SOURCES SOUGHT
Q -- Medical Disability Examinations (MDEs) under Section 504 of the Veterans’ Benefits Improvements Act of 1996 (Public Law 104–275; 38 U.S.C. 5101) | International
- Notice Date
- 4/30/2021 10:43:05 AM
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 621111
— Offices of Physicians (except Mental Health Specialists)
- Contracting Office
- SAC FREDERICK (36C10X) FREDERICK MD 21703 USA
- ZIP Code
- 21703
- Solicitation Number
- 36C10X21Q0139
- Response Due
- 4/14/2021 9:00:00 AM
- Archive Date
- 05/14/2021
- Point of Contact
- Jennifer Benisek, Contract Specialist, Phone: 240-215-0697
- E-Mail Address
-
Jennifer.Benisek@va.gov
(Jennifer.Benisek@va.gov)
- Awardee
- null
- Description
- Page 4 of 4 This is a SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE / REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI); not a pre-solicitation notice or solicitation for proposals/quotations. Pursuant to FAR Part 10 (Market Research), the purpose of this notice is to: Determine if sources capable of satisfying the agency's requirements exists; Determine if commercial items suitable to meet the agency's needs are available or could be modified to meet the agency's requirements; and Determine the commercial practices of company's engaged in providing the needed service or supply. Pursuant to FAR Part 6 and FAR Part 19, competition and set-aside decisions may be based on the results of this market research, including 38 U.S. Code § 8127 requirements for Veteran owned Small Business set asides. This notice in no way obligates the Government to any further action. Requirement: This notice is issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Strategic Acquisition Center Frederick, MD (SAC-F) to identify sources capable of providing the following: Medical Disability Examinations under Public Law 104-275 [See Attached Draft Performance Work Statement (PWS) for details of the proposed requirements] Anticipated NAICS Code/Size Standard: The applicable NAICS Code is 621111, Offices of Physicians (except Mental Health Specialists) and the small business size standard is $12.0 million. Contents of RFI MDE International PWS V5c Attachments A-Z and AA, AB, AC, AD Attachments A and AC are zip files and should be requested via email to the POC below. Submission of Information: This will be a two-phased RFI process: Capability Statements: Interested companies having capabilities necessary to meet or exceed the stated requirements in the Draft MDE International PWS, and all associated attachments, are encouraged to provide information to contribute to this market survey/Sources Sought Notice including commercial market information and company information following format and due date listed below. Demonstrate Information Technology (IT) Network: Companies possessing a current IT System to support similar claims processing as required in the Draft PWS are also encourage to demonstrate their capability of interfacing with various Government systems in order to process incoming examination scheduling requests and to transmit examination results and other data back into the Government s systems. This demonstration will be conducted virtually. Interested companies shall respond to this Sources Sought Notice via e-mail to AMMSACFVBAContractSupport@va.gov, Jennifer.Benisek@va.gov and Vincent.Bender@va.gov no later than May 14, 2021 by 12PM EST with the following information and/or documentation. Demonstration of IT Network will be scheduled upon review of RFI responses: Offeror s Business Questions: Provide a brief corporate profile of your company. Information in this profile should include: Organization name; DUNS number; Organization's website; Contact Name; Contact Telephone; Contact E-mail address. Business Size (Large, Small, SDVOSB/VOSB, etc.) NAICS code is 621111, if believed a better NAICS code is suitable please indicate which one and why. Provide a list of the GSA Schedules/Contract Numbers held; to include, contracts held with private industry, contract types, dollar value, a description of the provided services, etc. The MDE Program Office will require Contractors to meet VA system requirements and connect to VA s VBMS and Exam Management system through DAS. This is a critical capability to support rapid solutions deployment to provide expedited examination results for faster benefits delivery to Veterans. The VA will develop specific, focused requirements for a pre-award test for evaluation purposes. Would you participate in a Pre-Award (Post RFP) exercise that would require you to connect to a VA test environment to demonstrate your system functionality and validate compliance with interface requirements (Attachments A, AA, AB, AC, AD, D, and Z). With this Pre-Award exercise, VA's expectation is to reduce the time to complete system build out post-award by approximately half the time. Will you be able to accomplish having the system fully operational with complete Authority to Operate (ATO) ready documentation within 60-90 days of award. Draft PWS Questions: Do you feel the objectives, tasking, and incentive structure are clearly defined in the draft documentation provided? Are the goals attainable? Please see section 3.1 of the PWS and provide feedback. How will you validate clinician credentials in foreign locations? The draft PWS references a new process in section 1.3.3 for veterans living outside the covered countries. Please provide feedback regarding the new approach. What information needs to be added, changed and/or reworded within the draft documentation provided to support the acquisition? What key questions do you need to see answered in a future RFP before you decide to respond to the solicitation? And, why would these key questions be relevant to any future RFP? In what format and what kind of supporting documents would be most helpful to include as exhibits in a future RFP? Which types of resources would be required to support this task and which of these resources would you consider Key? How should the Department of Veterans Affairs account for future program growth and an increase in the number of exams in the PWS? The Department of Veterans Affairs has included a production performance standard. Can you explain your success performing in this type of environment? How would you begin to complete exams scheduling requests during the ramp up period? Please describe how you would provide increased capacity based on unexpected surges of inventory. Provide an estimate of the ramp-up period necessary (i.e. 90-180 days) necessary to bring performance to full capacity. This includes establishing all IT interfaces with VA systems