AWARD
Q -- MDE Bridge Contract - Medical Disability Examinations for 8 Regional Offices (Cleveland, Denver, Des Moines, Honolulu, Indianapolis, Lincoln, St Louis, Waco)
- Notice Date
- 11/3/2010
- Notice Type
- Award Notice
- NAICS
- 621111
— Offices of Physicians (except Mental Health Specialists)
- Contracting Office
- Center Acquisition Innovation Frederick;Department of Veterans Affairs;7485 New Horizon Way;Frederick MD 21703
- ZIP Code
- 21703
- Solicitation Number
- VA79811RP0007
- Archive Date
- 12/2/2010
- Point of Contact
- Stephen Nickles, Contract Specialist
- E-Mail Address
-
Replogle,
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Award Number
- VA798-11-D-0008
- Award Date
- 11/2/2010
- Awardee
- MEDICAL EVALUATION SPECIALISTS, INC;5700 E 11 MILE RD;WARREN;MI;480911229
- Award Amount
- $3,675,000.00
- Line Number
- 198
- Description
- JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION 1. Identify the agency and contracting activity. This justification and approval is executed by the VA Center for Acquisition Innovation (CAI), Frederick, Maryland, on behalf of US Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), which administers the Compensation & Pension (C&P) Program. 2. Nature/description of the action/contract type. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), through the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), administers the Compensation & Pension (C&P) Program for benefits for veterans, their dependents, and their survivors. Entitlement determinations for disability compensation claims and disability pension claims are made by VBA Rating Veterans Service Representatives (RVSRs) working in VA Regional Offices (VAROs) across the country. A medical disability examination is a critical piece of evidence for determining the extent of permanent impairment and the dollar benefit a veteran is awarded. Congress enacted the Veterans' Benefits Improvement Act of 1996 (PL 104-275) on October 9, 1996, which authorized VA to conduct a limited pilot program to contract for MDEs from non-VA medical sources. Under PL 108-183, Section 704, Congress granted VA temporary authority to contract out for MDEs, which is in addition to the authority provided in PL 104-275. The VA, issued Contract No. VA101(049A3)-P-0304 to retain a contractor to perform MDEs under PL 108-183. The contract's period of performance is May 2, 2008, through November 1, 2010, and is valued at $37,155,333.00. Contract No. VA101(049A3)-P-0304 expires on November 1, 2010, at the same time current PL 108-183 expires. However, PL 108-183 was extended through December 31, 2012 on October 13, 2010. The Government intends to negotiate a six-month bridge contract and three two-month options with the current PL 108-183 contractor to provide MDEs for the following ROs currently being serviced under VA101(049A3)-P-0304 : 1.Cleveland, Ohio 2.Des Moines, Iowa 3.Denver, Colorado 4.Indianapolis, Indiana 5.Lincoln, Nebraska 6.St. Louis, Missouri 7.Waco, Texas 8.Honolulu, Hawaii (NOTE: This location is not currently under VA101(049A3)-P-0304; however, the services that will be provided will be exactly the same as those provided under VA101(049A3)-P-0304. Additionally, PL 108-183 does not limit the number of ROs that may be serviced. Finally, the current contractor, MES, already has a provider network in place in Honolulu that will enable them to begin services immediately similar to the other seven ROs being serviced.) 3. Description of Services The six-month bridge contract will continue to provide the following services at each of the ROs listed above. Note that quantities to be ordered are based on Veteran demand and can only be estimated. Services ordered under the contract are limited to the ROs listed above and the budget for these services will be spread across the ROs based on program office demand forecasts. CLINDESCRIPTION 0002NON-SPECIALIST MEDICAL EXAMS (PERFORMED BY GENERAL PRACTITIONERS) 0002AACOMPREHENSIVE GENERAL MEDICAL EXAM Complete Base-line Exam Covering all body parts. (AMIE Worksheet 1010) 0002ABDETAILED EXAM LEVEL I. Three or more AMIE worksheets required. 0002ACDETAILED EXAM LEVEL II. Fewer than three AMIE worksheets required. 0003SPECIALIST EXAMS 0003AAAUDIOLOGY EXAM (Hearing and Ear Disease). 0003ABDENTAL EXAM (Dental and Oral). 0003ACOPHTHALMOLOGY (Eye). Goldman Perimeter 0003ADPSYCHIATRY (Mental Disorders, except Initial PTSD) 0003AEPSYCHIATRY: INITIAL PTSD EXAMS 0004SPECIALIST EXAMS WHEN REQUESTED BY REGIONAL OFFICE 0004AAMUSCULOSKELETAL 0004ABINFECTIOUS, IMMUNE AND NUTRITIONAL DISABILITIES 0004ACRESPIRATORY 0004ADCARDIOVASCULAR 0004AEDIGESTIVE 0004AFGENITOURINARY 0004AGGYNECOLGOICAL AND BREAST 0004AHHEMIC AND LYMPHATIC 0004AISKIN 0004AJENDOCRINE 0004AKNEUROLOGIC 0005INDEPENDENT MEDICAL OPINION (Requires a review of the veterans claims file to render an opinion - priced separately from examination) 0006TESTS AND LABORATOY 0006AAPROCEDURES 0006ABLABORATORY WORK 0006ACPHOTOS FOR SCARS AND SKIN CONDITIONS 0007NO SHOWS 0007AComplete No Show: If Veteran does not appear for appointment 0007B Partial No Show: If Veteran does not contact vendor within the acceptable timeframe to reschedule, but does request a rescheduled appointment. No show is charged on initial appointment, but at a lower price, since administrative prep work is eventually used by examiner. This bridge contract shall be placed in anticipation of the award of a more permanent, longer term fixed price IDIQ contract that will extend the Medical Disability Examination support services through the year 2014. Anticipated performance start date for the bridge contract is November 2, 2010 and the anticipated performance start date for the longer term, more permanent IDIQ contract is expected to be May 1, 2011. In order to meet mission requirements, the bridge contract will be issued for a period of six months with three two-month options. The base performance period is November 2, 2010 through April 30, 2011. This will allow time to create, compete, negotiate, and award a new IDIQ contract which must be implemented prior to May 1, 2011, to avoid a lapse in services. 