Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) - Household Component (HC) - 2024

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This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice (SBSS). This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified small business sources; (2) whether they are small business; HUBZone small businesses; service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran-owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under the applicable NAICS code should not submit a response to this notice.

Project Description and Requirements:

The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) is a set of large-scale surveys of families and individuals, their medical providers (doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, etc.), and employers across the United States. Collectively these MEPS surveys collect data on the specific health services that Americans use, how frequently they use them, the cost of these services, and how they are paid for, as well as data on the cost, scope, and breadth of health insurance held by and available to U.S. workers. It has been conducted since 1996 and is administered by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

This SBSS notice pertains to the MEPS Household Component (MEPS-HC). The MEPS-HC collects data from a sample of families and individuals in selected communities across the United States, drawn as a subsample from a nationally representative sample of households that participated in the prior year’s National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). During the MEPS-HC household interviews, field interviewers (FIs) collect the following detailed information for each person in the household from a single household respondent: demographic characteristics, health conditions, health status, use of medical services, charges and sources of payments for medical services, access to healthcare, satisfaction with healthcare, health insurance coverage, income, and employment. The MEPS-HC also includes supplemental self-administered questionnaires (SAQs) that are administered in web-based and/or paper-based form to certain sample members. As well, for respondents reporting medical events the MEPS-HC administers authorization forms that seek signed permission from the respondent to contact their medical providers (as part of the MEPS Medical Provider Component or MEPS-MPC), The full content of the MEPS-HC survey is available online at https://meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/survey_comp/survey_questionnaires.jsp.

The MEPS-HC employs a panel design, with a new panel fielded every calendar year. For each panel, data collection consists of contacting upwards of 14,500 households (representing 35,000 individuals) five times over a two-and-a-half-year period (approximately every 6 months). The FI workforce consists of approximately 350 interviewers recruited and employed throughout the United States and spread across approximately 200 primary sampling units. The MEPS-HC interviews are conducted primarily face-to-face in the respondents’ households using Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI). However, following the COVID-19 pandemic other data collection modes have been introduced, including both Computer Assisted Virtual Interviewing (CAVI) and phone interview modes, with data collection mode varying for purposes to gaining data collection efficiencies. Households sampled for voluntary MEPS-HC participation are initially contacted by phone and/or mail for the purpose of legitimizing the survey and maximize cooperation rates before scheduling in-person interviews. The most recent Panel 28 Round 1 finished with a 65 percent response rate.

The existing CAPI instrument for the core MEPS-HC interview is programmed in Blaise software and consists of approximately 50 different questionnaire sections representing over 1,000 pages of hardcopy material with an average interview time of approximately 90 minutes. The main MEPS-HC interview is routinely updated to accommodate new questionnaire content or to apply edits to existing content. Additionally, the CAPI instrument contains a medical provider directory to enable to a more efficient search and entry of reported medical providers and searchable lookup tools for commonly reported medical conditions and prescribed medicines. Annually, new FIs are recruited, hired, and trained over a one-week period to address staffing needs as a result of field interviewer attrition from previous hiring cohorts. New-to-Project (NTP) FI training is a combination of in-person training conducted at a central location and web-based training. Following the NTP training, FIs receive in-home training materials that are designed to continue training in support of data collection spanning a two- and half-year time period. Additionally, all veteran (returning) FIs receive in-person refresher training every third year of employment on the project. Data security measures consistent with a FIPS-Moderate classification must be deployed to maintain confidentiality protections of the MEPS-HC data collected. This consists of, but is not limited to, the encryption of interviewer laptops, the electronic transfer of data through encrypted means to a central location for data processing, and the preparation of public use data files.

Several analytic weights are developed to enable nationally representative point estimates and accurate standard errors. Data are cleaned and processed through data editing, coding, statistical imputation of some variables with missing data, and implementation of statistical disclosure limitation techniques. Editing and imputation work requires coordination with the MEPS Medical Provider Component (MEPS-MPC) contractor, which collects information from healthcare providers on charges and sources of payments for medical events. Approximately 20 public use data files are released annually representing thousands of analytical variables pertaining to health care utilization and expenditures as well as demographic characteristics of the sample population. More information on the public use data files that MEPS-HC releases is available at https://meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files.jsp.

