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FBO DAILY - FEDBIZOPPS ISSUE OF DECEMBER 14, 2014 FBO #4768
DOCUMENT

R -- RFI for BIO Process Improvement Project (CBO (10NB1C) VHA - Attachment

Notice Date

12/12/2014
 

Notice Type

Attachment
 

NAICS

518210 — Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services
 

Contracting Office

Department of Veterans Affairs;Consolidated Patient Account Center;201 Hay Street, Suite 305;Fayetteville NC 28301
 

ZIP Code

28301
 

Solicitation Number

VA73015N0001
 

Response Due

1/9/2015
 

Archive Date

1/19/2015
 

Point of Contact

Catherine Artis
 

E-Mail Address

catherine.artis@va.gov
(Catherine.Artis@va.gov)
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Description

1. Introduction This is a REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Requests for a solicitation will not receive a response. Responses to this RFI must be in writing. The purpose of this RFI announcement is for market research to make appropriate acquisition decisions and to gain knowledge for budgetary planning. 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 and Small Business Status (SDVOSB/VOSB/8A/HubZone/Minority Owned/etc) (h) must provide a capability statement that addresses the organization's qualifications and ability to perform as a contractor for the work described below: 2. Background The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) provides a wide array of health care services to eligible veterans and, in some cases, their families, for service-connected and non-service connected health care needs. For non-service-connected care (not a result of injuries/illnesses incurred during military service), VHA is authorized to retain collections from Third Party insurance payments and First Party copayments; these collections offset the annual medical care appropriated funds. A major responsibility of the Chief Business Office (CBO) is to monitor, track, and collect these funds. The Business Information Office (BIO) within CBO Revenue Operations is the business line that sets up targets and reports on the billing and collection activities of both traditional VA and Non-VA Care. The mission of BIO is to transform data into business information and business information into business intelligence. Leveraging people, processes, and technologies supports effective decision-making at all levels of the organization. Using predictive modeling, BIO develops a 10-year Medical Care Collections Fund (MCCF) collection forecast and allocates the MCCF collections' expected results (ER) at the station level annually to support the President's Budget. BIO's data gathering and report creation processes can be described as "A set of methodologies, processes, architectures, and technologies that transform raw data into meaningful and useful information used to enable effective strategic, tactical, and operational insights for decision making." BIO currently has a reporting solution that retrieves information from at least ten different places across the nation. Each feed provides data at various times, in various formats, processed differently, and is sometimes incomplete. Diagram 1: High Level Data Feeds In addition BIO's current data storage and reporting system are depicted in the diagram below: ? Diagram 2: BIO's Data Storage and Reporting System 3. Statement of Objectives BIO's goal is multi-faceted: 1.BIO will take data from multiple VA sources, harness relevant data and analyze it to find answers that enable 1) trend analysis, 2) Smarter business decision making 3) Determine root causes of failures. 2.BIO is the authoritative source for VHA's revenue reporting and therefore will continue to provide a clear and accurate depiction of the true facts and numbers 3.BIO will develop the data management standard that other organizations can use as a role model 4.BIO will provide a solution that can be replicated and expanded; to develop additional performance management reporting 5.BIO will provide data analytics support for business operations across the end-to-end VHA revenue cycle. ? 4. BIO's Reporting System BIO seeks to improve its capabilities in the area of enterprise-wide gathering of pertinent financial data, related business data for revenue cycle activities, and the preparation of revenue-based statistics and collection results. BIO also wishes to create data models, trend analyses, and ad-hoc reports from the enterprise-wide data it collects. BIO seeks advice and assistance in the area of hardware, operating system, software and data governance to achieve these goals. The government seeks industry feedback on the following key areas of Management and Operations: a)Improving BIO's Information Processes b)Managing Business Data c)Publishing Business-Critical Information d)Mobile Technology Capabilities (if available) e)Cybersecurity The following sections provide background on the above-mentioned areas and specific questions for which government is seeking industry responses. 4.1 Improving BIO's Information Processes The government's approach to modernizing BIO's information processes is to specify only minimal requirements sufficient to develop an accurate, consistent, and timely reporting capability that presents highly formatted information in a consistent, user-friendly manner. At a minimum, the solution will support advanced reporting, scalability, trending analysis, data modeling, and rapid query performance. The government would like to view all options for data gathering, reporting capabilities, trend analysis, and data modeling. For example, should a cloud solution be used? Is there new technology that can be utilized? Are there other alternatives? Etc. 4.2 Managing Business Data The government needs to obtain raw data from its origin, which is VistA, (Veterans Integrated System Technology Architecture). VistA is VA's award winning Health Information Technology (IT) system. Presently, selected VistA files are either extracted by VA's VistA Data Extract (VDE), Corporate Data Warehouse (CDW) or information is obtained via customized extracts, etc. (See Appendix A) VistA provides an integrated inpatient and outpatient electronic health record for VA patients, and administrative tools to help VA deliver the best quality medical care to Veterans. However, VistA is a complicated system. There are tools being used to pull data from local VistA systems currently. Some of the tools are proprietary to specific vendors. BIO's strategy is to (1) obtain, (2) transport, (3) store, (4) and utilize data in the process of creating reports, data modeling, data mining, and trend analysis. There are terabytes of raw data and statistics available, but understanding the needs of the organization, and the story that needs to be told will determine which data elements are needed. BIO will have the ability to bring data together in a way that tells the correct story to the stakeholders and to the organization. 