NNG15SD19B-169.pdf

Control Number: TAC-19-53929

JUSTIFICATION

FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Office of Procurement Acquisition and Logistics Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, NJ 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed-price (FFP) task order to be awarded under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government-wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for the renewal of brand name Nuance Communications, Inc.

software licenses for VA’s Chart Complete (VACC) Software for three sites.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The proposed action is for the renewal of brand name Nuance Communications, Inc. software licenses for VAAC Software in support of VA Office of Information and Technology (OI&T), Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 7 currently used throughout VISN7 by the Health Information Management Service to monitor incomplete and/or delinquent medical charts. The renewal will cover three sites located in Birmingham, AL, Montgomery, AL and Charleston, SC. No services are being purchased under this task. The Period of Performance (PoP) for this procurement is May 2, 2019 through May 1, 2020 with four 12-month option periods. The total estimated price for this action, including all options, is .

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting an exception to fair opportunity is Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B), entitled “Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized.”

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on extensive market research, as described in section 8 of this document, only Nuance or its resellers can provide the required renewal of VA Chart Complete software site licenses due to the proprietary nature of the system. Nuance’s Clintegrity 360 platform is currently in use throughout VA for all coding, compliance, billing, and auditing of patient encounters.

VACC Software is an optional module of the Clintegrity 360 platform that is used for recorded management to assist with tracking deficient or missing patient chart information. VA currently uses over 145 instances of VACC in VA medical centers throughout the country and is the only software licenses that meet VA’s requirement to monitor VA’s medical charts. Additionally, the required VACC software is the only software that provides the ability to concurrently review a patient’s medical chart while the patient is still in the hospital and the ability to continue to use preferred dictation methods already in use through VISN 7. In addition, no other software license is interoperable or compatible with Nuance’s Clintegrity 360 platform and no other

Nuance VACC Software License Renewals Control Number: TAC-19-53929 software license can integrate with Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) that requires no additional hardware or interfaces to be procured. The interoperability and integration constraints detailed above are due to Nuance’s proprietary code that prevents the competitors’ software from operating with the Clintegrity 360 platform or the VACC software already in use throughout VAMCs all over the country. This software is peculiar to one manufacturer and must align and integrate with other systems currently in use. A break in service would prevent VA from ensuring the several hundred thousand inpatient and outpatient Veteran medical charts were complete and up to date. VISN 7 does not have the manpower to manually check the immense number of charts that would require monitoring if the VACC software licenses can lapse.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: The Government’s technical experts conducted market research, details of which are in the market research section of this document.

This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government’s requirements. It was determined, however, that limited competition is viable among authorized resellers for the required brand name Nuance license renewal. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), the award notice for this action will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities Page (FBO) and the justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award. This justification shall be posted with the solicitation on the NASA SEWP website for review by prospective GWAC holders. Although the Government is limiting competition as a result of specifying brand name products and services, there are authorized resellers of these products and services on the NASA SEWP V GWAC. Limited competition for this requirement among these vendors is anticipated, though a reasonable expectation exists that the responses received will be competitive in terms of market prices and delivery.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The Government will continue to conduct market research to ascertain if there are changes in the market place that would enable future actions to be competed. Specifically, VA’s technical experts will continue to monitor competitors’ medical chart software to determine if changes in the marketplace allow for additional competition from vendors other than Nuance or its resellers.

8. Market Research: The Government’s technical experts conducted market research for VACC software licenses to ascertain what, if any, other products would satisfy VA’s requirements. This market research is an ongoing process starting in 2015 and continuously being conducted, as recently as January 2019 via the NASA SEWP V website and independent internet searches. VA technical experts reviewed similar software from Services Now Asset Management, Asset Management Solutions, and Symantec Corporation and determined that none of the aforementioned software suites meet all of VA’s functional and interoperability requirements, including the ability to concurrently review a patient’s medical chart while the patient is still in the hospital and the ability to continue to use preferred dictation methods already in use through VISN 7.

No other products meet VA’s requirements and none of the other software suites VA’s technical experts reviewed interface directly with VistA. VACC is currently in use throughout VISN 7 so any alternative solution must have access to Nuance’s proprietary

Nuance VACC Software License Renewals Control Number: TAC-19-53929 data in order to completely interface with the Clintegrity 360 platform and the VACC already in use throughout VA, which is not available. The Contract Specialist contacted Nuance Communications, Inc. in April 2019 and confirmed Nuance is not willing to sell the proprietary software source code for the Government to maintain the existing Clintegrity 360 platform. Based on the above, VA technical experts have determined that only Nuance can meet the Government’s requirements to provide the renewal of software licenses for VACC.

9. Other Facts: Additional market research was conducted in March 2019 using the NASA SEWP V GWAC Market Research Tool Lookup Tool. The research resulted in two Vendor Information Pages (VIP) Verified Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) resellers. Based on this market research revealing multiple NASA SEWP vendors for the Nuance software license renewal, limited competition is anticipated.