RFQ Questions - Dental Laboratory Follow-On Solicitation Number 36C10G23Q0005.pdf

DENTAL LABORATORY SUBMITTED RFQ QUESTIONS

Follow-On Solicitation # 36C10G23Q0005

On Pg 14, 2.5.1 Shipping Locations after the Texas CDL address, the other location is mentioned as: "Each individual medical facility as designating by the respective ordering official." Will these medical facilities also be in Texas?

• This SAC National Contract is for VA Nationwide, and orders could come from any VA Facility.

• VA Central Dental Laboratory, Dallas TX (CDL) (Cases coming from CDL must be returned to CDL in Dallas TX

• VA Dental Clinics Nationwide (Cases coming from other medical facilities will need to be returned to the respective facility. This will be coordinated individually between each medical facility and the Vendor prior to sending orders to the vendor)

On Pg 117, in point e.) of Volume III, it is mentioned: "Provide approved Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with quote (if applicable)." Can you please educate us regarding the BAA requirement?

If you have one, you can provide it.

On Pg 115, it is mentioned, "Page size shall be no greater than 8 1/2" x 11" with printing on one side." With this being an electronic submission, do we need to adhere to the single-side restriction?

Single side or double sided is fine.

(Page 117 e) The sentence states “if applicable”. Is a BAA applicable for this contract?

If you have one, you can provide it.

Price sheet line item 28 Cement-retained PFM Crown (NEED TO CHECK ALLOY).

What do you mean NEED TO CHECK ALLOY? Depending on which alloy requested, such as high noble or noble, will you be allowing us to charge the alloy in addition to the base cost? Or do you want us to price a fixed price depending on a high noble cost (most expensive alloy) no matter which alloy is chosen?

• Line Item 28 -High Noble Alloy – Fixed Price for CLIN including Alloy Cost

• Line Item 29 -High Noble Alloy – Fixed Price for CLIN including Alloy Cost

Page 15 (2.6) All dental prostheses returned to the contractor for correction, adjustment, or remake shall be delivered to the authorizing customer within three (3) business days of the date received. Three days is fine for corrections and adjustments, but for the remakes, we would need full lab working times. Can the lab have 7 days for full remakes?

• Three (3) Business Days for Corrections

• Seven (7) Business Days for Full Remakes.

(Page 13) Time frames for cast partial frameworks and implant connecting bars (7 days) are 1-3 days shorter than your turnaround times. Will there be flexibility in the turnaround times for these products? In other words, could we have 8 days for cast partial frameworks and 10 days for implant connecting bars?

• Seven (7) Business Days for Partial Frameworks

• Seven (7) Business Days for Implant Connecting bars.

(Page 14 2.5.1) We will be shipping to either Central Dental Lab in Dallas or to the actual VA location where the patient attends. How often will be sending to Central Dental Lab as opposed to the actual location? In other words, will be sending mostly to Centra Dental Lab or mostly to the actual VA location?

• This SAC National Contract is for VA Nationwide, and orders could come from any VA Medical Facility.

• VA Central Dental Laboratory, Dallas TX (CDL) (Cases coming from CDL must be returned to CDL in Dallas TX

• VA Dental Clinics Nationwide (Cases coming from other medical facilities will need to be returned to the respective facility. This will be coordinated individually between each medical facility and the Vendor prior to sending orders to the vendor)

(Page 16 2.7.1) This states you want the “Lot number of materials used in each product” listed on the invoice. Are you wanting us to give you the lot number of all the materials used, such as if this is a PFM, do you want the alloy, ceramic powder, opaque powder, glaze liquid lot number on every case? Is it possible this could be waived as this would be complicated to supply this information for you for every case?

• The Lot Numbers are only required for Implant parts and Sleep Appliance if provided by manufacturer.

• Contractor must identify the specific type of Metal and Ceramic (IdentAlloy and IdentCeram) used in the prosthesis and include the Certificates for each case in the shipment.

