DHO Prog Sup PWS Draft.pdf

B.3 PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT

Title: AI Program Support

1.0 BACKGROUND

As the largest integrated health care system in the country and one that trains the most nurses and doctors in the United States, Veterans Health Administration (VHA) under the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) can offer ample opportunities to advance artificial intelligence (AI) and improve the future health AI workforce. VA is uniquely positioned to advance AI implementation at the frontiers of health care delivery for our nation's Veterans, and the population at large.

The National Artificial Intelligence Institute (NAII) is a program within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Digital Health Office (DHO) that seeks to develop the VA’s artificial intelligence (AI) capacity and capabilities to support Veterans, their families, survivors, and caregivers. The NAII designs and collaborates on large-scale AI initiatives, national AI policy, and partnerships across agencies, industries, and academia. Moreover, the NAII is dedicated to advancing AI operations and improving the trustworthiness of AI solutions for real-world impact and outcomes to ensure Veteran health and well-being.

In July 2021, VA released its Artificial Intelligence Strategy which identifies four strategic goals for increasing its readiness to lead in AI and machine learning. To help advance VA’s agenda and keep pace with the rapidly changing AI field, the NAII seeks to become the premier institute of excellence in AI in operational healthcare, trustworthiness, and implementation. Moreover, the NAII will provide thought leadership, advisement, and support across the VA to help ensure Veteran health and wellbeing, while sharing its innovations to benefit Veterans around the globe.

It is anticipated the contracted work will require tasks classified in the following Functional Categories and Capability Areas (select all that apply):

I II III

Health System Transformation and Innovation

Implementation and Operations Support

Healthcare Business Enabling Services

Program & Project Management

Studies and analyses

Medical Supply Chain and Healthcare Logistics Analysis

Business Reqts Development

Data Governance

Supply Chain Management

Strategic Planning

Performance Measurement

Supply Chain Planning

Program Evaluation

Training Development

Inventory Management and Operation

Business Process Reengineering, Improvement and Management

Training Delivery Supply Chain Optimization

Change Management and Transition

Policy Development

Financial Management Modernization

Quality Management

Policy Management Internal Financial Controls

Strategic Communications & Executive Support

Advertising Services

Financial Management and Operations

Media Buying administrative support

Public Relations

Services/Outreach

Human Resources Support

Conference, Events, & Planning

Services

Procurement Support to P/PM

Healthcare Related Promotional

Materials

Information privacy and records management

Video/Film Production

Revenue operations

Graphic Design Value based healthcare

2.0 SCOPE OF WORK

The National Artificial Intelligence Institute supports AI healthcare use cases VAMC’s across the VA, Academia and Industry providing AI expertise and funding for innovative projects in healthcare. The NAII currently supports projects in asynchronous care solutions, hardware and/or wearables, digital care-backed clinical decision support solutions to name a few. The NAII is seeking operational support to optimize the outcomes and production delivery of these projects. The contractor will provide operational support in creating the foundation for enabling the systems and processes required to innovate and support the NAII in becoming the premier institute of excellence in AI operational healthcare, trustworthiness, and implementation. As such, the contractor will provide Discovery & Development in AI expertise, support for underlying project and portfolio tools to enable visibility into risks, status, and KPI compliance of AI healthcare projects, public relations, and communications support to ensure timely messaging on AI and Trustworthy AI executive orders and legislative requirements. Strategic planning and priority support to include optimization of the AI use case intake processes, project prioritization, resource planning, project analytics, and other duties as required.

Contractor will support communications to disseminate and proliferate AI messaging publicly to increase awareness of AI developments across the VA and laying a foundation for outreach to our veterans helping to build an understanding of AI methods and their successes. In addition, contractor will provide AI program administration and support the NAII with Tech Sprint initiatives and pilot projects. Contractor will assist with business process engineering, providing best practices, and documenting standard operating procedures to ensure standardization, continuity of operations, and repeatable successes across all NAII AI development and operational activities.

Contractor will provide program management and staffing oversight for all contractor activities including staff onboarding, performance, disciplinary actions, and training as required. Contractor will ensure staff meet minimum education and certifications as required. Contractor shall maintain the personnel, organization, and administrative control necessary to ensure that the work delivered meets the contract specifications and requirements. The Contractor shall be responsible for managing and overseeing the activities of all Contractor personnel, as well as any subcontractor efforts used in performance of this Contract. Contractor management responsibilities shall include all activities necessary to ensure the timely and successful accomplishment of work ordered under this Contract, performed in accordance with the requirements contained in this Contract and the applicable order.

