Record of Questions and Answers 0020 4.17.26.pdf

36C10G26R0003 0020 Questions and Answers

Number Industry Questions VA Answers

Do you all have an opportunity to add labor categories for consideration and a table based on annual pricing increases?

The VA has revised the IDIQ labor categories (LCATs) and provided a pricing attachment. Offerors are not permitted to add additional labor categories. Refer to amendment 0020 for further details.

So, if you're pricing the three LCATs at the IDIQ level, are those meant to be maximums? So, if you require if you're bidding on other service areas that require other labor categories that might be more expensive, how is that going to be handled?

Refer to amendment 0020 for the revised LCATs and additional pricing instructions.

Just to confirm specifically, for example, we have the base year, option year one, option year two, option year three, option year four in the IDIQ, but those the periods may have multiple years and it can be challenging to come up with a single rate covering three years because then we'd either be showing rate that might be above market in the first year of that of that option period, but essentially below market in the last year of that option period.

So, is there a way to maybe show the pricing for all 10 years of the IDIQ, or to clarify, in the language? Because the language now in the solicitation says you must price all periods within the table provided is only in years, so it'd be good if its price was base plus nine years.

Refer to amendment 0020 for the revised Pricing template that addresses this question.

Are we able to negotiate rates and labor categories again when those are released?

The LCATS at the IDIQ level establish binding rates the Contractor shall use for task orders issued under this IDIQ, to the extent the task order offeror includes those labor categories in structuring its firm-fixed pricing at the task order levels. Any future price negotiation will be subject to the specific requirements and circumstances of each individual task order.

Should the TOPR have their own labor categories that are priced separately than what is in the IDIQ?

Each future TOPR will have specific requirements. The LCATS at the IDIQ level establish binding rates the Contractor shall use for task orders issued under this IDIQ, to the extent the task order offeror includes those labor categories in structuring its firm-fixed pricing at the task order levels.

Regarding the three labor categories you've given, the labor categories as described and defined, are not clear. For example, that they have to have about 10 years and about three to 10 years and about 10 years for the trainer, can you please be a little more specific if it's about put the specific range in there. Do you mean 9 to 10? Ten years or 8 1/2 to 10 years? Or do you mean 10 years? Refer to amendment 0020 for further information.

Please confirm that CCN Next Gen Medical TOPR contractors may satisfy FedRAMP requirements by utilizing cloud service offerings with existing FedRAMP authorizations from the VA or other federal agencies rather than obtaining a new or VA-specific authorization as long as those offerings have met the FedRAMP High standards by HCD.

Yes. CCN Next Gen Medical TOPR contractors may use cloud service offerings that already have a FedRAMP authorization issued by VA or another federal agency, as long as those offerings meet FedRAMP High requirements for Health Care Delivery (HCD). A new or VA specific authorization is not required.

When a cloud service has an existing FedRAMP authorization that has not yet been approved by VA, VA will review the service’s FedRAMP Security Artifacts. These artifacts will be obtained from the connect.gov repository or the vendor’s artifact repository. Following this review, VA will provide a recommendation to VA’s Authorizing Official (AO). To support timely activation of services, VA has established a 60 day service level agreement for this review, assessment, and recommendation process.

If the cloud service already has a VA authorization in use, VA may require a Security Impact Analysis (SIA) to confirm that the solution covers the necessary CCN full HCD data elements and supports any new connections. Once submitted, SIAs are completed within a 14 day turnaround.

Please confirm that VA will require that any systems for which FedRAMP security standards apply that will be used to store, process, or transmit sensitive data for the current TOPRs, must meet a FedRAMP High standard at Health Care Delivery (HCD) or full HCD?

Yes. VA requires that any system subject to FedRAMP security standards and used to store, process, or transmit sensitive data for the current TOPRs must meet a FedRAMP High baseline at Health Care Delivery (HCD). The data expected to be handled at full HCD is categorized at a FISMA High level, and any solution managing this sensitive information must be capable of processing FISMA High categorized data.

Based on Amendment 18 changes to instructions that added the Contract Documents Volume, please confirm that offerors should still include a title page and table of contents in Volumes I-III and that these do not count against the page count. Confirmed. Still accurate.

In Section E.4.C, Factor 2 (page 107) of the conformed copy of the solicitation (Amendment 18), it states that "an offeror must be listed at the time of submission of proposals and at time of award, as a certified SDVOSB/VOSB in the SBA certification database on the SBA Veteran Small Business Certification Program portal at https://veterans.certify.sba.gov/ (Vet13 CFR

128) and be otherwise eligible in accordance with SBA size standards for the acquisition and limitations on subcontracting requirements set forth in SBA regulations (see 13 CFR 121, 125 and 128)." This SBA portal does not list SDVOSB Joint Ventures designated after August 1, 2025. Our offering entity is a SDVOSB Joint Venture in this situation and as such, is not reflected in the SBA Veteran Small Business Certification Program portal, but is reflected in SAM.gov. Accordingly, we respectfully request that the Government consider revising the language to account for this circumstance in a conformed copy of the solicitation.

The Managing Venturer must be a certified SDVOSB/VOSB at the time of proposal submission and award, and the Joint Venture must be registered and active in SAM.gov and otherwise compliant with applicable SBA regulations. If the SBA portal is not updated and does not reflect the most current certification status, beyond the control of the Offeror, VA will confirm with the SBA for the most updated information.