36C10B18R2839-0001002.pdf

Whole Health Application

Request for Quote - 36C10B18R2839

Question and Answers

August 24, 2018

Note: The answers provided below are for informational purposes, to assist potential bidders in preparing quotes, and such answers do not themselves constitute an amendment to the Request for Quote (RFQ). Where questions and answers necessitated such an amendment, such changes have been or will be incorporated into a formal amendment to the RFQ. To the extent that any answers provided below conflict in any way with the RFQ and any Amendments, the final RFQ takes precedence.

Number Reference Questions Answers

1. None Will the customer accept a COTS eLearning solution hosted outside the

VA Enterprise?

The Government cannot advise on an

Offeror’s technical approach. The proposed application shall meet the requirements detailed in the PWS.

The intent is to utilize materials publicly available from VA or other sources.

2. None Will the COTS solution be limited to the VA suite of available tools or can a new toolset be introduced?

Proposed COTS solution is not limited to VA available tools;

however, the requirement states that the app should be built in a way to allow future integration with VA systems. As such, tools which prevent this future flexibility and VA approved connectivity should not be proposed.

3. Section E.9 When will the demo presentation be due? When is the Demo of the App expected to be completed?

What is the process for quoters to schedule the 30 min demo?

The Government will provide specific instructions regarding the

Whole Health Mobile Application

Demo including the date/time and meeting dial-in information within one week after the final proposal due date.

4. none What estimated percentage of the work will be authorized for offsite

(vendor facilities)?

Aside from the travel identified in

PWS paragraph 4.3, all work should be performed at Contractor facilities in accordance with PWS paragraph

4.2.

5. PWS 5.3 Are the Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Hosted Health Services (by Philips and other providers) acceptable?

Hosting services are not anticipated.

Per PWS Task 5.3, all of the user-generated information shall be stored locally on the user’s device.

6. PWS 4.1 Will the customer accept a 12 month development sprint instead of current specified 6 month development sprint for a full custom solution hosted within the VA enterprise and utilizes the VA’s FICAM solution for authentication services?

A full custom solution hosted within the VA enterprise and utilizing

FICAM is not required for this contract at this time. This is a timely distribution that needs to be released in six months to support the Whole

Health program.

7. none Is there is an incumbent contractor currently performing these services or if this is a new requirement. If there is an incumbent, could you please provide the contract number?

No, there is no incumbent.

8 none Can you please let us know if this is a new procurement?

Yes, this is a new procurement.

9. none Were there any contractors worked in the past or working currently on this matter?

No

10. none Was this requirement prepared by an outside firm?

No

11. none Would a solution that builds upon a platform that is distributed under a

GPL V3 license be acceptable?

As long as the terms and conditions of reuse and distribution defined under the General Public License

(GPL) V3 are maintained. Additionally, all updates on initial software must be included in the maintenance (not VA responsibility to track).

12. none Can the VA share user numbers and how the initiative scales over time? VA estimates on the number of users for the initial period of performance as well as the Option

Periods would be helpful in generating accurate pricing. Is there a facility/user rollout plan?

This app will be widely available but no formal rollout plan or project exists. As background, VA currently has 11,826,731 patients in the outpatient clinic roles with

26,558 unique patients already in

Complementary and Alternative

Medicine Areas which is a part of the

Whole Health program.

13. PWS 1.0 Can the VA clarify how the VA

Health Coaches intend to interact with

Veterans through the app?

The Coaches will not interact with the App directly. All information and interaction will be directly with the

Veteran/user. The Veteran may share the information with the Coach at their discretion through printed materials or discussion but will not exchange digital information via the

App.

14. none Is this app intended for veterans exclusively, or can their beneficiaries also create profiles and use the app as well?

This app will be publicly available for download and not limited exclusively to Veterans.

15. PWS 5.3 Under Section 5.3 WHOLE HEALTH

MOBILE APP REQUIREMENTS, in the second to last sentence of the second paragraph it states, “All of the user-generated information shall be stored locally on the user's device." Can the VA clarify this statement further? Is there expected to be some type of "local" storage device and if so what would it look like?

