B -- EARLY WARNING SYSTEM TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE GUIDE FOR STATES

Notice Date

July 10, 2001

Contracting Office

Department of Health and Human Services, Program Support Center, Division of Acquisition Management, Parklawn Building Room 5-101 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD, 20857

ZIP Code

20857

Solicitation Number

01M008874

Response Due

July 31, 2001

Point of Contact

Marisha Foreman, Contract Specialist, Phone 301-443-6762, Fax 301-443-2761, Email mforeman@psc.gov

Description

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Office of Managed Care (OMC), through the Program Support Center, is soliciting bids to award a twelve (12) month simplified acquisition for Early Warning System Technical Assistance Guide for States. The Early Warning System (EWS) is a performance based monitoring program that can assist states in their oversight of clinical care and managed care operations by providing current information about the health system. The EWS uses a limited set of quickly obtained measures to rapidly identify managed care organizations (MCOs) or providers that may be under performing in the delivery of, or access to, quality care. More broadly, the program helps identify area-wide health care delivery systems under stress, as well as areas of excellence. The EWS can create new avenues of communication, enhancing collaboration among the various stakeholders, including states, county government, providers, consumers, advocates, managed care organizations, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMMS), formerly the Health Care Financing Administration, and SAMSHA. An EWS Manual is now under development that synthesizes the lessons learned in a how-to guide that will make these tools available to states. Much has been learned, but a few critical aspects of the EWS model must be explored and described to create a robust technical assistance guide for the state managers. For one, the EWS Technical Assistance Manual?now in draft format?only addresses behavioral healthcare carve-out programs. In the 2000 State Profiles review of all public behavioral health programs nationally, indicates that although 35 programs are carve-outs, even more -- 41 programs -- are integrated programs that include both physical health and behavioral health. The EWS Technical Assistance Manual needs to address implementing the model in integrated systems. Also, the model has only been implemented on the East Coast. The issues faced by states with frontier areas has not received attention. State officials from Oklahoma have expressed interest in working with SAMHSA to develop a feasibility study in their state in a program roll-out to frontier areas. This information would not only help the State, but could also be captured for the EWS Technical Assistance Manual. Lastly, there is a need to crosswalk the existing EWS pilots with other data efforts from other states. Special state data reports would either focus on a particular state's advanced efforts or make comparisons across state systems. The objective of this project is to complete the technical assistance guidance of the Early Warning Monitoring System (EWS) Model. This involves three separate tasks, all of which would develop important guidance for inclusion in the EWS Technical Assistance Manual: 1) Completing a feasibility study of EWS in a state with frontier areas, perhaps Oklahoma; 2) Developing technical assistance on EWS in integrated public systems; 3) Crosswalk the EWS model with other state data systems. Offerors must submit a written request for solicitation number 01M008874 to: HHS/PSC, Attn: Marisha Foreman, Parklawn Building, Room 5-95, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857. Request may be requested via facsimile on (301) 443-8488 or (301) 443-2761, or sent via email to: mforeman@psc.gov. The anticipated release date is July 31, 2001.

Web Link

Visit this URL for the latest information about this (http://www.eps.gov/spg/HHS/PSC/DAM/01M008874/listing.html)

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20010712/BSOL006.HTM (D-191 SN50R3L5)