36C24125Q0305_1.docx

36C24125Q0305

PAGE 1 OF

1. REQUISITION NO.

2. CONTRACT NO.

3. AWARD/EFFECTIVE DATE

4. ORDER NO.

5. SOLICITATION NUMBER

6. SOLICITATION ISSUE DATE

a. NAME

b. TELEPHONE NO. (No Collect Calls)

8. OFFER DUE DATE/LOCAL

TIME

9. ISSUED BY

CODE

10. THIS ACQUISITION IS

UNRESTRICTED OR

SET ASIDE:

% FOR:

SMALL BUSINESS

HUBZONE SMALL

BUSINESS

SERVICE-DISABLED

VETERAN-OWNED

SMALL BUSINESS

WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS

(WOSB) ELIGIBLE UNDER THE WOMEN-OWNED

SMALL BUSINESS PROGRAM

EDWOSB

8(A)

NAICS:

SIZE STANDARD:

11. DELIVERY FOR FOB DESTINA-

TION UNLESS BLOCK IS

MARKED

SEE SCHEDULE

12. DISCOUNT TERMS

13a. THIS CONTRACT IS A

RATED ORDER UNDER

DPAS (15 CFR 700)

13b. RATING

14. METHOD OF SOLICITATION

RFQ

IFB

RFP

15. DELIVER TO

CODE

16. ADMINISTERED BY

CODE

17a. CONTRACTOR/OFFEROR

CODE

FACILITY CODE

18a. PAYMENT WILL BE MADE BY

CODE

TELEPHONE NO.

UEI:

EFT:

PHONE:

FAX:

17b. CHECK IF REMITTANCE IS DIFFERENT AND PUT SUCH ADDRESS IN OFFER 18b. SUBMIT INVOICES TO ADDRESS SHOWN IN BLOCK 18a UNLESS BLOCK BELOW IS CHECKED

SEE ADDENDUM

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

ITEM NO.

SCHEDULE OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES

QUANTITY

UNIT

UNIT PRICE

AMOUNT

(Use Reverse and/or Attach Additional Sheets as Necessary)

25. ACCOUNTING AND APPROPRIATION DATA

26. TOTAL AWARD AMOUNT (For Govt. Use Only) 27a. SOLICITATION INCORPORATES BY REFERENCE FAR 52.212-1, 52.212-4. FAR 52.212-3 AND 52.212-5 ARE ATTACHED. ADDENDA

ARE

ARE NOT ATTACHED.

27b. CONTRACT/PURCHASE ORDER INCORPORATES BY REFERENCE FAR 52.212-4. FAR 52.212-5 IS ATTACHED. ADDENDA

ARE

ARE NOT ATTACHED

28. CONTRACTOR IS REQUIRED TO SIGN THIS DOCUMENT AND RETURN _______________

29. AWARD OF CONTRACT: REF. ___________________________________ OFFER

COPIES TO ISSUING OFFICE. CONTRACTOR AGREES TO FURNISH AND

DATED ________________________________. YOUR OFFER ON SOLICITATION

DELIVER ALL ITEMS SET FORTH OR OTHERWISE IDENTIFIED ABOVE AND ON ANY

(BLOCK 5), INCLUDING ANY ADDITIONS OR CHANGES WHICH ARE

ADDITIONAL SHEETS SUBJECT TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS SPECIFIED

SET FORTH HEREIN IS ACCEPTED AS TO ITEMS:

30a. SIGNATURE OF OFFEROR/CONTRACTOR 31a. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (SIGNATURE OF CONTRACTING OFFICER) 30b. NAME AND TITLE OF SIGNER (TYPE OR PRINT) 30c. DATE SIGNED 31b. NAME OF CONTRACTING OFFICER (TYPE OR PRINT) 31c. DATE SIGNED

AUTHORIZED FOR LOCAL REPRODUCTION

(REV. NOV 2021)

PREVIOUS EDITION IS NOT USABLE

Prescribed by GSA - FAR (48 CFR) 53.212

7. FOR SOLICITATION

INFORMATION CALL:

STANDARD FORM 1449

SOLICITATION/CONTRACT/ORDER FOR COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS AND COMMERCIAL SERVICES

OFFEROR TO COMPLETE BLOCKS 12, 17, 23, 24, & 30

36C24125Q0305 03-18-2025 James L. R. Moore 603-624-4366 03-24-2025

1:30 PM

EDT

Department of Veterans Affairs Network Contracting Office 1 (NE) Contracting Office (90C) 940 Belmont Street Brockton

MA

02301-5596 X X Y 518210 $40 Million N/A X Department of Veterans Affairs VA Medical Centers Throughout New England

Department of Veterans Affairs Network Contracting Office 1 (NE) Contracting Office (90C) 718 Smyth Road, BST Suite 105 Manchester

NH

03104-7007

Financial Services Center http://www.fsc.va.gov/einvoice.asp PO Box 149971 Austin

TX

78714-9971 1-877-353-9791 See CONTINUATION Page This is a solicitation for commercial services against an Multiple Award Schedule GSA contract Category 518210DC Document Conversion and Digitization Services.

