Attachment B_12-233-SOL-00090_0001_Q A.pdf

(x)

12-233-SOL-00090

x x copies of the amendment; (b) By acknowledging receipt of this amendment on each copy of the offer submitted; or (c) By separate letter or telegram which includes a reference to the solicitation and amendment numbers. FAILURE OF YOUR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BE RECEIVED AT

THE PLACE DESIGNATED FOR THE RECEIPT OF OFFERS PRIOR TO THE HOUR AND DATE SPECIFIED MAY RESULT IN REJECTION OF YOUR OFFER. If by virtue of this amendment you desire to change an offer already submitted, such change may be made by telegram or letter, provided each telegram or letter makes reference to the solicitation and this amendment, and is received prior to the opening hour and date specified.

x

DAM

Rockville MD 20857 5600 Fishers Lane Parklawn Bldg., Room 5C-18

DHHS/PSC/SAS/DAM

DAM

Rockville MD 20857 5600 Fishers Lane Parklawn Building, Room 5C-18

DHHS/PSC/SAS/DAM

01/12/2012000001

13. THIS ITEM ONLY APPLIES TO MODIFICATION OF CONTRACTS/ORDERS. IT MODIFIES THE CONTRACT/ORDER NO. AS DESCRIBED IN ITEM 14.

12. ACCOUNTING AND APPROPRIATION DATA (If required) is not extended.is extended, Items 8 and 15, and returning

Offers must acknowledge receipt of this amendment prior to the hour and date specified in the solicitation or as amended, by one of the following methods: (a) By completing

The above numbered solicitation is amended as set forth in Item 14. The hour and date specified for receipt of Offers

11. THIS ITEM ONLY APPLIES TO AMENDMENTS OF SOLICITATIONS

FACILITY CODE CODE

10B. DATED (SEE ITEM 13)

10A. MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT/ORDER NO.

9B. DATED (SEE ITEM 11)

9A. AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION NO.

CODE

8. NAME AND ADDRESS OF CONTRACTOR (No., street, county, State and ZIP Code)

7. ADMINISTERED BY (If other than Item 6)CODE 6. ISSUED BY

PAGE OF PAGES

4. REQUISITION/PURCHASE REQ. NO.3. EFFECTIVE DATE2. AMENDMENT/MODIFICATION NO. 5. PROJECT NO. (If applicable)

1. CONTRACT ID CODE

AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION/MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT

12/29/2011

CHECK ONE A. THIS CHANGE ORDER IS ISSUED PURSUANT TO: (Specify authority) THE CHANGES SET FORTH IN ITEM 14 ARE MADE IN THE CONTRACT

B. THE ABOVE NUMBERED CONTRACT/ORDER IS MODIFIED TO REFLECT THE ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES (such as changes in paying office, C. THIS SUPPLEMENTAL AGREEMENT IS ENTERED INTO PURSUANT TO AUTHORITY OF:

D. OTHER (Specify type of modification and authority) appropriation date, etc.) SET FORTH IN ITEM 14, PURSUANT TO THE AUTHORITY OF FAR 43.103(b).

E. IMPORTANT: Contractor is not, is required to sign this document and return __________________ copies to the issuing office.

ORDER NO. IN ITEM 10A.

14. DESCRIPTION OF AMENDMENT/MODIFICATION (Organized by UCF section headings, including solicitation/contract subject matter where feasible.)

The purpose of this amendment is to provide answers to questions in response to RFQ

#12-233SOL-00090 and to make the following changes:

1) To provide the Past Performance Survey as a word document. Refer to document labeled, Attachment A - Past Performance Survey;

2) Provide answers to Contractor questions in response to RFQ #12-233-SOL-00090. Answers are hereby attached, refer to Attachment B_12-233-SOL-00090_0001_Q&A;

3) Revise Page 4 of the Solicitation package and replace with the attached document labeled, Attachment C_12-233-SOL-00090_0001_Page 4_Revised.PDF;

Continued ...

