36C10B19C0027-001.pdf

VetRide Hosted Solution Control Number: TAC-19-52261

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Procurement, Acquisitions and Logistics

Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, NJ 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed price contract, issued on a sole source basis for the VetRide hosted solution from Kevadiya, Inc., (Kevadiya).

3. Description of Supplies or Services: VA, Veterans Health Administration, Member Services (MS) Veterans Transportation Program (VTP) has a requirement for the continuation of services and further development of new functionality within the existing scheduling software and routing systems currently deployed at 104 Veteran Affairs Medical Centers (VAMC). VetRide is a comprehensive transportation management software solution that serves as the system integrator for all elements of the system that directly links to the VA network via proprietary software owned by Kevadiya. VetRide’s software licenses which enable multiple transportation coordinators and other users (e.g. systems administrators) to access server software across multiple VAMC’s without degradation of performance. VetRide provides interactive routing and re-routing planning for vehicles which has the ability to calculate a large distance matrix, up to 500x500 way points, for route planning and optimization. The existing VetRide provides an Administrative Portal which contains a “single pane of glass” using integrated software codes and source code to combine information from multiple sources into a unified display. VetRide also maintains an embedded user manual within the administrative portal which includes a .pdf download for offline reading, the ability to view training videos, automated cost avoidance for Beneficiary Travel Special Mode of Transportation (SMT) i.e., wheelchair transport, Basic Life Support (BLS), stretcher, and Advanced Life Support (ALS). In addition, VetRide provides for authentication of VA employees using the Personal Identity Verification (PIV) card. VetRide meets the requirements outlined in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 800-53 security controls and VA 6500 information security handbook and provides a mutli-tenancy architecture where all VA sites can have their own operation autonomy.

The SMT tracker tracks all rides and costs related to special mode transport (wheel chair, ALS, BLS, Stretcher), the Beneficiary Travel Eligibility and upcoming expiration of eligibility with weekly reminders beginning at four weeks out, and those SMT trips that are assigned to third party service providers. The period of performance shall be a 12-month base period with optional tasks, followed by two, 12-month option periods with optional tasks.

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1 entitled, “Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.”

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: The proposed source for this action is Kevadiya 2001 Centerpoint Parkway, Suite 111, Pontiac, Michigan 48341.

Based on market research, as described in section 8 of this document, Kevadiya is the only software and support provider that meets the required functions and features for the VTP. It is deployed throughout 104 VAMC sites and contains custom interfaces and proprietary source code programming to VA systems including the route optimization portal, passenger caregiver support, rural health metrics and analytics tool and special mode of transportation tracker. Any system other than VetRide hosted solution, created by Kevadiya, would require all of these custom interfaces to be redeveloped on a new system, a development and testing process that can take an estimated three years. This estimated timeframe is based on current efforts to develop and implement the solution currently in use.

Use of any other software would result in extensive redesign and redevelopment of existing modules that currently only communicate with the existing VetRide solution.

The VetRide architecture utilizes both proprietary Kevadiya algorithms of its core component functionalities and 8 modules that were specifically developed and integrated to the core components to meet the unique needs of the VetRide. The 8 unique VA modules developed specifically for VetRide are: Office of Rural Health (ORH) Metrics and Analytics Tool (OMAT); ORH Reporting; Clinic Creation with stop code capability; Special Mode of Transportation (SMT) Tracker; Third Party Portal;

Third Party Management and Veteran Self-service Portal. These 8 modules provide the unique functionality into “a single pane of glass” by integrating information from multiple sources into a unified display which is not available in any commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) transportation system. VA only possesses limited rights to the modules and does not have access to the complete proprietary data, which is owned by Kevadiya, needed to meet VA’s needs. Without the underlying proprietary algorithm source code of the core components, providing the 8 unique functionality modules would not provide information for a source to replicate the inter-functional communications interactions and processing between the core components and the unique modules. For instance, if any of the 8 modules need to interface to any of the core components, an alternate source would need to reverse engineer the proprietary algorithms of core functionalities to work with the VA modules. An alternate source must conduct an extensive redesign and redevelopment of the existing 8 module unique functionalities to work with their more than likely COTS transportation solution. This would result in extensive delivery delays of at least 18 months resulting in a loss of transportation services for Veterans creating a potential patient safety issue and duplication of costs exceeding $10M that would not be recovered through competition. These estimates are based on similar design and development efforts.

