SOLICITATION NOTICE
G -- ARNG/USAR Directors of Psychological Health
- Notice Date
- 11/21/2012
- Notice Type
- Fair Opportunity / Limited Sources Justification
- NAICS
- 541611
— Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- National Guard Bureau, Contracting Support, ATTN: NGB-AQC, 1411 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, VA 22202-3231
- ZIP Code
- 22202-3231
- Solicitation Number
- W9133L12F0151
- Archive Date
- 12/21/2012
- Point of Contact
- Michael Wade, 7036071260
- E-Mail Address
-
National Guard Bureau, Contracting Support
(michael.s.wade@us.army.mil)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Award Number
- GS-15F-0015L
- Award Date
- 9/21/2012
- Description
- The National Guard Bureau (NGB), an active duty component of the U.S Department of Defense (DoD) and the US Army Reserve (USAR) have the urgent need to provide mental health support services per provision 10 U.S.C., Chapter 55; Section 723, National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2007, Pub. L. 109-163 and the Report of the DoD Task Force on Mental Health (TFMH), June 2007 specifically behavioral health and support services for National Guard (NG) members as part of pre-deployment resiliency training and post deployment reintegration to civilian life. 10 U.S.C., Chapter 55 establishes Federal responsibility for Prevention, Mitigation, and Treatment of Blast Injuries (Pub. L. 109-163 (1) (D), Access to Health Care Services for Beneficiaries Eligible for TRICARE and the Department of Veteran's Affairs Health Care (Pub. L. 107-314, (A), (C) Health Care Management Demonstration Program (Pub. L. 106-398, (a), (b, 1-2), specifically to improve, develop and maintain intervention and rehabilitation programs for returning troops who have developed post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), experienced traumatic brain injuries (TBI), and/or other behavioral health problems associated with an individual's inability to reintegrate into civilian life. Some states and local communities currently lack access, coordination and/or professional intervention services of mental health providers and related support systems. The National Guard (NG) faces unique challenges to provide mental health support to its members. NG armories and wings are community based and are seldom within the catchment area of a military treatment facility; and have varying degrees of capabilities between communities and states. Since the Guard does not provide treatment, all care is received externally through TRICARE, the Veterans Health Administration (VA) and health insurance provided through a Guard member's or civilian spouse's civilian employer. Additionally, psychological health is not a core competency of the NG and USAR; resulting in an inconsistency between a state's ability to design and implement a psychological health program. This contract also addresses the recommendations: 5.4.1.6, 5.4.1.10, 5.4.1.11, 5.4.1.12, 5.4.1.14 of the DoD Plan to Achieve the Vision of the DoD Task Force on Mental Health, September 2007 Report to Congress; quote mark to place a Director of Psychological Health at each of the 54 Joint Force Headquarters (JFHQ) quote mark, for Army and Air National Guard service, under direction of the state Adjutant General (TAG) who may appoint a Joint Director for oversight. To fulfill this mission, the Contractor, in partnership with NGB, will identify behavioral health provider networks of locally based mental health clinicians/counselors who will offer mental health counseling and associated support services for pre and post deployment NG members and their families. In addition, the Contractor will place a Director of Psychological Health in each of the 54 states/territories who will coordinate and manage mental health counseling and resource services and/or oversee qualified providers and other mental health resources within his/her respective state. The NGB COR will provide technical oversight to ensure delivery of professionally sound, standardized and cost-effective services. The purpose of this contract is the provision of State and Regional Support Command Directors of Psychological Health who will coordinate counseling and/or oversee mental health services to NG and Reserve members located throughout the United States including the Pacific Islands, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, wherever Army or Air National Guard members and USAR members and their families are located. All reintegration support services will complement one another and provide service members with valuable assistance in their management of mild readjustment issues to varying degrees of traumatic brain injuries and/or post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) sustained through deployment. An additional goal is to decrease the stigma associated with seeking quote mark mental health quote mark services as well as improve access to qualified mental health providers at the critical point, when a NG or USAR member (or family member) recognizes the need for mental health intervention. The required services are deemed to be available only from Ceridian Corporation because it is likely that award to any other source would result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency's requirements. In addition, as is more fully discussed below, the purpose of this addition is to maintain continuity by obtaining the critical services described at paragraph 3 from the incumbent provider for the minimum period of time necessary to resolve a pending protest and to complete an ongoing competition for a new contract. The request for proposals (RFP) for this requirement was released in the third quarter of fiscal year 2012 (FY12) with contract award in the fourth quarter FY12. However, the award of the contract has been withheld due to a protest filed 20 September 2012. As a result, NGB