The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) intends to award under the Simplified Acquisition Procedures, a sole source purchase order to the National Indian Council on Aging, 10501 Montgomery NE, Ste 210, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87111 -3851 for a Co-Sponsorship of the National Indian Council on Aging Biennial Conference. The purpose of this co-sponsorship is to gather information and assess the effectiveness of CMS's outreach efforts to AI/AN Elders. There will be at least one informational breakout session and one focus group co-developed by CMS and NICOA to gather this information directly from AI/AN Elders concerning their understanding and opinions of CMS's current outreach and enrollment efforts and how those efforts can be improved to better serve the AI/AN population. CMS and NICOA will co-develop the content of the survey(s) to be used, the breakout session description, and the setting of the focus group to best create an environment that will be conducive to the comfort and openness of the participants. The information gathered will be summarized and formatted into a report by NICOA that will be deliverable to CMS no later than December 31, 2010. Because of the unique setting and conference participants, the information gathered will be invaluable for the Agency's use to help ensure not only outreach and enrollment parity in CMS programs but also that those efforts are culturally appropriate. The information from the NICOA report will be used by the Tribal Affairs Group (TAG) of CMS to develop, with NICOA's input, culturally appropriate outreach materials to Medicare beneficiaries. These outreach materials will be invaluable to the Agency and will benefit Medicare beneficiaries by providing new information regarding changes to the Medicare program as a result of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In addition, the new outreach materials will remind AI/AN Elders that Medicare is here to stay and will become an even stronger program as a result of ACA. NICOA is the only known organization representing AI/AN Elders as well being governed by a board composed of AI/AN Elders that provides this unique conference setting for CMS to gather information. This opportunity, which cannot be duplicated through any other venue, will allow CMS to outreach to this difficult to reach audience. The action of leveraging such opportunities as this conference is critical to using the Agency's resources for outreach and education most efficiently. NICOA's Biennial Conference is the preeminent information-sharing and networking event on behalf of American Indian/Alaska Natives (AI/AN) Elders and the health programs that serve them. NICOA provides a setting at its Conference for stimulating information exchange, skills-building, partnerships, and collaborative projects in direct response to the needs of Elder Indians. NICOA has allowed CMS to partner with it on this important conference and is devoting time and effort to assist CMS with organizing a breakout session and survey/focus-group session. The purpose of these sessions is to gather information directly from AI/AN Elders concerning their understanding and opinions of CMS's current outreach efforts regarding CMS programs and how those efforts can be improved to better serve the AI/AN population. This is an exceptional opportunity for CMS, which cannot be replicated with any other organizations. All responsible sources may submit a response, which, if received timely, must be considered by the agency. Expression of interest and statement of capabilities must be email to
[email protected]. Statement of capabilities must be received within 5 days from the published date of this notice. In addition, all interested contractors must be registered with the Central Contractors Registration System (CCR) at www.ccr.gov.