This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; quotes are being requested through GSA E-Buy.

This solicitation is issued as an RFQ set-aside for SDVOSB.

The Veteran Affairs Medical Center is seeking to purchase Medical Transcription services.

All interested companies shall provide quotations per the performance work statement attached.

The Preferred start date to get the contract up and running is 04/01/2025 .

All Questions are due by 03/20/2025 at 1:00 pm. No questions will be answered after this date and time.

See CONTINUATION Page X X Table of Contents

SECTION B - CONTINUATION OF SF 1449 BLOCKS

B.1 CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION DATA

1. Contract Administration: All contract administration matters will be handled by the following individuals:

a. CONTRACTOR:

b. GOVERNMENT: Contracting Officer 36C241

Network Contracting Office 1 (NE) Contracting Office (90C) 940 Belmont Street Brockton MA 02301-5596

2. CONTRACTOR REMITTANCE ADDRESS: All payments by the Government to the contractor will be made in accordance with:

3. INVOICES: Invoices shall be submitted in arrears:

4. GOVERNMENT INVOICE ADDRESS: All Invoices from the contractor shall be submitted electronically in accordance with VAAR Clause 852.232-72 Electronic Submission of Payment Requests.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF AMENDMENTS: The offeror acknowledges receipt of amendments to the Solicitation numbered and dated as follows:

PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT

Medical Transcription Services – VA New England Healthcare System The purpose of this contract is to acquire medical transcription services for digital dictation, traditional medical transcription and correction editing services for the VA New England Healthcare System, VISN 1 Facilities (hereafter referred to as VA, VAMC, or the Government).

1. BACKGROUND

The Contractor shall provide off-site medical transcription services for digital dictation, traditional medical transcription and correction editing services for The Department of Veterans Affairs, VA New England Healthcare Network, VISN 1 Facilities (hereafter referred to as VA, VAMC or the Government) 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including Holidays, within prescribed turnaround times (TAT), using vendor-supplied dictation/transcription equipment and meeting the prescribed turnaround times discussed herein.

2. DEFINITIONS & ACRONYMS

a. COR: Contracting Officer’s Representative

b. CPRS: Computerized Patient Record System. This is a GUI interface used to view and edit medical record information stored within VISTA.

c. Turn-Around Time (TAT): Turn-Around Time is the difference between the time the author hangs up at the conclusion of dictating into the system and the time the Contractor’s correctly transcribed report is uploaded (regardless of upload methodology) into the appropriate patient’s electronic record in VISTA/CPRS.

d. STAT: Report needs to be transcribed within the turnaround time indicated or sooner as designated by the report work type, author of the report and/or the COR or HIMS designee.

e. Visible Black Character (VBC): A Visible Black Character is defined as strike-able and visible characters and includes any printed letter, number, symbol, and/or punctuation mark excluding any or all formatting (e.g., bold, underline, italics, table structure, formatting codes). All visible black characters can be seen with the naked eye as a mark, regardless of whether viewed electronically or on a printed page.

f. The VBC Line or the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) no Spaces Line: A VBC line is defined as the total number of characters, printed or visible, that’s part of the final transcribed document. This includes any character contained in a header or footer. Spaces between words or sentences, carriage returns, hidden format instructions, such as bold, underline, text boxes, printer configurations, spell check, etc., are not included in the total character count. A VBC line is calculated by counting all visual characters and dividing the total number of characters by 65 to arrive at the number of defined lines.

g. VISTA: Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture. This is the electronic health record of the Veterans Health Administration.

3. SCOPE OF WORK

The contractor shall transcribe reports utilizing appropriate formats including headers and footers. Contractor shall also transmit and/or upload completed reports to VA using transmission and batch protocols provided by VA. The dictated material includes highly technical medical terminology and requires an in-depth (minimum of three years’ experience), knowledge of specialized vocabularies. Specialized vocabularies shall encompass a variety of subjects in the fields of Medicine and Surgery to include (but are not limited to): ambulatory care, anesthesiology, cardiology, dermatology, dentistry, drug and alcohol treatment, endocrinology, general medicine, gastroenterology, general surgery, geriatrics, gynecology, hematology, immunology, internal medicine, neurology, neurosurgery, nuclear medicine, oncology, ophthalmology, oral surgery, orthopedics, otolaryngology, otorhinolaryngology, vascular, pathology, psychiatry, psychology, plastic surgery, pulmonary, renal, radiology, rheumatology, spinal cord injury, thoracic surgery, transplant and urology. Material is dictated by a variety of clinical staff and requires adaptation to variations in accents, speech, tone, voice volume, delivery, pronunciation, enunciation and may require corrections to grammar.

The types of reports dictated will vary from facility to facility but may include any and/or all of the following (but are not limited to): Discharge (including interfacility transfer, inter-ward transfer and nursing home placement) summaries, procedure reports/notes (including, but not limited to: cardiac catheterization, endoscopy, dermatology, etc.), history and physical examination reports, annual physical examination reports (for outpatients and nursing home residents), radiology reports, emergency department notes, compensation and pension examination reports, outpatient and inpatient progress notes, cardiology reports (Holter monitors, echocardiograms, stress treadmills), neurology reports (Sleep study reports, EEG, EMG, Dopplers), surgical pathology reports, cytology reports, autopsy reports, mental status examinations, Persian Gulf and Agent Orange examination reports, consultations, and other miscellaneous medical reports as required.