is in the process of responding to and resolving the protest, B-407377. Failure to provide these services for the NGB and USAR on a continuous and unbroken basis would significantly harm the DoD as these services are critical to the health and welfare of members of the National Guard and USAR. The National Guard depends on the full time, licensed psychological health providers to support the behavioral health needs of Guard members; both soldiers and airmen. There are a number of unique challenges in meeting the psychological needs of its Service members: Armories and Wings are community based Locations are seldom within a catchment area of a military treatment facility Non-provision of health care treatment Varying degrees of capability between communities These licensed psychological health providers provide individual clinical assessment and referral services, intervention regarding critical incident response, assistance with transition and civilian reintegration, education and information training on a variety of behavioral health topics and these providers offer expert consultation to leaders on mitigation strategies. This program's priority has been and will remain the safety and stability of the Force; particularly for operational readiness. Local provider networks as well as community resource partners have been established. Utilization data clearly demonstrates a need for such a program. Within the last 10 months, 1796 Service members have sought this professional assistance. Of those 1796 clinical Service member assessments, 645 were assessed to be quote mark high risk quote mark ; victim risk, suicide risk, homicide risk, duty to warn cases or assault risk. These licensed clinicians have provided 11,463 consultations (of which 1008 were for high risk situations), 8250 screenings and conducted 2217 briefings. The Army National Guard has had 69 Guard member suicides to date this calendar year, the Air National Guard has had 17 suicides to date. Theses licensed psychological health clinicians are critical to the safety and stability of our Force. The National Guard cannot afford to have a gap in psychological health services for Service members in our 54 States, Territories and the District of Columbia, nor in our 89 Air National Guard Wings. The military is currently experiencing an unprecedented number of mental health challenges of the Force and the National Guard is no exception. It is imperative that the National Guard maintain these licensed providers, who continue to intervene in support of our soldiers, airmen and families. No other contractor could fulfill the services required in the short timeframe available without a significant break in the continuity of services critical to service member psychological health. In order to ensure that services are uninterrupted, these services must be obtained from the current company currently providing these services as a primary subcontractor, Ceridian Corporation. Although the incumbent prime contractor is currently performing acceptably with regard to the delivery of services, these services are provided almost entirely by a sub-contractor, Ceridian, as a pass through. The relationship between the incumbent and service provider is deemed to be unsustainable due to ongoing failure on the part of the prime to remain current on payments, which has nearly resulted in the termination of the relationship between the parties on multiple recent occasions. Because the critical personnel on this contract are employees of Ceridian, the Government lacks confidence that the prime contractor could fill the positions held by Ceridian employees in a timely manner. No other vendor would be able to begin performance by 22 Septemeber2012 without substantial disruption in ongoing critical services. Typically, vendors require approximately 30 days to transition from the incumbent new provider. During this transition period, the following important and time consuming activities typically take place: issuance of various task orders, hiring of highly specialized staff, transfer of ongoing cases. Given the limited time available, the Government has no confidence that these tasks could be accomplished within a shorter timeframe, and the performance risk under such a scenario is unacceptable given the nature of these services. Even assuming another vendor can accomplish a transition in less than 30 days, insufficient time remains to allow for the award of a new contract competitively or otherwise, to another vendor, and to effect transition, as described above. Furthermore, even if a vendor other than the current service provider could begin performance, assuming the resolution of the pending protest, completion of the pending competition and transition period would take approximately one to three months; the vendor would perform for a short and indefinite period with the expectation that performance would then begin under a new competitive contract. Such multiple transitions conducted over a short time span pose an unacceptably high risk of disruption to the provision of critical support services to service members, with a potential negative impact on ongoing critical cases. Due to the difficulty of transitioning between contractors, frequent disruptions occur despite the best efforts of the Government and the contractors to ensure a smooth transition and it is critical that these disruptions be minimized. In sum, it is in the Government's vital interest to issue a contract to the current service provider to ensure the critical services are provided. This will maintain the status quo by extending the performance of this company until the protest is resolved and the new contract awarded. Furthermore, this course of action meets both the minimum requirements of the Government and reflects sound business judgment.
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