All information will be stored on the device running the application. There will be no separate storage area outside of the personal device.

16. Section E.9 Under E.9 QUOTE SUBMISSION

INSTRUCTIONS, it appears to indicate that the 15 page limit is strictly for the Technical Response and does not apply to any other part of the response. Is this correct?

Correct, Technical Response shall be limited to 15 pages.

17. Section E.9 Also Under E.9 QUOTE

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS, the only pieces it mentions are the (i)

TECHNICAL, (ii) PRICE FACTOR,

(iv) SOLICITATION QUOTE, AND

AWARD DOCUMENTS AND

CERTIFICATIONS/REPRESENTATI

ONS. There is no (iii), is this intentional? There is also no mention of a desire for information on the

Project Management Plan, O&M Plan, or Past Performance, Are these pieces to be included in (i), (ii), or (iv), in an addendum or are they to be left out?

“(iii)” was erroneously left out. There is no submission requirement for (iii).

Only (i) TECHNICAL, (ii) PRICE

FACTOR, (iv) SOLICITATION

QUOTE, AND AWARD

DOCUMENTS AND

CERTIFICATIONS/REPRESENTA

TIONS are required per Section E.9.

The O&M Plan and Project

Management Plan are deliverables upon award. They are not required as part of the quote submission.

There is no requirement to submit

Past Performance.

18. Section E.9 Should the contractor’s COTS software license be attached to the technical proposal or provided separately? Please confirm that the software license will not count against the technical proposal 15 page limit.

The software license will not count against the 15-page technical proposal.

19. Section B.4

Price Schedule

The requirements appear to conflict with respect to perpetual licensing. Perpetual licenses are

The App will be designed for VA use

(or customized if a COTS product) during the first six months of the defined as licenses that allow the purchaser to use the device forever but also require annual maintenance fees for security patches, updates, and modifications. Conversely, Annual licenses are term licenses that include the software license and all security patches, updates, and modifications for a set period of time. The pricing schedule seems to blur the line between these two different types of licenses by requesting a “6 month perpetual license” and optional “12 month perpetual licenses”. As a

COTS product, our solution is based on an Annual Licensing model which would provide use of the software to the government for 6 months in the base year and 12 months for each option year but terminate if the contract is not renewed.

A. Please confirm the government’s definition of

Perpetual licenses in the

Pricing Schedule and whether the annual license model proposed (where the government rights to the software end upon termination of the contract) meets that definition.

B. Will the government accept an

Annual License Model where the government rights to the software end upon termination of the contract?

contract. Following release, the App will be publicly available to use indefinitely. Months 7-12 of the contract will include costs for maintenance fees, security patches, updates, etc. The option years will include development of additional features while also providing maintenance fees, security patches, updates, etc. A model where the government rights to the software end upon termination of the contract would not be acceptable.

20. Section B5.

Performance

Work Statement

If the contractor is hosting the application, it is not clear how the government will have access to remove code within the application. As a COTS and contractor hosted solution, the government will not have access to the contractor’s hosted software for security and intellectual property reasons. Please confirm the

Application hosting is not required by the Contractor.

government’s intent with this language given the conflicting requirements.

21. Section B.5

Performance

Work Statement

PWS 5.3 and Backlog 1.1.3.2 state that the contractor shall not collect or store

Veteran information on any servers and all veteran data should be stored on the veteran’s local device. However, the PWS requirements are conflicting because they also discuss a future requirement to interface with VA systems, provide reporting and shared access of data with whole health partners, ability to use different devices to allow the veteran to login and pick up where he/she left off, and additional requirements that require veteran data to be hosted. In order to achieve all of these requirements and make the app seamless to the veteran, the data must be hosted by the contractor. Our company has experience and OIT approvals hosting veteran generated data and we respectively request this conflict in the requirements be removed to allow contractors to host the data when approved and necessary to meet the requirements of the app.

The requirement states that the app should be built in a way to allow future data transfer with the EHR

The intent is to utilize materials publicly available from VA or other sources.

