COST SURVEY OF MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT FOR CHILDREN

Release Date:  June 30, 1999

RFP Available:  NIMH-99-DS-0004

National Institute of Mental Health

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) plans to issue a Request for 
Proposals (RFP) No. NIMH-99-DS-0004 entitled "Cost Survey of Mental Health 
Treatment for Children (CMC)."  Issue date of the RFP will be on or about 
Friday, July 2, 1999 with receipt of proposals due on or about Monday, August 
2, 1999.  It is anticipated that award will be made on or about September 30, 
1999. Proposals are being solicited under Full and Open Competitive 
Procedures using Standard Industry Code 8732/8733.  A four (4) year cost-
reimbursement type contract is contemplated.

This RFP will utilize the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious 
Diseases' Contract Review On-line system.  Offerors will submit their 
proposals ELECTRONICALLY.  In addition to your electronic submission, 
Offerors will be required to submit one complete original signed HARDCOPY of 
their proposal.  Please note that the electronic copy of your proposal will 
need to be submitted in Adobe Acrobat portable document format (PDF).  
Adequate security for electronic transmission will be provided by using a 
dedicated server with access restricted through passwords.

This RFP invites proposals for the initiation of a national survey of the 
type of services used by children in treatment, the costs of these services, 
and how benefit coverage affects access, use and cost of mental health 
services. NIMH intends to award a single contract with multiple scientific 
and administrative components to conduct a cost survey of children and 
adolescents who are high users of mental health services, to develop 
sophisticated research design to answer policy relevant questions, and to 
conduct data analyses.  The survey should have the capacity to generalize to 
the national population and collect and analyze data relevant to answer the 
research questions outlined below:

1. What are the costs of mental health services for youth in inpatient, 
residential, partial care and intensive outpatient treatment (ages 4-17).

     How do costs vary by sociodemographic groups?
     How do costs vary by type of mental disorder?

2. How do financing arrangements and insurance benefits influence the use of 
services and the costs of care?

3. What kinds of treatment services are delivered to children in these 
treatment settings and what is the quality of those services?

4. What mental disorders do children have in these settings?

According to preliminary estimates approximately 1,500 children who are high 
users of mental health services will need to be selected from approximately 
800 inpatient, residential and partial care treatment settings.  No 
preliminary estimates are available concerning the sample size of the 
intensive outpatient survey sample.

It is planned that this study will have three major survey components:

1. Survey of children who are high users of mental health services (and their 
parent/guardian) treated in inpatient, residential and partial treatment 
settings,

2. Survey of similar children (and their parent/guardian) treated in 
outpatient settings, and

3. Insurance followback survey to obtain health insurance information for the 
child from the insuring private company or public program.

The NIMH envisions that the methodology of the contract should pay 
considerable attention to:

a. Sampling of youth from different mental health service settings;

b. Existing instruments that could be used for collecting cost data, data on 
use of services, quality of care, type of mental health problem and insurance 
coverage;

c. Collecting survey data on children and adolescents and their 
parent/guardian and data processing;

d. Developing research design in order to answer Questions 1 through 4 
outlined above; and 

e. Conducting data analyses to provide empirical answers for Questions 1 and 
4.

THE RFP WILL BE AVAILABLE IN ELECTRONIC FORMAT at URL 
http://www.nimh.nih.gov.  Select "Funding Opportunities," then "Contracts," 
then "NIMH Requests for Proposals (RFP)," and then select "NIMH-99-DS-0004."  
It will be available fifteen or more calendar days after the issuance of this 
synopsis.  OFFERORS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ROUTINELY CHECKING THE NIMH WEBSITE 
FOR ANY POSSIBLE SOLICITATION AMENDMENTS THAT MAY BE ISSUED.  NO INDIVIDUAL 
NOTIFICATION OF ANY AMENDMENTS WILL BE PROVIDED.  All responsible sources may 
submit a proposal that will be considered by the agency.

Contact:

Patricia Gibbons
National Institute of Mental Health
Contracts Management Branch
6001 Executive Blvd., Room 6107 MSC 9603
Bethesda, MD 20892-9603
Telephone: (301) 443-2696
Email: pgibbons@nimh.nih.gov

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