Draft 10th Statement of Work for Quality Improvement Organizations

10TH SOW QIO CONTRACT DRAFT SYNOPSIS NOTICE The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) anticipates issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the 10th Statement of Work (SOW) Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) contracts by mid March. In order to be eligible to receive a QIO contract, an Offeror must be deemed a responsible entity in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 9.1 and must meet the definition of a utilization and quality control peer review organization as set forth in Section 1152 of the Social Security Act (the Act). To be eligible for a QIO contract, an organization must satisfactorily demonstrate physician-sponsorship or physician-access as defined in Sections 1152 and 1153 of the Act at the time its proposal is submitted. In addition, an organization must not be a health care facility, health care facility association, health care facility affiliate or payor organization; and must have a consumer representative on its governing board. QIOs are responsible for review of certain health care services furnished under Title XVIII of the Act in addition to working to improve the quality of care provided to Medicare beneficiaries. This announcement is published for informational purposes only. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS. Requests for copies of a solicitation in response to this notice will not be honored or acknowledged. The purpose of this synopsis is to: (1) post a DRAFT version of the 10th Statement of Work (SOW) Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) requirement; (2) solicit industry comments/questions on the Draft SOW; (3) alert interested parties of the need to satisfactorily mitigate Organizational Conflicts of Interest; and (4) alert industry of an upcoming Pre-Proposal conference. Interested parties are informed that the attached 10th SOW is in DRAFT FORMAT ONLY (subject to further revision) and does not represent a final statement of requirements. At this time, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is requesting industry comment/questions only. Comments /questions must be submitted electronically utilizing the format in Attachment A entitled, "Question/Comment Format". The email address for submission of industry comments is: OCSQBox@cms.hhs.gov Comments/questions must be submitted no later than 5 pm (local prevailing time--Baltimore, MD) on March 15, 2011. Industry comments /questions will be reviewed by CMS for consideration in finalization of the DRAFT SOW. Please note that Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCIs) must be satisfactorily addressed in order for an entity to be awarded a QIO 10th SOW contract. The attached OCI memorandum is intended to provide all advance notice of the need to proactively pursue mitigation of all such OCIs. CMS anticipates hosting a Pre-Proposal Conference near the end of March 2011. Further information on the Pre-Proposal Conference and the 10th SOW acquisition will be made available on Fed Biz Opps in upcoming announcements. Interested Parties should continue to monitor this site for new information.