3.0 SPECIFIC TASKS AND DELIVERABLES

The contractor shall perform the following:

3.1 KICK OFF MEETING

The Contractor shall prepare and supply an agenda and participate in a kickoff meeting, to be followed by the provision of kick off meeting minutes to the Government. Kickoff meeting agenda and meeting due within five (5) days of award. Meeting minutes due within two (2) days of kickoff meeting.

Deliverables:

• 3.1A Kickoff Meeting and Agenda

• 3.1B Kickoff Meeting Minutes

3.2 CONTRACTOR PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

Contractor will provide program management and staffing oversight for all contractor activities including staff onboarding, performance, disciplinary actions, and training as required. Contractor will ensure staff meet minimum education and certifications as required by contract. Contractor shall maintain the personnel, organization, and administrative control necessary to ensure that the work delivered meets the contract specifications and quality requirements. The Contractor shall be responsible for managing and overseeing the activities of all Contractor personnel, as well as any subcontractor efforts used in performance of this Contract.

Deliverables:

• 3.2A Contractor Program Management Plan

• 3.2B Contractor Risk Management Plan

• 3.2C Contractor Change Management Plan

• 3.2D Contractor Quality Management plan/Version Control

3.3 MEETING MANAGEMENT/REPORTING

A monthly status meeting shall be conducted with the VA PM, key stakeholders and the Contracting Officer Representative, (COR). This call shall review progress, project status, and review any issues that may require discussion or notification. This 60-minute (maximum) call shall be scheduled and held at the discretion of VA. Based on these monthly status meetings, monthly meeting minutes will be produced that reflect the prior months status calls and will be due two (2) days following completion of the monthly meeting.

The Monthly Progress Report, organized by project area, shall include the following minimum information:

• Budget and period of performance;

• General description and scope;

• Name and contact information of the VA Organization;

• Significant issues (e.g., delays, project budget overruns), suggested resolutions, and implementation status;

• Activities completed during the reporting period;

• Activities planned for the next reporting period;

• Travel completed during the reporting period;

• Travel planned for the next reporting period;

• List of personnel currently employed;

• List of planned personnel vacancies or absences during the next reporting period; and

• Financial performance during the reporting period. (Report structure and contents to be proposed by the Contractor but will at a minimum include all invoiced CLINS with summary of work performed.)

• Documentation, i.e., updated versions of in-progress project artifacts, will be required prior to approval of monthly invoices. Such documentation will be uploaded to the NAII Sharepoint or emailed to the COR.

The Contractor shall meet with the COR and provide a Weekly Task Report, separated by each task area where work is occurring, that lists the resources assigned to the task order and the level of effort devoted to the task order by Contractor personnel. Meeting minutes will be produced and delivered to the key stakeholders, including the VA PM and the COR to reflect meeting discussion action items/updates, expecting at least four (4) meetings per month. Meeting minutes will be due (2) days following completion of scheduled meeting.

Should any ad-hoc contracting meetings be necessary to discuss overall status and performance, the following topics will be included in the agenda as a minimum:

• Financial performance to date;

• Significant issues (e.g., delays, program budget overrun, staffing), suggested resolutions and implementation status;

• Activities completed to date;

• Activities planned for remainder of performance period;

• Review of administrative actions and processes, (i.e., onboarding, invoicing)

Deliverables:

• 3.3A Monthly Status Meeting Agenda & Minutes

• 3.3B Weekly Task Order Meeting & Minutes

• 3.3C Weekly Task Report & Minutes

• 3.3D Scheduled and Ad-Hoc meetings & minutes with key stakeholders

3.4 AI PROGRAM SUPPORT

The NAII will leverage the diverse skill set of the contractor support services in the following areas and with the following identified deliverables.

3.4.1 AI USE-CASE OPERATIONS SUPPORT FOR VHA

The NAII seeks to further its use of applied artificial intelligence and requires contractor support to ensure inclusive and cohesive identification of AI opportunities across the VHA. Contractor will gather use cases through ideation aimed at solving practical problems in healthcare, analyze the requirements to ensure data availability, create standard process to enable equitable analyses, and provide market analysis.