Do we leave the price unfilled if we do not offer a product?

• Fill in as “N/A”

Line items 28 & 29: Are we quoting base metal?

• Line Item 28 -High Noble Alloy – Fixed Price for CLIN (include Alloy Cost)

• Line Item 29 -High Noble Alloy – Fixed Price for CLIN (include Alloy Cost)

Line 33: Quote Base metal?

• Line Item 32 -High Noble Alloy – Fixed Price for CLIN (include Alloy Cost)

• Line Item 33 -High Noble Alloy – Fixed Price for CLIN (include Alloy Cost)

Are you going to Add any other items not listed here to this Contract?

• NO new Items (CLINs) will be added to this Contract.

Section 2.5 – Shipping Requirements Continuation - (page 14) o Regarding Sections 2.5.1, please confirm:

▪ The VA's intent is to add substantial transportation / delivery costs per product line item, or

▪ The VA prefers / intends delivery cost to be billed as an independent "Product Line Item," associated with each case or shipment?

▪ This allows the VA, a significant cost savings benefit for cases with multiple units and / or multiple cases delivered in one shipment.

▪ If so, would the VA allow packaging of multiple cases in one shipment, as long as cases are packaged independently?

• It is the responsibility of the VA to pay for shipping the order to the

Vendor and it is the responsibility of the Vendor to pay for shipping

“Next Day” to the VA CDL or to the VA Medical Facility.

• Yes, multiple cases can be on one shipment, however a shipping inventory document with all cases shipped must be included.

SC.2 52.212-4 Contract Terms and Conditions- Commercial Products And Commercial Services (Dec 2022), section (k) Taxes (page 94)

Please confirm all "Product line Items" in this RFQ would be exempt from any

Federal, State, and Local sales tax(s) and duties.

If such exemption cannot be stated in this RFQ, would the VA provide documentation to substantiate state specific sales tax exemptions?

• All products Lines will be exempt from Federal, State and Local Taxes

The "Attachment 1 - Quotation Sheet" is unfamiliar in that it is very different from the one submitted with the original quotation several years ago. Would it be possible to receive an "Attachment 1 - Quotation Sheet" with a couple of lines completed with any information "highlighted" that you are looking for us to complete on each of the individual lines? Unless, you are only intending for us to complete the 4 columns

"highlighted in yellow" already??

• See new attachment (NATIONAL CONTRACT SLA Fee Quote Sheet Version

2023). The Attachment 1 – Quote Sheet will still need to be filled out for the

“highlighted”. This is the latest version for our system as the one from a few years ago is an older model template.

On the "Attachment 1 - Quotation Sheet" ... I am assuming that the Unit Price would be our price for that particular item and time period. Items beginning with "0" is the price for the base year? Items beginning with "1" are the price for "option year 1" and so on...

Correct??

• Yes

On the "Attachment 1 - Quotation Sheet" ... The Unit Price should include the SLA Fee -

Correct?

• Yes

• Attachment 1 Quote Sheet: Are we only required to complete the columns highlighted in yellow? If not, which columns do we need to complete?

• Yes, only in yellow.

• Column identified as OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) Name- With multiple OEM Implant manufacturers available, with varying costs, how do we handle the variance in pricing and OEM Name field? Do we need to complete the OEM Name field for implant products or all 82 items on the list?

• Provide an average fee for the Implant Parts

• No need to provide OEM Name Field

• 0040- Custom Abutment: Is the custom abutment titanium? If not, please specify.

• Titanium or High Noble Alloy

• 0044- Full arch removable overdenture, titanium bar with attachments: Are you looking for a start to finish price? How many attachments need to be included in the price?

• 4 Implant Sights as Default / Yes Start to Finish Price

• 0045- Titanium Bar: How many implant sights should we include in the cost?

• 4 Implant Sights as Default

• 0052- Reline: Should we price for hard or soft reline?