4. Identification of statutory authority. The incumbent contractor will continue the support services currently provided through a fixed-price competitively awarded contract under the authority of 41 U.S.C. § 253(c)(1), the services needed by the executive agency are available from only one responsible source and no other type of services will satisfy the needs of the executive agency, as implemented by FAR 6.302-1. 5. Demonstration of contractors' unique qualifications. The Fiscal Year (FY) 08 IDIQ contract was awarded for performance beginning April 1, 2008 and MES Solutions was the successful offeror. The services performed by the contractor were awarded via competitive procedures that afforded numerous companies the opportunity to submit proposals. The VA has a contract in place for services related to Public Law (P.L.) 108-183, but the contract expires on November 1, 2010. P.L. 108-183 was set to expire on December 31, 2010; however, Congress recently extended P.L. 108-183, but the extension was not signed until October 13, 2010 which gives the VA only 18 calendar days to award a relatively complex contract. Based on the current contract, and competitive proposals received from a number of vendors, the industry standard minimum start-up period is approximately 90-days, due to the complexity of coordinating services between eight different locations through the United States, as well as the high level of information technology coordination and information security issues that must be in place before performance can begin. Awarding a new contract to a new vendor would not allow sufficient time for the vendor to sufficiently meet this start-up period prior to expiration of the current contract, which greatly increases the risk of unsuccessful performance. The contracting officer recommends a six-month bridge contract be awarded to the existing IDIQ contractor in order to establish stop-gap measures to provide the required services to meet the existing mission of VBA Medical Disability Examination (MDE) program. MES Solutions currently has the personnel in place and is in a good position to meet the additional six-month requirement without the need for meeting the 90-day start-up period. No other contractors will be able to recruit, obtain credentialing (applicable to Medical Examiners), coordinate the IT and information security requirements with all eight VA facilities, or have their employees in place by the November 2, 2010 performance start in order to avoid a lapse in service. 6. Federal Business Opportunities announcement/potential sources. Since there were no provisions incorporated into the current contracts to continue past November 1, 2010 and in order to meet the requirements of FAR Part 5, a notice of "Intent to Procure via Sole Source" shall be published in the Federal Business Opportunities. 7. Determination of fair and reasonable costs. The contracting officer does not expect escalation of the hourly rates because the term of this contract, including all options, is 12 months. However, a price fair and reasonableness determination will be made by comparing the results of the market survey (see Paragraph 8, below) with the price proposal received from the incumbent contractor. 8. Description of market survey. The VA's Center for Acquisition Innovation, located in Frederick, Maryland reviewed market conditions by taking the average estimated unit cost for each CLIN for all locations included in this contract. The information listed below will be used to determine price reasonableness. ROIGCE for Base Period + All Options Cleveland, Ohio $5,049,535.00 Des Moines, Iowa $952,500.00 Denver, Colorado $3,344,730.00 Honolulu, Hawaii$1,462,505.00 Indianapolis, Indiana $1,736,970.00 Lincoln, Nebraska $1,207,370.00 St. Louis, Missouri $4,366,035.00 Waco, Texas $4,887,735.00 Total$23,007,380.00 9. Any other supporting facts. None. 10. Listing of interested sources. The incumbent contractor, Medical Evaluation Specialists, Inc./MES Solutions, is the only known source that is able to meet this short-fused, short-timeframe requirement for the reasons listed in Paragraph 5, above. 11. Actions taken to remove barriers to competition. The services in the six-month bridge contracts are included as the minimum requirements within Solicitation VA798-11-RP-0002 and shall be placed under Task Orders when the IDIQ contract is awarded. The longer term, more permanent contract for these services will be subsequently solicited and awarded under the basis of full and open competition. TECHNICAL AND REQUIREMENTS CERTIFICATION I certify that the technical data to support the recommendation for full and open competition is accurate and complete. I further certify that this Justification and Approval is accurate and complete. Technical Cognizance (202) 461-9661________________________________ JOHN CAPOZZITelephoneDate Contracting Officer's Technical Representative CONTRACTING OFFICER'S CERTIFICATION I certify this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. (202) 461-0676____ MEGAN REPLOGLETelephoneDate Contracting Officer LEGAL SUFFICIENCY REVIEW AND CONCURRENCE I have reviewed the facts set forth in the above Justification and Approval (J&A) for Other Than Full and Open Competition and find this J&A to be legally sufficient, based on these facts, to the best of my knowledge and belief. (202) 461- 4998 L.T. BURLESONTelephoneDate General Counsel COMPETITION ADVOCATE ( ) - IRIS COOPER Telephone Date ADAS for Acquisition Competition Advocate
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