Contractor will develop methodology for comparison of the operational effectiveness of alternatives to rank AI opportunities based on NAII criteria. Contractor will collect and synthesize information from stakeholders and sources in an objective, unbiased manner providing opportunities and supporting analysis to NAII leadership for decision.

Contractor will support the NAII in identifying MVP, solution proposal, experimental development, testing project activities and outcome validation as required. All processes will be evaluated for effectiveness and documented to ensure optimization and alignment to supporting Innovation in AI health care delivery.

Such tasks may include without being limited to

• Use cases defined and analyzed by criterium

• Ideation of potential AI opportunities

• Market Analysis as required

• Use Case rankings

• Project Validation

• Process Documentation

• Process maps

• Gap analysis and recommendations

• Schedules

• Analytical analysis

• Project management plans

Work products will include specific deliverable assignments per task.

1. AI Use Case Operations and Support Services

a. Project Specific Assessments and Reports associated with but not limited to the above services.

b. Project Specific artifacts and tasks including but not limited to the above services.

3.4.2 BUSINESS PROCESS ENGINEERING

The NAII seeks to create new and improve existing processes and guidelines for AI health care use cases.

These processes will include identifying capabilities and analyzing Return on Investment (ROI) in terms of patient care, presenting the final product and measuring outcomes. To this end, the Contractor shall provide business process engineering services at the Six Sigma Black Belt level to work with the NAII in establishing formal effective and efficient processes, document them in standard operating procedures (SOPs), and assist with disseminating them to appropriate stakeholders. As the NAII seeks to implement all processes aligned with industry best practices in AI healthcare delivery (and/or create them where they may not exist). The Contractor shall provide support and consultative insight into existing best practices, so they can be incorporated into the NAII guidelines. The Contractor shall develop a dissemination plan to make all relevant stakeholders aware of guidelines and best practices promoted by the NAII and audit process adherence as requested. Contractor will document internal processes and outcomes for each workstream (process mapping) to collect information and develop a living resource of standard operating procedures, workflow charts, best practices and other documentation as required.

Such tasks may include without being limited to:

• Inventory of existing processes

• Documentation and/or creation of workflows

• Gap analysis/Process reengineering/Process design

• Inventory and/or development of required guidelines, best practices, and standard operating procedures (SOPs)

• Quality measurement and improvement best practices guide

• Best practice guide for the utilization of AI in health care delivery

• Value Stream Maps

• Organizational change management plan

1. Business Process Engineering

3.4.3 PROJECT SUPPORT

The Contractor shall provide project design, planning, development, implementations, audits, and evaluations related to various AI health care, Trustworthy AI, Tech Sprint, and other operational activities. Tasks may include supporting project analysis, strategic planning, data analysis, resource allocation, problem identification, ideation, quality management, risk management, metrics tracking, integration with existing workflow processes or create new workflow processes, and master scheduling.

The Contractor shall provide the following services:

• Facilitate project team meetings to include the contracted Project Managers and relevant NAII staff.

• Use applied AI techniques to, design, develop, and evaluate AI health care projects.

• Prepare consideration of alternatives, market analysis, and problem definition

• Propose project solutions, testing, and validations.

• Maintain project meeting management and logistics: agenda development, meeting facilitation, meeting minutes, tracking action items, and producing notes.

• Provide support for VA Project Managers’ collaborations on Discovery & Development in AI plans with clear deliverables, deadlines, and dependencies.

• Use proven P/PM techniques and tools to develop Discovery & Development in AI plans and schedules to include but not limited to tasks, assignments, timelines, workstreams, and integrated master schedules and reporting.

• Provide NAII-wide analysis to identify areas of synergy and overlap, gaps, and new tasks in the various workstreams (gap analysis and recommendations)

• Document lessons that are learned from all AI health care projects and maintain a repository.

• Utilize repository to implement changes for new projects to ensure continual quality improvement and Discovery & Development in AI efficiency.

• In partnership with NAII, contractor will provide administrative and analytical support in relation to multiple, concurrent healthcare projects, briefing requests, and short suspense information requests that may be internally or externally generated, and may require assimilation of project level data (e.g., number and type of studies, funding levels, etc.) Work products under this task will include project specific assessments and reports for program management, Discovery &

Development in AI, and performance analysis to support health care initiatives and bridge the gap from development to production implementation, optimizing innovation in care and service delivery.

