36C10G25Q0094 Amendment 0002.pdf

5. PROJECT NUMBER (if applicable)

CODE7. ADMINISTERED BY

2. AMENDMENT/MODIFICATION NUMBER

CODE

6. ISSUED BY

8. NAME AND ADDRESS OF CONTRACTOR

4. REQUISITION/PURCHASE REQ. NUMBER3. EFFECTIVE DATE

9A. AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION NUMBER

9B. DATED

PAGE OF PAGES

10A. MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT/ORDER NUMBER

10B. DATED

BPA NO. 1. CONTRACT ID CODE

FACILITY CODECODE

Offers must acknowledge receipt of this amendment prior to the hour and date specified in the solicitation or as amended, by one of the following methods:

The above numbered solicitation is amended as set forth in Item 14. The hour and date specified for receipt of Offers

E. IMPORTANT:

is extended,

(a) By completing Items 8 and 15, and returning __________ copies of the amendment; (b) By acknowledging receipt of this amendment on each copy of the offer submitted; or (c) By separate letter or electronic communication which includes a reference to the solicitation and amendment numbers. FAILURE OF YOUR ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO BE RECEIVED AT THE PLACE DESIGNATED FOR THE RECEIPT OF OFFERS PRIOR TO THE HOUR AND DATE SPECIFIED MAY is not extended.

12. ACCOUNTING AND APPROPRIATION DATA

(REV. 11/2016)

is required to sign this document and return ___________ copies to the issuing office.is not, A. THIS CHANGE ORDER IS ISSUED PURSUANT TO: (Specify authority) THE CHANGES SET FORTH IN ITEM 14 ARE MADE IN THE CONTRACT ORDER NO. IN ITEM 10A.

15C. DATE SIGNED

B. THE ABOVE NUMBERED CONTRACT/ORDER IS MODIFIED TO REFLECT THE ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES SET FORTH IN ITEM 14, PURSUANT TO THE AUTHORITY OF FAR 43.103(b).

RESULT IN REJECTION OF YOUR OFFER. If by virtue of this amendment you desire to change an offer already submitted, such change may be made by letter or electronic communication, provided each letter or electronic communication makes reference to the solicitation and this amendment, and is received prior to the opening hour and date specified.

C. THIS SUPPLEMENTAL AGREEMENT IS ENTERED INTO PURSUANT TO AUTHORITY OF:

D. OTHER

Contractor

16C. DATE SIGNED

14. DESCRIPTION OF AMENDMENT/MODIFICATION

16B. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Except as provided herein, all terms and conditions of the document referenced in Item 9A or 10A, as heretofore changed, remains unchanged and in full force and effect.

15A. NAME AND TITLE OF SIGNER 16A. NAME AND TITLE OF CONTRACTING OFFICER

15B. CONTRACTOR/OFFEROR

STANDARD FORM 30 PREVIOUS EDITION NOT USABLE

Prescribed by GSA - FAR (48 CFR) 53.243

(Type or print) (Type or print)

(Organized by UCF section headings, including solicitation/contract subject matter where feasible.)

(Number, street, county, State and ZIP Code)

(If other than Item 6)

(Specify type of modification and authority)

(such as changes in paying office, appropriation date, etc.)

(If required)

(SEE ITEM 11)

(SEE ITEM 13)

(X)

CHECK

ONE

13. THIS ITEM APPLIES ONLY TO MODIFICATIONS OF CONTRACTS/ORDERS,

IT MODIFIES THE CONTRACT/ORDER NO. AS DESCRIBED IN ITEM 14.

11. THIS ITEM ONLY APPLIES TO AMENDMENTS OF SOLICITATIONS

AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION/MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT

(Signature of person authorized to sign) (Signature of Contracting Officer)

36C10G

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs OPAL | Strategic Acquisition Center

10300 Spotsylvania Ave | STE 400 Fredericksburg VA 22408-2697

36C10G

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs OPAL | Strategic Acquisition Center

10300 Spotsylvania Ave | STE 400 Fredericksburg VA 22408-2697

To all Offerors/Bidders

36C10G25Q0094

X

X X

Please see continuation page.

Tawana M. Young Contracting Officer

VA-OPAL-SAC-2024-0024

The purpose of this amendment is to:

1. Provide revised Addendum to FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors to:

Remove reference to Key Personnel and letters of commitment.

Extend due date of Attachment D - Past Performance Questionnaires ONLY to

Noon, Tuesday July 22, 2025.