23. PWS 5.3 In PWS section 5.3, the second paragraph states that "shall provide a mobile app with...interface to content accessible on mobile devices and desktop devices"

Please provide specific requirements around interfacing to desktop devices.

Is this a web browser interface or a downloadable application?

Application shall be distributable to

Mobile Devices (Smart-Phones, Tablets or Laptop type systems). As such it would be downloadable to desktop systems as an app.

24. PWS 5.3 &

Attachment 3

Backlog, 1.1.4

Additional

Functionality

In PWS section 5.3, the second paragraph states that "will be built in such a way to allow future integration with the EHR" and in Backlog section

1.1.4 Additional Functionality

Should EHR, and other additional functionality described in Backlog section 1.1.4, be considered part of the

The additionally functionality described at Attachment 003, Section

1.1.4, may not part of the base requirement but will be considered as a future enhancement. Items described in the backlog will be achieved through the sprint development.

base period Whole Health Mobile

Development effort or part of the optional task Whole Health Mobile

Development Enhancements? Or is this a placeholder for future functionality beyond the scope of this contract?

25 PWS 5.4.2 In PWS section 5.4.2, item 3 states

"Collect Help Desk Metrics"

Will the VA Enterprise Service Desk perform initial triage of Whole Health

Application incidents? If no, please clarify the contractor's role in user facing incident management.

VA Enterprise Service Desk will not provide help desk support. Support will be provided by the vendor in the form a telephone and email contact provided in the App. Section 5.4.2 will be revised. See Amendment

A0001.

26 Attachment

In addition to requirements described in Attachment 3 “Whole Health

Application Background, does the government intend to have the

OPCC&CT subject matter experts

(mentioned in PWS 5.3) provide initial use cases for application development period at the beginning of the base period?

The Government will provide examples of use cases as well as provide access to SMEs to answer questions and clarify intended actions and information as defined in PWS

5.3.

27 Attachment

In 1.1.3, #2 says “The Contractor shall not collect or store Veteran information on any servers.” Can the

VA please define this, given the section above that 1.1.2 Development of a PHP asks for:

i. User’s name and contact information

ii. Their MAP (from the Personal

Health Inventory)

iii. Self-assessments in the Circle of

Health (from the Personal Health

Inventory)

iv. The areas of focus selected by the user from the Circle of Health (graphic highlighting areas selected)

v. The user’s recorded SMART goals and action steps for each of the focus areas they have selected

vi. Barriers and Contingency plans

(both anticipated and realized)

vii. Support Strategies

All information will be stored on the user’s personal device. This would include their MAP, self-assessment, etc. as described in the development of the PHP.

viii. Progress assessments (ability to change weekly)

ix. Desired support from health providers/programs

28. PWS 5.3 The document states that “data from the experience shall be available for printing if the user desires”. To meet this requirement, is it expected that the report be exported to PDF and emailed to the user for printing?

That is one possible solution; others such as Bluetooth printers will also be considered.

29. PWS 5.3 The RFQ requires future integration with VistA. Is it expected that this data connection allow for pushing data collected by the app to CPRS or pull data from CPRS into the app? Is it required that the integration allow for both push and pull of data between systems?

The long-term goal is to make the

PHI, PHP, and other information in the App available in CPRS. It is not our intention that information would be pulled from CPRS into the app.

30. PWS 5.4.1 The document states help desk metrics will be collected. Does the government intend for the Whole Health App to have it’s own call center or help line to support this app?

Reference answer in #25

31. PWS 6.1.4 Will VA supply an IT PM and Release

Agent to support following the OI&T

VIP process?

The VIP process is not applicable to this requirement, please remove

6.1.4. See Amendment A0001.

32. Optional CLIN Wherever the PWS includes future functionality and tasks, does the government intend for this work to be performed through the optional

CLINs?

No; future work will be performed through a separate contract award.

Optional CLINs shall be used to further develop the current app through customer input and program development.

33. Accreditation Will VA be the responsible party for the Accreditation process?

Vendor is responsible for all accreditation process required for distribution.

