Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Contracts Management Staff, Executive Office Center, Suite 601, 2101 East Jefferson Street, Rockville, MD 20852

A -- MEDICAL EXPENDITURE PANEL SURVEY -- HOUSEHOLD AND MEDICAL PROVIDER COMPONENTS SOL AHCPR-98-0011 POC Therese M. Dick, Contracting Officer, (301) 594-1445, ext. 1172 The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research seeks to contract for the continued implementation of the Household Component (HC) and Medical Provider Component (MPC) of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). MEPS is a continuous national survey of health care use and expenses, and insurance status for the civilian, non-institutionalized populations of the United States. The contractor will be responsible for (1) the fielding of the Household Component, (2) identifying and generating samples for the Medical Provider and Insurance Components, (3) fielding the Medical Provider Component, and (4) delivering complete operational databases, as well as public use and other analytic files. Each of these tasks will have specific requirements and challenges. The design of the MEPS-HC is an overlapping panel design. Panels of approximately 5,000 cases are enrolled each year. The design calls for each panel household to receive 5 in-person CAPI interviews averaging about 100 minutes over a 2 1/2 year period. During the HC-interviews, physicians, hospital, employers, unions and insurers are identified for follow-up surveys. Signed permission forms are obtained from the household members (including those other than the primary respondent). As part of this contract, the Medical Provider Survey will collect, using a cost-efficient combination self-administered, mailed and telephone modes, utilization, charge and reimbursement information from hospitals and physicians identified as sources of care by the household respondents. The contract will also extend to post-data collecton processing including interviewer comment review, data base integrity editing, analytic editing, statistical matching and imputation of key analytic variables. The estimated issuance date of RFP No. AHCPR-98-0011 will be approximately fifteen(15) days from the date of this notice. Requests for copies of the solicitation shall be forwarded to the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Attention: Therese M. Dick, Contracts Management Staff, Suite 601, 2101 East Jefferson Street, Rockville, Maryland 20852. Telephone requests will not be honored; all requests must be in writing. Faxed requests may be sent to (301) 443-7523. When available, the solicitation may also be accessed through the Agency's website at www.ahcpr.gov (0096)

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