System: The VA Medical Centers do not have dictation equipment. The transcribed documents are either typed directly into the VAMC Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VISTA) system or are typed and uploaded into the VISTA system. Remote access to VA systems that contain sensitive information must be done through the agencies current remote access capabilities (currently Citrix Access Gateway (CAG) but may be subject to change). Security requirements, liquidated damages for data breaches, etc. will be defined in the FAR clauses of the awarded contract.

Equipment necessary to comply with the terms of this contract is the responsibility of the contractor. Contractor must utilize the VPN software supplied by the VAMC. The VA shall provide the license for the VPN. Currently, there is no cost to the Contractor for a VPN license, but this may be subject to change. Contractor shall pay for connect/toll changes for dialing all VA-provided telephone numbers. Contractor shall be responsible for all costs associated with connection to the VPN. Adequate power and connections will be maintained by the Contractor to provide uninterrupted service. Contractor shall notify the specific VAMC Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) immediately of any equipment or connections that are not functioning properly and could adversely affect dictation and/or transcription. VA will provide COR contact information at time of award.

4. DELIVERABLES

4.1 SET-UP - IMPLEMENTATION

The Contractor shall spend as much time as necessary with each facility to ensure that the implementation of services is smooth and seamless to users at each facility. This can be completed virtually. The Contractor shall ensure that STAT and H&P Reports will reprioritize when entering the Contractor’s transcription system. The Contractor shall continue to provide assistance as needed to those facilities that request it, and shall continue to provide daily communication by e-mail, telephone or fax for jobs not transcribed or pulled. The Contractor shall ensure that all requested jobs are returned to their respective facilities by 3:30 p.m. EST each day.

4.2 TRAINING REQUIREMENTS

a. Contractor and certain members of Contractor’s personnel shall be required to meet virtually or come to the closest VAMC for on-site training. Training shall focus on all aspects of the requirement to ensure all personnel are adequately trained and ensure as few problems as possible arise in uploading and other areas. In addition to any training required for login credentials. As technical questions arise, VA staff shall assess for content and provide direction.

b. Training of Contractor Staff: Training of the Contractor’s upload staff shall occur during the phase-in period between contract award and the commencement of live production. The Contractor staff shall participate in training for as long as deemed necessary by VA COR and Contractor Staff, to ensure proper training has been accomplished to go live. Contractor staff receiving this training must be the “hands-on” staff who shall be working on uploading the work for the VA account. In accordance with VAMC Memorandum, Automated Information Systems Security Policy Consultation with designated Government Information Support staff shall also be available as needed.

c. Government regulations mandate that any individuals given access to a Federal System, or a system being operated on behalf of the Federal Government, must complete annual security awareness training that conforms to the requirements of the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Cyber and Information Security Training. Contractor is required to ensure that all their employees with such access receive this training as part of their orientation, as well as, repeating this training annually. These individuals are required to complete the intranet-VA Information Security Awareness Course, which is provided to meet this requirement, complete the course test, and obtain the on-line certificate to that effect. A copy of the certificate must be provided to each specific VAMC COR and Contracting Officer/Contracting Specialist. This training will be completed through the VA Talent Management System (TMS).

d. Contractor and business associates are required to complete annual VHA Privacy Training. Contractor is to ensure that their personnel receive privacy training that conforms to the requirements of Veterans Health Administration during their initial orientation as well as annually.

4.3 REPORTS & NOTIFICATIONS

Where a report, positive or negative, is established herein and is required to be submitted by the Contractor, reports will be VAMC-specific. The definitions below outline the timeframe for submission of reports to the COR:

1. Immediately: At the time of notification

2. Daily: 7:00AM EST each business day

3. Monthly: Due no later than the 5th workday of the month following the previous month.

*The above may be negotiated with awarded vendor* IMMEDIATE REPORTS (as required)

Contingency status A detailed explanation of the problem shall be provided to VA and any deviations from current practice shall be outlined.

COR or designee at the specific VAMC

DAILY REPORTS

Turnaround Time (TAT) Report Contractor shall send an electronic mail message with an attached spreadsheet (created in MS Excel or compatible software). The spreadsheet shall provide specific details about all the jobs transcribed during the previous day and should also allow VA to search for a specific job and or provider individually. Required fields (columns) in the spreadsheet shall include patient name, patient SSN, Job ID number, author, date and time of dictation, date and time of transcription, (if report completed when submitting this report); date and time of upload. The spreadsheet (and all its fields) shall be populated with details of all jobs that were transcribed during the previous day – the job numbers are to be pulled from the transcribed reports. This report contains sensitive data that shall be transmitted via a secure mechanism (secure server, etc.).

