The Health & Human Services Department recently published four announcements that provide preliminary information about its plans to hire contractors to evaluate and assist in managing grant programs the Office of the National Coordinator has underway to advance a nationwide digital healthcare system.
In the notices, which HHS posted Dec. 30 and 31 on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site, ONC seeks technical expertise to evaluate the administration of grant programs it recently funded to foster state health information exchange as well as to set up regional health IT "extension" or training centers.
The notices describe projects to evaluate the programs, identify performance measures for the projects, and to provide technical assistance for helping grantees manage them. A separate notice describes ONC's interest in outsourcing customer relationship management services for the regional extension centers.
The Web-based CRM service would be used to collect data about interactions between extension training centers and individual physician practices and to report the progress and performance of the training services to ONC.
An announcement on the FBO.gov Web site typically summarizes an agency's plans or gauges the interest of vendors in a specific project. A notice may also signal an agency's intent to purchase a product or service in the future through a competition for the best price and value.
The four information announcements are for:
-- An overall assessment of ONC's progress toward HITECH goals and separate evaluations of ONC programs for state health information exchanges, regional health IT extension centers, beacon communities and workforce and education to support electronic health record adoption. The notice is here.
-- Identification of performance measures and evaluation of the effectiveness of the state health information exchange programs. The notice is here.
-- Technical assistance for state health information exchange awardees in governance, accountability, finance and business operations. The notice is here.
--A technology solution for customer relationship management (CRM) in the form of software as a service and project management for health IT regional extension centers. The notice is here.