16A. NAME AND TITLE OF CONTRACTING OFFICER (Type or print)15A. NAME AND TITLE OF SIGNER (Type or print)

15C. DATE SIGNED 16B. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 15B. CONTRACTOR/OFFEROR 16C. DATE SIGNED

(Signature of person authorized to sign) (Signature of Contracting Officer)

DAWN T. GRESHAM

STANDARD FORM 30 (REV. 10-83)

Prescribed by GSA

FAR (48 CFR) 53.243

NSN 7540-01-152-8070

Previous edition unusable

Except as provided herein, all terms and conditions of the document referenced in Item 9A or 10A, as heretofore changed, remains unchanged and in full force and effect.

ITEM NO. SUPPLIES/SERVICES QUANTITY UNIT UNIT PRICE AMOUNT

NAME OF OFFEROR OR CONTRACTOR

2 8

CONTINUATION SHEET

REFERENCE NO. OF DOCUMENT BEING CONTINUED PAGE OF

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) (F)

12-233-SOL-00090/000001

4) The RFP closing date is hereby changed to January 17, 2012 by 12:00PM ET;

5) To clarify that the Offeror's proposals must be submitted via email to

Wendy.Cruz@psc.hhs.gov on January 17, 2012 by 12:00PM ET.

All other terms and conditions remain unchanged.

NSN 7540-01-152-8067 OPTIONAL FORM 336 (4-86)

Sponsored by GSA

FAR (48 CFR) 53.110

Solicitation #: 12‐233‐SOL‐00090 Health Data Modeling and Simulation Software as a Service Amendment #001

HEALTH DATA MODELING AND SIMULATION SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE

SOLICITATION # 12‐233‐SOL‐00090

AMENDMENT #001

1. Can you provide a word version attachment 1, the past performance questionnaire? This will make it easier to distribute to customers for them to sign and email back.

Answer: Yes. Word document attached.

2. Will you consider extending the due date an additional week as this is a very complicated and difficult RFP?

Answer: The RFP has been extended to January 17, 2012 by 12PM ET in consideration of the Federal Holiday on January 16, 2012.

3. Reference: “C.6 USER INTERFACE REQUIREMENTS: The tool shall have a user friendly interface for the users to run their own healthcare simulations using a comprehensive web interface with intuitive editors for setting up multi‐scenario studies.” Can you provide a list of healthcare simulations as examples of the type, size, resolution and scope of the simulations and related data that is expected to be loaded onto the SaaS platform with an easy GUI access?

Answer: Behavioral health care simulations, safety study analyses, disease and case management registries, are some examples. Offerors should describe the capabilities of existing systems to accommodate uses of large datasets.

4. Are the data sources and studies meta‐tagged in PDF documents or free text?

Answer: In some cases, these are data tables, but for the most part, these are free text entries.

5. The figure on Page 7 states “Service as a Software”; we should assume that this is really intended to state “Software as a Service”, correct? In line with this diagram, is the entire project everything that is in the gray‐shaded area under “Software as a Service”?

Answer: Yes, this was a typographical error and should be software as a service. Yes, all features of the grey box are SaaS. See section C.2 Purpose which discusses the services to be provided.

6. How soon and how often will Task Orders be issued on this contract?

Answer: That is determined by the timing of the acquisition of the system platform. Familiarity with existing services and capabilities of the system platform is required before task orders are submitted.

We would anticipate that one month would be the earliest and several months are likely before projects are submitted for task orders.

7. Will the consulting hours for “subtask requirements requested by users” in Para. C.4(5) be T&M?

Answer: These may be requested as Firm Fixed Price, T&M or Labor hour.

8. I’d like to participate on the following RFP, however we don’t have our small business documentation in order. Is there any other way to participate at the moment?

Answer: All respondents, including small businesses should have their documentation in order at the time of their submission.

9. Can you clarify if the RFS should be submitted electronically or via the mail system?

Answer: Submissions should be emailed to Wendy.Cruz@psc.hhs.gov .