Dictation Activity Log Contractor shall send an electronic mail message with an attached spreadsheet (created in MS Excel or compatible software). The spreadsheet shall be complete with the job numbers, covering midnight to midnight of the previous day’s dictation (Friday through Sunday on weekends) showing dictated date and time, transcription date and time, report type, author identification, patient identification (name, Social Security Number) and line length.

Designated Medical Center employee(s)

Dictation & Export Log Contractor shall send an electronic mail message with an attached spreadsheet (created in MS Excel or compatible software). The spreadsheet shall provide specific details about all the jobs transcribed during the previous day and should also allow VA to search for a specific job and/or provider individually. Required fields (columns) in the spreadsheet shall include patient name, patient SSN, Job ID number, author, date and time of dictation, date and time of transcription, (if report completed when submitting this report); date and time of upload. The spreadsheet (and all its fields) shall be populated with details of all jobs that were transcribed during the previous day – the job numbers are to be pulled from the transcribed reports. This report contains sensitive data that shall be transmitted via a secure mechanism (secure server, etc.).

Designated Medical Center employee(s)

MONTHLY REPORTS

Monthly Quality Assurance Report This reports shall include by Job number for each report reviewed, the transcriptionist identifier, the number of lines of transcription, report type, number of errors, types of errors (incorrect or omitted medical terminology that is clearly dictated, punctuation or spelling which changes the meaning of the sentence, material entered that is not dictated (except when necessary for the purpose of correcting diction and/or grammar), material entered that is not part of the report such as dictators' directions to transcriptionists, misspelled words that have been caught by a spell-check program, three @ signs (@@@), or symbols utilized by a COR’s local facility to represent a blank line for dictation that is clearly understandable, unauthorized abbreviations), actions taken to decrease errors, and total compliance rates for each category.

COR (with monthly invoice)

4.4 PREPARATION & FORMAT OF TRANSCRIBED REPORTS/DOCUMENTS

General Format: The length of each report shall vary according to the type of medical report required. The reports shall be created and saved as ASCII text – only printable characters, single spaces, and <CR><LF>. The lines of the text are to be single-spaced with double-spacing between paragraphs. No report shall include any text other than what was dictated (except for formatting and grammar correction, as instructed by the VA COR). Comments and/or questions must be sent as separate correspondence referencing the dictation system job number. Typed comments and/or questions are not counted except in cases of extreme emergency. Typed header information is not countable as billable. Carriage returns, blank lines and tabs outside the body of the report, as well as margin settings and other word processing commands are excluded from line and/or character count and shall not be billed.

Header and Footer Format: Contractor shall ensure all header and footer information complies with the sample header and footer.

Header Information: Header text contains information required for uploading and must be exact (including spacing) complying with samples and instructions provided by the VA for each type of report. Each document shall include the specified header conforming to the standard provided by VA for that type of document. The header includes the document type, patient name, patient Social Security Number, date of encounter (date of visit, surgery and/or admission), the document’s author, the cosigner (when required depending on title of author), the attending physician (when indicated), dictation date (and time, when indicated), and the transcriptionist identifier.

Footer information: Footer information shall be typed on one line two spaces below the end of the body of the transcribed report and shall include the dictation job number, the initials of the author, the date and time of the dictation, the date and time of transcription, the Contractor’s name, and transcriptionist’s initials. At the direction of the VA, the Contractor shall insert additional information, such as signature blocks, on certain types of reports.

4.5 TRANSMISSION OF DOCUMENTS TO VA

Destination of transcribed documents: Contractor shall upload transcribed documents directly into the electronic patient record by electronic transmission through the VA VISTA system.

Frequency of Transmission: Transcribed documents shall be transmitted to VA at least every two hours from 7:00 am – 8:00 pm (EST) or more frequently at Contractor’s discretion. Additional transmissions of transcribed documents shall be transmitted to VAMC as frequently as is necessary to assure the vendor meets contract Turn-around-time.

Format & Protocol of Transmission: The Contractor shall be responsible for transmitting properly formatted documents over digital networks. Contractor must provide his/her own communications software, which shall enable them to upload the transcribed data into the electronic patient record. As discussed in the Orientation and Training Section, VA shall provide virtual training to the Contractor’s upload staff for this complex process during the initial period of this contract. The VA shall provide additional technical support to the Contractor throughout the term of this contract.

Compensation & Pension (C&P) reports: Contractor shall upload reports into the patient record as they are transcribed. Because VISTA menu structures may be modified prior to and/or following the phase-in period of commencement of this contract, the step-by-step protocol may be slightly modified. In this event, VA shall provide the Contractor with an updated protocol.

Medical Reports (Non-C&P): Contractor shall upload reports into the patient record as they are transcribed. Because VISTA menu structures may be modified prior to and/or following the phase in period or commencement of this contract the step-by-step protocol may be slightly modified. In this event, VA shall provide the Contractor with an updated protocol. Selection of the correct report title, as dictated by the author, and/or as instructed by COR is critical during the upload process. VA will update vendor with new note titles periodically.

