SOURCES SOUGHT
R -- Representative Payee Expanded Monitoring Program
- Notice Date
- 1/16/2015
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541690
— Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- Social Security AdministrationOffice of Acquisition and Grants1540 Robert M. Ball Building6401 Security BlvdBaltimoreMD21235
- ZIP Code
- 21235
- Solicitation Number
- SSA-RFI-15-0034
- Response Due
- 2/2/2015
- Archive Date
- 3/4/2015
- Point of Contact
- BRENDA MONCH
- E-Mail Address
-
BRENDA.MONCH@SSA.GOV
(BRENDA.MONCH@SSA.GOV)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- *ATTENTION: This is a Request for Information/Sources Sought Notice. It is not a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations and in no way obligates the Government to award a contract. Request for Information ? Representative Payee Site Reviews Comprehensive Program Support The Social Security Administration (SSA) is performing market research to identify potential sources that have the availability and capability to provide planning, oversight, monitoring, and execution of the Representative Payee Expanded Monitoring Program. Your responses to the information requested will assist SSA in planning the appropriate acquisition strategy. Purpose: The Social Security Administration (SSA) is exploring the possibility of a single vendor to provide all centralized administration and act as the principal provider in a major effort to enhance and consolidate the Representative Payee Monitoring program. Background: Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments provide an important lifeline for millions of elderly and disabled Americans, survivors of deceased workers, and millions of young children. From the early days of our programs, Congress recognized that not all beneficiaries are able to manage their benefits. Therefore, in 1939, Congress granted SSA the authority to appoint representative payees (payee) to receive and manage benefits or payments on behalf of those beneficiaries or recipients. For more information on the Representative Payee Program, visit http://www.socialsecurity.gov/payee/index.htm. We presume all legally competent adult beneficiaries or recipients are capable of managing or directing someone else to manage, the benefits or payments to which he or she is entitled. We prohibit the direct payment of benefits or payments to legally incompetent adult beneficiaries or recipients and to children under age 15. If we determine an adult beneficiary or recipient is not capable of managing or directing someone else to manage his or her benefits or payments, we select a representative payee for him or her. Once we appoint a representative payee, we monitor and assess the performance of a payee. We look for indications that the payee is not performing his or her duties adequately. Often when we discover that a payee is performing poorly, we can help the payee correct the poor performance by re-educating the payee about his or her duties and responsibilities, including the need to keep adequate financial records. If appropriate, we will remove a poorly performing representative payee. With the exception of certain state mental institutions, all representative payees are required to submit an annual report accounting for the use of beneficiary or recipient funds. We review these reports and investigate those payees who provide questionable responses. In addition to the annual accounting process, we monitor representative payees? fiduciary performance through an on-site review process. Some of these reviews are required by statute, and others are discretionary. We conduct these reviews to determine whether payees are performing their payee duties and responsibilities satisfactorily, and complying with our rules. The reviews include examination of financial records and supporting documentation. Scope of Potential Requirement: The contractor would conduct and report their findings of the representative payee reviews. The contractor would be required to conduct and report on more reviews incrementally, for the first three years of the contract. The following outlines SSA?s anticipated implementation plan for the contractor, regarding the number of representative payee reviews to be conducted and reported on throughout the first three years of the contract: Year 1 (Base) ? 1,000 Organizational Payees & 400 Individual Payees (1,400 total ) Year 2 (Option Year 1) ? 2,000 Organization Payees & 1,000 Individual Payees (3,000 total) Year 3 (Option Year 2) ? 2,600 Organizational Payees, 1,270 Individual Payees, 780 Fee for Service (FFS) Payees, 50 State Mental Hospitals, 300 Quick Response Reviews (5,000 total) The contractor would be responsible for providing the following services and be responsible for the following duties during a representative payee review: ? Interview the payee about how they handle the beneficiary or recipients funds, how they determine a beneficiary or recipient?s needs, and any services they provide; ? Review the payees banking procedures (including accounting system and bank account titling), financial records, and documentation of how they managed the sampled beneficiaries or recipients Social Security payments; ? Conduct home visits for all beneficiaries or recipients selected for review as determined by SSA. For all other beneficiaries or recipients, conduct