134555 - Vendor Response - Instrumental Activities of Daily Living -IADL- Support Services and In-Home Evaluations~1.docx

Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) Support Services and In-Home Evaluations

Response Document Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) Support Services and In-Home Evaluations Commonwealth of Massachusetts MassAbility

This form must be completed according to the instructions presented on each page. Bidders are obliged to respond to each of the requirements within this form and certify via signature that the vendor organization will perform the service(s) as described. Bidders must submit a completed version of this Response Document in addition to all other required forms, as detailed in the Bidder’s Checklist and RFR.

Bidder Name

Vendor Contact Person

Bidder Address

Vendor Email Address

Vendor Code

Vendor Phone Number

Vendor Signatory Name

Vendor Signatory Email

Place an X in the appropriate box indicating service/s you are bidding to provide by Region:

Ex: Coaching

Ex: Pre-Engagement

Ex: College Navigation

Certification

I certify that the statements made in this proposal are true and complete to the best of my knowledge. Any misstatement of fact may lead to disqualification and dismissal and to such other penalties as may be prescribed by law or regulations. All statements made are subject to verification as a condition of qualification as a vendor. By signing this statement, I hereby give permission for the release of any and all information necessary to verify staff qualifications.

Electronic Signature of Authorized Agency Representative

Date

Requirement 1: Organizational Experience and Capacity

Describe the organization's experience, qualifications, operational readiness, and current and projected capacity to provide the proposed services. Address experience serving people with disabilities, geographic coverage, ability to serve rural or hard-to-staff areas, experience administering public contracts, organizational infrastructure, fiscal and administrative capacity, and readiness to accept referrals under this RFR.

Requirement 2: Staff Knowledge, Skill, and Experience

Describe the qualifications, education, licenses, credentials, experience, screening, orientation, training, supervision, retention strategies, and professional development of staff who will deliver or oversee the proposed services. Explain how the organization will address vacancies, staffing changes, coverage needs, and continuity of services.

Requirement 3: Participant Engagement and Empowerment

Describe how the organization will support participant voice, dignity, choice, privacy, independence, and involvement in service delivery. Address communication preferences, scheduling preferences, participant choice of Provider or worker when capacity and geography allow, reasonable accommodations, complaint response, and strategies for engaging participants who may experience barriers to consistent service participation.

Requirement 4: Partnering with MassAbility

Describe how the organization will communicate and collaborate with MassAbility case managers, program staff, contract managers, fiscal staff, and other designated contacts. Address referral management, response timeframes, escalation procedures, service updates, reporting workflows, use of MassAbility-designated systems, authorization controls, billing coordination, and participation in monitoring, audits, technical assistance, and corrective action.

Requirement 5: Quality Assurance and Continuous Quality Improvement

Describe the organization's quality-assurance and continuous quality-improvement framework. Address the data collected, frequency of review, responsible staff, participant feedback, documentation review, incident and complaint trends, root-cause analysis, corrective action, performance monitoring, and how findings are used to improve service quality, reliability, access, and participant experience.

Requirement 6: Cultural, Linguistic, and Disability-Responsive Capacity

Describe the organization's ability to provide culturally responsive, linguistically accessible, and disability-responsive services. Address staff language capacity, interpreter use, translated and accessible materials, communication supports, recruitment and retention strategies, staff training, understanding of disability-related access needs, and ability to serve diverse communities throughout the proposed geographic area.

Requirement 7A: Approach and Experience in Providing Household Support Services - 26% of the score This requirement applies only to Bidders seeking qualification to provide Household Support Services.

Describe the organization's experience and proposed approach to providing reliable, participant-centered Household Support Services in participants' homes. The response should address:

· Experience providing Household Support Services, homemaking services, or comparable in-home supports;

· Referral intake, acceptance, assignment, and service-start processes;

· Staffing model, recruitment, worker availability, supervision, retention, and backup coverage;

· Geographic coverage and strategies for serving areas with limited workforce capacity;

· Scheduling processes and consideration of participant preferences;

· Processes for ensuring that workers perform only authorized activities;

· Monitoring of authorized hours, delivered hours, missed visits, service gaps, and authorization balances;

· EVV or MassAbility-approved visit verification;

· Communication regarding cancellations, no-answer visits, participant concerns, and changes in need;

· Worker training, professional boundaries, participant funds, grocery purchasing, and incident reporting;

· Strategies for maintaining service continuity during worker absences, vacancies, or other interruptions; and

· One example demonstrating the organization's ability to provide reliable in-home services to a person with a disability.

Requirement 7B: Approach and Experience in Conducting In-Home Evaluations

This requirement applies only to Bidders seeking qualification to provide In-Home Evaluation Services. Bidders seeking this qualification must also respond to Requirements 1 through 6. Requirement 7B is an additional service-specific requirement and does not replace or reduce any of the common requirements.

Describe the organization's experience, qualifications, capacity, and proposed approach to conducting person-centered evaluations in participants' homes or other MassAbility-approved community settings. The response should address:

· Experience conducting in-home, functional, independent-living, activities-of-daily-living, instrumental-activities-of-daily-living, or comparable assessments;

· Populations and disability groups served;

· Approximate volume and geographic scope of comparable evaluations completed;

· Qualifications, licenses, credentials, training, and relevant experience of proposed evaluators;

· Methods used to assess functional abilities and limitations, household support needs, environmental barriers, natural and community supports, communication needs, participant preferences, and risks to community living;

· How evaluators incorporate participant voice while distinguishing participant-reported information, evaluator observations, and professional findings;

· Processes for scheduling evaluations, contacting participants, addressing cancellations or unsuccessful visits, and completing reports within required timeframes;

· Quality-review processes used to ensure that evaluation reports are complete, objective, internally consistent, clearly written, and useful for service planning;

· Geographic capacity, language access, communication access, and strategies for serving areas with limited evaluator availability;

· Experience using standardized assessment tools and MassAbility-required forms;

· Processes for protecting evaluator objectivity when the organization also provides other services; and

· One de-identified example from the past five years demonstrating how an in-home or comparable functional evaluation informed service planning or support decisions.

Requirement 8: Supplier Diversity Program (SDP)

(1) Describe how the current or planned operation of your organization will meet the cultural/linguistic needs of consumers including times when those needs are beyond the internal capacity of your team. Also describe how your organization has handled those situations in the past and how those experiences enhance your organization’s approach to cultural/linguistic diversity?

(2) Bidders are required to make a meaningful financial commitment (“SDP Commitment”) by partnering with one or more SDO-certified or recognized diverse business enterprise or non-profit organization, including a current fiscal-year commitment, and including prior year-spending information for any existing providers. It is also desirable that all Providers aim to direct at least 1% of their Commonwealth contract revenue toward spending with SDP Partners. The Provider’s percentage of spending with SDP Partner(s) for the prior fiscal year can be seen as “PERCENT (%) OF POS SPEND” on the completed “SDP Plan Form for POS” for that fiscal year.

a. SDP Plan Form for POS: https://www.mass.gov/doc/supplier-diversity-program-sdp-form-for-purchase-of-services-pos/download

Note:

(1) This will be scored separately, as part of the SDO Plan

(2) Bidders may identify vendors for SDO partnerships, using the SDO Directory