Other Medical Reports: At the discretion of the VA, the contractor shall upload other classes/types of reports that may not have been addressed in Section 1 and 2 above. Any such reports may require a separate upload protocol. In the event additional protocol(s) are required, the VA shall provide the Contractor with the appropriate protocol(s) for immediate implementation.

STAT Reports: are required to be uploaded under this contract; however, if an emergency arises, VA may request a STAT report from the Contractor telephonically/electronically, along with any instructions to the Contractor regarding a special delivery location (such as a departmental fax machine number or a VA host PC).

Requests for Re-Uploads: In instances where an upload fails, the VA shall contact the Contractor and request a re-upload of that report. The Contractor shall re-upload the requested report within one hour of the time of the request. All re-uploads will be provided at no cost to VA. See below Section 5.2 Quality Assurance for standards for re-uploads that require corrections within the document.

4.6 BILLING & INVOICING

Unit Rate Based: Any equipment, material, or services required in the performance of this contract (i.e. dialing toll charges, background investigations, etc.) shall be included in the RFQ proposal.

No charges are assessed for blank lines (a line containing no text). There will be no bolding or underlining of words in transcribed reports due to incompatibility with VISTA.

For billing purposes, lines are calculated by adding the number of characters in a report and dividing by 65. Not all characters in a report are countable for line counting and billing purposes. Only those characters in a report following the upload header up to and including the footer are countable for line counting and billing purposes. The upload header includes all text/characters including and between $HDR and $TXT.

The COR will provide a sample report that illustrates what is considered countable and non-countable for line counting and billing purposes. The Contractor shall not bill the VA for any other typed documents – this includes but is not limited to logs, TAT reports, e-mails or correspondence to the VA, and any typing required to upload patient reports into the patient’s electronic medical record. The VA will be responsible for payment of lines received rather than lines transmitted which will be determined upon upload to the correct patient’s electronic record in VISTA/CPRS by the VA’s VISTA system.

4.7 CONTINGENCY SERVICES

Contractor shall maintain the resources necessary to ensure that transcription services for the VA New England Healthcare System are uninterrupted, regardless of contingency or circumstance. Immediately upon implementation of any contingency services by Contractor, the Contractor’s account manager shall notify the COR or designee at the specific VAMC. A detailed explanation of the problem shall be provided to VA and any deviations from current practice shall be outlined to the specific VAMC COR or designee annotating how TAT shall continue to be met.

Offerors will submit with their proposal, documentation detailing an adequate contingency plan in the event of a Contractor system failure. The contingency plan will be reviewed and either accepted or rejected by the Contracting Officer.

5. PERFORMANCE STANDARDS

5.1 TURN-AROUND TIME (TAT) REQUIREMENTS

NOTE: TAT is calculated on a 24-hour basis (including weekends and holidays). TAT requirement varies between report types, as described below:

TYPE OF REPORT

TAT IN HOURS

5.2 QUALITY ASSURANCE

All transcription performed by the Contractor shall be proofread for spelling, punctuation, grammar and qualitatively reviewed by the Contractor, prior to upload, to ensure the reports are error free and of the highest professional quality. Each transcribed report shall contain no more than 3 total errors per every 65 lines (65-characters each) in the report. Definitions for errors include, but are not limited to, the following: punctuation, grammar errors, incorrect job number transcribed in footer of report, non-medical spelling errors, inappropriate abbreviations, inserting paragraph headings and subheadings when not dictated and if not instructed to do so by the COR, medical spelling errors, missing or incorrect patient identification in header, transcribing abbreviations in the “diagnoses”, “procedures”, and/or “assessment/impression” sections of all reports, context errors, not transcribing information clearly dictated; typing three @ signs (@@@) representing a blank (when the dictation is audible upon review by the COR); formatting in ways other than instructed through VA-provided samples, etc. All problems should be identified and resolved within the TAT.

The contractor shall be required to have a quality control plan in place at the time performance begins, and a written statement of the quality control plan shall be submitted with the Contractor’s proposal. Periodic quality assurance checks will be performed by representative for Health Information Management Section (HIMS). This review will include comparison of the actual (audio) dictation to the typed report.

The Contractor shall have a system in place which will enable the transcriptionist(s) to type three @ signs (@@@) representing a blank line, if they cannot understand the dictator and/or if they have a question about the dictation, and the report will automatically be routed through a supervisor/editor, prior to upload. At this point, the supervisor/editor is to review the entire report (including the header and footer), listening to the dictation, filling in the blanks (if possible), and making any other corrections to the format and content (including grammar, punctuation, and spelling), prior to upload. The Contractor shall perform QA, checking for complete and accurate information in the header of all reports, prior to upload, to ensure all reports are uploaded into the correct patient’s electronic record and associated with the correct visit/event/admission/surgery date. Ninety-nine percent (99%) of the reports transcribed and uploaded shall be uploaded into the correct patient’s electronic record. If a problem is identified upon receipt by the VA (i.e., incorrect job number, error in body of text, uploaded into the wrong patient’s electronic record, etc.), the VA COR will take whatever steps necessary including, but not limited to, contacting the Contractor to have the discrepancy researched and the problem resolved by their staff.

