which can be easily used by academic researchers to assess the comparative differences in States' policies over time and the potential impact of health care reform. Different public and private organizations have state policy level information from their specific perspectives, but there is no one integrated database for health policy research. Project Requirements. The SHPD is envisioned as a core, multivariate, raw data set with carefully selected numerical or nominal variables on prioritized health policy domains which can be used for statistical/econometric analysis by computer software. Interested small businesses must demonstrate they currently have the necessary expertise, equipment and capacity in place to develop and manage a State Health Policy Database (SHPD) for research purposes, over a 5-year period (including potential updates). The SHPD will be populated with CY 2010 data and available for release as a public use data set on or about September 2014. Potential updates of the datasets are scheduled for CY12, 14, and 16, depending upon the exercise of contract options. Sources will be required to develop a website to access the SHPD. Data sets on State tobacco control policies developed and sponsored by various organizations can serve as potential examples (e.g., NCI/NIH tobacco control website and/or the American Lung Association's website). Interested small businesses must also demonstrate they have the capability and a reasonable plan to provide for updates of the SHPD beyond the base year CY2010 data (i.e., updates for CY12, 14, and 16). Development of the SHPD with CY2010 data requires the following skills, capabilities and capacities of any small business organizations: 1. Knowledge, experience and advanced training in health policy relevant research, specifically: a. Knowledge and expertise in economic empirical research and econometric analysis b. Legal knowledge of state health policy statutes relevant to current health care reform initiatives and ability to analyze the incentive structure of these statues c. Knowledge and expertise to identify and prioritize the key policy and research questions in this area; sources will be required to convene and manage a one-day expert Scientific Panel meeting and to summarize its recommendations in this regard 2. Knowledge of and ability to access existing publicly available data sets and select most relevant variables for compiling the SHPD data set a. Knowledge of and ability to access publically available information from existing CY2010 multistate health policy databases (e.g. Kaiser Family Foundation database, Urban Institute Database, COMPARE microsimulation model developed by RAND, federally collected and maintained databases by CDC and NLM and other organizations, like National Academy of State Health Policy, etc.) b. Ability to abstract needed data from above data bases and include them in the SHPD c. Ability to prioritize what variables will be included in the SHPD and what other variables will be linkable only to the SHPD 3. Advanced information technology expertise a. IT expertise including research database design and documentation b. User friendly simple website design that will be incorporated into the National Library of Medicine health services research database c. Basic knowledge of computer software for statistical/econometric analysis 4. Data management capabilities 5. Project management 6. Ability to test the data set by health economists researchers, present the characteristics of the data set in person and via webinar to potential researcher users Other Important Considerations. No IT equipment will be provided by the Government. Anticipated Period of Performance. July 2012 - July 2014 (with options to extend performance through July 2017) Capability Statement /Information Sought. Capability statements should clearly state/describe your ability, experience, and resources to design and carry out the services above, including: 1) Staff expertise that would be working on this project, including their availability, experience, and formal and other training 2) Prior completed projects of similar nature 3) Your business size (number of employees and gross annual revenue), your eligibility under 8(a) or other set-aside programs, as applicable (note: the applicable NAICS code for this requirement is 541720, $7M); and 4) Your management structure, history of your organization (e.g., number of years in business and DUNS #) Disclaimer and Important Notes. Please note that in order to qualify as an eligible small business for purposes of a small business set-aside, at least 50% of the direct labor cost must be in-house. Specifically, FAR 52.219-14 - Limitations on Subcontracting, states that at least 50 percent of the cost of contract performance incurred for personnel shall be expended for employees of the concern. 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. Responses will be held in a confidential manner. 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 may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. If the Government decides to issue a solicitation, a Request for Proposal (RFP) will be available solely via the FEDBIZOPPS web page at http://www.fedbizopps.gov/. It will be the offeror's responsibility to monitor the FEDBIZOPPS web page for the release of any solicitation and amendments, and to download the RFP and all attachments. Responses to this notice should be received no later than the posted due date, and can be sent either by mail, fax, or e-mail (banderso@mail.nih.gov) to the point of contact listed. If using the U.S. Postal Service or commercial overnight services, please send an original plus five (5) copies of your response. Note: for commercial overnight services, use the Rockville, MD. 20852 address. 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).