4.3 Publishing Business-Critical Information BIO monitors the revenue operations' collections and co-payments and provides that information to executive management via reports and dashboards. This published information is critical for informed decisions by VHA management and to meet target goals issued by BIO needed to fulfill the President's budget. BIO's intent is to improve current capabilities and expand reporting abilities. For example, there may be time sensitive reporting requirements necessary to support intradepartmental and interdepartmental initiatives and strategies. BIO's reporting processes need to accommodate new and emerging requirements with efficiency and timeliness. 4.4 Mobile Technology The government would be interested in hearing mobile technology capabilities as an add on in the future. 4.5 Cybersecurity It is necessary to provide security measures around data used. Some data contains Personal Health Information (PHI). Even though data is aggregated, there could be some associations made. Cybersecurity measures would need to align with Federal and VA policies. 5. Infrastructure Currently, BIO mainly uses the business data from the VistA Data Extract (VDE) to support performance measurement for revenue operations. Additionally, some reports are developed using the data from the Corporate Data Warehouse (CDW) (See Diagram 2 below). BIO is considering using the CDW as the primary source to pull data, but the CDW capabilities are being developed and more research is needed to determine if CDW will have all data needed for BIO's reports and analysis. Alternative methods of gathering raw data from VistA need to be addressed. The new infrastructure would depend on the solution taken by the government. Diagram 2: CDW Visual 5.1 Equipment BIO does not own any equipment. 5.2 Host Site Current data storage, data warehousing and business reporting system are being hosted in the Allocation Resource Center (ARC) in Braintree, Massachusetts as a courtesy (i.e., no funding required). The RFI should include a wide variety of alternatives in the area of hardware and site hosting with cost estimation. The new solution may need to be hosted elsewhere in the VA or at a site that would allow all authorized VA auditors to come in as required by specified VA schedule. Any host site must be within the VA's firewall. The BIO team is currently conducting research on data centers in the VA, and would like the most appropriate fit to its needs. 5.3 Integration Integration of platforms may need to be a consideration. All raw data is derived from VistA. VistA is written in MUMPS (Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System) or alternatively M; a general-purpose computer programming language that provides ACID (Atomic, Consistent, Isolated, and Durable) transaction processing. Interoperability may need to be addressed and solution must be able to communicate via various platforms if automatic data delivery is part of a proposed solution. Use of HL7 may be one solution if data transmissions from the sites to a central location become an option. 6. Instructions for Responding to this RFI Respondents are encouraged to be as specific as possible in addressing the RFI and in providing suggestions for alternative approaches and solutions. Feedback of a general or non-specific nature is less useful and will have limited utility in refining the acquisition strategy and affecting the content of the RFP. Interested parties may respond to this RFI in accordance with the instructions provided in this section. Table 1 below provides guidance for preparing responses. Table 1: RFI Response Guide DescriptionResponse Requirement Due date for RFI responsesJanuary 9, 2015 Response formatMicrosoft Word 2007. Please insert comments and responses to the numbered questions within the specific sections and paragraphs of this RFI. How to respond?Electronically via E-mail What needs to be addressed:1.What is the proposed solution? 2.How will the solution work? 3.What will the proposed solution provide? 4.What is the budgetary estimate? 5.What types of issues might affect the cost? Please include: 1.Vendor information, including POC and phone number 2. Vendor background capabilities Qualifications, including prior experience in performing similar services 3.Past experience/performance points of contract 4.Estimated pricing, i.e. catalog information if available 5.GSA or other GWAC, if available 6.Socioeconomic data 7.Tax ID Where to respond?E-mail questions to: Beverly Hunt Beverly.Hunt@va.gov Contracting Officer: Catherine Artis Catherine.artis@va.gov DescriptionResponse Requirement How to mark the responsesIndicate specifically whether the response includes proprietary information and which information should be considered proprietary. Requirements for marking proprietary information are in FAR Subsection 3.104-4 Please list the RFI question prior to each response. How proprietary information will be treatedSee FAR Subsection 3.104-4 for how this information will be safeguarded, if properly labeled. The government reserves the right to publish any information provided by a respondent to the RFI if publishing such information is done without attribution (i.e., does not identify the party submitting the response materials), and would not reveal company trade secrets or other similar protected or proprietary information. For example, if a respondent were to ask when the draft EIS RFP would be released, then such a question could be published without attribution and would not jeopardize any corporate or trade secrets of the respondent. Accordingly, the government may publish such materials. Please be advised that the responses will be shared with government personnel and support contractors that have signed the required Nondisclosure and Conflict of Interest agreements. What will be done with the responses? The government intends to refine the BIO Enterprise Architecture strategy and associated documents as appropriate based on all sources of input received, especially responses to this RFI. The government does not intend to respond unilaterally to individual respondents unless clarification of information submitted is required. All contact will be through the contracting officer. Disclaimer: This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation. APPENDIX: VHA Chief Business Office - Current Enterprise Architecture Assessment
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/1e0ed15f4c2f3fe03de5fe6caa3e7436)
 

Document(s)

Attachment
 

File Name: VA730-15-N-0001 VA730-15-N-0001.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=1771284&FileName=VA730-15-N-0001-000.docx)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=1771284&FileName=VA730-15-N-0001-000.docx

 

Note: If links are broken, refer to Point of Contact above or contact the FBO Help Desk at 877-472-3779.
 

Record

SN03594766-W 20141214/141212234212-1e0ed15f4c2f3fe03de5fe6caa3e7436 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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