necessary to transmit exam data between vendor and VA in addition to background checks. Offeror s Solution Questions: How many providers are currently in your overseas Provider Network to date? How many patient encounters has your company managed in the past 2 years? Has your company currently or in the recent past 5 years provided similar services, to include, but not limited to: Development of an overseas Provider Network Maintaining an overseas Provider Network Developing a system and system interface to a customer s system based on Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPDs) and technical specifications to manage examinations/examination status Achieving an ATO for your system through VA or other major customer (e.g., DoD, etc.) The date in which you last received an ATO decision. Training providers for specialty examinations and instructions and maintaining training records to include being responsive to changes that must be implemented quickly. Managing and monitoring currency of national and international provider licensing (e.g., National Provider Identifier (NPI), State) Performing quality assurance on examinations to ensure they are accurate, and complete Providing executive-level reports and briefings Providing detailed/technical reports and briefings Providing processes being utilized to efficiently operationalize all contract requirements. If so, please provide details on the nature of the services provided including, at a minimum, length of time; the name(s) of the organization(s); specific contractor citation and your role (prime vs/ sub). If the role was a sub-contractor, please provide your area(s) of responsibility on the contract. What percentage of the capabilities, expertise and execution are resident in the contractor's organization? What percentage of the capabilities, expertise and execution would require the aid of a subcontractor? Please note in PWS section 8.1 there is a requirement that more than 45% of subcontractors among primes is considered substantial. Please speak to all levels of subcontractors. Describe your experience and approach in responding to legal decisions, policy changes, legislative changes and directives resulting in business process and functionality changes. Describe assumptions that you are having to make that might present challenges to your service delivery. How you will overcome these challenges? How will you maintain continuation of services in the event of natural disasters and pandemics? What do you foresee as the biggest risks/obstacles/challenges in performing the tasks outlined in the PWS? Describe your VBA business acumen. What areas within VBA does your company have business knowledge in? Do you have any experience/understanding of the disability examination and claims process? Describe your Department of Defense, Coast Guard, and or Public Health Service business acumen and your experience with working with uniformed service members and veterans. Currently, the contracts calls for a 30 day standard. What ideas do you have to make the medical examination process more efficient? Service members are often relocated PCS/TDY prior to and during the examination process, please speak to your network scheduling capabilities that address this specific issue. The Separation Health Assessment (SHA) has an in-person examination requirement. Please describe your familiarity with the SHA exam. Describe how you would ensure the quality of exams for our Veterans? How are you confirming the accuracy of examination reports prior to the release to government? Describe how you will use feedback from the government quality assurance process to improve accuracy of examination reports. There are areas that VBA serves that are very remote in nature. How would you handle scheduling and examining Veterans that reside in these very rural areas? If you are required to have a provider in all regions, how will you target and ensure rural areas get coverage? For instance, there are fairly disperse populations outside of major cities and military installations. How do you plan to implement Public Law 116-315 in foreign locations? Are there any barriers to implementing this Public Law in foreign locations? What ability do you have to conduct telehealth and Acceptable Clinical Evidence (ACE) exams? How would you apply that capability? Are there specific geographical areas that you would use telehealth/ACE more? Please limit your submission to a maximum of 35 pages for this Sources Sought Notice. beta.SAM.gov: Interested parties should register in the System for Award Management (SAM) website. The website can be obtained by accessing the internet at www.sam.gov. Disclaimer and Important Notes: This Sources Sought Notice is for market research purposes only and does not constitute a Request for Proposal/Quotation; and, it is not considered to be a commitment by the Government to award a contract nor will the Government pay for any information provided; no basis for claim against the Government shall arise as a result from a response to this Sources Sought Notice or Government use of any information provided. Failure to submit information in sufficient detail may result in considering a company as not a viable source and may influence competition and set-aside decisions. Regardless of the information obtained from this Sources Sought Notice, the Government reserves the right to consider any contracting arrangement as deemed appropriated for this requirement. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response to this Sources Sought Notice. The Government reserves the right to use any information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate, including using technical information provided by respondents in any resultant solicitation. At this time no solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of the Solicitation. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation notice and solicitation may be published on Contract Opportunities (https://beta.sam.gov/) website. It is the potential offeror's responsibility to monitor Contract Opportunities for release of any future solicitation that may result from this Sources Sought Notice. However, responses to this Sources Sought Notice will not be considered adequate responses to any resultant solicitation. See attached document: Draft Performance Work Statement and associated attachments.
- Web Link
-
SAM.gov Permalink
(https://beta.sam.gov/opp/22ab4b2bb16146bbb0e0501fa1e48a72/view)
- Record
- SN05988960-F 20210502/210430230114 (samdaily.us)
- Source
-
SAM.gov Link to This Notice
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