Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF JANUARY 09, 2008 FBO #2235
SOURCES SOUGHT

Q -- Optometry ServicesVarious sites in the State of New Jersey

Notice Date

1/7/2008
 

Notice Type

Sources Sought
 

NAICS

621320 — Offices of Optometrists
 

Contracting Office

Contracting Officer (Health Care Acq.);Department of Veterans Affairs;James J. Peters VA Medical Center;130 West Kingsbridge Road #10N3-NAL-3;Bronx NY 10468-3904
 

ZIP Code

10468-3904
 

Solicitation Number

VA-243-08-RP-0093
 

Response Due

1/14/2008
 

Archive Date

3/14/2008
 

Point of Contact

Marla Jacobson, Contracting Officer Department of Veterans Affairs James J. Peters VA Medical Center 130 West Kingsbridge Road #10N3-NAL-3 Bronx NY 10468-3904
 

E-Mail Address

Email your questions to Marla Jacobson, Contracting Officer
(Marla.Jacobson2@va.gov)
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Description

This is a SOURCES SOUGHT ANNOUNCEMENT ONLY. It is neither a solicitation announcement nor a request for proposals or quotes and does not obligate the Government to award a contract. Requests for a solicitation will not receive a response. Responses to this Sources Sought must be in writing. The purpose of this Sources Sought Announcement is for market research to make appropriate acquisition decisions and to gain knowledge of potential qualified Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses, Veteran Owned Small Businesses, 8(a), HubZone and other Small Businesses interested and capable of performing the work. Documentation of technical expertise must be presented in sufficient detail for the Government to determine that your company possesses the necessary functional area expertise and experience to compete for this acquisition. Responses to this notice shall include the following: (a) company name b) address (c) point of contact (d) phone, fax, and email (e) DUNS number (f) Cage Code (g) Tax ID Number (h) Type of small business, e.g. Services Disabled Veteran Owned small Business, Veteran-owned small business, 8(a), HUBZone, Women Owned Small Business, Small disadvantaged business, or Small Business HUBZone business and (i) must provide a capability statement that addresses the organizations qualifications and ability to perform as a contractor for the work described below. Description: See tentative Statement of Work below Important Information: The Government is not obligated to nor will it pay for or reimburse any costs associated with responding to this sources sought synopsis request. This notice shall not be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract, nor does it restrict the Government to a particular acquisition approach. The Government will in no way be bound to this information if any solicitation is issued. No sub-contracting opportunity is anticipated. The North American Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 621320 ($6.5 million). Notice to Potential Offerors: All Offerors who provide goods or services to the United States Federal Government must be registered in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR located on the web at www.ccr.gov). It is desirable that any Offeror to have completed their business Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA). Additionally, all Service Disabled Veteran Owned Businesses or Veteran Owned Businesses who respond to a solicitation on this project must be registered with the Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Veterans Enterprise VetBiz Registry located at http://vip.vetbiz.gov. All interested Offerors should submit information by e-mail, mail or ground carrier to: Dept. of Veterans Affairs, James J. Peters Medical Center, VISN 3/Network Acquisition and Logisitics, #10N3-NAL-3, Bronx, NY 10468 or by e-mail to Marla.Jacobson2@va.gov. All information submissions to be marked Attn: Marla Jacobson, Contracting Officer and should be received no later than 3:00 pm Easter Standard Time on January 14, 2008. After review of the responses to this announcement, the Government intends to proceed with the acquisition and a subsequent solicitation will be published. The Governments intent is to solicit a Firm Fixed Price, Best Value Procurement. TENTATIVE STATEMENT OF WORK (SUBJECT TO REVISION) 1. Introduction and Scope of Work The VA NJ Health Care System mission is to provide exceptional health Care to our veterans. Patients are required to have eye examinations on a yearly basis to check for retinopathy. Since it would be too costly for the VA to hire an Optometrist at each one of the Community-Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs), and it is quite a distance for some patients to travel to Lyons or East Orange, the requirement came about to contract out for these services. In addition, the VA also mandates that patients receive their eye exam and eyeglasses within a 30 day timeframe from the date of the consult. This contract will include eye examination and fitting for eyeglasses, but the VA will provide the eyeglasses to the veterans. 