SOURCES SOUGHT
70 -- Enhancements for Beneficiary Travel Software Package - Major Initative #15
- Notice Date
- 1/21/2011
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 511210
— Software Publishers
- Contracting Office
- Department of Veterans Affairs;Center for Acquisition Innovation-Austin;1701 Directors Blvd;Suite 600;Austin TX 78744
- ZIP Code
- 78744
- Solicitation Number
- VA798A11RI0050
- Response Due
- 2/4/2011
- Archive Date
- 2/19/2011
- Point of Contact
- Christie Honeycutt, Contracting Officer
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Description: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Beneficiary Travel (BT) Software Package, a component of Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA). The BT Package is authorized by law and is codified in Title 38 USC § 111. Currently, the BT Package does not provide stakeholders with timely information nor does it adequately support VA's patient needs. The requested features, capabilities, and enhancements will deploy new functionality in a defined series of iterations to better assist the field in meeting the intent of the law and regulation. Introduction: THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION. In accordance with FAR Part 10, Market Research, and as part of VA's market research process, this is a request for information (RFI) to assist us in developing an acquisition strategy for changes to the Beneficiary Travel Package. This RFI is for information and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation on the part of the VA. The purpose of this RFI is to identify qualified sources able to meet VA requirements, to assist in planning possible future technical requirements, to determine the appropriate acquisition strategy, and to understand commercial pricing practices and other market information readily available. Telephone inquiries and responses will not be accepted at this time since there is no further information available. This announcement is based upon the best information available and is subject to future modification. VA will not be responsible for any costs incurred by responding to this RFI. Background: Included in the 'Requirements' section below are the changes to the Beneficiary Travel Package that are being requested by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Chief Business Office. The features, capabilities, and enhancements identified and described below are consolidated to meet regulatory changes of Public Law 111-163, The Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010, which was signed into law by the President on May 5, 2010, as well enhancements to provide more accurate and less burdensome delivery of beneficiary travel benefit services to Veterans, better meet the reporting needs of the VA Central Office and field, and Congress, and reduces potential fraud, waste and abuse. Public Law 111-163, Section 305(f) requires VA to revise the VHA BT Package to accept allowance changes for travel based on mileage paid under Section 111(a) of Title 38, United States Code, which may exceed the cost of such travel by public transportation regardless of medical necessity. The BT enhancements will support the Under Secretary for Health, VHA Handbook 1601B.05, Beneficiary Travel, subparagraph 9a(1)(a), that is now revised to read: "Notwithstanding the regulations in Title 38 Code of Federal Regulations Part 70, an allowance for travel based on mileage may exceed the cost of such travel by public transportation regardless of medical necessity." VHA is comprised of 21 Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISN) that are each responsible for managing health care activities within their geographic area that can include six to ten medical facilities and a number of supporting outpatient facilities. Details can be found at http://www.va.gov/directory/guide/division_flsh.asp?dnum=1. VA medical centers (VAMCs) (within a VISN) work together to provide efficient, accessible health care to Veterans in their areas. With 163 VAMCs nationwide, VHA manages one of the largest health care systems in the United States. The Beneficiary Travel Package of VistA provides the ability to perform the functions involved in issuing beneficiary travel pay. Travel reimbursement is provided to specified categories of eligible veterans. It is also provided to non-employee attendants who are eligible for such reimbursement. These attendants will be issued travel pay under the veteran's name. Payment for travel by special mode (ambulance, handicapped van, etc.) may be authorized if medically necessary and approved before travel begins, except in cases of medical emergency where delay would be hazardous to life or health. For certain claims, the system will compute the amount payable from factors such as account type, parameter set-up of deductible amount per visit and per month, one-way or round-trip mileage, and applied costs. Features: "Automatically computes the amount payable for claims with an account type of Compensation and Pension. "Allows each site to define and edit site-specific beneficiary travel parameters. "Produces a variety of statistical reports for a specified date range. "Provides the ability to reprint the standard pre-formatted beneficiary travel form for cash reimbursement. VistA is built on a client-server architecture, which ties together workstations and personal computers with graphical user interfaces at Veterans Health Administration facilities, as well as software developed by local medical facility staff. VistA also includes the links that allow commercial off-the-shelf software and products to be used with existing and future technologies. Requirements: VHA seeks enhancement to the Beneficiary Travel (BT) Package that is deployed nationwide. The purpose is to improve the efficiency of certain business processes in its hospitals and clinics. The goals for BT enhancements are make the program more efficient and mitigate risk for detecting improper payments and implementing electronic authorization and payment. Implement the following modifications and enhancements to the Beneficiary Travel software package: 1.Beneficiary Travel Enhancement Needs - Iteration 1 The following are examples of the type of functionality enhancements required: a.Incorporate a We-based application Dashboard that displays patient appointments, notes, orders, consults, and past claims. b.Calculate the driving mileage from the patient's address to a configured set of institutions. c.Automatically synchronize with travel claims as they are created in VistA using the BT claim menu. d.Provide an audit tool in the BT Dashboard to identify potential fraud, waste, and abuse. e.Develop an accounting method for Special Transportation Authorization and Special Transportation Vendor Billing. f.Provide local and national-level reporting and information sharing through an enterprise database with a common interface and reporting tool. g.Provide hard-coded and ad-hoc report and query capabilities. 