Behavioral Intervention Weight Loss

Disclaimer and Important Notes: This is a Request for Information (RFI) from interested vendors and is issued solely for informational and planning purposes. This is not a Request for Proposals or a Request for Quotations, and it is not considered to be a commitment by the Government to award a contract/order nor is the Government responsible for any costs incurred in furnishing information provided under this RFI. No basis for claim against the Government shall arise as a result from a response to this RFI or Government use of any information provided. Further, the Coast Guard is not seeking proposals and will not accept unsolicited proposals at this time. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response to this RFI. 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. Responses will assist the Government in determining the availability of potential solutions and commercial products in the market. At this time, no solicitation exists; therefore, Do Not Request a Copy of the Solicitation. Requirement: Based on the 2015 DoD Health Related Behaviors (HRB) Survey, 67.8 % of Active Duty (AD) Coast Guard members were overweight or obese according to Body Mass Index measurements. Although not published, the 2018 HRB data shows a similar trend of 66% of AD members and 67% of Reservists as overweight or obese. Due to a variety of factors, including the current pandemic, Coast Guard members have become increasingly overweight and obese. Although our frequency and duration of exercise has increased, so has our waistlines. Many Americans choose to eat high caloric foods with limited nutritional value. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recently released an updated clinical preventive service recommendation: Weight Loss to Prevent Obesity-Related Morbidity and Mortality in Adults: Behavioral Interventions. It recommends that - clinicians offer or refer adults with a BMI of 30 or higher to intensive, multicomponent behavioral interventions that help people make healthy eating choices, encourage increased physical activity, and help people monitor their own weight. The durability of any behavioral interventions requires systemic sustainment through timely and effective interventions. Coast Guard members have a Maximum Allowable Weight (MAW) standard based upon a BMI of 27.5 (a value deemed overweight by CDC). Therefore members may choose to gain insight into their relationship with food and better weight management before breaching a BMI of 30. The purpose of the RFI is to seek the availability of Contractors that can provide such multicomponent, evidence based behavioral modification service that has a positive influence on physical activity, weight management, and beneficial food choices for United States Coast Guard (CG) active duty service members and all Selected Reservists, hereafter called - members. Services shall be easily accessible, flexible, innovative, interactive, and include confidential, toll free, telephonic and virtual behavioral modification that specializes in weight management coaching and supportive services. The service provider shall assist the service member implementing effective behaviorally based methodologies that leverage electronic, mobile, and telehealth resources to provide education, assess participants relevant diet and weight information, physical activity, along with providing support, as well as, timely positive reinforcement. The service provider shall ensure that services are, at a minimum, available via mobile platform to allow for maximum accessibility to members. Contractor services will provide screening and assessment of readiness to change; personalized coaching and advice; supportive materials; nutrition coaching, and lifestyle behavior change planning. Contractor will assist the CG with data collection and reporting to determine the success of the program. The selected tool must provide monthly and quarterly reports that assess a member's weight, exercise, nutrition, sleep patterns and responsiveness to behavioral queues. The Contractor shall use their database in order to provide demographic and service delivery data to assist the CG in the evaluation of the behavioral intervention program. The CG needs accurately tabulated demographic, service delivery, referral, client satisfaction and caller characteristic dated. The database must also record and maintain weight maintenance data at monthly intervals. Management outcomes, client satisfaction, and other data elements determined in evaluation plan for all weight management intervention program must be included in the capabilities draft. Behavioral intervention with a goal of weight loss is based on the concept that people have learned unhealthy behaviors, such as poor diet habits and inactivity, which play a role in weight gain. Contractor provided interventions must focus on changing these behaviors in the areas of: Improve diet and increase physical activity Set realistic goals Self-monitor with tools like pedometers, food diaries and scales Identify weight-loss challenges Develop problem-solving techniques to overcome those challenges Control or eliminate the factors that trigger unhealthy eating or problematic behaviors Build strategies to maintain your weight loss over time The Government will have unlimited right to the use, replication, and distribution of all toll-free telephonic and web site documentation, protocols, scripts, programming and any and all other features, procedures processes and all data collected, developed and derived as a result of the contract. The Contractor shall have a Medical Director, Registered Dietician or other medical personnel providing oversight to contractor intake, and coaching staff should possess certain levels of experience. A medical Director or Other Medical Personnel should possess a minimum of three years of experiences in treating overweight and obesity. All medical personnel responsible for providing training coaching staff have a health care related degree which demonstrates intensive training with specific training in nutrition and weight management (physicians and physician assistant, or licensed nurse practitioner). A Registered Dietician providing oversight to coaching staff must be licensed by an accredited institution and should possess a minimum of two years experience. Submission of Information: Interested parties are encouraged to submit an RFI response which supports the company's claim that it presently has the technology, qualifications, experience, and capabilities to satisfy the requirements. Specifically, interested parties are requested to provide the following information: Name of Company, DUNS number and CAGE Code number Point of contact - name, phone number and e-mail address Size of Business according to North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code 812191. A positive statement of your company's interest in this procurement as a prime contractor. An overview of the company's capability in providing multicomponent, evidence based weight management and behavioral modification services for United States Coast Guard (CG) active duty service members. Provide the company's capability/experience protecting Personal Identifiable Information. Provide the company's capability/experience interfacing with Government's systems. RFI responses must be no longer than 10 pages in length. Submit your response(s) electronically to Heather A. Weaver at Heather.A.Weaver@uscg.mil and to Clenton A. Shanks at Clenton.a.shanks@uscg.mil. Total combined file sizes cannot be more than 10MB total per e-mail. Zip files shall not be submitted. RFI responses are due January 23, 2020 at 12:00PM, Eastern. Upon receiving RFI responses, the Coast Guard will assess all feedback and its impact on the development of the final acquisition strategy to meet the Government's requirements.