SOLICITATION NOTICE
R -- Healthcare Quality Information Systems (HCQIS) Infrastructure Support
- Notice Date
- 12/23/2008
- Notice Type
- Presolicitation
- NAICS
- 541519
— Other Computer Related Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Office of Acquisition and Grants Management, 7500 Security Blvd., C2-21-15, Baltimore, Maryland, 21244-1850
- ZIP Code
- 21244-1850
- Solicitation Number
- RFP-CMS-2009-8A-INFRA-02
- Point of Contact
- Christina F Heller,, Phone: 410-786-1896, Jaime Galvez,, Phone: 410-786-5701
- E-Mail Address
-
christina.heller@cms.hhs.gov, jaime.galvez@cms.hhs.gov
- Small Business Set-Aside
- 8a Competitive
- Description
- Healthcare Quality Information Systems (HCQIS) Infrastructure Support Pre-Solicitation Notice Dated 12/23/2008 Purpose The purpose of this Pre-Solicitation Notice is to obtain infrastructure services to support SDPS, VBP, CROWNWeb, and QIES application groups; Help Desk, QIO System Administration, and production support control for the SDPS group; production support control for the VBP application group; and file/print and desktop services for both ESRD and QIO facilities. All efforts shall be performed in accordance with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requirements and shall meet the objectives of increasing efficiency and effectiveness of operations and timely implementation of statutory and regulatory requirements. This is a Set Aside for 8(a) business. The estimated level of effort for the contract is approximately 300,000 hours per year (Base + 4). CMS anticipates awarding this contract in July 2009; the Period of Performance will be Base + 4 12-month option years. Introduction The HealthCare Quality Information System (HCQIS) is a major application environment that uses application groups, shared servers, and WAN to monitor and improve utilization and quality of care for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. HCQIS is composed of 5 application groups: 1.Standard Data Processing System (SDPS) for Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs), including the Clinical Data Abstraction Center (CDAC); 2.Value Based Purchasing (VBP) IT Infrastructure for Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) and Hospital Outpatient; 3.Consolidated Renal Operations in a Web-Enabled Network (CROWNWeb); 4.Quality Improvement and Evaluation System (QIES) for states and CMS; 5.Quality Improvement Initiatives (QII) This statement of work is phase 2, of a 4-phase process. The other phases will be issue as separate solicitations with their specific SOW, requirements, evaluation criteria, etc. The Government estimates that it will issue these separate solicitations during 2008-2010. This information is being provided as informational only and it does not obligate the Government to issue a solicitation or award a contract. The four Phases that currently being developed are: Phase 1 – Program Management and Business Requirement Contract Phase 2 – Infrastructure Contract (Current Solicitation) Phase 3 – Reports and Analytics Contract Phase 4 – Development Contract CMS will utilize several contracts to develop and support the SDPS and VBP application groups. The follow restrictions will apply: •The Prime and Sub-contractor(s) awarded Phase (I) Business Requirements and Program Management, both will be excluded from eligibility on Phase (IV) Development. •The Prime contractor awarded Phase (I) Business Requirements and Program Management, will be excluded from eligibility on Phase (II) Infrastructure. •The Prime contractor awarded Phase (II) Infrastructure, will be excluded from eligibility on Phase (I) Business Requirements and Program Management and Phase (IV) Development. •Any Sub-contractor(s) of Phase (I) Business Requirements and Program will be excluded from eligibility of Phase (IV) Development. •Any Sub-contractor(s) awarded Phase (I) Business Requirements and Program Management, may be eligibility to bid on Phase (II) Infrastructure. Background The Standard Data Processing System (SDPS), implemented in 1997, supports the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) program and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) community. Prior to SDPS, each QIO was responsible for developing solutions to meet the management and reporting requirements of the Statement of Work (SOW). Besides the obvious inefficiencies of redundant systems and costs, each QIO had different competencies during that period. Since the inception of SDPS, the functions of SDPS have encompassed support, standardization and development of data, software and standards for the QIO community. SDPS continues to rapidly evolve with innovative technology to meet the challenges of supporting and interfacing directly with the QIO community and surrounding healthcare industry. Quality Improvement Organizations (QIO) are under contract by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to •Improve quality of care for beneficiaries; •Protect the integrity of the Medicare Trust Fund by ensuring that Medicare pays only for services and goods that are reasonable and medically necessary and that are provided in the most appropriate setting; and •Protect beneficiaries by expeditiously addressing individual complaints, notices, and appeals, such as beneficiary complaints; provider-issued notices of non-coverage (Hospital-Issued Notice of Non-Coverage [HINN], Notice of Discharge and Medicare Appeal Rights [NODMAR], and Medicare Advantage appeal); Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) violations; and