• Post-project implementation and integration with existing workflow processes utilizing data gathering, data analysis, testing, and validation.

• Facilitate experimental development within project teams for AI healthcare applied AI outcomes.

• The Contractor shall collaborate within NAII to configure, implement, and provide ongoing support for AI healthcare administration, including digital care solutions support. Contractor shall provide administration of a project and portfolio management platform for project tracking, status updates, project prioritization, and risk identification. By utilizing this platform, NAII will have access to visual management and alert capabilities to help organize and oversee projects and workload to optimize delivering innovation in AI health care service delivery.

• Ensure that the software is configured to meet the NAII's program and Discovery & Development in AI needs, including customization of workflows, reports, and dashboards.

• Provide technical support to NAII staff in the use of the software, including configuration and troubleshooting.

• Monitor and troubleshoot software issues and provide solutions, including escalation to the software vendor and Office of Information Technology (OIT) as needed.

• Provide guidance and training to NAII staff on the use of the software with standard operating procedures and best practices.

• Provide Scrum Master (Agile) and Waterfall management support and ensure data quality through reporting, identifying concerns and non-compliance, and escalation as required.

• Platform configuration and implementation

• Platform visual management and alerts

• Digital Discovery & Development in AI support, technical support and customization

• Training materials and standard operating procedures

• Continuous data quality monitoring and compliance review reporting as outlined in NAII operating procedures

• Continuous platform adaptation and improvement congruent with NAII capabilities, organizational growth, and complexity of AI healthcare administrative requirements

• Data review dashboards and/or visual management, and Analytical reports for AI project progression updates

• Project specific assessments and reports associated with the above services

• Facilitate experimental development within project teams for AI healthcare outcomes

• Project plans

• Project charters

• Project communications plans

• Project risk management plans

• Project budget reports

• Process and value stream maps

• Gap analysis and recommendations

• Project schedules

• Analytical analysis

1. Project Support

3.4.4 PROGRAM ADMINISTRATION SUPPORT

The objective of this task is to optimize opportunity to advance AI health care by providing program administration support to the NAII. This will allow NAII leadership to focus on high value operational activities. Contractor will provide program support services to ensure efficient and effective coordination of executive meetings, optimize the use of time and resources during these meetings, capture meeting minutes and action items, track and follow up on action items to ensure completion by required date, provide stakeholders with information for strategic decisions, identify emerging trends, and potential opportunities and risks.

The Contractor shall:

• Prepare meeting agendas, including identifying meeting goals and objectives, and outlining the topics to be discussed.

• Assist leadership with travel approval and travel arrangements.

• Coordinating meeting logistics, including scheduling, reserving meeting rooms (virtual or onsite as needed), and arranging for necessary equipment and supplies.

• Distributing meeting materials and information to attendees in advance of meetings.

• Facilitating meetings, including supporting the meeting lead in keeping the meeting aligned with the agenda and timeline to accomplish the required outcomes.

• Ensure information required for the meeting is provided to leadership in advance.

• Documenting meeting outcomes, including recording decisions, action items, and follow-up tasks.

• Updating and rearranging scheduling conflicts or redundancy to ensure timely meeting notification and efficient time allocation.

• Continuously evaluating, adapting, and improving the meeting coordination and optimization process.

• Provide leadership with assistance and data analysis for decision making.

• Meeting agendas, including meeting goals and objectives and topics to be discussed

• Meeting coordination, including scheduling, room reservations, travel approvals and arrangements as requested

• Meeting materials and information, distributed in advance of meetings

• Meeting facilitation, including managing discussions and ensuring all attendees have an opportunity to contribute

• Timely calendar updates to mitigate scheduling conflicts

• Meeting documentation, including recording decisions, action items, and follow-up tasks

• Data preparation, and development of presentations and talking points

1. Program Administrative Support:

3.4.5 AI COMMUNICATIONS

To develop and maintain a robust and integrated program, NAII must be able to effectively articulate the value of its work to various constituencies including health care administrators, clinician-scientists, industry sponsors, Congressional stakeholders, Veteran Service Organizations, Veterans and their families. As such, the Contractor shall provide strategic communications support to include technical writing, video, and web production tasks to communicate complex and technical information in a targeted manner for easy comprehension to build awareness and trust in AI outcomes and opportunities. The Contractor shall develop, gather, and disseminate technical information among customers, appropriate stakeholders, and contractors to ensure that all are informed and aware of critical information as needed to support NAII’s objectives of delivering innovation in care and service delivery utilizing AI. Actions may also include the tracking and reviewing of the status and progress of actions related to the correspondence to ensure the timeliness of responses, this includes providing input, reviewing, and editing correspondence to meet VA standards.