2. Requirements/Delivery of Services The contractor shall provide a Certified, Licensed Optometrist (s) to examine veteran patients for the purpose of refraction of their eyes and writing eyeglasses prescriptions. Examinations will be conducted at the optometrist's place of business, which is within a fifteen -mile radius from the perspective VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC). The four CBOCs are located in Brick, Hackensack, New Brunswick, and Fort Monmouth. Requests for services will be made by referral from the Community Based Outpatient Clinic primary care provider by consult. The estimated number of veteran patients to be seen on a monthly basis is as follows: Between 200-350 total exams a month between the existing sites above. The qualification of personnel performing these exams will be subject to review by the Chief of Staff or the Chief of Ambulatory Care Service. Eye examinations will include medical history (listing of systemic medications is not necessary), complete ocular history (including entering, review of any eye medications and whether the patient sees another eye care provider), refraction to include best-corrected visual acuities, assessment of pupils, confrontation visual field testing, ocular motility evaluation, slit-lamp examination with measurement of intraocular pressures and dilated fundus examinations. Notation will be made of any medications used during the examination. Reports will include all ocular diagnoses, explanation of any decrease in visual function and any advice given to the patient. Any patients with ocular pathology should be referred back to the VA Eye Clinic. If the patient prefers not to be seen at the VA Eye Clinic, the report should notate such and should indicate to whom the patient was referred. VA eyeglass forms will be completed with prescription and frame measurements (for selected frames available on VA contract-frame kits given to each contract site as samples). A. Timeliness requirements Patients will be scheduled and seen within 14 days of the consultation being received by the contactor. If the patient refuses to be seen within the 14 days, the contractor will inform the VA (the Administrative Officer, Ambulatory Care) so the consult can be cancelled as appropriate. Contractor will be provided with a daily list of consults from the Brick, Hackensack, Fort Monmouth, and New Brunswick CBOCs (to include name of patient, SS#, and phone number) in order to facilitate scheduling and patient being seen within the 14 day deadline. Reports, which include eye exam form and eyeglass prescription, will be provided to the VA within 7 calendar days of the completed examination. B. Reporting requirements/Documentation requirements Eye examinations and eyeglass prescriptions will be faxed or emailed (in a password protected document) on a daily basis (to the Administrative Officer, Ambulatory Care) for the reviewing of the exam (by the VA Chief of Optometry) and processing of the eyeglass prescription. The eyeglass prescriptions should include the veterans' complete address in the appropriate section of the eyeglass form. Contract Optometrist will notify Administrative Officer of Ambulatory Care if a patient needs to be referred back to the VA Eye Clinic for a follow up examination by an eye specialist by phone, or indicate this on VA eye exam form. These eye examinations/eyeglass prescriptions will be scanned into the patient's Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS) at the time of receipt from the contractor. Documentation of Eye examinations will include medical history, complete ocular history, refraction to include best-corrected visual acuities, assessment of pupils, confrontation visual field testing, ocular motility evaluation, and slit-lamp examination with measurement of intraocular pressures and dilated fundus examinations. Notation will be made of any medications used during the examination. It must be noted on the examination form if a patient refuses a dilated fundus exam on the appointment day. Reports will include all ocular diagnoses, explanation of any decrease in visual function and any advice given to the patient C. Workload data Consults for eye examinations for previous fiscal years were as follows: FY 07- Hackensack-800 New Brunswick-370 Brick-3,150 Ft Monmouth-350 FY 06- Hackensack-1,320 New Brunswick-160 Brick-3,600 Ft Monmouth-N/A FY05- Hackensack-1,070 New Brunswick-150 Brick-2,990 Ft Monmouth-N/A D. Facility data The services provided by the Contractor will be provided at the contractor Optometry sites. The Contractor will furnish all assessment tools, equipment, supplies and other facilities necessary for contract performance. E. Place of performance. Contract services shall be performed at the Contractor's locations which are within a fifteen-mile radius of the following VA CBOCs located in Brick, Hackensack, New Brunswick, and Fort Monmouth. James J Howard (Brick) CBOC 970 Route 70 Brick, NJ 08724 Patterson Army Health (Fort Monmouth) Building 1075 Fort Monmouth, NJ 07703 Hackensack Outpatient Clinic 385 