JA for MDM-EDL Bridge Extension 06032024_GE1.pdf

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

Acquisition Title: Master Data Management (MDM) and Enterprise Data Lake (EDL) Support

Services Agency: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Acquisition Year: 2024 Author: Jeremy Garvin, Contracting Officer

1. Description of Action:

A. Nature ☐ New Requirement ☐ Follow-On Order ☒ Modification of Existing Purchase Order / Contract Number

B. Order Against HHSM-500-2017-00042I Multiple Award IDIQ Contract SPARC

C. Contract Type ☒ Firm-Fixed Price ☐ Time and Materials ☐ Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF)

☐ Term ☐ Completion

☐ Cost Plus Award Fee (CPAF) ☐ Other:

D. Projected Cost / Price of contract (Base & All Options): $36,317,978.18 E. The total estimated value of the proposed sole source action (for modifications only):

$5,619,884.45 F. Funding Source (s):0511: Prog OPS, 8393 Medicaid, 8393 Medicare, 0522: Admin.

G. Basis for Approval (Far 6.303-1(d))

☒ Individual Basis

☐ Class Basis

On February 27, 2018, CMS issued a task order using fair opportunity procedures for severable professional services to operate, maintain and iterate on CMS’ Enterprise Master Data Management (MDM) system, including support to establish and maintain the CMS Enterprise Data Lake (EDL) system. The awardee was Next Phase Solutions and Services, Inc. (NP). The term included a 12-month base period followed by four, consecutive, one-year option periods. The last option period included a transition-out task to be performed in the final four months. The contract number is HHSM-500-2017-00042I/75FCMC18F0001. CMS issued the order under the Strategic Partners Acquisition Readiness Contact (SPARC), a multiple-award Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract.

The period of performance (POP) was as follows:

Base Period- February 28, 2018- February 27, 2019 Option Period I- February 28, 2019- February 27, 2020 Option Period II- February 28, 2020- February 27, 2021 Option Period III- February 28, 2021- February 27, 2022 Option Period IV- February 28, 2022- February 27, 2023

On December 21, 2022, CMS subsequently issued a follow-on task order for Enterprise Master Data Management (MDM) and Enterprise Data Lake (EDL) Services to Sparksoft Corporation. That order was awarded using Fair Opportunity under GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS). The order included a period of performance from January 9, 2023 through January 8, 2028. On January 18, 2023, GAO notified CMS of a protest to the award that was filed on January 17, 2023. On January 19, 2023, CMS issued a stop work order to Sparksoft under the follow-on order.

As the MDM/EDL effort required a four-month transition of services consisting of concurrent performance of work by the outgoing and incoming contractors, CMS determined that a bridge contract would be needed to cover the transition out period and any additional time needed to resolve the protest. The Justification and Approval (J&A) for that action was approved on February 17, 2023 and CMS awarded the bridge contract on February 27, 2023. The period of performance of the “bridge” task order was February 28, 2023 through October 27, 2023, which included a transition out period to begin on June 28, 2023 through October 27, 2023.

CMS modified the bridge contract in June 2023 to add time necessary for investigation of a possible procurement integrity act violation and completion of the corrective action resulting from the resolution of the protest of the follow-on order. Authority for that action was granted under another J&A which CMS approved on June 28, 2023. The period of performance of the modified “bridge” task order was February 28, 2023 through February 27, 2024. Four (4) months of steady state (June 28, 2023 through October 27, 2023) were added and the transition out period was shifted to October 28, 2023 through February 27, 2024.

CMS completed its investigation and corrective action on September 28, 2023 and re-affirmed award to Sparksoft Corporation. On September 28, 2023, CMS issued Next Phase Solutions and Services (Next Phase) a modification exercising CLIN 0004- Transition Out under the original MDM/EDL support services task order. Next Phase subsequently submitted a protest on October 4, 2023, to the United States General Accountability Office. On October 4, 2023, CMS issued a stop work order to Sparksoft. On October 5, 2023, CMS issued a TDL to Next Phase directing Next Phase to immediately stop transition activities under CLIN 0004 and resume working to maintain the status quo in terms of MDM/EDL support under CLIN 0007 until further notification.

CMS completed corrective action on May 23, 2024 and re-affirmed award to Sparksoft Corporation. Next Phase subsequently submitted a protest on June 4, 2024, to the United States General Accountability Office.

MDM requires a four-month transition of services from the incumbent contractor to the awardee, which requires concurrent performance by the outgoing and incoming contractors under their respective contracts.

This work cannot begin until the GAO protest is resolved, which CMS expects to be no later than September 11, 2024. In addition, MDM requires O&M requirements to be ongoing until the transition activities can begin.

The current task order’s O&M CLIN ends on August 27, 2024 which is before the GAO decision date.

Therefore, CMS contemplates a modification to the bridge contract to allow time for resolution of the protest, and allow for continuation of O&M and completing the transition out task. With this modification, CMS will extend the bridge by six (6) months from August 28, 2024, through February 28, 2025. Transition out would need to be re-priced and added to the contract.