34. Is it anticipated that the mobile application licensing costs will be assessed as part of the SDVOSB set-aside goals for the total contract value or will the set-aside requirements only apply to labor (Services)?

Contractors shall comply with FAR

52.219-6 and 52.219-14 in execution of this effort as well as VAAR

852.219-10, VA Notice of Total

Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned

Small Business Set-Aside (Deviation) and with subcontracting limitations in

13 CFR 125.6 in execution of this effort.

35. Section B.2.3 What is the level of software / user support is deemed viable for the VA on the product?

Answered in question #25

36. There is a significant amount of content provided with the RFQ that was not provided in the RFI. We’d like to request a 2-week extension so that we may refine our technical solution based on this new information.

No extension can be granted at this time.

37. Is there a required FISMA level for data held in the app or in the cloud?

Does not apply, no hosting is required.

38. Will VA require the app be “White labeled” for COTS products?

Final app should appear as the VA’s

Whole Health App

39. “The Contractor shall provide a Whole

Health mobile app that is iOS and

Android compatible and accessible via the Internet.”

Does the Internet instance need to reside on the VA website, or can it reside on a stand-alone or the company’s website?

The internet instance shall be available through a VA website.

40. PWS 5.2 “The Contractor shall review, elaborate, and prioritize the project backlog at Attachment 003 Whole

Health Application Backlog”

Does the VA mandate which software is used for Agile and backlog management?

No

41. PWS 5.3 For pricing COTS, is there a number of users we should assume for

“unlimited” licensing?

See answer to number 12

42. PWS. 5.3 Does the Personal Health Inventory /

Health assessment at the start of the

Whole Health journey pathway need to be VA’s, or can it be an alternative

Health Assessment?

The PHI utilized will be the one provided by the Whole Health

Program.

43. Will VA or the vendor own any content developed?

Several COTS packages have content developed already that can be added to and tailored to Veterans/VA needs.

The Government shall receive

Unlimited Rights in intellectual property first produced and delivered in the performance of this contract in accordance with FAR 52.227-14, Rights In Data-General (DEC 2007).

This includes all rights to source code and any and all documentation created in support thereof. License rights in any Commercial Computer

Software shall be governed by FAR

52.227-19, Commercial Computer

Software

44. PWS 5.3 Leading practices recommend that the user-generated/entered data be accessible on all devices the user uses and algorithms should be able to leverage this data for automated intelligence and machine learning to push relevant content/nudges/actions to users. Recommend VA reword this statement to “all user-generated information shall be accessible from all devices.”

This version of the app cannot share information with multiple devices or external hosting services.

Consequently, it will not be accessible from multiple devices.

45. PWS 5.3 “The user experience shall be engaging, where appropriate to incentivize progression through the

Whole Health journey, and provide the necessary capability to proactively engage the user with reminders, prompts, recognition and feedback and adaptive response to user data and input.”

Would incentivized progression include monetary incentives? Such as dollars towards deductible if they complete tasks in apps, or hit benchmarks towards their health?

No.

46. PWS 5.3 “It is expected that this app will be stand-alone without the capability to interface with Electronic Health

Record (EHR) but will be built in such a way to allow future integration with the EHR (Veterans Health Information

Systems and Technology Architecture

(VistA)/ Computerized Patient Record

System (CPRS)) for data exchange and for data triggers received from

CPRS that serve to launch appropriate workflows, prescriptions and pathways for the user.”

Concern re: data exchange. Do they want the data exchange to be bi-

See #29 directional or the exchange to be JUST from Cerner or Vista INTO the app.

47. PWS 5.4.2 “Collect Help Desk Metrics – Calls answered, issue or problem resolved and compliance with contract requirements.”

Requirements around Help desk for calls? Are we required to run a 24-hour shop or M-F? Expected volume?

See #25

48. PWS 5.4.2 “Collect system statistics and monitor system availability to ensure Whole

Health Application meets availability requirements of 95 percent.”

Can you specify what “meeting availability requirements of 95 percent” means?

Available for download 95%