The Contractor shall:

• Assist in the planning and coordination of NAII internal and external communication.

• Provide regular progress reports of the program to appropriate stakeholders.

• Assist in identifying potential risks and developing risk mitigation plans.

• Assist in creating collaboration communication materials, such as brochures, fact sheets, correspondence, and presentations.

• Assist in AI related strategic communications planning to promote beneficial relationships between the VHA DHO, the NAII, the public, our Veterans and other entities. The Contractor shall provide support to assist in developing plans for various Department-wide outreach campaigns and recommending the most effective way of communicating a message in print, electronic format, or both, including social media and web-based outreach.

• Other related services may fall under the following categories: executing healthcare related media programs, assisting in the planning of press conferences, scheduling broadcast and/or print interviews, public relations, and crisis communications media training, such as, training of agency health care personnel to deal with media and media responses, media alerts and press clipping services related activities to public relations services.

• Provide video production including concept development, video production and editing.

• Provide assessment of web content, usability, design, plus maintenance and development.

• Perform tasks such as writing and editing healthcare focused materials, reports, policies and regulations, scientific and lay-language articles, newsletters, magazines, news releases, training materials, brochures, interpretive handbooks, pamphlets, guidebooks, scholarly works, reference works, speeches, or scripts. Strong knowledge of scientific and medical terminology as well as computer-based systems (MS Office, clinical databases) is required.

• Gather, analyze, and compose clinical and technical information required for preparation of user manuals, training materials, implementation guides, proposals, reports, etc.

• Edit functional descriptions, system specifications, user manuals, special reports, or any other customer deliverables and documents.

• Conduct data analysis and ensures the use of proper medical and technical terminology.

• Translate technical and clinical information into clear, readable documents to be used by technical/clinical and non-technical/clinical audiences.

• Provide edits of Webex and VA provided video, editing, and providing the NAII with the final product, develop healthcare related video and/or film materials in multiple mediums to include digital media for the use by the customer. Services may include final editing, copyrights and editing to fit various formats, i.e., High- Definition, streaming, Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), etc.

• Produce animation and social media content to explain complicated clinical and scientific information to broad audiences in ways that will resonate with diverse constituencies. The Contractor shall provide support in the development of healthcare related visual communication for internal and external stakeholders using photography, illustration, visual arts, page layout, etc.

Services may include logo design, periodical design, web design, and signage.

• Provide writing & editing support, draft, proofread, edit, and refine health care related written documents as often as daily, elevating the material to facilitate the production of high visibility internal and external facing final materials. Document types will vary and may include, but are not limited to: Congressional response letters, responses to stakeholder inquiries, public reports of status updates, PowerPoint presentations and other executive/leadership level comprehensive summaries and communications.

• Correspondence control: The Contractor shall provide planning, design, organization and management of correspondence and documentation. Tasks may include the development and preparation of presentation materials and business correspondence for Government approval, to include but not limited to PowerPoint, speeches, virtual presentations, brochures, posters, templates, Web graphics, fact sheets, talking points, e-Mail blast content and other materials.

• Professional Communications Support Services for AI healthcare operations

• Communication Plans

• NAII Reporting as Required to appropriate stakeholders

• Video recording and editing

• Graphic design

• Communications Media & Artifacts (social media, web content, written communications, video production)

Deliverables:

Work products will include specific deliverable assignments per task.

1. AI Communications:

4.0 SCHEDULE OF DELIVERABLES

Note: Days used in the table below refer to calendar days unless otherwise stated. Deliverables with due dates falling on a weekend or holiday shall be submitted the following Government work day after the weekend or holiday.

Task Deliverable Quantity Delivery Date

3.1 Post Award

Kick-Off Meeting

3.1A Kickoff Meeting and Agenda 3.1B Kickoff Meeting Minutes

1 Kickoff meeting agenda and meeting due within five (5) days of award.

Meeting minutes due within two (2) days of kickoff meeting.