Prospect Ave Hackensack, NJ 07601 New Brunswick Outpatient Clinic 317 George Street New Brunswick, NJ 08901 F. Procedure for referral and scheduling Patients are referred through an electronic consult from a CBOC Primary Care provider. Upon receipt of the electronic consult, the patient receives a voucher before leaving the respective CBOC to bring with them at the time of their exam. This voucher will include a phone number for patients to call to set up their eye examination which is to be completed within 14 days of the date on the voucher. If the contractor (who receives a daily list of consults of patient referred) does not receive a call from the referred patient within 48 hrs of the consult being generated, the Contractor will call the patient directly to try to schedule the patient for an eye examination. If the patient refuses to be seen within the 14 days of the consult date, or no-shows for an appointment, the contractor will contact the point of contact at the VA as described herein. The consult will be cancelled and the patient will have to be seen again by his/her Primary Care provider to obtain another voucher. G. Transfer of Patients The contractor will typically not be responsible for transfer of patients. H. Patient Safety The contractor shall adhere to patient safety requirements by reporting adverse events according to the VA NJ Health Care System guidelines. I. Exchange of Data Eye examination reports/eyeglass prescriptions will be emailed or mailed on a weekly basis for review of exam by VA Chief of Optometry and processing of the eyeglass prescription by Prosthetics service. The information will remain confidential. J. Reimbursement method/Billing/Payments The Contractor will be reimbursed on a per exam basis. The contractor will submit a monthly invoice by fax to the Administrative Officer, Ambulatory Care (for review before faxing/mailing to Austin TX) indicating the number of exams performed during each month. The contractor is required to submit supporting documentation consisting of a list with the following information: patient's full name and SSN for each monthly invoice. The fax number is as follows: 973-395-7010 (attention: Melanie Antkiewicz) Monthly invoices for payment should be submitted directly to Austin, TX. (By fax or mail) See address below: Financial Services Center PO Box 149971 Austin, TX 78714-8971 Fax 512-460-5540 Contractor should also submit a copy of the invoice to Administrative Officer, Ambulatory Care for verification of services when certifying invoices on the online certification system. K. Penalty for non-performance The contract can be terminated if performance standards are not met. Performance Standards are the same as those VA Optometrists. If the contractor's services do not conform to contract requirements, the Government may require the contractor to perform the services again in conformity with contract requirements, at no additional cost to the Government, if appropriate. When the defects in services cannot be corrected by re-performance, the Government may: 1. Require the contractor to take necessary action to ensure that future performance conforms to contract requirements. 2. Reduce the contract price to reflect the reduced value of the services performed. L. Educational and research activities No educational or research activities are required or permitted under this contract 3. References VHA Handbook 1050.1 - VHA Safety National Patient Safety Improvement Handbook. 4. Progress and Compliance Contractor Quality Monitoring - The contractor shall have a quality monitoring program, and shall agree to comply with the requirements as outlined in applicable federal regulations and the NJ State Board of Optometry. The Contractor shall have in place an internal quality monitoring program which consists of systematic activities to monitor and evaluate the care delivered according to predetermined objective standards and to effect improvement as needed. VA NJHCS monitoring procedures ensure contract compliance has been established. These procedures include the review of contract examinations by the VA Chief of Optometry and review of invoices and timelines by the Administrative Officer of Ambulatory Care. The Contracting Officer will designate appropriate VA personnel to monitor Contractor performance. Any incidents of contractor noncompliance as evidenced by the monitoring procedures shall be forwarded immediately to the Contracting Officer. 4. Notes and Other Information The Administrative Officer of Ambulatory Care will be appointed COTR of this contract.
 

Web Link

Dept. of VA New Jersey Health Care System
(http://vaww.newjersey.med.va.gov/)
 

Place of Performance

Address: Various sites in the State of New Jersey;See tentative statement of work for details;Dept. of VA New Jersey Health Care System;385 Tremont Avenue,;East Orange, NJ

Zip Code: 07018-1023

Country: United States
 

Record

SN01479930-W 20080109/080107223259 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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