R -- Correct Coding Initiative

*CENTERS FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES - CORRECT CODING INITIATIVE* The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) anticipates award of a Cost Plus Fixed Fee contract set aside for small business for the Correct Coding Initiative (CCI). This fraud, waste and abuse contract will provide services to/for: - Maintain and further expand the current correct coding edits to ensure proper coding for Medicare Part B and Hospital Outpatient services; - Maintenance of the associated manuals and of ongoing tasks, such as education to the provider community, replying to correspondence, etc.; - Continuous maintenance of the current CCI Comprehensive/Component and CCI Mutually Exclusive edit tables (procedure to procedure edits) and develop and provide continuous maintenance of Medically Unbelievable Edits; - Continuous maintenance of the CCI Coding Policy Manual, the CCI Correspondence Language manual; - Maintenance of existing edits to identify inaccuracies, and any necessary corrections upon approval from CMS; - Establish and maintain databases to support deliverables related to quarterly replacements of the edits and to provide an audit trail pertaining to all decisions relating to the edits; and, - Establish and provide quarterly replacements compatible with CMS requirements for transmission of the data to the carriers claims processing systems and establish and provide an audit trail capable of responding to queries. The incumbent contractor will transition the current work to the new incoming contractor. There will be an approximate two week transition period incorporated into the contract for this purpose. In an attempt to improve the understanding of the CCI requirements, to allow potential offerors to judge whether or how they can satisfy the Government's requirements, and to increase efficiency in proposal preparation, CMS is releasing the DRAFT Statement of Work (SOW) for this effort with this announcement. Attached is a copy of the Draft SOW CMS anticipates incorporating into the Request for Proposal (RFP). CMS anticipates an October 26th solicitation release for a Cost Plus Fixed Fee contract with a two week transition period, a base year and four (4), one-year (1) option periods. Again, this is a SMALL BUSINESS SET-ASIDE for which only Small Business Concerns will be eligible to participate. Any questions should be directed to Ms. Amy Duckworth, Contract Specialist, 410-786-3111, or via e-mail at Amy.Duckworth@cms.hhs.gov. *PLEASE USE THIS EMAIL ADDRESS AND NOT THE ONE LISTED UNDER POINT OF CONTACT.* E-mail communications should include company name, type of small business, address, point of contact, phone and fax numbers. Any additional information and documents on this requirement will be posted to FedBizOpps. THIS IS NOT A FORMAL REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP) AND DOES NOT COMMIT THE CENTERS FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES (CMS) TO AWARD A CONTRACT NOW OR IN THE FUTURE. THIS IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS A COMMITMENT BY THE GOVERNMENT. THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION ANNOUNCEMENT FOR PROPOSALS AND NO CONTRACT WILL BE AWARDED FROM THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. NO REIMBURSEMENT WILL BE MADE FOR ANY COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH PROVIDING INFORMATION IN RESPONSE TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT AND ANY FOLLOW-UP INFORMATION REQUESTS. RESPONDENTS WILL NOT BE NOTIFIED OF THE RESULTS OF THE EVALUATION. ALL INFORMATION SUBMITTED IN RESPONSE TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT MUST ARRIVE ON OR BEFORE THE CLOSING DATE. THE CLOSING DATE FOR RESPONSES IS OCTOBER 26, 2005.