Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF OCTOBER 04, 2012 FBO #3967
DOCUMENT

D -- RAI/MDS Maintenance Only Requirement for FY13 - Attachment

Notice Date

10/2/2012
 

Notice Type

Attachment
 

NAICS

541519 — Other Computer Related Services
 

Contracting Office

Department of Veterans Affairs;Technology Acquisition Center;260 Industrial Way West;Eatontown NJ 07724
 

ZIP Code

07724
 

Solicitation Number

VA11812Q0585
 

Archive Date

11/30/2012
 

Point of Contact

Susan.Banasiask@va.gov
 

E-Mail Address

Contract Specialist
(susan.banasiak@va.gov)
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Award Number

NNG07DA20B
 

Award Date

10/1/2012
 

Description

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY 1. Contracting Activity:Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Acquisition Operations Technology Acquisition Center 260 Industrial Way West Eatontown, NJ 07724 2. Description of Action: The proposed sole source action is for a one year firm-fixed price (FFP) Delivery Order issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) IV Government-wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for maintenance, technical support, enhancements, and regulatory updates of the Accu-Care Clinical Software version 6.3, which provides a Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) of nursing home patients. 3. Description of Supplies or Services: The proposed action is to provide maintenance, technical support, enhancements and regulatory updates of the Accu-Care Clinical Software version 6.3. The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) of 1987 required the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to designate a Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) of nursing home patients that includes a Minimum Data Set (MDS). CMS published final regulations requiring facilities to encode and transmit MDS data to the State on December 23, 1997. In May 1995, VHA Under Secretary for Health approved VHA's Long Term Care Policy Plan, Information Letter (IL 10-95-024), and tasked the Office of Geriatrics and Extended Care with national VA implementation and automation of the RAI/MDS, VA's response to the legislation which included the mandate for a standardized assessment of each nursing home patient. In 1999, VA procured a commercial RAI/MDS patient assessment instrument, Accu-Care, utilizing the Procurement of Computer Hardware and Software (PCHS) contract vehicle. Accu-Care is still the RAI/MDS assessment tool used within VA and has progressed through a number of updates, the current version used being Accu-Care Version 6.3. All data entered in the assessment is transmitted to the Austin Information Technology Center. From that information, data performance measures for the Community Living Centers (CLCs), cost, and quality reports are developed by the Decision Support Service (DSS). The Spinal Cord Injury and Diseases (SCI/D) Department uses the data to determine the acuity for all spinal cord residents in the CLC. Additionally, the Allocation Resource Center (ARC) uses the data to quantify the appropriate fiscal allocations that should be sent to the 23 VISNs each year based in part on CLC workload. Finally, the interdisciplinary staffs use the information to form individualized treatment plans that are then used to provide guidelines for providing care to all residents in the 134 CLCs. The contractor will provide 24 hour technical support via the company's toll free number. The contractor will also provide all regulatory updates as well as a method for requesting VA specific enhancements. 4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting an exception to fair opportunity is Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B) entitled, "Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized". 5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: VA has utilized the Accu-Care software for over a decade, and it is the system which is utilized VA-wide to meet the requirement for a RAI/MDS. Although VA is currently developing a requirement for a competitive procurement of a new RAI/MDS tool, the contract for the new system will not be awarded before the expiration of the current maintenance contract necessary for the Accu-Care licenses to be valid. In order to meet the requirement for RAI/MDS while the competitive effort is finalized, the current Accu-Care maintenance must be renewed so that the software can be utilized until the follow-on competitive effort is awarded. The maintenance requires knowledge of Accu-Care's proprietary software specifications and therefore VA's requirement for Accu-Care maintenance can only be met with Accu-Care's proprietary maintenance contract available through authorized resellers of Accu-Care's products. The current maintenance contract expires on Sept. 30, 2012, at which time the perpetual software licenses will not be valid, leading to a loss of the RAI/MDS tool for the CLCs which will not allow them to meet the Congressional Mandate for all CLC's to have a RAI/MDS software suite. Without this software the CLCs would no longer have a standardized assessment, VHA would lose its ability to compare its nursing home data with non-federal nursing homes, and VA Central Office (VACO) would lose valuable data which is instrumental in the development of performance measures. 6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this document. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet VA's requirements. Furthermore, in accordance with FAR 5.301 and 16.505(b)(2), this action will be synopsized at time of award on the Federal Business Opportunities Page (FBO) and the justification will be made publicly available. 7. Actions to Increase Competition: This action is necessary to ensure VA retains maintenance coverage, required for the current Accu-Care software licenses to remain valid, while VA develops a competitive solicitation for a new RAI/MDS tool to be awarded in Fiscal Year 13. 8. Market Research: Market research was conducted between September 2011 and June 2012 by the Government's subject matter expert by reviewing similar software maintenance products, specifically PointClickCare, Lintech, ADL Data Systems, HealthMEDX, Senior Care Software, Hi-Tech Software Solutions, and American HealthTech. Based on reviews of these products, the Government's technical experts determined that no other maintenance service can maintain the Accu-Care software suites, due to the proprietary technical data necessary for maintenance of the system. Additionally, in August 2012, the OEM, Accu-Med, was consulted and verified that it does not have any authorized resellers of its software. However, Accu-Med has partnered with Immix Technology through the NASA SEWP vehicle to be the sole Government provider of Accu-Care software suites. 9. Other Facts: N/A
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/9ddca6b617103a9370879e89f287cad9)
 

Document(s)

Attachment
 

File Name: NNG07DA20B VA118-13-F-0002 NNG07DA20B VA118-13-F-0002_1.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=490524&FileName=NNG07DA20B-023.docx)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=490524&FileName=NNG07DA20B-023.docx

 

Note: If links are broken, refer to Point of Contact above or contact the FBO Help Desk at 877-472-3779.
 

Record

SN02907028-W 20121004/121002235220-9ddca6b617103a9370879e89f287cad9 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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