The Contracting Officer has the right to terminate a transcriptionist from transcribing dictation for the VAMC, when quality assurance monitors reflect consistent problems with performance. The Contractor must correct all unsatisfactory work unless excused by the COR. Consistent failure (two consecutive months, or greater than three months within a six-month period) to meet any of the quality standards below, will be considered unacceptable and will be referred to the Contracting Officer for administration.

A. Quality Standards

1. The Contractor shall meet the following timeliness and accuracy rates: On average, no more than one error per 20 reports which changes the meaning of the report will be acceptable. These errors include but are not limited to:

a. Incorrect or omitted medical terminology that is clearly dictated.

b. Punctuation or spelling which changes the meaning of the sentence.

c. Entering material that is not dictated (except when necessary for the purpose of correcting diction and/or grammar).

d. Entering material that is not part of the report such as dictators' directions to transcriptionists.

e. Misspelled words that have been caught by a spell-check program.

f. Three @ signs (@@@) representing a blank line for dictation that is clearly understandable.

g. Unauthorized abbreviations (NOTE: abbreviations shall not be used in “diagnoses” and “procedure performed” and/or "assessment/ impression” section of any of the reports. Abbreviations used in the text are to be limited to those commonly used in laboratory testing, as listed in Stedman’s Abbreviations, Acronyms and Symbols, most recent edition, and those abbreviations on the VA approved abbreviation list, which shall be distributed to the Contractor at the time of contract award.)

B. Quality Monitors The VA COR shall monitor reports randomly throughout the month for Quality Assurance by comparing the transcribed report with the dictation. Monthly Quality Assurance reports shall be submitted by the Contractor to the COR at the VAMC by the fifth day of each month for the previous month’s activities. These reports shall include by Job number for each report reviewed, the transcriptionist identifier, the number of lines of transcription, report type, number of errors, types of errors (as listed in 4(b) quality standards above), and actions taken to decrease errors.

NOTE: During the initial 120-day startup of this contract, no penalties will be imposed for failure to meet quality monitors and TAT, provided that the Contractor is making satisfactory progress.

C. Upload Standards Contractor shall upload and correct upload errors under this contract. A sampling of errors that must be corrected by HIMS personnel will be recorded as format errors by the COR in the monthly QA monitoring report. These errors include but are not limited to: errors in the note titles assigned during upload, uploading to incorrect patient name, SSN, visit, event, admission or procedure date, deviations from patient/clinic/ward location listed in VISTA/VPN for each patient care episode, and errors in the name of author, attending, and/or cosigning physician.

Upload errors caused by errors or omission on the part of the VA author or VAMC staff do not count against the Contractor’s TAT performance. If there is no specific clinic appointment, surgery, or procedure slot open for a transcribed report, the Contractor shall transmit the report to the VA within the required TAT, and the VA COR will have a slot created and will upload the report. This would be considered an upload error caused on the part of the VA and, therefore, would not be assessed against the Contractor in the QA reporting process.

D. TAT Report Standards:

1. There shall be no more than two instances per month where the TAT report is late.

2. There shall be no instances when a TAT report is greater than two days late.

3. Reports shall have an accuracy rate of 99% for all fields and entries.

E. Proofreading: Contractor shall proofread all reports for compliance with established format for each work type and any necessary corrections are to be made at that time and prior to transmission. For any words or phrases that cannot be transcribed due to difficulties in hearing the dictators voice, the transcriptionist shall type three @ signs (@@@) representing a blank, to send the report through a supervisor/editor for further QA (as described under paragraph 4, Quality Assurance).

F. Spell check: Contractor shall use a medical spell checker on each document and perform corrections for spelling, punctuation, and grammar.

G. Corrections: Any report(s) returned to the Contractor for correction for reasons stated herein shall be returned to the VAMC within the following timeframes at no additional expense to the VA: Routine reports (normal 24-hour TAT requirement) are to be corrected and returned within four hours of receipt by the Contractor; special reports (normal 4- hour TAT requirement) are to be corrected and returned within two hours of receipt by the Contractor; and any STAT reports (normal 2-hour TAT requirement) are to be corrected and returned within one hour of receipt by the Contractor.

H. Skipped Jobs: All reports shall be transcribed using the TAT priority requested. Contractor shall ensure STAT reports are continually re-sequenced so that they are always the first priority for transcription. Consistent skipping of jobs to avoid a certain report type or author is not allowed.

I. Partial or Incomplete Dictation: Dictation may be interrupted if there is an equipment malfunction or if the dictator terminates the dictation, prior to the end of the report. In cases where the dictation is continued or completed in another job number on the same day, Contractor shall be responsible for combining all segments of the dictation into one complete report prior to the final upload. When dictation is incomplete and not continued or completed on the same day, the transcriptionist will return twice after the last word dictated and type “Dictation Ended at This Point.” In rare instances, the dictation might be cut off at the beginning of a report. In this instance the transcriptionist is to return once after the header, and prior to transcribing the report, and type “Dictation Started at This Point.” These are the only instances when the transcriptionist is allowed to type any kind of comment in any report, except other than those comments that could be dictated by the author regarding dictation or continuation of a prior report.

