Managing Unhealthy Alcohol Use in Primary Care

INTRODUCTIONThe US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of Acquisitions Management Services (OAMS), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) wants to identify businesses on the PSC IDIQ that are capable of fulfilling the objectives of this requirement.This is a Sources Sought Notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding the availability and capability of qualified business sources on the PSC IDIQ. 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 on the PSC IDIQ should not submit a response to this notice.Purpose and ObjectivesThe purpose of this notice is to find business vendors that are capable of evaluating six AHRQ grants funded to disseminate and implement patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) findings into

primary care to increase screening and management of unhealthy alcohol use (UAU), including screening and brief intervention (SBI) and medication-assisted therapy (MAT).This requirement will continue the work of the EvidenceNOW: Managing Unhealthy Alcohol Use initiative which was funded by AHRQ in 2019. This initiative uses the EvidenceNOW model to increase quality improvement, specifically the integration of SBI and MAT in primary care. The initiative consists of 6 grants and a contract.RESPONSE INFORMATION THE CAPABILITLY STATEMENT MUST CLEARLY DEMONSTRATE THE FIRM’S CAPABILITY AND EXPERIENCE IN PROVIDING THE SERVICES DESCRIBED ABOVE.In order to respond to this notice, interested firms should address the depth and breadth of professional and technical capabilities, past performance and must be able to clearly convey its experience and/or ability to perform in the following areas.General Project RequirementsThe Contractor and its subcontractors shall furnish all the necessary services, qualified personnel, material, equipment, and facilities, not otherwise provided.Under this requirement, the Contractor shall:1. Facilitate a learning community among the UAU grantees to support dissemination activities including manuscript development and conference attendance. The Contractor shall develop and execute a plan to engage the grantees in peer-to-peer learning. The plan shall2detail methods to assess the grantees’ needs and support to develop a joint manuscript and co-present at a conference.2. Complete the evaluation (specifically, final collection of quantitative data from grantees, analysis of quantitative and qualitative data from Years 1 – 4 of the grants) and produce a final report and manuscript and PowerPoint presentation that will be used when briefing the agency.3. Produce a white paper on the implementation of the environmental scan and learning community activities (that occurred during Years 1 – 4 of the grants) to inform future projects. The White Paper shall include accomplishments and successes; implementation barriers, facilitators, and lessons learned; and recommendations for next steps and future projects.4. Develop and execute a dissemination plan to increase awareness of AHRQ’s UAU initiative and impact. The plan shall detail how findings, stories and products from the UAU initiative will be disseminated based on the target stakeholders. The Contractor shall describe the type of communication products and activities that will be developed to maximize dissemination efforts. At a minimum the Contractor shall include a peer reviewed manuscript, conference presentation and social media messaging among their communication strategies.Anticipated Period of Performance• The anticipated period of performance for the entire contract is 12 months.INSTRUCTIONS TO INDUSTRYINTERESTED SOURCES POSSESSING THE CAPABILITIES TO MEET THE ABOVE REQUIREMENTS SHOULD SUBMIT A COVER LETTER ALONG WITH A CAPABILITY STATEMENT NOT TO EXCEED 4 PAGES (FONT SIZE ISTIMES NEW ROMAN 11 OR LARGER) DEMONSTRATING ABILITY TO PERFORM, AND SHOULD INCLUDE AN OUTLINE OF PREVIOUS OR SIMILAR PROJECTS SO THAT THE GOVERNMENT CAN PERFORM A PROPER EVALUATION OF THE COMPANY’S CAPABILITY. THE STATEMENT SHOULD ALSO INCLUDE AN INDICATION OF CERTIFIED SMALL BUSINESS STATUS; THIS INDICATION SHOULD BE CLEARLY MARKED ON THE FIRST PAGE OF THE CAPABILITY STATEMENT.Respondents shall include the names, titles, addresses, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses of the respondents’ technical and administrative points of contact.Disclaimer and Important Notes. This notice is for planning only. 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 todetermine the organization’s qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the3Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. Respondents will not be notified of the results of this evaluation. Capability statements will not be returned and will not be accepted after the due date. Also, 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).Interested small business firms are highly encouraged to respond to this notice. However, firms should understand that generic capability statements are not sufficient for effective evaluation of their capacity and capability to perform the work required. Responses must directly demonstrate the company’s capability, experience, and ability to marshal resources to effectively and efficiently perform the objectives described above.Capability Statement RequirementsPlease provide, as a part of your response, a capability statement that includes the following:(1) Your organization’s UEI number, name, address, point of contact, and size and type of business (e.g., 8(a), HUBZone, etc.) pursuant to the applicable NAICS code.(2) Information regarding:The contractor shall have familiarity with the development and implementation of the various contract tasks performed from August 2019 – August 2023 for the Unhealthy Alcohol Use Initiative. Several tasks (i.e., the white paper and initiative-wide evaluation) will require a transfer of knowledge and data (quantitative and qualitative) from the incumbent contractor. Also, the contractor will have approximately one month to consult with the grantees about their 4-year projects before they end. Contract activities are expected to start immediately to ensure continuity of engagement, dissemination activities and evaluation tasks.We are interested in vendors who can demonstrate capabilities in the following areas if they have the aforementioned knowledge of the Unhealthy Alcohol Use Initiative:• Expertise with the Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) approach used to deliver early intervention and treatment services for individuals with alcohol use disorders in primary care settings.• Evidence of having provided and/or engaged in SBIRT activities, learning community, and technical assistance to federal grantees.• Experience evaluating an initiative consisting of various grantees that are implementing different interventions; hosting learning communities; developing products for dissemination, and disseminating and marketing to broad audiences including clinical, research and policymakers.• Knowledge of Government FISMA guidelines and security standards and experience in the application of guidelines and security standards.4To facilitate AHRQ’s assessment of experience and current capacity, please include a table of relevant prior and current contracts. Information should include project name, funder, value, period of performance, and brief description of relevant subject matter and technical expertise required.All inquiries to this Notice must be submitted in writing to Tiffany.Murriel@psc.hhs.gov . One copy of the response must be submitted no later than July 19, 2023 at Noon electronically in Adobe PDF. Capability statements will not be returned and will not be accepted after the due date.Capability statements may be no longer than 4 pages in length, single-spaced. No more than 20 pages of additional supporting documentation (such as resumes of relevant staff) may be submitted.The Government will not entertain questions regarding this Market Research; however, general questions may be forwarded to the following:Contract Specialist: Tiffany MurrielEmail Address: Tiffany.Murriel@psc.hhs.gov