10. Are there existing tools in place that HHS has been using? If yes, please provide a description of the software used in developing and supporting these tools.

Answer: Not for this particular type of management and program support.

11. Would these tools be migrated to the resulting SaaS environment awarded under this RFP?

Answer: It is feasible that existing tools could be integrated into the SaaS system platform environment where there is customized applications to be performed.

12. What databases are required by HHS to be available in the modeling and simulation software?

Answer: Offerors should include in their proposal a complete description of the data resources included in the existing modeling and simulation system platform.

13. Is there an incumbent contractor for this effort? If so, could you please provide the contractor name and the contract number that was awarded?

Answer: There is no incumbent.

14. To what degree does this effort leverage existing databases, models, tools, data resources already owned by the HHS/PFC?

Answer: Extensive uses of existing databases and data resources that are developed by HHS. It is anticipated that the offeror already have these incorporated into the system platform.

15. NASA has developed a similar health care data modeling tool which addresses many of the same capabilities desired by HHS/PFC. Would HHS consider NASA’s core model a potentially acceptable approach to developing the health care model for PFC?

Answer: Proposals to be considered must meet all of the requirements as described in the scope of work.

16. What existing HHS data sources are expected to be integrated in the development of this model?

Answer: Proposals are to include system platforms that are completed and fully functional and include HHS data. Task orders for customization and modification of the system platform are likely to include HHS datasets or other datasets as specified by the requirements for each task order.

17. What portion of clinical capabilities requires medical literature research and data formation (when existing HHS data sources are unavailable)?

Answer: The clinical features included in the system platform should be derived from medical literature and documented in the supporting materials.

18. Who are the expected users (e.g. general public, government employees, contractors, clinicians, clinical researchers, epidemiologists, and research and technology portfolio investment managers)?

Answer: Government employees, contractors, scientists, program analysts, and other forms of government project managers.

19. A conceptual model is foundational to this kind of modeling and simulation effort, and is required to identify all data sources and influential factors. Is the time required to develop a conceptual model build into the research, development, validation, and transition to operations timeline?

Answer: This acquisition is not intended for the purpose of building a system platform for modeling and simulation. This acquisition is intended for the use of existing data modeling and simulation systems.

20. Every model is designed to answer a specific question, or set of specific questions. Can you give some examples of what questions this model expected to help answer?

Answer: An example of a question may be:

A program is evaluating the effectiveness of a combined medical management approach to a segment (based on certain physiologic characteristics) of a patient population with a chronic disease. A question is proposed to evaluate possible impact of various outcome measures by various combinations of the interventions. The platform system would enable simulation of the various interventions and projections of possible outcomes from them.

21. Will this model be used for decision support? If yes, what types of specific decisions will it aid?

Answer: There may be circumstances for policy and planning efforts that the modeling and simulation uses are implemented for this purpose. It is not intended that clinical care provisions using decision support in the context of electronic health information technologies will be encompassed in this scope of work.

22. C.4.7 – “Search Strategy” ‐ Instead of establishing inclusion criteria that reflect a notion of good and bad data sources, would the customer consider a Quality of Evidence and Level of Evidence (QOE/LOE) scoring criteria for all abstracts/literature used as the basis of the model? The QOE/LOE convention can be used to identify gaps in knowledge, and help establish funding priorities and reduce uncertainty in health care outcomes. Also, a QOE/LOE convention will help meet C.5.4 requirement?

Answer: Offerors can make their own determinations of the methods that they propose to establish the inclusion criteria. Offerors are encouraged to provide detailed information about their search strategy to facilitate understanding about the value of the criteria that they have developed for this purpose.

With regard to meeting, C.5.4, the information source may be useful if the module provides information that describes the means by which the sensitivity can be reflected in the simulation.

23. C4.8. – Are the questions and comments from the users intended to help verify and validate the content of the tool/model? What governing body will evaluate the questions and comments as valid when received from the user community?

Answer: No. The vendor is responsible for addressing the questions pertaining to the verification and validation processes.

