36C10G18R0208-1-0016008.pdf

OFFEROR QUESTION CO Response

Please provide the projected expenditures by State or Sub-CLIN for Community Care of Highly Rural Veterans that will be used to extend our proposed price for evaluation purposes.-

The Government does not intend to provide projected expenditures by State or Sub-CLIN for Community Care of Highly Rural Veterans. The Government has provided the total number of authorizations and uniques for Region 4 locations for FY15 - FY18 by Rurality.

Please provide the VA’s total estimated Home Infusion Therapy expenditures (i.e., billed charges) that will be used to extend our proposed price for evaluation purposes.

The Government does not intend to provide additional information beyond the historical data provided in Attachment Y. The Government has provided all CPT codes where there was no VA Fee Schedule and CMS Schedule, total bill frequency , total uniques, and billed charges.

Please provide the VA’s estimated AWP for brand name and generic medications that will be used to extend our proposed prices for Sub- CLINs X009AA and X009AB, respectively, in the Government’s evaluation.

The Government provided the historical data and estimates for optional use by the Offerors to inform their own existing data analytics in support of proposing prices/costs.

Further data will not be provided as it is part of the Independent Government Cost Estimate.

Cumulative Weighted Score Distorts Proposed Prices, Allows Offerors to Manipulate the Evaluation Process, and is not Reflective of the Prices Paid by the Government

As stated in RFP section M.4.3.4, the "weights were determined by the VA as a measure of relative importance."

As such, the Cumulative Weighted Score reflects this relative importance.

Would it be more appropriate to compare the Total Aggregate Price between bidders and eliminate the Cumulative Weighted Score?

Comparing the Total Aggregate Price between bidders would yield a better comparison of the ultimate prices that the Government expects to pay during the contract.

The government will evaluate and analyze the Total Aggregate Price and Cumulative Weighted Score in accordance with the existing RFP Evaluation Procedures and associated definitions.

Please provide the full calculation for reaching the total price for CLIN X011, it is missing that the calculation is multiplied by 12 to get Total evaluated price since the volumes are monthly volumes.

Monthly volumes will be annualized (multiplied by 12) to arrive at yearly figures.

The Government has described two separate price evaluation criteria, one based on the Cumulative Weighted Score and the other on the Total Aggregate Proposed Price; however, the Government has not defined when the Government will use one price evaluation criteria vs. the other price evaluation criteria. Please provide this information

The Cumulative Weighted Score serves as the Offeror’s Total Evaluated Price (TEP). The Government reserves the right to trade-off in the award decision the total aggregate proposed price against the cumulative weighted score. The Government may award to a higher aggregate proposed price.

Keeping all other evaluation scores equal, when would it be in the best interest of the Government to award the contract to a higher Total Aggregate Proposed Price?

The Government's preferences and expectations are reflected in the weighting structure. See RFP section M.4.3.4.

I wish to communicate one clarifying point. We understand data sources may be limited regarding certain CLIN’s and historical or projected utilization. However, the VA should be able to provide Offerors volumes for all CLIN’s that will be evaluated. In order to conduct your calculations/evaluation the VA will be using some volume amount, we are requesting that Offerors be provided that volume figure for each evaluated CLIN, to include CLIN 2 and others.

The volumes were provided only as a supplement to the Offerors' own data.

The Government expects that offerors will use their own knowledge of their network and the market to determine appropriate pricing.