INTENT TO AWARD SOLE SOURCE: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) intends to negotiate and award a sole source purchase order to the HCUP Central Distributor, Social & Scientific Systems Inc., 8757 Georgia Avenue, 12th Floor, Silver Spring, MD 20910 for the purchase of access to HCUP's State Inpatient Databases for the following states: Arizona; Arkansas; Colorado; Florida; Iowa; Kentucky; Nebraska; New Jersey; Oregon; Rhode Island; Utah; Vermont; Washington; West Virginia; and Wisconsin. The sole source award will be made under the authority of 41 U.S.C. 235 ( C ) ( 1 ) as implemented by FAR Part 6.302-1, Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies and Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements. A justification and approval is attached for this requirement. This requirement is intended as a sole source procurement because HCUP maintains a proprietary database of health care databases and related software tools and products developed through a Federal-State-Industry partnership and sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). HCUP databases bring together the data collection efforts of State data organizations, hospital associations, private data organizations and the Federal Government to create a national information resource of patient-level health care data (HCUP Partners). HCUP is currently the only nationally known contractor whose data set will meet Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) needs. FTC REQUIREMENTS: This data will be used by the FTC to conduct independent research on hospital markets, examining the same sorts of questions that arise in merger investigations. The HCUP possesses a unique database that would allow for economic research, which cannot be determined without this data. NAICS CODES: The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is 334614 (Software and Other Prerecorded Compact Disc, Tape, and Record Reproducing) and the size standard is 1250 employees. INTERESTED PARTIES: All responsible sources may submit a capability statement, proposal, or quotation which shall be considered by the agency. In order to qualify as a potential contractor for this procurement, the organization must provide valid, reliable and standardized health care databases and related software tools and products to test alternate specifications of the models that the FTC employ to analyze hospital mergers in order to see which ones perform best and to examine retrospectively recently implemented state COPA laws To be considered, interested vendors must submit technical literature describing their capability to effectively satisfy this requirement, as well as terms and conditions and a complete price quote within 5 days of this notice to the following electronic mail address:
[email protected] DISCLAIMER: This notice is not a Request for Proposals or a Solicitation, nor does it restrict the Government as to the ultimate acquisition approach. This notice is not a commitment from the Government. The Government will not reimburse any bid or proposal costs as a result of this notice. No solicitation exists and requests for a copy of the solicitation will be disregarded.