home visits for all beneficiaries or recipients selected in the review sample; ? Interview the sample of beneficiaries to confirm information provided by the payee, verify large or unusual purchases noted during the financial review, ask if the payee is meeting his or her needs, and if there are any problems with the payee; ? Refer suspected cases of abuse or neglect, health or safety, housing, or wage related issues to the appropriate agencies. The contractor must provide us with the date of the referral, the name of the referral agency, contact information for the agency, and any referral or allegation number, if provided by the agency; and ? If the beneficiaries are in immediate danger, the contractor will contact the appropriate authorities and SSA immediately. The contractor would also be responsible for the following: ? Train payees on recordkeeping practices and money management when the payee has recordkeeping problems; ? Send a closeout letter to the payee when the review has no deficiencies and provide a copy of the closeout letter to SSA; ? Conduct follow-up activities to ensure deficiencies, such as minor recordkeeping or bank account titling issues have been corrected; ? Notify us about issues that affect program eligibility or payment amount; ? Send a final report to us documenting the results of the review, resolved deficiencies, third-party referrals, and deficiencies requiring our action; and ? If the contractor discovers potential misuse, the contractor will notify SSA and we will determine if the contractor should conduct a review of all beneficiary or recipients served by the payee during the suspected misuse period. The contractor would also be responsible for reporting, tracking, and data collection: ? SSA would require the contractor to develop, manage, and maintain a secure web-based data collection system to collect and track the representative payee reviews; and/or ? Have the ability to deliver encrypted electronic copies of the database and data collected as needed to SSA. Vendor Information and Capability: We issue this RFI solely for information and planning purposes and this notice is not to be construed as a commitment by SSA. We will not consider responses to this notice as offers and cannot accept responses to this RFI to form a binding contract. Vendors are solely responsible for all expenses associated with replying to the RFI. SSA will make no reimbursement for any costs associated with providing information submitted in reply. SSA will not consider submissions of simple marketing materials/brochures, incomplete responses that do not conform to the requested elements of this notice, or references to websites. We will not return any information submitted in response to this RFI or notify vendors of the specific results. We reserve the right to contact, or not contact, any party responding to this notice in order to obtain further information for market research purposes. Please provide the following information about your company: 1. Company Name 2. DUNS Number 3. Company Address 4. Company Point of Contact, title, phone and email address 5. Business Size (Large or Small) under: NAICS 541690 (size standard $14M (i.e., below $15M in gross revenue is considered small 6. Is your firm eligible to participate in one of the following small business programs? - Small Disadvantaged Women-owned small business concern - Veteran-owned small business concern - Service-disabled veteran-owned small business concern - HUBZone 7. Is your company registered in the Central Contract Registration (CCR)? 8. Are your services that are appropriate for this requirement available under your current GSA schedule? If so, identify the schedule number and the type of schedule (i.e., 70, MOBIS, AIMS). 9. Given the preceding potential project scope, please provide a capability statement that provides enough detail to indicate that you can provide the services that meet the requirements identified above and addresses the following issues. As mentioned above, your responses to the following requests may help in forming a potential solicitation: a. To what extent is your firm (with or without subcontractors) capable of conducting all of the requirements as outlined in this RFI? b. Describe the specific areas of expertise that your company possesses relevant to this potential project scope. c. Briefly describe specific projects, if any, that your company has conducted in the past that were similar in scope to the potential project scope in this RFI. All responses must be submitted in an electronic form via email to Brenda Monch at brenda.monch@ssa.gov no later than 9:00 am EST February 2, 2015. Disclaimer: This notice is not to be construed as a commitment by SSA to award a contract. No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with your response. SSA will not return any information submitted in response to this notice. Information received will be used in SSA?s market research effort and for procurement planning purposes only. The Government reserves the right to contact, or not to contact, any party responding to this notice in order to obtain further information for market research purposes. Respondents are advised that SSA is under no obligation to provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted.
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