24. C.5.2 – What defines “legitimate” data?

Answer: In this solicitation, “legitimate” data implies datasets that reflect or are drawn from published studies as to representing population conditions. This is to distinguish use of randomly assigned variables with no reference to known patient populations.

25. C.5.3. – What defines “instant” input?

Answer: “Instant” in the context referred to here refers to a period of time that is short (seconds to minutes) that encompasses the time from upload to the point in time when it can be computed.

26. C.5.10 – In the absence of a specified validation process, would the HHS/PFC consider acceptable the validation approach and processes described in NASA STD 7009 Standards for Models and Simulations?

Answer: Offerors are encouraged to make their case for the reproducibility and assurance of accuracy of the system platform performance using whatever policies or programs that they may choose.

27. C.5.10 – Once the model is validated, what governing body owns the process for managing model configuration as new comments and data are incorporated?

Answer: The offeror is expected to propose its own means by which modifications are addressed in the operating procedures, and provide notification to the user community.

28. C.9.4 – Personnel – Why are only three positions listed (Project manager, Programmer, and Analyst) for a modeling effort of this scope? Is there a more complete list of SLC’s available?

Answer: The expectation is that the offeror will be submitting proposals for existing software as a service platforms and not creating a new system. Personnel descriptions are used for work to modify systems to enable customized modifications of the platform for a specific project.

29. B.2/ B2.2 ‐ Contract Pricing ‐ What does the Government mean by “Labor Hour” Pricing ‐ is this meant to be Cost‐Plus with all of the associated builds required for Cost‐Plus pricing?

Answer: No. A labor‐hour contract is a variation of the time‐and‐materials contract, differing only in that materials are not supplied by the contractor. Refer to response to Question 30.

30. L.8.10. Will the Government provide clarification on what pricing data is required to complete Section B? Is there a sample Task Order that was unintentionally omitted from the solicitation to facilitate pricing?

Answer: For FFP task orders, the Contractor shall identify all applicable costs upon which the proposed price is based.

In the case of a Time and Materials or Labor Hour Task Order, the offeror must specify fixed hourly rates in its offer that include wages, overhead, general and administrative expenses, and profit. The offeror must specify whether the fixed hourly rate for each labor category applies to labor performed by—

(1) The offeror;

(2) Subcontractors; and/or

(3) Divisions, subsidiaries, or affiliates of the offeror under a common control.

Please refer to the revised language and requested information found on Attachment A- Revised page 4 of the solicitation.

31. L.8.10 How would the Government prefer to see Cost‐Plus (aka Labor‐Hour?) build rate pools? How will the Government accommodate subcontract rate pool confidentiality?

Answer: A cost‐reimbursement type contract is not being considered. Refer to response to Question 30 for further information.

32. L.8.10 Does the Government intend to provide level of effort estimates for the Section C tasks to facilitate pricing (e.g., difficult to price training when it is unclear how many users are expected to require training)?

Answer: No. The Offeror is encouraged to revisit the Solicitation and to use the assumptions provided in terms of the number of potential users and hours. Additional guidance has been provided in Attachment A.

33. L.8.10 Is it up to the Contractor to propose a pricing approach (Firm Fixed, T&M, Cost‐Plus) for each of the tasks (and price accordingly) or does the Government intend to provide direction for the preferred pricing approach for each task?

Answer: This will be determined by the Government at the Task Order level. A Firm Fixed Price, Time and Materials or Labor hour contract type may be requested according to the specifics of each Task Order.

34. L.8.10 If the Contractor is pricing each task for the sum of all work under that task, what is the intent of the IDIQ vehicle approach? Are these four tasks considered to be the first four task orders in the broader IDIQ vehicle?

Answer: The purpose of the IDIQ vehicle is to support acquisition of a systems platform to enable modeling and simulation. Additional deliverables include training and education on its use. Additional tasks are added to support customized applications or modifications to suit user needs, as they arise.

No, these are not considered to be the first four task orders. Task orders are principally used to support the customization of the systems platform.