Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Medical Provider Component (MPC)
Support

Amendment No. 1, Dated February 7, 2008 To Requests for Proposal (RFP) No. AHRQ-08-10009, issued January 18, 2008

Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Medical Provider Component (MPC) Support

Proposal Due March 13, 2008, 12 Noon EST

Notice of Intent Due February 15, 2008

Question 1: What assumptions can be made about the format of materials received from the MEPS HC contractor related to medical providers identified in the household interviews?  Will these be paper records or electronic or a combination?

Response 1: There will be a combination of paper, electronic, and scanned materials received from the MEPS HC contractor.  Examples of these types of materials are authorization forms and electronic files which include matching variables that allow persons to be linked to their medical providers.

Question 2: The RFP refers to an Option Period 3 but does not specifically request the Offeror to include Option Period 3 in the technical proposal.  Specifically, on page 92, the RFP states that the "Option Periods should mirror the person loading chart for the base period proposal, reflecting the incremental cost of option Period 1, given the base period award and then the incremental cost of option Period 2, given the award of option period 1".  Should Offeror's also reflect the incremental cost of option Period 3, given the award of option period 2? 

Response 2: Yes, Offerors should also include the incremental cost of option period 3, given the award of option period 2 in their technical proposal.

Question 3: RFP page 43, F.2, shows a PoP [Period of Performance] base of 42 months, each option period as 42 months, and a total base and option PoP of 80 months.  RFP page 6, B.2 & B.3 show a base PoP of 44 months and three 36 month option periods.  Should the offeror assume a base period of 44 months, and three 12 month option periods for a total of 80 months?  Please confirm or clarify.

Response 3: RFP page 6, B.2 and B.3 state the Base Period of Performance incorrectly.  The Base Period of Performance is 42 months.  There are also three 36-month options.  If all of the options are exercised, the total period of performance may be 150 months.  It is anticipated, however, that the base period of performance and the option periods will partially run concurrently, the total elapsed time of the Base Period of Performance and option periods is 80 months.  Option Period 1 may be exercised anytime after completion of the first year of the Base Period.  It is anticipated that Option Period 2 shall be exercised around July/August 2010.   It is anticipated that Option Period 3 shall be exercised around July/August 2011.

Question 4: Section 4.4 of the RFP refers to a "data line" that the contractor will establish. Please provide details on the type of data line envisioned.

Response 4: AHRQ will provide (and will continue to own) a dedicated stand alone machine that resides at the contractor's work place and dials into the Secure LAN at AHRQ. The contractor will need a dedicated phone line and a signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) stating the machine AHRQ provides will never be connected to any network (internet/intranet); the machine will only dial up to an AHRQ specified number to support data transfers.  There will be substantial penalties for any failures or breeches of security.

Question 5: Will the Household Component [HC] contractor provide a variable that classifies household data into Medicaid, Managed Care, and Other categories for the purpose of MPC sample selection?

Response 5:  The sample provided to the MPC contractor from the HC contractor will already have been subsampled.  The MPC subsampling is built into the HC CAPI instrument.   

Question 6: Section H.1 of the RFP states that evaluation will be conducted semiannually. Section L.7.a states that evaluation will be conducted annually. With what frequency will award evaluation be conducted?

Response 6: The evaluation will be conducted annually.  Section H.1 of the RFP is hereby corrected to state evaluations will be conducted annually.

Question 7: Will the contractor be responsible for the conduct of IRB [Institutional Review Board ] review discussed in 4.3.1.5?

Response 7: Yes.

Question 8: Will the provider directory (Section 4.2.3) maintained by the incumbent be provided to the contractor before data collection?

Response 8: Yes, after award of the contract, the MPC provider directory maintained by the incumbent will be provided to the contractor awarded the contract.

Question 9: Please provide any available data about length of telephone surveys by instrument type.

Response 9: For the MPC 2005 data collection the average length of time for a telephone interview by provider type were:

Provider Type	Interview Hours	Pairs	Hours per Paid
OBD	33,064	18,592	1.78
Hospital	41,595	11,007	3.78
Home Health	1,686	505	3.34
Pharmacy	3,536	12,914	0.27
SDB	39,873	15,416	2.59

For more information on average length of time of MPC activities including abstraction, please refer to the MEPS Medical Provider Component Annual Methodology Report that is available on CD-ROM only by making a request by E-mail to Mary Haines, Contracting Officer at Mary.Haines@ahrq.hhs.gov.  Please reference Solicitation Number/RFP Number in written requests.  Telephone requests will not be honored.

Current as of February 2008

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Internet Citation:

Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Medical Provider Component (MPC) Support: Requests for Proposal, Amendment 1. February 2008. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/downloads/pub/contract/0810009am1.htm

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