J. Missing Reports: Contractor shall ensure that VA COR’s and HIMS Personnel are aware of any minimum time frames in which VA providers must be on the line before recording begins to eliminate “0” line reports. Missing reports are defined as reports dictated by the physicians, verified, and transcribed, but not delivered to the VA. The Contractor shall be accountable for any missing reports. Any transcription redone due to a missing report shall be transcribed and returned at no charge to the VA within four hours after receipt of notice from VA COR or designated HIMS personnel. Any more than two occurrences of missing reports per month is considered unacceptable, and consistent occurrences (two consecutive months or greater than three months within a six-month period) of two missing reports each month will be referred to the Contracting Officer for administration.

6. PERFORMANCE PERIOD

Period of performance for contract will be as follows:

Base Year: April 1, 2025 - March 30, 2026 Option Period 1: April 1, 2026 - March 30, 2027 Option Period 2: April 1, 2027 - March 30, 2028 Option Period 3: April 1, 2028 - March 30, 2029 Option Period 4: April 1, 2029 - March 30, 2030 VA recognizes that there will be a certain amount of time before Vendor can take 100 percent of the transcribed notes. While the vendor is getting access to VA systems. Vendor is required to notify the VA of how long they feel this period could be during the Request for quote phase.

7. PLACE OF PERFORMANCE

Tasks under this Performance Work Statement shall be performed remotely. Work may be performed at remote locations other than the Contractor’s facilities. This requirement will be for eight (8) VA Medical Centers within VISN 1. VA Bedford Healthcare System and VA Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System do not require services at this time; however, they are included in the event there is a future need. The VA facilities and locations within the VA New England Healthcare System are as follows:

a. VA Maine Healthcare System, 1 VA Center, Augusta, ME 04330

b. VA White River Junction Healthcare System, 215 N. Main Street, White River Junction, VT 05009

c. VA Bedford Healthcare System, 200 Springs Road, Bedford, MA 01730

d. VA Boston Healthcare System, 150 S. Huntington Avenue, Jamaica Plains, MA 02130

e. VA Manchester Healthcare System, 718 Smyth Road, Manchester, NH 03104

f. VA Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System, 421 N. Main Street, Leeds, MA 01053

g. VA Providence Healthcare System, 830 Chalkstone Avenue, Providence, RI, 02908

h. VA Connecticut Healthcare System, 950 Campbell Avenue, West Haven, CT 06516

8. SPECIAL GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBILITES

A. Electronic access: VA shall provide electronic access to VA computer systems. Government regulations mandate that any individuals given access to a Federal System, or a system being operated on behalf of the Federal Government, must receive information security awareness training as part of their orientation training and must be provided with refresher security awareness training at least annually. The intranet VA Information Security Awareness Course shall be provided to meet this requirement. Individuals are required to complete the course, pass the test and retrieve an on-line certificate. A copy of the certificate must be provided to the COR who will provide it to the Information Security Officer.

B. List of staff: VA will provide a list of staff, as well as rotation schedules when applicable.

C. Templates: VA will provide reports and/or header & footer formats and an approved List of Abbreviations.

D. Workflow Fluctuations: VA will provide advance notification whenever possible regarding workflow fluctuations or other changes that impact Contractor performance.

E. Regular meetings: Meetings between the VA Transcription Staff and those of the Contractor shall be held monthly for the base year of the contract and then quarterly throughout the remainder of the option years, unless problems arise that require more intense discussion and frequency of meetings.

9. SPECIAL CONTRACTOR RESPONSIBILITIES

A. Primary and Alternate Point of Contact: Contractor shall provide the name and phone number of the person who shall function as the contractor’s designated liaison and that of the person who will act in the absence of the designated liaison, who will resolve issues at the operations level. These individuals shall work with the VA COR on day-to-day operations and shall be available from 7:00 am – 11:00 p.m. EST seven days a week. Telephone or e-mail inquiries to the Contractor shall be responded to within two (2) hours. A telephone answering service or machine utilized by the Contractor during normal working hours shall be checked frequently, so as to obtain any messages left by the VA.

B. Company Representative: Contractor shall provide the name of a company representative who is authorized to act on behalf of the company to resolve ongoing problems that have not been resolved at the operations level.

C. Computer System: The Contractor shall have computers and software able to support the requirement. If not already owned or in use by Contractor, Contractor shall purchase, lease, etc., necessary software, equipment and/or services required to adhere to the contract specifications found herein, including the equipment necessary to enable the VA to have real-time access to view dictation/transcription data as it is recorded by the Contractor’s dictation/transcription console.

D. Staffing Requirements: Contractor shall provide sufficient transcriptionists to meet the contract requirements and a plan to address periodic fluctuations in VA workload. All transcription services will be performed in the United States or its territories by citizens of the United States of America.

E. Qualified Staff: Contractor shall provide qualified transcriptionist with a minimum of three years’ experience to meet the quality standards of this contract.

F. Phasing Plan: Contractor shall have a phasing plan for the transition period between contract award and live production. This phasing plan shall be submitted with proposal.