• Hard Reline

• Regarding alloy, if the market changes and the cost increases more than a specified percentage, can we adjust pricing to accommodate for the market fluctuations? If so, to what extent?

• NO - Fixed Price will be set for each CLIN for the 5-year period

2.7.1 Product Copy

• States that contractor needs to include the lot number of materials used in each product. Is this for all products or only for specific products? If specific products, which products?

• The Lot Numbers are only required for Implant parts and Sleep Appliance if provided by manufacturer.

• Contractor must identify the specific type of Metal and Ceramic (IdentAlloy and IdentCeram) used in the prosthesis and include the Certificates for each case in the shipment.

2.3 Turn-Around Times:

• Certain OEM providers for implant connecting bars require 10-12 business days. Will you consider that as an exception?

• Yes, Exceptions will be made to match “OEM” manufacturers time requirements.

Volume III, e,

• on page 117 states “Provide approved Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with quote (if applicable).” Is a BAA required as part of this submission?

• If you have one, you can provide it.

Do you need a step by step process for each item in the Solicitation , ex: PFM Crown

(Noble Alloy). The process our lab follows is explained in our Management Approach-

Technical Ability statement. It does not break down each product though with a step-by-step instruction process.

• NO, just a summary of your Production Process, Capacity and

Capabilities.

• Section B – Continuation of SF 1449 Blocks; section 12 “Acknowledgment of

Amendments” - (page 5)

• Please confirm there are no Amendments to this RFQ

• This is the first Amendment to this RFQ.

• Section E – Solicitation Provisions; E.3 52.212-2 Evaluation – Commercial

Products and Commercial Services Addendum (Nov 2021), “VOLUME 1 –

Technical Capability” (page 116). In addition to a 1-2 page Compatibilities

Statement, can you provide guidance on the relevance / usefulness of the following documents to support Technical Capabilities;

▪ Quality Management System Summary,

▪ Personnel Qualifications,

▪ Product Category task chain of manufacturing methods,

▪ List of equipment,

▪ Software capabilities,

▪ Other suggested documents?

• These are all possible ways to prove technical capability for part 1 but part 2 is those found to be technically capable will be provided a

‘sample’ task order to provide a finished product, which would in-turn be submitted to the VA Central Dental Laboratory (CDL) in

Dallas, Texas for evaluation, with a ten (10) day turn around.

• Section E – Solicitation Provisions; E.4 52.212-3 Offeror Representations and

Certificates - Commercial Products and Commercial Services (Dec 2022), “Section f – Buy American Certificate (page 123).

• Please confirm if certain OEM / Compatible Dental Implant Components need to be listed since most dental implant systems cleared to market by the US

FDA are actually manufactured outside the United States.

• If this section (f)(2) is applicable, please provide guidance on how “Line Item

No.” should be referenced

• FDA Approval verification Certification available and approved to market in the USA

• Attachment +1+-+Quote+Sheet

• Is this accepted document to comply with B.3 in the RFQ (pages 20-134), or do the unit price and amount need to be re-entered on pages 20-134 of the

RFQ?

• Pages 20-134 does not need to be filled in. See the quote sheets attached to fill in.

• Confirm only yellow highlighted field in the “Items” tab are required to be filled out? – Yes, only the yellow highlighted fields.

• If Yes, please clarify if inputs for Columns CE, CF, CG will be the same for all items? – Yes, all the same CE will have all OEM country of origin for example “USA” | CF will have all OEM UEI SAM number | CG will have the OEM name. If all the line items are the same, then that is fine.

• Should unit price be entered as “0” or left blank if product are not available by the contractor?

• Please enter “N/A”

• Volume II - SF, Amendments, and Other Documents, part e -Business

Associate Exemption (page 117).

• Please confirm the VA considers Dental Laboratories "Except" from a

Business Associates Agreement.

• If you have one, you can provide it.