This project consists of the following tasks:

Project Management, Reporting, and Meetings

• Project meetings


• Project planning, including quality control plan and continued operation of the MEPS-HC


• Project Reporting, including monthly progress, finance, and EVM reports


• Data Security plan, ATO documentation, and continuous monitoring


• MEPS-HC and MEPS-MPC project coordination activities


• Project closeout/transfer of operations

Instrumentation

• Instrument Development, including updating main interview and self-administered questionnaires (SAQ) in both English and Spanish


• Programming (and testing) the CAPI, CAVI, and SAQ instruments in both English and Spanish


• Develop supporting household data collection field materials in both English and Spanish


• OMB Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) clearance

Sample Design and Selection

• Designing and implementing the MEPS-HC sample design


• NHIS-HC sample file linkages


• MEPS-HC panel sample maintenance


• Prepare and transfer MEPS-MPC sample files to MPC contractor

Field Staff Preparation

• Field Interviewer and Supervisor recruitment/hiring for nationwide panel survey


• Field Interviewer and Supervisor training and management for nationwide panel survey

MEPS-HC Data Collection

• Collect main interview household data


• Collect SAQ data


• Collect Authorization Forms from MEPS-HC respondents for MEPS-MPC sample


• Collect Pharmacy Patient Profiles

Data management and Data Processing

• Data management and data processing plan


• Forms control and receipt


• Between round data processing


• Data coding/recoding


• Data editing and imputation


• Data weighting and variance estimation, and benchmarking to outside data sources and previous MEPS estimates


• MEPS-HC/MPC statistical matching

Data Files and Documentation

• Public-Use File (PUF) disclosure review


• Preparing Developing PUF analytic files and supporting documentation

Survey Documentation

• Annual MEPS-HC Methodology Report


• Ad-Hoc Methods Reports

Further discussion and detail pertaining to the MEPS-HC may be found at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/survey_comp/household.jsp

Anticipated period of performance:

IDIQ Ordering Period: 5 years

Task Order 1 Base period: 5 months

Task Order 1 Option Years 1-6: 12 months each

Task Order 1 Option Year 7: 3 months

Capability Information Sought:

Capabilities necessary to fulfill this requirement include:

• Project Director experienced in the full survey operations lifecycle for a large, national health household survey


• Ability to recruit, hire, train, and manage a field interviewer workforce of approximately 350 individuals that can interview in any sampled location within the 50 states and District of Columbia


• Experience fielding large national longitudinal household panel surveys in both English and Spanish that includes multiple rounds of data collection simultaneously


• Experience programming, updating, and maintaining CAPI survey programs in Blaise and CAVI programs for video-based interviewing.


• Ability to administer supplemental SAQs and Authorization Forms on a large scale, including: printing and mailing pre-contact survey materials to sampled households; administering authorization forms for signature and receipt; programming and implementing web surveys; and creating, printing, and administering paper-based surveys


• Experience obtaining clearances such as OMB Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) and FISMA Authorization to Operate (ATO) for a FIPS-Moderate classified system


• Staff with technical expertise in producing weights and variance estimation variables from a complex survey design, including nonresponse adjustments and calibration to control totals


• Staff with experience in all aspects of data processing for survey data, including data editing, coding health data, statistical imputation, and statistical disclosure limitation


• Ability to produce approximately 20 high-quality public use data files per year, including supporting documentation and codebooks

The capability statement response to this Small Business Sources Sought notice should include the following information:

a) Staff expertise, including their availability, experience, and formal and other training;

b) Current in-house capability and capacity to perform the work;

c) Corporate experience and information on prior projects of similar size and complexity;

d) List any Government wide contracting vehicle for which the respondent has a contract (example,

GSA schedule, etc).

Information Submission Instruction:

Interested qualified small business organizations should submit a tailored capability statement for this requirement.

The cover page must include the following:

• UEI number


• Organization name


• Organization address


• Size and type of business (e.g., 8(a), HUBZone, etc.) pursuant to NAICS code 541910.


• Technical point(s) of contact, including names, titles, addresses, telephone, and e-mail addresses.

All Capability Statements sent in response to this SMALL BUSINESS SOURCES SOUGHT notice must be submitted electronically (via e-mail) to Tara Bertolini, Contract Specialist, Tara.Bertolini@ahrq.hhs.gov in MS Word, or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), no later than 2:00 PM on November 13, 2023. Responses should not exceed 20 single-sided pages (including the cover page, all attachments, resumes, charts, etc.) presented in single-space and using a 12-point font size minimum, that clearly details the ability to perform the aspects of the notice described above.

Disclaimer and Important Notes:

This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization’s qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in SAM.gov. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.

Confidentiality:

No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).

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