3.2 Contractor

Program Management

3.2A Contractor Program Management Plan

1 On date agreed to by Contractor and

COR

3.2B Contractor Risk Management Plan

1 On date agreed to by Contractor and

COR

3.2C Contractor Change Management Plan

1 On date agreed to by Contractor and

COR

3.2D Contractor Quality Management plan/Version Control

1 On date agreed to by Contractor and

3.3 Meeting

Management/Reporting

3.3A Monthly Status Meeting Agenda & Minutes

12 Monthly on date agreed to by Contractor and COR

3.3B Weekly Task Order Meeting & Minutes

52 Weekly on day agreed to by Contractor and COR

3.3C Weekly Task Report & Minutes

52 Weekly on day agreed to by Contractor and COR

3.3D Scheduled and Ad- Hoc meetings & minutes with key stakeholders

As Needed

On date agreed to by Contractor

3.4 AI Program

Support - Monthly

Per subtask Per subtask Per subtask

3.4.1 AI Use-Case

Operations Support for

VHA

Per assignment On-going throughout the Period of Performance

3.4.2 Business Process

Engineering

Per assignment On-going throughout the Period

3.4.3 Project Support

3.4.4 Program

Administration Support

Per assignment On-going throughout the Period of Performance

3.4.5 AI

Communications

4.1 KEY PERSONNEL

A skilled experienced professional is essential for successful contractor accomplishment of the work to be performed under this effort. This Individual is defined as crucial to the successful performance of the orders issued and the programs being supported by those orders in accordance with solicitation requirements. The Contractor agrees that the key personnel shall not be removed, diverted, or replaced from work without prior notification of the CO. For this requirement, all Contractor personnel are key Personnel. Requirements that reflect the seniority and/or expertise levels of this labor categories, if any, will be specified at the order level.

The following Key Personnel are applicable to this requirement:

Program Manager:

In addition to the requirements for the labor category as included in the base IDIQ, the Contractor shall have specialized experience in clinical applications. The contractor shall designate a Program Manager who has 10 years of experience leading technology-based programs and health care experience in the areas relevant to the tasks defined in this PWS. The Program Manager is defined as a person with a master’s degree, or equivalent or higher and experience relevant to the task order requirement. Such experience shall include planning, initiating, managing, executing, and closing out programs in support of an integrated learning Health Care System. The Program Manager shall assist VA in the execution of targeted program goals.

Education requirement: Master’s degree; Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification

Project Manager:

The Contractor shall designate Project Manager who is the single contractor point of contact with/for the VHA requests for SME support and any matter related to the contractor performance. The Project Manager is defined as a person with a BA/BS degree and experience relevant to the task order requirement of successfully managing a large-scale program, encompassing multiple projects, with a total lifecycle budget and complexity comparable to the task order at hand. Such experience shall include planning, initiating, managing, executing and closing out programs in support of an agency’s mission.

Education Requirement: BA/BS degree; Project Management Professional (PMP) certification or FAC P/PM certification

Business Process Engineer:

The Contractor shall provide SME support for business process engineering. The Senior Business Process Engineering SME is defined as a person with a BA/BS or Masters Degree and is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt with extensive (5 years) experience in a health care environment. Demonstrated history of successfully designing efficient and effective process for enterprise level, complex, large-scale projects using various modalities including waterfall and scrum (agile) methodologies for successful implementation and integration with existing workflow processes.

Education Requirement: Masters degree; Six Sigma Black Belt certification; PMP or FAC P/PM certification

Communications Specialist:

The contractor communications specialist shall be responsible for assisting in the execution and planning of communications operations for the NAII. This includes communications for events, development of communication plans, the development of the NAII Website and the development of artifacts as need.

Education Requirement: BA/BS degree; 5 years of experience in communications.

5.0 PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE

The period of performance (PoP) shall be twelve (12) months from contract award date with two option periods of 12 months each.

There are eleven (11) Federal holidays set by law (USC Title 5 Section 6103) that VA follows:

Under current definitions, five are set by date:

New Year's Day January 1 Juneteeth National Independence Day June 19 Independence Day July 4 Veterans Day November 11 Christmas Day December 25

If any of the above falls on a Saturday, then Friday shall be observed as a holiday. Similarly, if one falls on a Sunday, then Monday shall be observed as a holiday.

The other six are set by a day of the week and month:

Martin Luther King's Birthday Third Monday in January Washington's Birthday Third Monday in February Memorial Day Last Monday in May Labor Day First Monday in September Columbus Day Second Monday in October Thanksgiving Fourth Thursday in November *This includes any day designated by the President of the United States.

