R -- Technical Assistance Services for the Office of Rural Health Policy

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) intends to contract with, on a sole source basis, the NationalRural Health Association (NRHA), Kansas City, Missouri. This contract directly supports the Legislative Authorization of the Offiice of Rural Health Policy(ORHP) as created by Section 711 of the Social Security Act .The purpose of this contract is to purchase a broad range of Services designed to strengthen ORHP?s support of rural communities. Through this contract ORHP will: - Provide technical assistance to State Rural Health Associations and conduct skill building workshops for these grassroots entities. - Develop leadership capacity at the grassroots level. - Gather information about the effects of implementation of Medicare and Medicaid reforms on rural health access to services, providers, pharmacists and systems of care. The NRHAis uniquely qualified to provide these services to ORHP. NRHA is a nonprofit association composed of individual and organizational members who share a common interest in rural health. For the past 28 years, NRHA has provided a forum for the exchange and dissemination of ideas, information, research and methods to improve rural health. NRHA has a significant investment in confidential and proprietary information needed to fulfill this contract which is not known in the health care community in general or to the public. For example, its members database includes over 11,000 rural providers, organizations and citizens across the health care sector. Their membership is organized in a manner useful to ORHP. It is divided into 9 rural constituency groups: community grassroots, clinical services, community-operated practices, frontier, hospital and community health systems, diverse underserved populations, research and education, rural health clinics and statewide health resources. In addition to constituency groups, the members participate in 7 issue groups: rural health networks, leading the national quality effort, academic/community partnerships, rural pharmacy, rural public health, rural and frontier emergency medical services, universal access and Medicaid. NRHA is the only entity whose membership includes State Rural Health Associations and State Offices of Rural; as well as local health providers. NRHA?s reputation and diversity and stringent membership will be essential to providing ORHP with meaningful information about the effect of health policies in rural communities and distinguishes it as a uniquely qualified organization. Because it has a long history in serving rural communities, NRHA has the resources and ability to begin work on these tasks immediately. It is likely that a one(1) year contract with a base year and two(2) option years may result. Using any other vendor would significantly increase the costs, decrease the quality and delay the acquisition of these products. This justification for Other than Full and Open Competition is processed under the authority in 41 U.S.C. 253(1), as set forth in FAR 6.302-1 (ii) A, ?it is likely that an award to any other service would result in-(A) substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition.? This notice of intent is for information purposes only, and is not a request for competitive proposals. See Numbered Note 22. . .