2. Delete Clause C.14 VAAR 852.237-75 Key Personnel (Oct 2019) from the solicitation.

3. Provide revised Attachment A – Performance Work Statement and

Provide PWS Attachment A – Participant Agreement Provide PWS Attachment B – Screening Questionnaire Provide PWS Attachment C – Study Checklist Provide PWS Attachment D – Consent of Participants SOP

4. Provide Attachment B – Questions and Answers (with responses)

5. Provide revised Attachment E – Proposal Price Template (which removes the unnecessary labor categories)

6. Provide Attachment F – QASP

7. Confirm – proposals REMAIN due no later than 11:00 AM EDT on Thursday, July 17, 2025. Only Attachment D responses are extended to July 22, 2025.

A.1 ADDENDUM TO FAR 52.212.-1 INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS –

COMMERICAL ITEMS

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION:

In Accordance with FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors – Commercial Items.

PROPOSAL DELIVERY INSTRUCTIONS:

Due Date/Time: Proposals are due no later than 11:00AM EDT on Thursday, July 17th, 2025.

Proposals shall be submitted electronically by the above date and time to both of the following:

Jessica George, Contract Specialist at Jessica.George5@va.gov Tawana M. Young, Contracting Officer at Tawana.Young@va.gov

When submitting the proposal please reference in the email Subject Line: “HSI Participant Proposal Response (Company Name)”.

Proposals shall NOT be submitted in a .zip file but rather a zim file titled “Company ABC.zim”.

If Offeror is unable to provide in .zim file Offeror may submit volumes in separate emails. Each email submission shall specifically title the subject line as follows:

HSI Participant Proposal – Volume I - Technical Capability (Company Name) HSI Participant Proposal – Volume II – Past Performance (Company Name) HSI Participant Proposal – Volume III – Price (Company Name) HSI Participant Proposal – Volume IV – Solicitation / Offer (Company Name)

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:

All questions and inquiries concerning this RFP shall be submitted on Attachment B – RFP Questions no later than 10:00 AM EDT on Monday, July 14, 2025. The Government shall consolidate questions received and provide a response in a timely manner (to maximum extent practicable) to all Offerors at the same time. All questions and answers shall be published by amendments posted on sam.gov. Oral communications are not permissible. Questions and/or comments received after the specified date/time may not be addressed by the Government.

The Offeror shall submit questions to both Jessica George Contract Specialist at Jessica.George5@va.gov and Tawana Young, Contracting Officer at Tawana.Young@va.gov.

When submitting the questions please reference in the email Subject Line: “HSI Participant RFP Questions (Company Name)”.

1. The Offeror’s proposal shall consist of four volumes:

Volume I – Technical Capability Volume II – Past Performance Volume III – Price Volume IV – Solicitation, Offer and Award Documents

The use of hyperlinks or embedded attachments in proposals is prohibited.

WARNING: Please do not wait until the last minute to submit your proposals! Late proposals will not be accepted for evaluation. To avoid submission of late proposals, we recommend the email submission of your proposal file(s) 24 hours prior to the required proposal due date and time. Please be advised that timeliness is determined by the date and time an Offeror’s proposal is received by the Government not when an Offeror attempted transmission. Offerors are encouraged to review and ensure that sufficient bandwidth is available on their end of the transmission.

2. PROPOSAL VOLUMES. Offeror’s responses shall be submitted in accordance with the following instructions:

a. Format. The submission shall be clearly indexed and logically assembled. Each volume shall be clearly identified and shall begin at the top of a page. All pages of each volume shall be appropriately numbered and, date and solicitation number in the header and/or footer. Proposal page limitations are applicable to this procurement. The Table below indicates the maximum page count (when applicable) for each volume of the Offeror’s proposal. All files will be submitted as either a Microsoft Excel (.XLS) file or an Acrobat (PDF) file or compatible as indicated in the table. Page size shall be no greater than 8 1/2" x 11" with printing on one side, only. The top, bottom, left and right margins shall be a minimum of one inch (1”) each. Font size shall be no smaller than 12-point.

Arial or Times New Roman fonts are required. Characters shall be set at no less than normal spacing and 100% scale. Tables and illustrations may use a reduced font size not less than 8-point and may be landscape. Line spacing shall be set at no less than single space. Each paragraph shall be separated by at least one blank line (a minimum of 6-point font). Page numbers, company logos, and headers and footers may be within the page margins ONLY and are not bound by the 12-point font requirement. Footnotes to text shall not be used.

All proprietary information shall be clearly and properly marked. If the Offeror submits annexes, documentation, attachments or the like, not specifically required by this solicitation, such will count against the Offeror’s page limitations unless otherwise indicated in the specific volume instructions below.

