R702--VHA Office of Finance/Managerial Cost Accounting Office Acquisition and Reporting of Workload Information from Community-Based Veteran Healthcare Encounters for Use in Managerial Cost Accounting and Health Informatics

This is a revised notice. The response due date is extended to June 19, 2021 at 1:00PM EST. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is issuing this RFI in accordance with FAR 15.201(e). This RFI is issued for the purpose of conducting capabilities and market research. Accordingly, this RFI constitutes neither a Request for Proposal (RFP) nor a guarantee that one will be issued by the Government in the future; furthermore, it does not commit the Government to contract for any services described herein. Do not submit a Proposal. The Department of Veterans Affairs is not at this time, seeking proposals or quotes and therefore will not accept, review, or evaluate unsolicited proposals or quotes received in response hereto. This notice is not to be construed as a commitment on the part of the Government to award a contract, nor does the Government intend to pay for any information submitted as a result of this request. The Government does not reimburse respondents for costs associated with submission of the information being requested or reimburse expenses incurred for responses to this RFI. The information provided may be used by VA in developing an acquisition strategy and Product Description (PD)/Performance Work Statement (PWS). Any information submitted by respondents to this RFI is strictly voluntary; however, any information received shall become the property of the Government and will not be returned to the respondent. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary, restricted or sensitive information contained in their response. This is a request for information only and does not obligate the Government in any way, nor does it commit the Government to a specific course of action. The Government is seeking as much information as possible and a complete response from industry to this RFI during this market research activity may assist the Government in developing an acquisition strategy and finalizing any PD/PWS. Background The Managerial Cost Accounting Office (MCAO), Veterans Health Administration Office of Finance, Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Department of Veterans Affairs, is responsible for the conduct of and information services generation from all activity-based cost accounting operations conducted at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The mission of MCAO is to ensure that VA MCA is conducted with the highest levels of completeness, accuracy and timeliness. To accomplish that mission, MCAO partners with other program offices to include the VHA Office of Community Care. To accomplish VA MCA, numerous data feeds must be processed into the Decision Support System (DSS) which is a Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) software package that has been highly modified to accommodate the significant volume of VA data feeds. DSS is hosted on a VA-owned and operated mainframe computer and produces updated cost information monthly. For VHA MCA, 14 financial data feeds and 35 workload data feeds are required for the activity-based costing of patient encounters provided at VA facilities (Medical Centers, Community Based Outpatient Clinics, Mobile Clinics, etc.). The financial data feeds are primarily provided from the VA s core financial system (FMS). Clinical workload data feeds are primarily provided from the Veterans Information Systems Technology Architecture (VistA), which is currently transitioning to the Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM). Currently, MCA cannot conduct full MCA on patient encounters provided by health care providers outside of VA facilities (Community Care). The financial data feeds required for MCA of Community Care are available (from FMS) and are entered into DSS, where they are classified as exempt cost and not passed along for use in costing patient encounters provided at VA facilities. However, outside of State Veterans Nursing Homes, there is no clinical workload data available for the full MCA of these encounters. Objective To assess the feasibility and cost of the acquisition and processing (by DSS) of clinical workload associated with Community Care patient encounters. This includes but may not be limited to: Identification of a means of acquiring clinical workload from Veteran healthcare encounters from Community Care providers Normalizing the clinical workload data, from the various EHR systems used by Community Care providers, for processing by DSS and use by VHA Program Offices and Health Informatics organizations Modifications (if any) to DSS to accept and process the new workload data feeds Determining the optimal means of entering Community Care workload into DSS. The most obvious choices are through the addition of MCAO staff or by the MCA Field Staff at each VA Medical Center Organizational changes (i.e., adding Full Time Equivalent Staff), and the associated timing, required to conduct and report on MCA of Community Care Integrating the process to annually adapt Community Care workload into the current processes used to adapt internal VHA workload. Annual updates are primarily performed to bring in new data requested by VHA Program Offices to provide a more complete accounting of patient encounters in their assigned specialty A Rough Order Magnitude (ROM) project plan to accomplish of the above activities A ROM full cost estimate, to include contractor, hardware, software and VA staff costs THERE IS NO SOLICITATION AT THIS TIME. If your organization has the potential capacity to perform these services through a contract with VA, please provide the following information: Cover Sheet 1 page Please provide the following information: 1. Organization name, address, web site, DUNS number, and CAGE code. 2. Point of contact to include e-mail address and telephone number. 3. Company s current business size (large or small). If small, please provide type of small business. 4. North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) that best fits these task areas. 5. If applicable, GSA contract number, schedule, and SIN category. Index 1 page Please provide an index to assist the Government in identifying where you have addressed each question below in your Capabilities Statement and Market Information. Please provide question number and corresponding page and section heading and/or paragraph number. Capabilities Statement and Market Information Please respond to the following questions by providing a capabilities statement and market information. The Department is seeking responses from industry regarding their respective experiences and capabilities applicable to the following key questions: Please describe your organization's breadth of expertise/competency and capability to provide the following products and services: Acquisition of Non-VA data sources Identification of the EHR systems used by private sector healthcare networks and individual providers Development of a means of acquiring (to include data transport, security checks and queueing) non-VA sourced data into the VA s IT Enterprise Architecture Normalizing of disparate data sources for use by multiple organizations within a Cabinet-level Department or large Federal agency. Adaptation of software packages operating on mainframe computers VA MCA data processing and reporting VA project planning VA cost estimation Describe common pricing structures for these products/services. Have you provided these products or services for a Federal department or agency previously, or are you doing so currently? If so, provide contract and task order numbers, total award amount, agency name, and procurement method and vehicle (e.g., open market single award, GSA Federal Supply Schedule, internal agency ordering contract, etc.). Are these products/services covered under your GSA schedule contract, and if so what Schedule(s) and SIN(s) are most appropriate for this type of service? Please provide any other feedback or suggestions that you deem appropriate. STRUCTURE AND SUBMISSION OF RESPONSES Contractors should respond to this Sources Sought with the information listed above no later than 1:00 PM Eastern Time on June 19, 2021. Responses shall be e-mailed to Allison.Lewis1@va.gov . Limit all responses to 10 pages.