SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE ( SSN ) 36C10G-19-Q-0129 Clearinghouse to Support Health Care Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) THIS IS A SSN ONLY to identify sources that can provide the required services to meet the needs as identified herein. Please see FAR 5.201(c), FAR 19.501(c), and FAR subpart 7.3 for general information. This amends the previously posted SSN as noted below. Interested sources shall indicate that they are capable of providing the required services and must provide: (1) Full name and address of the firm; (2) DUNs number; (3) Size status (i.e., large business, small business, 8(a), HUBZone, service disabled veteran owned small business (SDVOSB)); (4) Self-verification of firm status, e.g., SB or SDVOSB, et cet.; (5) Gross dollars in Federal Contracts for FY2017 and 2018 regardless if cash accounting or accrual accounting method of accounting is used; and, (6) A complete and current copy of the firm s SAMS record, See www.sam.gov No other information is required at this time. DO NOT SUBMIT A PROPOSAL, BROCHURES OR ANY ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AT THIS TIME. The information provided in this SSN is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. This SSN is issued solely for information and planning purposes it does not constitute a Request for Quote ( RFQ ) or a promise to issue an RFQ in the future. The U.S. Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this SSN; all costs associated with responding to this SSN will be solely at the interested party s expense. If a solicitation is released, a decision will be made to issue the same competitively or sole sourced and whether or not there will be any set-asides. All responses are due no later than September 4, 2019, (Wednesday) by 5 PM EST. Vendors shall send their submissions to both individuals identified below by email only: Mark Blevins at
contact@example.gov Contracting Officer, Procurement Division 7-C And James Modlin at
contact@example.gov Contract Specialist, Procurement Division 7-C Strategic Acquisition Center (SAC) Office of Procurement, Acquisition and Logistics (OPAL) U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) 10300 Spotsylvania Ave, Suite 400 Fredericksburg, VA 22408 Description: North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 518210 for Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services Background Information: During FY2014, a contract was awarded, VA741-14-D-0039 and another in FY2017, VA259-17-D-0190, and as these contracts expire shortly, one (1) replacement contract is sought. Succinctly, VA259-17-D-0190 acquired services related to receiving paper claims and/or paper medical documentation from community health care providers, in a single location, converting these documents to the appropriate HIPAA-compliant EDI transactions and sending these documents to VA s contracted clearinghouse as EDI transactions. Succinctly, VA741-14-D-0039 provided clearinghouse services to The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Community Care (OCC), as a proponent of administrative simplification. OCC acquired services from a health care clearinghouse (HCCH) contractor to support all of its current electronic transactions across the United States and territories and to assist in continuing its mission to implement electronic transactions, to include the creation of various reports. The above two (2) contracts should be accessible in the public domain. This contracting activity will not respond to requests to provide these documents at this time. Based upon historic data and current market research, the below is a summary of major factors guiding this procurement: Clearing House services are a common commercial service; Based on historical data, OCC anticipates an annual EDI transaction volume of approximately 124 million transactions; Paper claims are becoming less prevalent (less than 3%) although a very small share of claims will continue to be paper which require conversion to an electronic format for processing; Paper medical documentation has started to transition to electronic 275 transactions and the paper medical documentation will continue to decrease as utilization of electronic 275 transactions increases; Having a single contractor to perform the services identified in the two current contracts shall provide significant savings to the taxpayers and facilitate internal VA processes; Because of Computer Assisted Coding (CAC) and Artificial Intelligence ( AI ), the pricing for these services may not trend upwards from prior contract actions but either stagnate or decrease; The Contractor shall provide full and complete implementation within 150 days of award to ensure virtually no disruption of EDI services between OCC and its trading partners; The contractor must be a fully Accredited Healthcare Network by the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC) at the time of proposal submission and maintain accreditation for the duration of the contract; The contractor must be certified by the Council for Affordable and Quality Healthcare (CAQH) at the time of award and maintain certification for the duration of the contract at phase IV (at a minimum). Phase V was implemented April 2019. Firms may be required to possess Phase V certification. All written deliverables shall be phrased in layperson language. Statistical and other technical terminology shall not be used without providing a glossary of terms. In addition to the above required items (1-6) and reviewing factors 1-10, the VA is also seeking a short narrative from the industry base regarding how to best describe the anticipatory work statement. That is, a Performance Work Statement ( PWS ), a Statement of Work ( SOW ), or a Statement of Objectives ( SOO ). Because Clearing House Services are widely used throughout the US medical services industry, to what level of detail does a particular vendor require relative to a work statement? Further, because the VA mimics the standard industry processes and procedures relative to clearinghouse practices, to what extent is there a divergence between private sector versus public sector proposals for clearing house services (excluding the need to interface with VA systems which is understood to take up to 150 days). This short narrative is sought so that the anticipatory solicitation can be streamlined, and all unnecessary information removed as the current industry base operates already at an accepted baseline level. Questions: Questions regarding this SSN shall only be submitted in writing by e-mail to
contact@example.gov and
contact@example.gov. Telephone calls will NOT be accepted. In the discretion of the Contracting Officer, questions may or may not be responded to.
