R -- Intention to Award Sole Source Contract for Collection of HEDIS Data

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) intends to award a service contract for the collection of Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) data and for providing Federal Employees and retirees' access to accreditation information. HEDIS is a tool used to measure and assess health plans' performances by looking at their structures and processes. HEDIS is also part of an integrated system to establish accountability in managed care. OPM intends to award a service contract to the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) 2000 L Street, NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20036, for the collection of HEDIS data. HEDIS was developed and maintained by NCQA, an organization committed to assessing, reporting on and improving the quality of care provided by organized delivery systems. NCQA has developed the measures OPM wished to collect and is already receiving the data in an established database from many of the health plans OPM wants to participate. OPM wants this project to be integrative, as much as possible, with NCQA's current data collection activities and information products. This approach would take maximum advantage of NCQA's existing systems and processes, resulting in substantial savings to the Government, since NCQA will not charge the Government for work they are already performing. Any other contractor would have to duplicate the effort and charge accordingly. Any company which believes they can provide an equivalent service should provide complete information regarding their service and representative pricing to OPM within 15 days of the publication of this notice. This is not a solicitation for offers but rather a notice of OPM's intent to negotiate a sole source award to NCQA. If OPM determines that competition is possible, a pre-solicitation notice will be issued.