2.Beneficiary Travel Enhancement Needs - Iteration 2 The following are examples of the type of functionality enhancements required: (This functionality builds upon the functionality in Iteration 1) a.Enhance determination of eligibility for BT deductible for regular (non- Compensation and Pension) visits to correctly take into account deductibles withheld at any VAMC during that calendar month rather than only at that particular facility. b.Allow capture of deductible waiver fields and sharing of the fields/information with Electronic Service Record and to other sites of record, similar to Means Test (MT) hardship sharing. c.Authorized BT waivers should expire when the MT expires (or at the end of the calendar year in which it was granted). d.Change financial amount used to determine a Veteran's eligibility for beneficiary travel to Total Household Income less Allowable Deductible Expenses. e.Deductible waiver should automatically be set in VistA for Veterans who report income below the appropriate pension threshold. f.Automatically compute and ensure those Veterans meeting administrative criteria are noted as BT eligible and share the BT eligibility with all facilities where the veteran has received care. g.Enhance VistA to automatically complete/update the Veteran's beneficiary travel income certification when a MT or Rx copay test is completed/updated. h.Automatically trigger and send changes to income/eligibility/address made in the VistA registration package to the BT package. Automatically process and update Veteran information in the BT package with information received from the VistA Registration Package. i.Allow former Prisoner's of War and those Service Connected > 50% to complete a BT income screen. j.Automatically generate a denial of benefits statement and include the Veteran's due process rights. k.Add prompt to VistA for healthcare provider, "Does Veteran meet clinical criteria for Aid & Attendance or Housebound?". l.Implement a new threshold (Pension + Aid & Attendance) and allow for annual updates - on VistA and Enrollment System. m.Automatically determine eligibility for BT for Pension Veterans by using applicable Pension or Pension + Aid & Attendance rates. n.Changes to automated VA Form 70-3542d, Voucher for Cash Reimbursement of Beneficiary Travel Expenses - Reflect deductible changes: track number of trips (one way or round trip) and deductibles taken. o.Display BT indictor to reflect Veteran "BT Eligible for:" ALL or Service Connected only conditions and BT valid thru date, if applicable. p.System should allow for entry of current year test for MT hardship and BT waivers. q.Allow user to retrieve a specific income year in VistA when calculating BT travel benefits for entering a claim for a previous year. r.BT package should automatically electronically send vouchers for payment to Fiscal for processing, if the Veteran is not going to receive their BT pay at the time the BT request is processed. s.Add new field to the BT claim information screen to account for Bus Pass. For the purpose of this RFI, "enterprise" is defined as deployment within one or more VISNs. Solutions to be considered shall include: application software and all necessary hardware (servers). Information Requested from Industry: VA requests interested parties provide information for the following areas: 1.Past Experience - Provide the following information on a maximum of three similar projects completed within the last three years for which the responder was a prime or subcontractor. a.The name, address, and value of each project. b.The prime contract type: firm fixed-price, cost reimbursement, or time and material. c.The name, telephone, and address of the owner of each project. d.A description of each project, including difficulties and successes. e.Your company's role and services provided for each project. 2.Capabilities/Qualifications - Description of the capabilities/qualifications/skills your company possess to perform the work. 3.Teaming Arrangements - Description of Teaming Partners, Joint Ventures that your company would consider to perform the work. 4.Commercial availability - a.Description of the length of time your product/solution has been commercially available or, if necessary to modify your commercial product/solution, what is the impact to the commercial price, availability and magnitude of modification. b.Provide information on the component(s) that might make up the overall solution. Include information on application compatibility, including application architecture (i.e. commercial off the shelf), applicable technical standards that and operating systems; client architecture (such as Web-based or client/server). c.Discuss the functionality in the product(s) to support integration with the VistA systems. Please include the level of detail of integration at the transaction level; discuss additional requirements. d.Describe the capabilities of the optimal solution and identify what can be achieved "out of the box" and the level of customization, including the means that will be employed to retrieve and analyze data, to extract, transform and load data, and to manage the data dictionary. 5.Socio-Economic Status - Indicate whether your company, subcontractors, teaming partners, joint ventures have a Federal Socio-Economic status, e.g., Small Business, Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, Veteran Owned Small Business, Woman-Owned Small Business, Disadvantaged Small Business, and Hub Zone. If Service-Disabled or Veteran Owned Small Business, is your company and or partners registered in VA's VetBiz repository? 6.Price information - Provide your commercial price history and rough order of magnitude for the same or similar products/solutions. Pricing should be broken out by Iteration 1 and Iteration 2. 7.Period of Performance - Provide your timeline and level of effort (labor categories, labor hours) for Iteration 1 and Iteration 2. 8.Other Market Information - Provide any other relative information; however this information must be included within the 10 page limitation noted in the specific response instructions below. SPECIFIC RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS: Please submit your response to this RFI in accordance with the following: 1) "White" paper format with no more than 10 pages (excluding transmittal page), include the name, email address and phone number of the appropriate representative of your company; 2) Address each of the topics described above; 3) Submit your response via email to christie.honeycutt@va.gov ; 4) Please submit your response by 5:00 P.M. Eastern Time on February 4, 2011; and 5) Mark your response as "Proprietary Information" if the information is considered business sensitive. ROAD AHEAD: Responses submitted by interested firms will be used as part of market research by VA representatives to assist in planning possible future technical requirements and developing a possible acquisition strategy, should this announcement lead to an actual procurement. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Any contract that might be awarded based on information received or derived from this RFI will be the outcome of the competitive process. This announcement is based upon the best information available, is subject to future modification, is not a request for proposal, and in no way commits the Government to award of a contract. VA will not be responsible for any costs incurred by responding to this RFI.
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