6.0 TYPE OF CONTRACT

This is a Firm Fixed Price contract.

7.0 PLACE OF PERFORMANCE

The tasks under this PWS shall be performed at the Contractor’s place of business or events locations, unless a face-to-face meeting is required at this address:

National Artificial Intelligence Institute (NAII) Digital Health Office (DHO)

810 Vermont Ave NW Washington, DC 20005

8.0 TRAVEL

The Government anticipates travel under this effort. Travel must be pre-approved in writing by the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) and in accordance with Federal Travel Regulations. Each Contractor invoice must include copies of all receipts that support the travel costs claimed in the invoice.

Local travel within a 50-mile radius from the contractor’s facility is considered the cost of doing business and will not be reimbursed. This includes travel, subsistence, and associated labor charges for travel time.

Travel performed for personal convenience and daily travel to and from work at the Contractor’s facility will not be reimbursed. Travel, subsistence, and associated labor charges for travel time for travel beyond a 50-mile radius of the Contractor’s facility are authorized for reimbursement on a case-by-case basis and must be pre-approved by the COR and must be planned and executed according to Federal Travel Regulations. General and Administrative expenses will not be reimbursed.

The FTR can be referenced at:

http://www.gsa.gov/portal/ext/public/site/FTR/file/FTRTOC.html/category/21865/hostUri/portal

9.0 MATERIAL OTHER DIRECT COSTS

ODCs will be reimbursed at Contractor cost. Each Contractor invoice must include copies of all receipts that support the ODCs claimed in the invoice and written substantiation for the incurred cost. The Contractor shall perform due diligence to ensure it incurs most-favorable pricing prior to passing these costs on to the Government. ODCs are permitted only to the extent provided for by FAR 52.216-7 Allowable Cost and Payment. Projected ODCs shall be reviewed by COR and authorized in advance.

10.0 GOVERNMENT FURNISHED EQUIPMENT (GFE)

The Government will provide adequate physical workspace for up to three contractor personnel and will furnish the following: desk, encrypted laptop, phone, electronic mail (e-mail) account, and use of the Government telephone, facsimile machine, and copier, as required by this task order. The use of contractor equipment in Government facilities must be approved by Program Office.

The contractor shall adhere to all VA security requirements for any VA issued equipment and all contractor personnel that will receive and utilize VA issued laptops shall sign a VA property loan form and all associated documentation prior to receiving the equipment. All VA policies related to networked computer use will apply. Personal identification verification (PIV) cards shall be required for all contractor personnel with VA network access/accounts. Contractor personnel shall complete VA’s Privacy and Information Security Awareness and Rules of Behavior training before networked computer access will be granted.

Prior to the use of any Government-furnished equipment, the Contractor shall complete all mandatory training courses on the VA training site, currently the VA Talent Management System (TMS), and will be tracked therein. The TMS may be accessed at https://www.tms.va.gov. If an individual does not have a TMS profile, go to https://www.tms.va.gov and click on the “Create New User” link on the TMS to gain access.

The VA laptop computers must comply with all rules/requirements regarding patches and updates and must be returned to VA at the conclusion of the task order.

The C&A requirements do not apply, and that a Security Accreditation Package is not required.

http://www.gsa.gov/portal/ext/public/site/FTR/file/FTRTOC.html/category/21865/hostUri/portal https://www.acquisition.gov/far/52.216-7 https://www.acquisition.gov/far/52.216-7

11.0 SECURITY REQUIREMENTS

In accordance with VA Handbook 0710, Personnel Security and Suitability Program, the position sensitivity, and the level of background investigation commensurate with the required level of access for the following tasks within the PWS are:

Position Sensitivity and Background Investigation Requirements by Task

Task Number Tier 1 /Low Risk Tier 2/Moderate Risk Tier 4 /High Risk

All Tasks ☒ ☐ ☐

The Tasks identified above, and the resulting Position Sensitivity and Background Investigation requirements identify, in effect, the Background Investigation requirements for Contractor individuals, based upon the tasks the particular Contractor individual will be working. The submitted Contractor Staff Roster must indicate the required Background Investigation Level for each Contractor individual based upon the tasks the Contractor individual will be working, in accordance with their submitted proposal.

For additional security see section 13.