Pages in violation of these instructions, either by exceeding the margin, font, printing, or spacing restrictions or by exceeding the total page limit for a particular volume, will not be evaluated. Pages not evaluated due to violation of the margin, font or spacing restrictions will not count against the page limitations. The page count will be determined by counting the pages in the order they come up in the print layout view.

b. File Packaging. All of the proposal volumes may be compressed (zipped) into one file entitled “Company ABC.zim” using WinZip version 6.2 or later version or the proposal volumes may be submitted individually.

c. Content Requirements. All information shall be confined to the appropriate file.

The Offeror shall confine submissions to essential matters, sufficient to define the proposal and provide an adequate basis for evaluation. Offerors are responsible for including sufficient details, in a concise manner, to permit a complete and accurate evaluation of each proposal. The titles and page limits requirements for each file are shown in the Table below.

Volume Number

Factor File Name Page Limitations

Volume I Technical Offeror Name_Vol I-Tech ORIGINAL.pdf

Volume II Past Performance

Offeror Name_Vol II-Past Perf.pdf Attachment C: 8 pages (2 page per reference as shown on the form)

Attachment D (PPQs):

None, maximum of four to be submitted by references if

CPARS/PPIRS not available

Volume III Price Offeror Name_Vol III-Price Narrative.pdf

Offeror Name_Vol III-Price.xls

None

None

Volume IV Solicitation, Offer & Award Documents, Certifications & Representations

Offeror Name_Vol IV-RepCert.pdf None

Removed

A Cover Page, Table of Contents and/or a glossary of abbreviations or acronyms will not be included in the page count of the Technical Volume. However, be advised that any and all information contained within any Table of Contents and/or glossary of abbreviations or acronyms submitted with an Offeror’s proposal will not be evaluated by the Government.

(i) VOLUME I – TECHNICAL FACTOR:

The Offeror shall provide a comprehensive response that details their technical capability, specifically:

1. The Offeror shall provide its technical approach to recruiting Participants (Employees/Staff, Veterans, Caregivers or Delegates, and Survivors) and obtain necessary Union approvals for the recruitment of Government employees as study participants, as required. The approach should clearly explain the contractor’s ability to identify and recruit the Participants meeting the criteria provided in the PWS, Section 2.0 Scope of Work, including a description of where the vendor will access Participants’ demographic data, and how the Contractor intends to recruit Veterans Participants meeting the required criteria. In terms of scale, the technical approach should demonstrate the ability to recruit and schedule a maximum of 600 total Participants during a one-year period and shall include lead time required by the contractor for each study.

2. The Offeror shall provide its approach to providing study support to the Employees/Staff, Veterans, Caregivers or Delegates, and Survivors study participants that demonstrates its ability to actively organize virtual studies, capture written notes and audio recordings, provide access to web conferencing software, and provide technology troubleshooting support to Veterans.

3. The Offeror shall provide its approach to promptly generate honorarium and travel reimbursement payments to study participants and provide evidence of payments disbursed to the Government.

(ii) VOLUME II – PAST PERFORMANCE FACTOR.

The Offeror shall complete Attachment C: Past Performance References in its entirety, listing a maximum of three contracts/orders for work performed in the past three years or currently being performed which addresses all of the following tasks: 1) Program Management and Preparation and 2) Study Coordination. The Government will make the determination of relevance (based on size, scope, and complexity of requirement).

References provided may include those entered into with the Federal Government, agencies of state and local governments and commercial concerns. Data concerning the prime contractor shall be provided first, followed by each proposed subcontractor, in alphabetical order.

Offerors shall submit no more than three relevant and recent past performance references total.

Each Offeror shall submit no more than one recent and relevant references for its proposed subcontractors (2 or more must be for the Offeror). It is not required for one reference to address all tasks. Each reference will be evaluated individually, and then relevancy (size, scope, and complexity) will be considered cumulatively across all the past performance references.

Offerors shall provide with Attachment C any associated Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS)/Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS) report(s) for each reference. In the event an assessment was not completed or marked as Final in

CPARS/PPIRS for the contract/order, Offerors may request the reference point of contact (POC) to complete and submit a Past Performance Questionnaire (PPQ) (See Attachment D of this solicitation).

The Offeror shall instruct the POC at the referenced entity to return a copy of the completed PPQ directly to the CO, Tawana Young, at Tawana.Young@va.gov and the CS Jessica George, at Jessica.George5@va.gov NO LATER THAN NOON, TUESDAY, JULY 22, 2025 (inclusive of any closing date extensions granted via amendment).

PPQs will only be evaluated for those contracts/orders that do not have a CPARS or PPIRS report available.

In addition, past performance information presented shall address the following:

Recency. For a past performance reference to be recent, the reference must have been performed within the last three (3) years (prior to proposal submission) with a duration of at least 12 months or work that is on-going and has been performed for at least 12 months (prior to proposal submission).

