Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center Support Services Draft Performance Work Statement

Purpose: The Defense Health Agency (DHA), National Capital Region-Contracting Division (NCR-CD) is releasing a Request for Information (RFI) to obtain questions and/or comments on the draft Performance Work Statement (PWS) for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center (DVBIC) support services requirement. This is a RFI only; no contract will result from responses. This is not a Request for Proposal, an Invitation to Bid, or a Request for Quotation. Therefore, this RFI is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to enter into a contract, nor will the Government pay for information given to the Government in a response. Background: DVBIC is a congressionally mandated organization within the Research and Development Directorate (J-9) at DHA. DVBIC promotes access to state-of-the-science-care for service members, veterans and their families, to prevent and mitigate the consequences of traumatic brain injury (TBI). In 1991, Congress created DVBIC through the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). In 2007, the NDAA authorized DVBIC's 15-year research study, which is still in progress. The study examines the long term effects of Traumatic Brain Injury sustained during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and other populations as identified on service members, veterans and their caregivers. In 2012, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Department of Defense (DOD) and Department Health and Human Services (HHS) jointly developed the National Research Action Plan (NRAP) as a blueprint for enhancing the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), TBI and suicide. In 2014, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs named DVBIC as the manager of the TBI Pathway of Care for clinical, research education and training activities. DVBIC was founded in 1992, largely in response to the first Persian Gulf War, under the name Defense and Veterans Head Injury Program. At the time, its goal was to integrate specialized TBI care, research and education across military and veteran medical care systems. DVBIC now supports a network of 21 sites, operating out of 16 military treatment facilities and 5 VA medical centers. Specific activities vary at each site and can include conducting clinical research, providing clinical support and care to service members, assisting service members and veterans, and their families, locating support services, conducting education and outreach activities and assessing TBI injury data, while command and control exist with the DVBIC Headquarters (HQ) for continuity of services. Located at the DVBIC HQ, four divisions reflect its mission essential components; research, clinical affairs, education, and mission support. DVBIC works with the TBI Advisory Committee to define and disseminate proven practices, and to develop translation strategy and implementation guidelines. DVBIC HQ has visibility of all TBI clinical and translational research within, or funded by, the Military Health System. Under the current program, NCR-CD contracts for administrative/clerical occupations, certified labor categories as well as specialized/technical positions. These include (but are not limited to): Product Service Codes Q4 Q401 Nursing Services Q5 Q510 Medical Services/ Neurology Q527 Nuclear Medicine Q7 Q701 Specialized Medical Support Q702 Technical Medical Support R4 R408 Program Management/Support Services R410 Support- Professional; Program evaluation/review/development R426 Communication Services The NAICS code used for the current contract was 541990 (All Other Professional, Scientific and Technical Services). The Government is in the process of conducting market research for this requirement and is still deciding whether the requirement will be set-aside for small business. Information sought by DHA: The government is seeking questions and comments on the draft Performance Work Statement (PWS). Confidentiality: No proprietary, classified, confidential or sensitive information should be included in your response. Responses will be shared with DHA acquisition staff for the purpose of market research. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary information in any resultant solicitation(s). Notice: The DHA may have non-Government employees (i.e., contractor employees) assisting with market research and/or analysis. These non-Government employees have all signed non-disclosure agreements and may have access to industry responses. Their companies are contractually bound not to compete for these requirements should it result in contract award(s). Responses: The Government reserves the right to use results of the communications with industry for any purpose consistent with, and not otherwise prohibited by FAR Part 10. 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. After review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published on Federal Business Opportunities. However, in no case shall responses to this notice be considered a response to a solicitation or a submission of an unsolicited proposal, as defined by FAR 2.101. RFI responses that fail to address information sought will not be reviewed by the Government. Interested firms may forward their PWS questions and/or comments via email to the Government point of contact. All responses to this notice must be received no later than 12:59 PM EST, 03 January 2020. Telephone or facsimile inquiries are not acceptable in response to this notice. The Contract Specialists for this action are John A. Cowgill at John.A.Cowgill4.ctr@mail.mil and Stephen C. Tees at Stephen.C.Tees.civ@mail.mil. The Contracting Officer is David E. Johnson at David.E.Johnson3.civ@mail.mil. Responses should be no more than 12 pages total, double-spaced, 1 inch margins, minimum 11 point font size for text and 9 point size for tables and figures. Each response will be maintained by DHA as source of market research information and may be published on an internal SharePoint site. We greatly appreciate your time and look forward to learning from the submission.