In addition, no other software solution can meet all of VA security and functional requirements. Only the VetRide software solution can provide Personal Identity Verification (PIV) access which contains the necessary data for access to federal facilities and information systems and complies with the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12). This is a critical VA security requirement for all federal employees and contractors to access VA systems, and meets Federal

Information Processing Standards (FIPS). Additionally, only VetRide provides the ability to read the Veterans Health Identification Cards (VHIC) assigned to Veterans for verification of ridership matching a unique member identification number to the registered social security number. The VHIC card allows for positive identification of the Veteran being transported.

Additionally, no other software can provide the Special Mode of Transportation (SMT) function or an equivariant function. Specifically, this function tracks all rides and costs related to special mode transport (wheel chair, Advanced Life Support (ALS), Basic Life Support (BLS), Stretcher), the Beneficiary Travel (BT) Eligibility and upcoming expiration of eligibility with weekly reminders beginning at four weeks out, and those that are assigned to third party service providers. This allows the ability to attach Veterans medical documentation required as evidence of their special mode eligibility. When attaching this proof (jpeg, pdf, etc.) to the Veteran’s record in the administration portal. SMT also allows for the creation of a date range of the authorized eligibility. Once the evidence is two weeks away from expiring the Mobility Manager and Transportation coordinator are emailed that the evidence needs to be renewed or the Veterans special mode eligibility will expire. This is a critical functional requirement for any VA transportation software solution by preventing fraud, waste and abuse. SMT also accommodates the Veterans special transportation needs by providing any mode of transportation specifically designed for transportation of disabled Veterans (e.g. wheelchair accessible vehicle, ambulance, stretcher van etc.)

Furthermore, the existing VetRide software stores and maintains Veterans personal data through its administrative portal. Specifically, this data is stored through Kevadiya’s proprietary infrastructure. Use of any other software will result in data corruption and loss of critical Veteran personal data due to the proprietary coding that this information is stored in. The data stored consists of Veterans name, last name, ethnicity, gender, phone number, special needs, date of birth, geocoded address, mobility, Beneficiary Travel eligibility, VA member ID, medical documentation for SMT, trip history, homeless status, Do Not Resuscitate/Do Not Intubate, Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn, service animal, catastrophic eligibility, marital status, emergency contact, miles served and last four of the social security number.

No other software can meet VA’s interoperability and compatibility requirements between facilities nationally by using the single pane of glass module. Specifically, Veterans requiring long distance transports between medical centers for specialized or higher level of care must be coordinated between 2 or more VAMC’s. During the transport, the Veteran is “handed off” through a coordinated effort between multiple VA Medical Centers (VAMCs). Therefore, is it critical that VA use only the VetRide solution at each VAMC that is currently utilizing the VetRide transportation solution and future VAMC sites. The VA is required to ensure Veterans are safely and seamlessly transported for the duration of their trip, i.e. home to facility and back home. An extensive redesign effort would cause delays in meeting patient needs and delivering Veteran’s care, as discussed previously. VetRide is the only transportation solution fully integrated with the VA that can meet this requirement.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, 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. There is no competition anticipated for this acquisition. Additionally, the proposed action will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities Page in accordance with FAR

5.201. Any proposals that are received shall be evaluated.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: A Justification for a sole source bridge contract action was approved on July 25, 2018 at which time a follow on competitive contract action was anticipated. VA anticipated additional products to become available to provide the functionality required by VA, however no products have emerged that can meet VA’s requirements. Therefore, based on the rationale of this Justification, no other brand name solution can meet VA’s needs. However, in order to remove or overcome barriers to competition in future acquisitions for the requirement described herein, the Government’s technical experts have and will continue to perform market research to determine if there are changes in the market place that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: A Request for Information (RFI) was posted to FedBizOpps (FBO) on August 22, 2018 to ascertain if there were any other sources that could meet the Government’s requirement for a solution with identical capabilities of the existing VetRide hosted solution that can be tested, trained and fully deployed at the 104 VAMC sites. The VA received 2 responses to the RFI, one from Booz Allen Hamilton and one from Kevadiya. Kevadiya provided a detailed response and clearly demonstrated its ability to meet VA’s needs. Booz Allen Hamilton’s response did not meet any of VA’s requirements as outlined in Section 5 of this Justification.

Based on this market research, the Government’s technical experts have determined that Kevadiya is the only source that can meet the Government’s requirements. On September 25, 2018, BAH was advised of the Government’s assessment of their response to the RFI. No objections were received.

In addition, the Government’s technical experts reviewed similar software solutions from Forward Federal Systems, LLC. (FFS), Tkacz Engineering, LLC., AJS Cloud, and Favor Tech Consulting, LLC. (FTC) and based on these reviews, none of these products could meet VA’s needs as outlined in section 5 of this Justification.

9. Other Facts: None.