U.S. Agency for International Development, Office of Procurement, OP/A/FAO, Washington D.C. 20523-7101

R -- HEALTH AND ACCIDENT COVERAGE PROGRAM FOR USAID-SPONSORED PARTICIPANTS SOL M/OP-98-018 DUE 053198 POC Sherry Fachet, 202-712-1099/Contracting Officer, Jean Horton, 202-712-1102 USAID intends to award up to two health and accident coverage (HAC) insurance contracts to implement, manage and provide health insurance related administrative services for USAID academic and technical participants sponsored under the USAID Exchange Visitor (J-1) visa, for short and long term study in the U.S.; to broker insurer risk to a commercial insurer, or provide insurance directly; and to pay covered claims under this policy directly to health providers drawing on premiums collected from USAID sponsoring units or their contracted programming agents. The resultant contracts will have a period of two years with three one-year options. This requirement calls for organizations with extensive experience in insurance claims processing as well as knowledge of computer software in the medical benefits field. Organizations must meet the insurance provider standards of reliability set by the United States Information Agency (USIA). This procurement will be conducted in two steps. The Request for Technical Proposals will be issued o/a 15 days from the date of this publication. Closing date for the first step of the procurement will be o/a 30 days from the issuance date of the RFTP. No bids will be accepted at this time. The preferred method of distribution of USAID procurement information is via the Internet or by request of a solicitation on a 3.5" floppy disk (WordPerfect 5.1/5.2 format). This CBD notice can be viewed and downloaded using the Agency Web Site. The RFTP, once issued, can be downloaded from the Agency Web Site. The Worldwide Web address is http://www.info.usaid.gov. Select Business and Procurement Opportunities from the home page, then "USAID Procurements". On the following screen, select "Download Available USAID Solicitations". Receipt of this RFTP through INTERNET must be confirmed by written notification to the contact person noted above. It is the responsibility of the recipient of this solicitation document to ensure that it has been received from INTERNET in its entirety and USAID bearsno responsibility for data errors resulting from transmission or conversion processes. No hard copies of the solicitation will be available. If floppy disks are required, the bidder must send a written request along with 2 floppy disks to the contact person noted above. (0117)

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