G. Contractor Personnel Security Requirements: All Contractor employees who require access to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ computer systems shall be the subject of a background investigation and must receive a favorable adjudication from the VA Office of Security and Law Enforcement prior to contract performance. This requirement is applicable to all subcontractor personnel requiring the same access. The required investigation(s) shall be initiated prior to contract performance. If the investigation has not been completed prior to the start date of the contract, the Contractor shall be responsible for the actions of those individuals they provide to perform work for VA.

1) Position Sensitivity: The position sensitivity has been designated as Low Risk.

2) Background Investigation: The level of background investigation commensurate with the required level of access is performed by the VA Law Enforcement Center in Little Rock, Arkansas.

3) Contractor Responsibilities:

i. The Contractor shall bear the expense of obtaining background investigations. If the investigation is conducted by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Contractor shall reimburse VA within 30 days. The estimated cost for a low risk level background check is $250.00 each.

ii. The Contractor shall prescreen all transcription personnel and all personnel requiring access to the computer systems to ensure they are U.S. citizens and that they maintain U.S. citizenship and are able to read, write, speak and understand the English language.

iii. The Contractor shall submit or have their employees submit the following required forms to the VA Office of Security and Law Enforcement within 30 days of receipt:

· Standard Form 85P, Questionnaire for Public Trust Positions

· Standard Form 85P-S, Supplemental Questionnaire for Selected Positions.

· FD 258, U.S. Department of Justice Fingerprint Applicant Chart.

· VA Form 0710, Authority for Release of Information Form.

· Optional Form 306, Declaration of Federal Employment.

· Optional Form 612, Optional Application for Federal Employment.

iv. The Contractor, when notified of an unfavorable determination by the Government, shall withdraw the employee from consideration from working under the contract.

v. Failure to comply with the Contractor personnel security requirements may result in termination of the contract for default.

4) Government Responsibilities:

i. The VA Office of Security and Law Enforcement shall provide the necessary forms to the Contractor or to the Contractor’s employees after receiving a list of names and addresses.

ii. Upon receipt, the VA Office of Security and Law Enforcement shall review the completed forms for accuracy and forward the forms to OPM to conduct the background investigation.

iii. The VA facility shall pay for investigations conducted by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in advance. In these instances, the Contractor will reimburse the VA facility within 30 days.

iv. The VA Office of Security and Law Enforcement shall notify the Contracting Officer and Contractor after adjudicating the results of the background investigations received from OPM.

v. The Contracting Officer will ensure that the Contractor provides evidence that investigations have been completed or are in the process of being requested.

The Contractor may utilize a private investigating agency if such agency possesses an OPM and Defense Security Service certification. A Cage Code number must be provided to the VA Office of Security and Law Enforcement, which shall verify the information and advise the Contracting Officer whether Contractor’s access to the computer systems can be authorized.

10. CONTRACTOR QUALIFICATIONS

A. Financially Responsible Business: Offers will be considered only from those firms who are regularly established in the business of transcription and are, in the judgment of the Contracting Officer, financially responsible and able to show evidence of resources, experience and qualifications necessary to render services in accordance with the contract requirements.

B. Experienced Staff: Contractor transcription staff shall be a Certified Medical Transcriptionist or have three (3) years of recent work experience transcribing physician dictated inpatient medical record reports including but not limited to: History and Physicals, Operative Reports, Consultation Reports, Discharge Summaries, Procedure Reports, and Diagnostic Imaging Reports. Prior VA transcription experience is desired. Prior VA transcription experience in the Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS) environment is preferred. The VA reserves the right to review the resumes of transcriptionists typing VA work. In addition, the Contractor shall be required to ensure that all transcriptionists being assigned to work on this account go through a period of editing/training, as described in the Description/Specifications/Work Statement, Subparagraph 5, Orientation and Training.

C. Stable Workforce: Contractor shall have a stable workforce, with experienced administrators, technicians, and credentialed staff necessary to comply with the contract requirements and holding at least one of the following:

RHIT – Registered Health Information Technician;

RHIA – Registered Health Information Administrator; or AAMT – Association of American Medical Transcriptionists D. Equipment, Hardware & Software Experience: Contractor shall have extensive knowledge and experience with computer systems, specifically Microsoft Word and VA’s internal software, VISTA/CPRS.

11. CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION

A. Communication Points: Normal day-to-day issues and problems shall be resolved by communication between the VA and the Contractor at the lowest level possible. Issues and problems that cannot be resolved at this level shall trigger communication between the VA COR and the Contractor’s primary or alternate operations manager. Problems unresolved at this level shall be referred to the VA Contracting Officer and the Contractor’s designated Corporate Official.

B. Price All Inclusive: Contractor shall be able to set any schedule of work hours for its employees under this contract providing the VA’s TAT requirements shall be met; however, the contract price stated in Prices/Costs is considered payment in full for all services rendered under this contract. The Government will not be liable for any overtime pay/holiday differential.

C. Access to ADP Files: In the performance of official duties, the Contractor’s employees have regular access to printed and electronic files containing sensitive data which must be protected under the provisions of the…