2. Description of Supplies or Services:

CMS requires six (6) additional months of severable, professional services to continue the MDM and EDL work. MDM provides shared services to many CMS programs to provide the capability needed to manage, move, present, manipulate, and analyze core CMS data assets. EDL is a centralized, managed, and secure location where systems and individual users can find, locate, access, and use CMS enterprise information, including leveraging program data sets with close to zero provisioning time with their choice of tools and technologies optimal for their use case.

The task order included FAR 52-217-8 Option to Extend Services. The modification to the existing bridge contract is a continuation of the MDM/EDL services covered in the originally awarded bridge contract and previous modification. The additional 6 months of professional services will allow the MDM/EDL work to continue as CMS resolves the ongoing protest.

The APP for this follow-on modification is # 241218.

3. Authority and Rationale:

The Contracting Officer shall give every awardee a fair opportunity to be considered for a delivery/task order exceeding $3,500 unless one of the following statutory exceptions applies. FAR 16.505(b)(2). Mark the applicable exception:

☐ The agency need for the supplies or services is so urgent that providing a fair opportunity would result in unacceptable delays [FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(A)];

☐ Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized [FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B)];

☒ The order must be issued on a sole-source basis in the interest of economy and efficiency because it is a logical follow-on to an order already issued under the contract, provided that all awardees were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original order [FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C)]; or

Rather than award a new task order using fair opportunity, it is more economical and efficient to award a modification to Next Phase for the continuation of O&M and completion of transition-out services. It would not be economical because any other source would require transition before they were capable of performing the needed work at an acceptable level of quality and productivity, which investment would be wasted if another transition to a different contractor became necessary as a result of the protest’s resolution. Additionally, the competitive procurement would require about 105 days from release of the solicitation to award (based on current CMS procurement lead time standards), which would create an unacceptable gap in contract performance. As mentioned previously, CMS competitively awarded the existing task order providing a fair opportunity to all eligible SPARC awardees. It is not reasonable to believe that any potential source other than the incumbent would be selected as the awardee in any fair opportunity/competitive acquisition given the additional cost, time and performance risk associated with such a source selection.

☐ It is necessary to place the order to satisfy a minimum guarantee [FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(D)].

☐ A statute expressly authorizes or requires that the purchase be made from a specified source. [FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(E)].

4. Provide a statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the exception to fair opportunity before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made:

None, because CMS already removed barriers for fair opportunity and competed the procurement for the required services. However, due to protest-caused delays, CMS needs to procure additional services to continue the work and complete the transition out.

5. State any other facts supporting the justification:

The extension of the sole source task order will greatly benefit CMS by allowing continuation of the MDM and EDL services and completion of the transition out task. This will allow MDM and EDL services until the new contractor is on-boarded and avoids major disruptions to CMS business and technical staff to focus on transition activities. This task order will also mitigate the risk for premature loss of essential Next Phase technical staff resources and expertise during this period.

Approvals:

1. Program Office Certification. This is to certify that portions of this justification have been developed by the undersigned program office personnel, including supporting information and/or data verifying the Government’s minimum needs, schedule requirements and other rationale for Exceptions to Fair Opportunity, which form the basis for this justification.

Contracting Officer Representative (COR) / Date

Program/Project Manager (P/PM) / Date

2. Contracting Officer Certification and Best Value Determination:

This is to certify that the justification for the proposed acquisition has been reviewed and that to the best of my knowledge and belief, the information and/or data provided to support the rationale and recommendation for approval, is accurate and complete.

By my signature below, after review of the relevant documents, I have determined that the order subject to this Justification represents the best value for the Government as set forth in FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(B)(5), and constitutes a fair and reasonable price. The basis for my determination is as follows:

The total estimated firm fixed price amount of $5,619,884.45 for the six (6) month period was determined by using the actual prices paid against recent monthly invoices submitted by Next Phase under the current Master Data Management task order. The total estimated cost for this sole source task order fall in line with historical costs incurred for the same effort. As certified cost or pricing data will be required for this sole source acquisition, the Contracting Officer and Contract Specialist will use cost analysis to evaluate the reasonableness of individual cost elements as required by FAR 15.404-1(a)(3). The Contracting Officer and Contract Specialist will also use price analysis to verify that the overall price offered is fair and reasonable.

Contracting Officer / Date

3. CMS Competition Advocate Approval I have reviewed this Exception to Fair Opportunity and find that it adequately supports other than full and open competition.

Name / Date

4. Head of Contracting Activity (HCA) Approval I hereby confirm that the circumstances described above apply and approve this Justification for Exception to Fair Opportunity.

_N/A_________________________________________________ HCA Name / Date

5. Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization

N/A___________________________________________________

6. OGC Legal Review

7. HHS Competition Advocate Approval

8. Senior Procurement Executive (SPE) Approval Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby confirm the circumstances described above apply and approve the Justification for Exceptions to Fair Opportunity.

N/A_________________________________________________ SPE Name / Date

N/A_________________________________________________