Relevancy. The aspects of relevancy that will be reviewed includes similarity to services/support required by the HSI Participant Recruitment scope, complexity and size (dollar value). To further clarify:

1. The annual dollar value shall be reported on the Attachment C. Offerors may submit past performances references less than the annual dollar value of $500,000. However, as size (dollar value) is an aspect of relevancy, Offerors are cautioned that submitting a past performance reference with less than $500,000 annual dollar value may result in a lower relevancy rating.

2. Offerors may submit Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Past Performance references (“D” type contract). However, the reference must also include a recent and relevant Task Order(s) for which the work was performed and identify the specific dollar value of the Task Order(s). If the Offeror submits an IDIQ as a past performance reference, the Government shall treat the IDIQ and all task orders identified by the Offeror as issued under the IDIQ contract as one reference. In addition, for any subcontractor Past Performance references, any task order dollar values must reflect the value of the subcontract, not the prime IDIQ contract dollar amount.

3. Past Performance references shall provide evidence of ability establish and maintain a databases of Participants using specific recruitment criteria (gender, age, use or not use of health IT (HIT), specific medical conditions, etc.;

Participant logistics: scheduling of participants, delivery of study instructions, and remuneration of study participants.; and set-up and utilization of technology for remote testing and recording of study sessions and focus groups; transcription of sessions.

Failure to demonstrate any of these aspects could potentially result in a lower relevancy evaluation which includes all the relevancy evaluation, elements identified in the evaluation approach and factors into the Government’s overall assigned Past Performance rating (Low Risk, Moderate Risk, High Risk or Neutral).

Satisfactory Performance. For a past performance reference to be considered satisfactory or better, the Attachment D - Past Performance Questionnaire or the CPARS must reflect a performance rating of satisfactory or better.

The Government is not required to contact references provided by the Offeror. Also, references other than those identified by the Offeror may be contacted by the Government to obtain additional information that will be used in the evaluation of the Offeror's past performance. The Government may consider past performance information obtained through other sources which is reasonably available and determined to be relevant. Past performance information obtained will be used for both the responsibility determination and best value decision.

Offerors shall indicate on Attachment C if they have no record of relevant or recent past performance.

(iii) VOLUME III – PRICE FACTOR

The Offeror shall complete Attachment E – Proposal Price Template of the solicitation.

Price Rounding Issue - The Government requires Offerors to propose unit prices and total prices that are two (2) decimal places and requires the unit prices and total prices to be displayed as two (2) decimal places. Ensure that the two (2) digit unit price multiplied by the item quantity equals the two (2) digit total item price (there should be no rounding). The Offeror shall propose unit price for each Task / Deliverable IAW Performance Work Statement each CLIN provided in the Attachment E – Proposal Price Template.

Offerors may also detail any discounts or other relevant pricing information.

All Offerors should propose using an estimated award date of no later than September 1, 2025.

(iv) VOLUME IV – SOLICITATION, OFFER AND AWARD DOCUMENTS AND

CERTIFICATIONS/REPRESENTATIONS.

Certifications and Representations - An authorized official of the firm shall sign the SF 1449 and all certifications requiring original signature. An Acrobat PDF file shall be created to capture the signatures for submission. This Volume shall contain the following:

a. Solicitation Section A – Standard Form SF1449 and Acknowledgement of Amendments, if any.

b. Any proposed terms and conditions and/or assumptions upon which the proposal is predicated.

c. Representations and Certifications:

52.212-3 Offeror Representations and Certifications – Commercial Products and Commercial Services (May 2025) (DEVIATION)

VAAR 852.219-75 VA Notice of Limitations on Subcontracting – Certificate of Compliance for Services and Construction (JAN 2023)

(DEVIATION)

Offerors are hereby advised that any Offeror-imposed terms and conditions and/or assumptions which deviate from the Government’s material terms and conditions established by the Solicitation, may render the Offeror’s proposal Unacceptable, and thus ineligible for award.

See attached document: Revised Attachment A - PWS HSI Participant Recruitment - Amendment 0002.

See attached document: PWS Attachment A - Participant Agreement.

See attached document: PWS Attachment B - Screening Questionaire.

See attached document: PWS Attachment C - Study Checklist.

See attached document: PWS Attachment D - Consent of Participants Standard Operating Procedure.

See attached document: Attachment B - All Questions and Answers.

See attached document: Revised Attachment E - Proposal Price Template HSI Participant - Amendment 0002.

See attached document: Attachment F - QASP_ HSI Participant.

A.1 ADDENDUM TO FAR 52.212.-1 INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS – COMMERICAL ITEMS