S06 - Industry Q and As - RFQ 36C10B25Q0034 Amend 01.pdf

36C10B25Q0034 Amendment 0001 – Industry Questions and Answers

Question 1: What is VA’s mandated retention schedule for e-signed Home Health orders (e.g., 7 years). Do you require Box’s Records Management (retention labels/holds) to automatically purge or transfer documents into a separate VA archive when the retention period elapses?

Answer: Yes, automatically purge. Once signed, VA will archive them to the electronic medical record. The retention period for e-signed Home Health orders is three years.

Question 2: Will VA require the e-signature platform to integrate with existing VA applications such as VistA, Cerner, Salesforce, or Microsoft 365? If yes, are there specific APIs, protocols, or standards we should account for?

Answer: No, standalone platform.

Question 3: Will the VA provide its own forms and templates, or should the vendor assist in digitizing legacy PDF/Word-based forms to dynamic, fillable templates?

Answer: Vendors are responsible for providing their forms for inclusion.

Question 4: What metadata (e.g., patient ICN, order ID, clinician ID) must accompany each file, if any, for search and query, and or retention/DLP purposes?

Answer: Patient Last Name, First Name, Date of Service.

Question 5: What level of analytics does VA expect?

Answer: Filtering options include the patient’s name, date received, date processed, current status (received, signed, returned with corrections), number of days, submitted by, and document identification.

Question 6: How many VA staff (beyond the 76 user seats) will need “train-the-trainer” sessions?

Answer: None. The Contracting Officer’s Representative will be trained and will train any new employees that onboard after the initial training.

Question 6A: Do you require vendor (Box) to supply pre-built VA-branded training decks and quick-start videos for annual recertification, or is a single two-hour kickoff sufficient?

Answer: A single two-hour kickoff is sufficient.

Question 7: Does VA expect vendor (Box) Sign to integrate directly with your EMR system (e.g., CPRS/HIMS) via API for automated transfer of signed orders, or is a manual download-and-upload workflow into the EMR sufficient?

Answer: The manual download and upload workflow is sufficient.

Question 8: What level of signer authentication does VA require to ensure non-repudiation e.g., will a simple username/password suffice, or do you need two-factor (SMS/email OTP) for each signature event?

Answer: Two factor signatures. Please refer to the link provided:

https://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and- Guidance/Guidance/Manuals/Downloads/pim83c03.pdf#page=43

Question 9: How would the government propose the solution be priced, if pricing is by envelopes rather than seats?

Answer: Pricing should be based by “accounts” rather than envelopes.

Question 10: What is the volume of signatures the government anticipates annually?

Answer: 200,000 documents, including multi-page ones.

Question 11: Are the Release of Information documents part of the Home/Patient Care packet, or sent for signature separately? Are there other forms as well that will be sent for signature to support care coordination efforts?

Answer: The care is referred and authorized by VA, therefore there is no release of information. The only forms being sent for signatures are home health orders.

Question 12: Please provide an estimate for how many packets are sent for signature a month across all VISN 17 facilities considered for this workflow. This can have one to multiple signatures as part of the packet, what we are trying to quantify is how many packets are routed for signature within a month. I the Release of Information, Home Health/Patient Care packets and any others are sent separately, please count them separately.

https://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Guidance/Manuals/Downloads/pim83c03.pdf#page=43 https://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Guidance/Manuals/Downloads/pim83c03.pdf#page=43

Answer: VA cannot answer for other facilities or their volumes. VA Texas Valley Coastal Bend Health Care System has received 1,300 home health orders to date in the third quarter.

Question 13: Roughly how many Program Support Assistants are there? Roughly how many RNs are there?

Answer: The total number of Program Support Assistants (PSA) and Registered Nurses (RN) is unimportant because this platform will eliminate the requirement for PSAs and RNs involvement.

Question 14: Who else is signing; providers, veterans receiving care, etc.?

Answer: The only signers are credentialed providers.

Question 15: Are there additional software integrations to complete the workflow (i.e. Microsoft applications, patient record system, etc.)?

Answer: This is a standalone platform.