Solicitation Number: NQF 2012-02
Release Date: March 1, 2012
Due Date: Extended to April 6, 2012
Award Expected Date: May 4, 2012
Solicitation
Environmental Analysis of Electronic Data Readiness
Critical Paths for Creating Data Platforms: Care Coordination (PDF)
Questions and Answers re: Solicitation Number NQF 2012-01 and NQF 2012-02 (PDF)
Background
Section 3014 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) provides new responsibilities for NQF as the consensus-based entity designated under the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA). The Federal Government has asked NQF to advance electronic quality measurement in a health information technology (HIT) environment so that the Government may achieve its policy goals under PPACA. The use of HIT to capture, aggregate, and report data enables more standardized and efficient reporting and assessment of performance at both the patient and population levels. NQF intends to subcontract some of this work in support of advancing electronic quality measurement in an HIT environment. The resulting subcontract will flow down provisions from NQF’s prime contract with the Government, including FAR Clause 52.227-17, which limits the ability of NQF and any subcontractor to use work created under the prime contract (including a related subcontract) for any purpose other than fulfilling the prime contract.
Recent legislation and related regulations have identified a number of performance measurement concepts that challenge current measurement capabilities. The National Quality Strategy, Meaningful Use initiatives, and the innovative pilot programs stemming from PPACA all call for new approaches to measuring quality and affordability. These approaches often require new measurement domains, data sources, and data platforms. Capturing, sharing, and storing the necessary data for these novel approaches implicates important issues with provider workflow. The success of these innovative approaches depends largely on whether the data infrastructure can support the goals of the projects. The Critical Paths for Creating Data Platforms: Care Coordination project (“Critical Paths Project” or “the Project”) will assess the readiness of electronic data to support selected innovative measurement concepts that are critical to HHS’ policy needs.
This Critical Paths Project will assess the readiness of electronic data and health IT systems to perform the data capture, normalization and standardization necessary to support care coordination reporting and evaluation across clinical information systems (e.g., electronic health records (EHRs), health information exchanges (HIEs), etc.). This Project will specifically address measurement concepts related to care coordination and then develop a critical path and action plan to address these key issues, gaps, and barriers.
Scope of Work
To inform this work, NQF is issuing a firm, fixed price (FFP) subcontract for a qualified contractor to perform an environmental analysis of electronic data readiness to support care coordination measurement concepts. An NQF-selected Technical Expert Panel (TEP) will develop the requirements for the environmental analysis and scoring criteria for evaluating health IT systems’ readiness to meet the goals of electronic quality measurement. The TEP will guide the contractor’s work under this subcontract.
The environmental analysis will look at data readiness and areas of need—for example, availability and actual use of infrastructure, appropriate use of standards to manage required data effectively, comprehensiveness of standards, and data storage. The scan should include interviews with key informants from up to ten stakeholder organizations (such as providers, HIT vendors, and purchasers), surveys, and literature searches (both peer-reviewed and “grey” literature).
The contractor shall:
- Define an appropriate research methodology. As part of this
contract request, all respondents shall describe their complete,
proposed research methodology that will enable them to perform a
high-quality, verifiable, and systematic environmental analysis of
electronic data readiness to support care coordination measurement
concepts. Respondents shall describe their processes and procedures in
sufficient detail to allow NQF to compare their methodology to that of
other respondents. The offeror shall submit their detailed methodology
for the environmental analysis as part of this contract submission.
After award, the selected contractor will be required to work with NQF
to refine or make needed modifications to their methodology.
- Conduct an environmental analysis of electronic data readiness to
support care coordination measurement concepts, as defined by
requirements developed by the TEP. The scan should include interviews
with key informants from up to ten stakeholder organizations (such as
providers, HIT vendors, and purchasers), surveys, and literature
searches (both peer-reviewed and “grey” literature).
- Apply the scoring criteria developed by the TEP to the findings to identify areas of need, gaps, and barriers.
- Synthesize the findings, application of the scoring criteria, and
identified areas of need in a thorough but succinct written report.
Questions and Answers
Questions must be prepared in written format and emailed to: nqfrfp2012@qualityforum.org by March 9, 2012 at 12:00 PM Eastern Time. A conference call will be held on March 16, 2012, 11:00 am to 12:30 pm Eastern Time to answer all submitted questions. Please email the above address for the dial-in number. NQF will not disclose the source of submitted questions. Questions that were not submitted in advance will be answered as time permits. NQF will post the questions and answers within two (2) business days of the conference call on the NQF Website under the solicitation announcement for this RFP.
Submission Instructions
All bids are due to NQF by March 30, 2012 at 12:00 PM Eastern Time. The offeror may submit its submissions electronically (using MS Word and Excel) to: nqfrfp2012@qualityforum.org, or to the address below by enclosing a paper copy and a separate electronic copy (using MS Word and Excel) on CD ROM in a sealed envelope. Late bids may not be considered. Submissions being sent through mail or delivery service should be sent to:
Rosemary Kennedy, PhD, MBA, RN, FAAN
Vice President, Health Information Technology
National Quality Forum
1030 15th Street NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20005
Contact Information
For more information, please email nqfrfp2012@qualityforum.org.