• Line 0010 does not have a quantity of 1. Are we supposed to quote on this line item and if so do we assume quantity of 1, each and then calculate the total cost or will you be editing the Solicitation to include the missing details?

• 0010 – Qty 1 – The Quote should include 2 Retainers and 1 Pontic

• Lines 0026, 0028, 0029, 0032 and 0033 do not state which alloy we should be quoting. Since the rest of the solicitation asks for noble and high noble alloy separately, should those be broken into separate line items one for noble alloy and one for high noble alloy?

• 0026 – High Noble Alloy

• 0028 – High Noble Alloy

• 0029 – High Noble Alloy

• 0032 – High Noble Alloy

• 0033 – High Noble Alloy

• Line 30, is this monolithic or layered zirconia crown?

• Substitute CLIN 0018 for Layered Zirconia Crown

• Substitute CLIN 0019 for Monolithic Zirconia Crown

• Line 38 which OEM zirconia CAD/CAM abutment will this be as the costs can vary if Strauman, 3i Encode and/or Nobel BIocare?

• Use Average price in the Quote

• Line 40, is this a custom UCLA abutment? If so, is it to include the cost of alloy to cast this abutment? IF so, which alloy should we be quoting, noble or high noble?

• Yes, UCLA Abutment

• Yes, Quote should include alloy to cast the Abutment

• Line 0043, Can you clarify if this will be a titanium bar and processed to acrylic or will this be Monolithic Zirconia on multi-unit abutments?

• Acrylic processed to a Titanium Bar

• Line 0044 How many implants? Are we to quote per implant?

• Quote Removable Overdenture with default 4 abutments

• Line 0057 What type of model is this?

• Stone or Plaster Model

• 2.25 Material Requirements: It is stated that we are to include crown (survey) under partial denture, metal occlusals, rests, metal linguals in our price quote for the restorations indicated in the Solicitation; however, those can require up to 2 g of additional alloy AND they are not required on every single unit and/or bridge.

Therefore, if we include those in the one flat rated price, the VA could be paying for these items even though the restoration does not require it. Would you consider making these their own CLIN (i.e. 1. metal occlusals/rests/linguals noble alloy 2. Metal occlusals/rests/linguals high noble alloy and 3. crown (survey) under partial noble alloy and 4. crown adapted to partial high noble alloy) like you have done for the cast post and core so that we can appropriately bill and the VA can pay for what the restorations actually requires versus including them in each crown/bridge as the Solicitation currently states?

• We are requesting an average cost to produce any one of the following dental restorations. We understand not every case will require, Metal Occlusion, a Survey Crown under a partial or Porcelain Butt Margin. A very small percentage of cases will have these requirements, so please incorporate these special requirements in your final proposal.

• Is there an expected date of when the contract will be awarded?

• The goal for award is on or before 7/31/2023 but no later than 08/15/2023.

• Regarding Turn-Around Times (page 13): 3 Business days required for a “Complete and Removable Partial Denture acrylic resin repair” as an example.

Would the day the contractor receives the case be counted as “day 1”? And is “day 3” the day the dental clinic receives the case? Which would translate to just one full day in lab and overnight shipping?

• 3 Business Days (Full Days at the Vendor)

• Day Contractor Receives case is Day 0

• Day 4 is Case Received at the CDL or Clinic

• Since this is a national contract would we create a customer account for each facility that orders from us? Or would it just be one account with different shipping address?

• This is a National Central Contract for Dental Laboratory Services

• Funding, Billing is De-Centralized and will be separate Accounts and will be invoiced and billed to respective Medical Facilities

• For Implant Products (example 0032), will implant components be included in the product cost (vendor provides) or will the dental clinic be sending the parts with the case?

• This is a National Central Contract for Dental Laboratory Services

• Funding, Billing is De-Centralized and will be separate Accounts and will be invoiced and billed to respective Medical Facilities

• Item 0034 is for a Screw-retained zirconia crown, can you indicate if this will be a layered zirconia or a full contoured zirconia crown? Also, would this be made to a TiBase abutment, Screw-mentable using a CAD/CAM abutment, or something else?

