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FBO DAILY - FEDBIZOPPS ISSUE OF APRIL 08, 2018 FBO #5980
DOCUMENT

R -- Board of Veteran Appeals (BVA) Surge Support Claims File Review Request for Information - Attachment

Notice Date

4/6/2018
 

Notice Type

Attachment
 

NAICS

541199 — All Other Legal Services
 

Contracting Office

Strategic Acquisition Center - Frederick;Department of Veterans Affairs;321 Ballenger Center Drive, Suite 125;Frederick MD 21703
 

ZIP Code

21703
 

Solicitation Number

36C10X18Q9097
 

Response Due

4/23/2018
 

Archive Date

5/23/2018
 

Point of Contact

Kevin.Armillotti@va.gov
 

E-Mail Address

Kevin.Armillotti@va.gov
(Kevin.Armillotti@va.gov)
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Description

Request for Information (RFI) The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is issuing this RFI in accordance with FAR 15.201(e). The agency does not intend to award a contract but rather gather information on capability, delivery and other market information pertinent for acquisition planning. The result of this market research will contribute to determining the method of procurement and identify parties having an interest in and the resources to support this requirement for the following: Background As a result of the Veteran s Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act of 2017 (Act), the Board of Veterans Appeals (Board) anticipates increased workloads. In addition, in recent fiscal years, the Board has increased its overall full time employee (FTE) numbers. The vast majority of the increase in FTE has been decision writing attorneys, which has increased the volume of work needing to be done to support those attorneys. To achieve its goals of providing best possible service to Veterans, BVA must undergo an aggressive transformation that includes initiatives to re-evaluate and streamline business processes, reorganize areas of responsibilities, re-train people, and implement new solutions to reduce the appeals wait times by adjudicating appeals faster and at a higher quality. Existing laws and regulations established a Veterans benefits appeals process that has sequential steps following benefits claim adjudication by the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), Veterans Health Administration (VHA), National Cemetery Administration (NCA), or VA s Office of General Counsel (OGC). The Act puts in place a new system that will provide Veteran s multiple options following benefits claim adjudication by VBA, VHA, NCA, or OGC. The anticipated effective date of the Act is February 14, 2019. Though the Act provides for opportunities for Veterans who have existing appeals to opt-in to the new system it is anticipated that not all will. The Veterans who do not opt-in will have their appeals adjudicated under the laws and regulations as they existed prior to the Act or what VA is calling the legacy system. Until these legacy claims are resolved the Board will have to work both legacy appeals and new appeals in tandem. These Board requirements are focused on legacy claims file review. The Board has a requirement for a Contractor to provide Paralegal Legal Level I support to improve the efficiency of the adjudicatory process. The Board must modernize its current claims file document review system. The chosen Contractor will provide paralegal services to support analyzing, organizing, and delivering documentation submitted by or for Veterans to the Board s legal staff in the Office of Appellate Operations (OAO). Objective The Board seeks to obtain paralegal support for the Board related to the administration of Veterans benefits appeals processing. The Board desires to improve its ability to support OAO legal staff by identifying the legally relevant evidence in a file thereby significantly reducing the size of the claims files that are reviewed by the OAO attorneys and Veterans Law Judges (VLJ). The objective is to increase decision volume by reducing the number of documents that have to be reviewed by a Board attorney when drafting a decision. The Contractor shall understand and support BVA s mission as it relates to adjudicating disability appeals for Veterans and other appellants. In order to do this, the Contractor shall perform the following: Claims file Review A. Receive claims file for legacy claims: Information packages will be delivered electronically to the Contractor via Boards document review software, which Contractor will use to review and label relevant documents. Contractor shall prioritize and complete packages based on date received and docket order. B. Contractor shall ensure all necessary administrative actions have been completed. The below list represents administrative actions that should have been performed by the Agency of Original Jurisdiction (AOJ). However, these tasks are not always completed. Therefore, it is necessary for the Contractor to conduct a quality check to ensure package completeness. In the event any of these issues are found to be unaddressed, The Contractor shall flag all uncomplete items and notify Board Administrative Support so they may take action to complete the package. The Contractor shall use BVA proprietary software to send unaddressed issues to the responsible BVA point of contact that handles unaddressed issues. Administratively complete package checklist includes all of the following: Privacy Act requests completed Power of attorney issues handled Waivers of Regional Office RO s initial consideration of additional provided Pending scanning banner completed/removed Hearing requests fulfilled and transcripts associated with the record Extension requests completed Informal hearing presentations obtained Advance on the docket (AOD) motions rulings handled Relevant Board documents sent to last known address All foreign language documents translated 11. Misfiled documents associated