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Contract Opportunity

In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 10.002(b) (2) (i), this notice is issued for the purpose of conducting market research. Market research is being conducted to determine if there are potential businesses with the capacity and experience to perform the required work. This notice is not to be misconstrued as a Request for Proposal or Quotation. This notice does not represent a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or award a contract.

There is no solicitation at this time. This request for capability information does not constitute a request for proposals; submission of any information in response to this market survey is purely voluntary; the government assumes no financial responsibility for any costs incurred.

Acknowledgment of responses may not be made and respondents will not be notified regarding the results of the Government’s evaluation of the information received. The determination to proceed with the acquisition is within the discretion of the Government. Telephone inquiries will not be accepted.

Please be reminded that a prospective Offeror interested in obtaining a contract award with the Government must be registered in the Federal Government's System for Award Management (SAM) database. Additional information regarding contractor registration can be obtained through www.SAM.gov. All qualified small businesses, including 8(a) firms, are encouraged to participate.

1. Description of Services

The Office of the Senior Procurement Executive (OSPE) on behalf of the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), seeks to obtain regulatory technical support in implementing rules under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (CAA).

The regulatory technical support includes but is not limited to regulatory support technical activities, the collection, analysis, and development of summary statements of public comments received during the public comment phase of various regulatory initiatives and other work products needed to move the development of the regulations.

The contractor will assist with support associated with public comments received in response to Notice of Proposed Rulemakings (NPRMs) or Interim Final Rules (IFRs) with Request for Comment. Once an NPRM or IFR is published in the Federal Register, and the subsequent public comment period specified in the NPRM or IFR ends, the contractor will help collect, organize, index, and post online all of the comments received during the public comment period. The contractor will also analyze the comments and provide a comprehensive summary of the issues addressed in the comments, as well as issue-specific summaries.

The contractor shall provide all personnel, equipment, tools, materials, supervision, and other items and non-personal services necessary to perform regulatory development, analysis, and business processes support services, including but not limited to, comment analysis and assistance with technical editing based on decisions provided by the Agencies and as defined in this Performance Work Statement.

1. Technical Editing/drafting support (e.g., consistent with the Federal Register Document Drafting Handbook (FR DDH) (Aug 2019 ed.) and Government Printing Office (GPO) Style Manual (2016 ed.); review of amendatory language and rule/regulatory text for consistency with FR DDH guidelines; checking cross references.


2. Comment analysis support including collection of public comments, posting, tracking and sorting and analysis of public comments, preparing comment summaries, tracking dispensation of each public comment received, developing summary reports on comments.

This task involves regulatory technical support for EBSA in implementing rules under the CAA. The task will involve at least three rulemakings below, as well as ad hoc rulemakings to implement additional statutory provisions under the CAA:

Known Rulemaking:

MHPAEA and the CAA:

This rule would propose amendments to the final rules implementing MHPAEA. The amendments would clarify plans and issuers’ obligations under the law, promote compliance with MHPAEA, and update requirements to consider experience with MHPAEA in the years since the rules were finalized as well as amendments to the law recently enacted as part of the CAA. This is a joint rulemaking project with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of the Treasury (Treasury), Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Provider Nondiscrimination: This rulemaking will implement section 2706(a) of the Public Health Service (PHS) Act which states that a “group health plan and a health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage shall not discriminate with respect to participation under the plan or coverage against any health care provider who is acting within the scope of that provider's license or certification under applicable State law.” This is a joint rulemaking project with HHS/CMS and Treasury/IRS. The CAA requires the Departments to issue a proposed rule to implement this provision.

Advanced Explanation of Benefits Regulations: This rulemaking would implement section 716(f) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), as amended by the CAA, which requires group health plans and health insurance issuers offering group or individual health insurance coverage, in response to either a notification from a provider or facility, including providers of air ambulance services, or a request from a participant, beneficiary, or enrollee (covered individual), to provide an advanced explanation of benefits (AEOB) to the covered individual. The AEOB must include the good faith estimate (GFE) of expected charges received by the plan or issuer from the provider or facility, as well as benefit information based on the GFE, such as the estimated portion of costs for which the covered individual will be responsible. This is a joint rulemaking project with HHS/CMS and Treasury/IRS.

Additional statutory provisions may result in ad hoc rulemaking.

The proposed acquisition will be classified under the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code: 541990 – All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services.

See the attached RFI Document for submission instructions. Response must be submitted to Deborah Worrells, Worrells.deborah@dol.gov and Maria Britton, britton.maria.m@dol.gov by the closing date/time of this notice.

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