• Layered Zirconia Crown

• Ti-Base Abutment

• Item 0035 is for a Screw-retained lithium disilicate crown, can you indicate if this will be a layered or a monolithic restoration (e.max)? Also, would this be made to a TiBase abutment, Screw-mentable using a CAD/CAM abutment, or something else?

• This is a Layered Screw-retained Crown

• Ti-Base Abutment

• Product 0057: Model, can you provide any detail on this product?

• This is a Poured Stone or Plaster Model

• Page 17, 2.7.2 Electronic Batch, does this mean the vendor will submit invoices to the FSC via Tungsten Network?

• Does a national contract mean that individual facilities will not be posting their own solicitations in the future?

• No – Individual facilities may choose to have their own Contracts and solicited if needed

• 0020 Metal-free 3-unit bridge w/Zirconia Understructure

• If you could please clarify if this is just a 3-unit porcelain fused to zirconia bridge?

• Yes, Layered Ceramic Bridge over Zirconia Substructure

• 0026 Cast Post and Core

• Which alloy would be used. Noble or High noble?

• High Noble

• Are these crowns without any implant parts? Are the abutment and ti-bases a separate fee?

• 0028 Cement-retained PFM Crown (No Implant Parts)

• 0029 Cement-retained Metal Crown (No Implant Parts)

• 0030 Cement-retained Zirconia Crown (No Implant Parts)

• 0031 Cement-retained Lithium Disilicate/Silicate Crown (No Implant Parts)

• 0032 Screw-retained PFM Crown (VA Provides UCLA Abutments)

• 0033 Screw-retained Metal Crown (VA Provides UCLA Abutments)

• 0034 Screw-retained Zirconia Crown (Vendor Provides Ti-Base)

• 0035 Screw-retained Lithium Disilicate/Silicate Crown (Vendor Provides Ti- Base)

• Can you please explain the difference exactly between CLIN #’s –

• CLIN# 0036 (OEM)

• (Original Equipment Manufactured Abutment)

• CLIN# 0037 (Aftermarket)

• (Laboratory Milled Abutment)

• CLIN# 0040 (Custom abutment)

• (Hand Waxed and Cast Abutment)

• CLIN# 0034 and 0035 Does this include the crown and all implant parts or just the implant crown without the parts?

• Include all Implant Parts

• CLIN# 0066

• Does this include any parts needed if requested (Gutta purcha or Sleeves)

• Page 16, section 2.7.1 “Lot number of materials used in each product” - Does this mean regardless of what we fabricate, we have to provide a LOT # for each and every product provided?

Examples - Denture, partial, crowns, implant parts? Or would it just be for implant parts?

• The Lot Numbers are only required for Implant parts and Sleep Appliance if provided by manufacturer.

• Contractor must identify the specific type of Metal and Ceramic (IdentAlloy and IdentCeram) used in the prosthesis and include the Certificates for each case in the shipment.

We are requesting the Government allow us to summit pricing for all Porcelain Fused to

Metal and Full Cast Crowns as (+ Alloy). Meaning we want to propose a base price and then charge for Gold / Alloy as the tooth size requires as a separate line item. (i.e. Not have the gold or Alloy included in the base price). This request is based on each tooth is a different size and no two people have the same size tooth per location in their mouth.

• C.3 52.216-2 ECONOMIC PRICE ADJUSTMENT—STANDARD

SUPPLIES (NOV 2021) clause is in the contract

• This is a Fixed Price Contract and will apply throughout the contract.

• 11. CONTRACT PRICES AND PRICE ADJUSTMENTS The quoted prices will apply throughout the life of the contract unless modified by the Contracting Officer. Page 5

• Quote CLINs with an Average Cost including Alloy

Can I have another lab with me as a subcontract?

• No subcontractors.