12.0 TASK ORDER QUALITY ASSURANCE SURVEILLANCE PLAN (QASP)

The Government will utilize a Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP) throughout the life of the contract to ensure that the contractor is performing the services required by this PWS in an acceptable manner. The Government reserves the right to alter or change the surveillance methods in the QASP at its own discretion. A Performance Based Service Assessment will be used by the COR in accordance with the QASP to assess Contractor performance.

Deliverable or Requirement

Performance Standard Surveillance Method

Outcome

All Tasks Services shall be provided in accordance with the Deliverable Schedule 100% of the time.

100% inspection

Poor performance may result in issuance of a contractor Discrepancy Report (CDR).

The contractor’s performance on this TO will be reported to the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) on an annual basis.

The CO and COR will make use of information from CDRs, as well as any additional knowledge and information available to them with respect to the contractor’s performance, to complete the

CPARS.

The Government will not pay for services that do not conform or do not meet performance standards or have not been properly rendered.

The contractor will be given an opportunity to correct nonconforming services at no cost to the Government if the services are non-conforming or the contract requirement is unacceptable.

The contractor shall perform the tasks and complete the associated deliverables under this task order by the scheduled due dates within the overall period of performance. If the contractor cannot deliver those deliverables specified by this task order by the required due date, then the contractor shall provide a written explanation to the Contracting Officer (CO) within one (1) business day of the deliverable due date. This written transmittal shall include the reasons for the delay; when the contractor knew or should have known a delay would incur; due diligence taken to mitigate the problems, the impact on the overall project; and a firm commitment of when the work is to be completed.

The Government will have ten (10) business days to review each deliverable and provide feedback/comments. The contractor shall have five (5) business days to incorporate feedback/comments and make appropriate revisions. The contractor shall provide the revised version of each deliverable to the Contracting Officer Representative (COR) and VA Program Manager (VA PM). The COR will review and determine final acceptance by the Government. The COR will notify the contractor of final acceptance within five (5) business days.

The contractor shall be responsible for adhering to all pertinent VA standards including but not limited to ensuring that all documentation and deliverables are stored on appropriate VA servers within one week of their completion. The contractor shall use the Microsoft (MS) TEAMS for all pertinent conference calls, and the VA Exchange server for all pertinent email. Upon assignment of VA email accounts, use of external email accounts for the purpose of VA communications and business will be prohibited. The contractor shall be responsible for adhering to all pertinent VA information technology policies and procedures, which will be made available at the contractor’s request on award.

Late Deliverables and/or Significant Errors or Omissions shall be handled in the following manner:

1st Attempt Meets or exceeds all acceptable quality levels and expectations of task/ deliverable 2nd Attempt Does not meet all acceptable quality levels and expectations of task/ deliverable: 5 days to remedy and resubmit.

3rd Attempt Does not meet all acceptable quality levels and expectations of task/ deliverable: 3 days to remedy and resubmit with 5% deduction offline item price 4th Attempt Does not meet all acceptable quality levels and expectations of task/ deliverable: 1 day to remedy and resubmit with 10% offline item price 5th Attempt Does not meet all acceptable quality levels and expectations of task/ deliverable: The

Government may not accept a deliverable that does not meet all acceptable quality levels and expectations of task/ deliverable after the 5th round of revisions from a Contractor. The contract in whole or part may be terminated for cause for failure to perform.

Late deliverables:

Deliverables must be provided on the dates specified. Any changes to the delivery date must have prior approval (in writing) by the PM/CO or designate at least five business days prior to the deliverable due date.

If the deliverable cannot be provided within the scheduled time frame, the contractor is required to contact the Project Manager/Contract Manager in writing with a reason for the delay and the proposed revised schedule. The request for a revised schedule must include the impact on related tasks and the overall project.

A request for a revised schedule must be reviewed and approved by the PM/CO before placed in effect.

Contract Terms and Conditions may dictate penalties, costs, and other actions based on the facts related to the request for a revised schedule.

Note 1: Significant errors or omissions are defined as deliverables not meeting the intent of the task and the work considered to be within scope of this order.

Note 2: Continued repetitive errors may result in an unacceptable rating on performance report to be used as part of the evaluation criteria on future order competition.

APPENDIX A

PROPOSED CLIN STRUCTURE

ITEM DESCRIPTION QTY UNIT UNIT PRICE AMOUNT

0001 MONTHLY AI

PROGRAM

SUPPORT

12 EA X X