Request for Proposals
The Healthcare Cost and
Utilization Project (HCUP) is a Federal-State-Industry partnership to build
a standardized, multi-State health data system. HCUP is maintained by the Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ, formerly the Agency for Health Care
Policy and Research).
Solicitation No. AHRQ-00-0004; (Full and Open Competition, with Recommended
Small Business Goals)
Proposals Due: May 26, 2000
Contracting Office: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Division of
Contracts Management, 2101 East Jefferson Street, Suite 601, Rockville, MD
20852.
The synopsis for this requirement was published in the Commerce Business
Daily on March 30, 2000. The solicitation was issued on April 14, 2000. Full
text can be downloaded by shift-clicking (select to access Downloading
Information). Printed copies are also available, as detailed below.
A 5-year cost-reimbursement contract is contemplated. It is expected that one
award will be made for this requirement.
The purpose of this contract is to maintain and expand a multi-state health
care data system for health services research, health policy analysis, and
quality measurement and improvement. The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project
(HCUP), managed in the Center for Organization and Delivery Studies at AHRQ, is
designed to create an information resource of hospital inpatient and outpatient
data at the local, State and national level. The primary purpose of this effort
is to build databases suitable for a broad range of health services research
studies that include research on access to care and the quality, cost, and
utilization of health care.
HCUP encompasses a family of administrative, longitudinal databases and
related software tools and products that are developed by AHRQ in a
Federal-State-Industry partnership. HCUP brings together the data collection
efforts of State data organizations, hospital associations, private data
organizations, and the federal government to create patient-level health care
data in a form that permits in-depth research and analysis while protecting data
security and confidentiality.
Two HCUP databases are currently available for restricted access public
release for health services research. As of Winter 1999/2000, the databases
provide 10 years of data, from 1988 to 1997. Four other specialized HCUP
databases are in the developmental/pilot phase. The HCUP databases currently
released are:
The HCUP State Outpatient Databases (SOD) component currently consists of
State data from ambulatory surgery and emergency department data settings.
Ambulatory care, office, and clinic visit data may also be included in future
years. For details on HCUP, see online information at: http://www.ahrq.gov/data/hcup/.
The Contractor shall be responsible for:
- Soliciting cooperation from potential data sources.
- Collecting data from these sources.
- Developing innovative approaches to combine data from multiple sources in
a uniformly formatted research database.
- Developing the design and sampling strategies.
- Statistically analyzing these data.
- Providing documentation.
- Protecting confidentiality.
- Providing technical expertise to designated staff of the AHRQ and others
on use of the data for research projects.
- Monitoring technical advances for efficient functioning of the project.
Printed copies of the RFP may be obtained by writing to:
AHRQ, Attn: Division of Contracts Management
2101 East Jefferson Street,
Suite 601
Rockville, MD
Fax: (301) 443-7523
Include the offeror's name, affiliation, address, and telephone and fax
numbers. No telephone requests for the RFP will be accepted.
Downloading Information
Shift-click from this Web page: Your browser may support downloading
the RFP and Attachments from this Web page. To download the RFP from this Web
page, click on the following links with the right mouse button and select "Save
Link As" (Netscape) or "Save Target As" (Internet Explorer). The RFP is
available as WordPerfect® and PDF Files:
PDF Files require the Adobe® Acrobat® Reader™, which you can download free
from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2_allversions.html
Current as of April 2000
Internet Citation:
Maintain and Expand the Healthcare Cost and Utilization
Project (HCUP): Request for Proposals. April 2000. Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/fund/contarchive/rfp00004.htm
540 Gaither Road Rockville, MD 20850 