other related statutory QIO responsibilities. The statutory authority for the QIO Statement of Work is found in Part B of Title XI of the Social Security Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act), as amended by the Peer Review Improvement Act of 1982. The Act established the Utilization and Quality Control Peer Review Organization Program, now known as the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) Program. The statutory mission of the Program, as set forth in Section 1862(g) of the Act, is to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, economy, and quality of services delivered to Medicare beneficiaries. In support of the QIO program, CMS authorized the design and implementation of a SDPS for the User Community. SDPS is an information system solution that provides a common platform for users to share applications and data to promote efficiency and increase productivity. SDPS is the QIO Information Technology and data support infrastructure. The SDPS User Community, for purposes of this contract, refers to the QIOs, the State Agencies, CMS Central and Regional Offices, the Clinical Data Abstraction Center (CDAC), and other organizations/partners that may be incorporated in support of CMS initiatives. This system services the daily, ongoing support that the SDPS User Community needs to fulfill their contractual requirements in a manner supportive of an ongoing quality improvement program. The VBP application group utilizes SDPS applications and warehouses in addition to other VBP specific products. These applications and warehouse support two provisions of the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 (TRHCA) Division B, Title 1: 1.Section 101, Physician Payment and Quality Improvement, includes the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI). This law authorizes a financial incentive for eligible professionals to participate in a voluntary quality reporting program. Eligible professionals, who chose to participate and successfully report on a designated set of quality measures for services paid under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and provided between July 1 and December 31, 2007 to Medicare beneficiaries under the traditional fee-for-service program, may earn a bonus payment of 1.5% of their charges during that period, subject to a cap. On December 29, 2007, the President signed Public Law 110-173, the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007 (MMSEA), which authorized the continuation of the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) for 2008. The 2008 PQRI reporting period is January 1-December 31, 2008. The Extension Act also provides new authorities for enhancing PQRI that CMS will be implementing during 2008. MMSEA requires CMS to establish alternative reporting periods and alternative criteria for satisfactorily reporting groups of measures via claims for 2008. It also requires CMS to establish alternative reporting periods and alternative criteria for satisfactorily reporting measures via registries to enable professionals to earn the 1.5% incentive for participation in PQRI based on data submitted via these mechanisms. 2.Section 109, requires the development of measures for the evaluation of the quality of care of services provided by hospitals in outpatient settings. An Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) Reporting Hospital Quality Data for Annual Payment Update (RHQDAPU) program modeled after the current Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) RHQDAPU program will be established. Section 109, which applies to hospitals as defined under section 1886(d)(1(B) of the Act, also requires that hospital outpatient departments (HOPD) that fail to report data required for the quality measures selected by the Secretary will incur a reduction in their annual OPD fee schedule increase factor by 2.0 percentage points. OPPS payments beginning in CY 2009 will be based on hospital reporting of OPD data beginning in CY 2008. Maintenance of information on the End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) population by CMS is mandated by legislation and regulation. (See Public Law 95-292, Section (c)(1)(A); 42 CFR, Chapter IV, Part 476; and Public Law 92-603, Section 299I). In support of the CMS ESRD community, CMS created the Program Management and Medical Information System (PMMIS). The PMMIS is the system of records for the CMS ESRD data, and is maintained by way of the CROWN suite of systems. CROWN refers to any and all components of the DESCM suite of ESRD systems – the Renal Management Information System (REMIS), the Standard Information Management System (SIMS), CROWNWeb, Cognos Reporting Tool, QualityNet Identity Provisioning System (QIPS), and all related databases and architecture. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) authorized the design and implementation of the Consolidated Renal Operations in a Web-Enabled Network (CROWN) for support of the ESRD User Community. CMS is continuing to expand on its initiative to integrate the End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) systems under CROWN. CMS and the ESRD Networks have been working together to build CROWN to provide for the collection and validation of information about the Medicare ESRD program, its beneficiaries, and the services provided to them. It is vitally important that CMS continues progress made in support of new ESRD Conditions for Coverage and towards the support of the CROWNWeb system that will support the ESRD Conditions for Coverage. The Contractor will cooperate closely with the appropriate SDPS application and QualityNet infrastructure support contractors in supporting all CROWN applications. During the course of this contract, the Contractor must depend on useable business requirements and data dictionary products for their production of accurate functional specifications, design, and ultimately a properly coded application. The Quality Improvement and Evaluation System (QIES) is CMS’s key tracking, analysis, and data repository system for Medicare, Medicaid, and CLIA provider quality of care. QIES collects and validates data on provider and beneficiary specific outcomes of care and performance across a multitude of delivery sites (including nursing homes, home health agencies, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, and swing bed hospitals) for use in improving the quality and cost effectiveness of services provided by the Medicare/Medicaid/CLIA programs. QIES is considered to be a Medicare Modernization Act (of 1999) (MMA) critical CMS system integral to many key CMS’s quality of care activities including: the Survey and Certification program; the Administrator’s quality indicators for Nursing Homes (NH) and Home Health Agencies (HHA); complaints and enforcement monitoring; accreditation processes; consumer information initiatives (such as Nursing Home and Home Health Compare); as well as, data validation and survey process enhancement initiatives. QIES is also crucial to CMS’ payment systems for Skilled Nursing Facilities and Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities. The system collects and validates patient assessment data directly linked to claims for payment and correlates utilization groupings to actual patient clinical and functional status. QIES directly supports and implements provisions of OBRA 1987, HIPAA 1996, BBA 1997, and the MMA, and numerous implementing regulations. QIES also fulfills CMS action items pursuant to GAO and OIG reports and Congressional committee corrective action plans on the Nursing Home enforcement and complaints processes. QIES has been under development since 1998 and is now at a critical system development life cycle (SDLC) juncture in a multi-year effort to convert of our most complex providers (CLIA laboratories and hospitals) from the legacy Online Survey, Certification, and Reporting System (OSCAR) to QIES. Adding to the urgency and complexity of current work are implementation of the legislative mandates of Section 723 of the MMA and National Provider Identifier for HIPAA; and two regulations pursuant to BBA97 making significant changes to the PPS assessment specifications for both NHs and HHAs. The continued, uninterrupted conversion of QIES is critical to CMS’s payment and quality of care improvement processes, and to implementation and support of statutory mandates and major CMS and DHHS initiatives. The purpose of this Statement of Work (SOW) is to obtain contractor support for the technical infrastructure components of the QualityNet environment. This infrastructure support is wide-ranging, covering areas such as: •Hosting a data center •Network management •UNIX and Microsoft servers management •Configuration management •IV&V Testing •Stress Testing •Project management •Security •Help Desk •Procurement •Production Support •QIO System Administration •SAN Administration •VTC Administration •DBA Support 1. The contractor shall proactively manage the evolutionary growth and expansion of the QualityNet technical infrastructure. 2. The contractor shall also manage the evolution of engineering and development processes, including configuration management and testing. 3. The contractor shall organize and take an active role in Joint Application Development (JAD) meetings, workgroups, user groups and any other activity that would allow for improvement in the support, operation and enhancement of the HCQIS. 4. The contractor shall provide the infrastructure support for the annual Quality Net Conference held in Baltimore, MD. 5. The contractor shall provide a network operations center (NOC) capable of providing the required service in a robust manner for the production QualityNet environment. 6. The Contractor shall include all network and system administration activities and proactive support for the QualityNet Help Desk. 7. The Contractor shall participate in business requirements and product design during this stage of the SDLC. The following qualifications are necessary on this project: •Strong project management skills to manage changes that will come from different CMS and contractor organizations. •Diverse engineering and systems administration skills in the areas of local and wide area networks, Windows Database Servers, and Office 2007 operating systems, advanced storage systems, high availability and backup and recovery methodologies, and video teleconferencing. •Diverse engineering and systems administration skills in wide area network and local area networking technologies (preferred CISCO background). •A verifiable and successful track record on this type of work, preferably at CMS. •Strong application stress and usability testing knowledge and background. •Help Desk/Call Center Support experience in a large environment. The minimum contractor requirements are written proof of a CMMI Level II Certification (SCAMPI Report), at time of contract award. Teaming arrangements are encouraged.
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