The National Institutes of Health (NIH), a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research. The NIH Clinical Center serves as the nation?s premier research hospital for conducting clinical research to improve the health of human kind. It also serves as a national resource for clinical research by developing diagnostic and therapeutic interventions, enhancing systems to ensure the safe, efficient, and ethical conduct of clinical research, training clinical researchers, and leading the response to the nation?s public health needs. A 234-bed research hospital located at the heart of the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland, the Clinical Center supports nearly 50% of all NIH funded general clinical research center beds in the nation, as well as over 25% of outpatient visits. In supporting approximately 1,200 active clinical research protocols, the Clinical Center admits patients from around the country and the world who participate in experimental treatments and studies at no charge. Protocol participants include both patients receiving treatment and other research volunteers. Both are eligible for travel reimbursement according to the protocol guidelines. The term patient will be used to refer to all types of protocol participants and their authorized guardians throughout this document. Patients can be self-referred to the Clinical Center or referred for enrollment into a protocol by the patient?s primary care physician or from tertiary care facilities. No one simply arrives at the doors of the Clinical Center and is admitted. Because Clinical Center patients volunteer as subjects, they are not charged for the care they receive. The majority of visits (e.g. inpatient admissions or outpatient visits) are planned, however, occasions arise necessitating immediate return of the patient (e.g., if a donor match is identified or a patient becomes ill) in which case emergent travel arrangements are required. Patients travel from all fifty United States and some from abroad to participate in clinical research studies at the Clinical Center. This contract will provide travel management services to these patients. These services are subject to a new NIH Policy on Reimbursement of Travel and Subsistence Expenses for NIH Intramural Clinical Research Protocol Participants. The implementation of the new NIH Patient Travel Policy requires new processes. As a result, this contract will be divided into Phase I and Phase II. Phase I will include three tasks. Task A: The Contractor will staff an on-site Patient Travel Office (PTO) that provides airline and train travel services for patients. Task B: The contractor will actively participate in the development and implementation of the procedures and the quality assurance plan to provide the government arranged travel and lodging and reimbursement for approved travel expenses. Task C: The contractor will be responsible for establishing a database containing patient travel cost information and formulating routine and ad hoc reports. Phase II will include three tasks. Task A: The Contractor will to continue to staff an on-site PTO that provides airline and train reservations for patients and add lodging reservations. Task B: The contractor will provide reimbursement for approved travel expenses (lodging, meals and transportation). This may require the contractor to make significant cash outlays on a monthly basis-possibly exceeding $190,000 per month. Task C: The contractor will be responsible for maintaining the database containing patient travel cost information and providing monthly and ad hoc reports. The Clinical Center anticipates a one-year contract with four (4) one-year options. This is not a Request for Proposals. The intention of this announcement is to notify potential offerors that the Request for Proposals will be available for download on or about June 1, 2007 from www.fedbizopps.gov. No hard copies will be distributed. All questions must be submitted in writing to Ann Argaman (
[email protected]) or Janice Brunson (
[email protected]).