with the correct file C. Contractor shall review all submitted documentation, determine the issue(s) on appeal, and identify all relevant documents. a) The Contractor shall use standard naming conventions to label each document. b) The Contractor shall identify the date on which VA received the document. c) The relevant documents identified by the Contractor shall include: i. Relevant procedural documents, including rating code sheets ii. All relevant evidence including lay statements, medical evidence, and other relevant evidence regarding the issue(s) on appeal iii. Service records, including service personnel and treatment records iv. All VA Form 21-22s (and 21-22a) v. Hearing transcripts vi. All communications regarding the issue(s) on appeal, including VA Form 21-4142s vii. Records from the Social Security Administration (SSA) viii. Veterans Claims Assistance Act (VCAA) letters ix. Any formal findings made by the Agency of Original Jurisdiction (AOJ) x. Documentation regarding the duty to assist xi. In the case of substitution or dependency and indemnity compensation claims, the death certificate, marriage license, and dependency information and evidence, and xii. All other relevant documents D. Contractor shall be expected to provide customer service to internal BVA personnel, especially when responding to telephone and email inquiries with the point of contact for the Board. NOTE: Task 2 and 3 are conducted simultaneously E. Quantity: Contractor shall perform such review in the quantity necessary to support the Board s weekly adjudication of legacy claims. The Board anticipates this being approximately 1,000 claims file a week. A claims file can range from 100 documents to 1,000 plus. At last measure the average electronic claims file included 243 documents. The Government anticipates that 70 to 80 Paralegals Level I will be needed for this effort. THERE IS NO SOLICITATION AT THIS TIME. This request for capabilities information does not constitute a request for proposals; submission of any information in response to this market survey is purely voluntary; the government assumes no financial responsibility for any costs incurred. If you are interested and your organization has the potential capacity/ capability to perform these contract services, please provide the following information: Company Info Organization name, address, email address, website address, telephone number, business size/ NAICS code; DUNS, SIN Category and GSA Schedules held and appropriate for the work (if applicable). Identify your company s Small Business size status based upon the anticipated applicable North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code of 541199 (All Other Legal Services). The Small Business Size Standard for this NAICS code is $11 million in average annual receipts. For more information refer to http://www.sba.gov. If in responding to this RFI you believe another NAICS code should be applicable, please identify the NAICS code you consider appropriate for this effort, along with detailed supporting rationale. Are you a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) or Veteran Owned Small Business (VOSB)? If so, are you verified in VA CVE s VIP database? When does your verification expire? B. Capability 1. Whether your company has handled contracts of a similar nature (size, scope, complexity, and percentage of work your company was responsible for) in the past 3 years, please provide a description. 2. Please provide any other relevant examples of experience with legal document review or other litigation supporting activities. 3. Did this work involve electronic files? Describe examples of how you worked with an electronic file system? 4. Are there any items listed in the Objectives above that your company can not meet?    If so, identify them and an alternate solution (if any) your company may provide?     5. The Government estimates a Paralegal Level I is sufficient for this effort. If you disagree based upon the information listed above, please indicate why? 6. Would you be able to provide the Governments anticipated 70 80 Paralegal Level I within 14 days after award when an anticipated kick-off meeting would commence? If not, please provide a timeline of how you would anticipate hiring 70 80 Paralegal Level I? 7. If you are unable to provide the Governments anticipated number of 70 to 80 Paralegals Level I, what is the maximum number of Paralegal Level I you are able to provide? 8. Do you have the necessary space to house purposed number of staff, capability to manage them remotely, or both? 9. Please provide details regarding proposed joint ventures, teaming arrangements, strategic alliances or other business arrangements to satisfy requirements of the entire PWS (Background and Objective language above). Small businesses are encouraged to identify teams whereby each team member is considered small business based upon the proposed NAICS code of 541199 (All Other Legal Services) to support set-aside considerations. STRUCTURE AND SUBMISSION OF RESPONSES Contractors should respond to this RFI by Monday, April 23, 2018 by 12:00 PM EDT via e-mail to Kevin.Armillotti@va.gov and Allen.Smith3@va.gov. Limit all responses to no more than 15 pages.
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/VA/AFMLOVASS/VASSMD/36C10X18Q9097/listing.html)
 

Document(s)

Attachment
 

File Name: 36C10X18Q9097 36C10X18Q9097_1.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=4210150&FileName=36C10X18Q9097-000.docx)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=4210150&FileName=36C10X18Q9097-000.docx

 

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

Record

SN04881052-W 20180408/180406230729-0aca4dada84ba47a553092015016024c (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

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

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