Privacy-Preserving Record Linkage (PPRL) of Patient-Level Real World Healthcare Data to Advance COVID-19 Response and Other CDC Priorities

This fixed-price contract action was awarded on a sole-source basis pursuant to FAR 6.302-1: Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. Access to timely and comprehensive data on the spread and impact COVID-19 remains critical to understanding and combatting the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is using electronic healthcare data for public health purposes to inform situational awareness, predictive modeling, and strategic, tactical, and policy decision making; to help track the spread and intensity of COVID-19 infection and identify areas that are highly impacted by COVID-19; to understand spectrum of illness, disease burden, risk factors for severe disease, and outcomes; and to understand the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare systems and communities. The purpose of this contract is to obtain a unique large volume data source (> 50 million individuals or larger) of deidentified, patient-level, real world healthcare data that is interoperable and can be linked across medical and pharmacy claims (including both open and closed systems), chargemaster, electronic medical record (EMR), and laboratory data at the patient-level using privacy-preserving record linkage (PPRL). The required data are drawn from a variety of US sources, including provider-submitted claims, adjudicated insurance claims, PBM billing, and US laboratory chains, and shall contain data from the following sources: Medical claims data: These data shall include two primary types 1) those that reflect a patient’s medical activity from the health plan, and 2) those that measure activity from the data provider. Pharmacy data: These data shall include health plan data, dispensing data from pharmacies, pharmacy system vendors, clearinghouses, and pharmacy benefit managers. Electronic Medical Records: These data shall include diagnoses, drugs, lab results, clinical and physical observations/vitals, problems, allergies, and some unstructured data elements like clinical notes, scanned documents and image files. Lab Data: These data shall include information from clinical laboratories, with pathology and genomic labs encompassed. Data shall include the test order, the result, and if available, the interpretation and interpretive range for the result. Hospital Chargemaster Data: Data collected from hospital billing systems and chargemaster systems shall include visit-level diagnoses, procedures, and specific drug/product/resource utilization by day of stay (versus higher level visit utilization that would be available on claims only), inpatient source of admission, location of care by day of stay (ER, IP, ICU, etc.), length of stay, and discharge disposition, and inpatient lab results (when available). Race/Ethnicity Data: Race/ethnicity data sourced from EMR and/or consumer records. Consumer Data (if available): These data shall include grocery spending habits, demographics, ethnicity, financial, lifestyle, social media usage, and obituary and death record data.