Consolidated Questions - Post One-on-One - RFI Prescription Eyeglasses - FINAL.docx

Post One-on-One & Other Questions Received & Government Responses National Prescription Eyeglasses Manufacturing Services RFI 36C24125Q0327

1. Statement: We support the use of opticians employed by the eyeglass manufacturer either directly or through VCS or being employed directly through VCS. However, we have numerous concerns with opticians being employed by a third party and have the following questions if the third-party option is selected:

2. For warranties caused by the following reasons, who will be responsible, the VA or the third party provider?:

A. Non-adapt or Progressive B. Non-adapt change from SV to FT, SV or PAL, or FT to PAL?

C. Optician errors D. Frame restyle E. Answer: If an optician enters a selection into the manufacturer's software incorrectly, then the responsibility rests with the optician. Period. Whether the optician is a VA employee, third party employee, manufacturer employee or VCS contractor. Meaning, who is providing the optician (VA, 3rd party, manufacturer, or VCS) doesn't shift the responsibility for mistakes made by an optician. Additionally, it should be noted, opticians provided by VCS are not employees of VCS. VCS would also have to obtain those services from a 3rd party. Manufacturers can no longer provide opticians whether that be directly to VA or through an agreement with VCS.

3. The eyeglass manufacturers that currently provide eyeglasses to veterans in the VA use proprietary electronic ordering platforms. Will a third party have their own ordering system, or will the manufacturers be required to allow the third party to use theirs? If the latter, what assurances will the VA provide to the manufacturers that their proprietary technology which has taken years to develop and optimize will not be stolen, copied, or shared without their authorization?

A. VA requires eyeglass manufacturer Contractors to have a secure web site that includes an ordering platform for opticians to directly enter orders. VA government and contractor personnel are required to take training and undergo appropriate background investigations to access VA authorized systems. Moreover, the contract(s) entered into with the optician services providers will include contract terms related to information security, data rights and IP integrity and safeguard language.

4. How will the loss of any frames from the frame board be handled? Who will be responsible for compensating the manufacturer for replacement frames?

A. Questions pertaining to how VA will procure optician services and how VA will monitor performance and compliance with contract terms under future contracts for optician services will not be addressed. Those questions are outside of the instant requirement for prescription eyeglass manufacturing services.

5. Will the manufacturer have the ability to visit locations to ensure the third-party opticians are trained properly on their ordering system, to conduct physical frame inventories, and to ensure that all frames are displayed properly?

A. Scheduled visits for training may be required. To the extent such an on-site review is deemed necessary by the manufacturer, it will need to be both coordinated with the Agency and approved by the Agency. Unscheduled visits would be inappropriate.

6. To the best of our knowledge, there are no third-party optician providers currently operating within the VA and no companies that are experienced in providing these services other than the eyeglass manufacturers. How will VA vet the third-party provider and ensure that they can properly staff, train, and monitor their employees?

A. Optician services are outside of these national contracts.

7. Past performance is a primary evaluation factor in eyeglass solicitations, and we assume that it will be in this and future national eyeglass contract solicitations as well. If the third-party opticians make mistakes such as incorrectly entering orders or not submitting orders in a timely manner, among other things, this will delay orders and may reflect poorly on the manufacturer’s performance. How will VA take this into consideration when evaluating an eyeglass manufacturers past performance and when providing CPARS evaluations?

A. VA will assess and review the manufacturer’s performance under its contract based on the prescription eyeglass manufacturing services performed in accordance with the requirements of the manufacturer’s contract.

8. Considering the importance of optician services to the veteran’s eyeglass ordering experience, will the members of the VA National Contract Committee agree to conduct market research on how these services are provided including visiting optical shops operated by the current contractors and VA opticians to determine if employing third-party opticians is a practical option?

A. Questions pertaining to how VA will procure optician services, and the steps VA will take in preparation of that procurement will not be addressed. Those questions are outside of the instant requirement for prescription eyeglass manufacturing services.

9. Our recommendation would be for optician services to be provided by the eyeglass manufacturer either directly (as is currently done in most VA locations) or through VCS (as is done in some locations). These options are proven to work and can continue to be easily implemented as opposed implemented an unproven and risky third-party approach. Would VA be open to implementing this recommendation and if not, why?

A. Manufacturers will no longer provide optician services to VA whether that be directly to VA or through VCS. Optician services are outside of these national contract.

10. Statement: We support the use of a national eyeglass contract to streamline the procurement process for eyeglass manufacturing. However, we have concerns with the idea of displaying frames from multiple contractors in the optical shop and the order going to the manufacturer whose frame was selected by the veteran. To that end, we have the following questions:

11. The process of entering an order into the manufacturer’s electronic ordering platform begins as soon as the veteran arrives and provides their name. However, because the optician will not know which manufacturer’s system to input the order into until the frame is selected it will slow down the process of veterans being seen for several minutes each. How will VA adjust staffing and optical shop hours to accommodate for this slowdown?

A. The requested information is outside the eyeglass manufacturing services requirement and unnecessary for a prospective offeror to develop a proposal in response to the solicitation.

12. How will the contracted manufacturers be able to adequately plan the staffing, supply, and equipment needs of their labs knowing that if, for example, there are only 2 labs who have frames displayed on the frame boards and your daily order volume can fluctuate from anywhere between 0 orders to approximately 10,000 depending on how many of your frames are selected that day?

A. When issued, the RFP will have all pertinent usage estimates and a guaranteed minimum value. The contractor is responsible for pricing its proposal based on the information provided by the government.

13. Because eyeglass manufactures have varying levels of capacity, how will this impact the number of frames that they are allowed to display at each location in a multi-award scenario? For example, if one manufacturer has a capacity of 6,000 orders a day and another 600, will the number of frames displayed be in direct proportion to that capacity with the larger lab being able to display 10x as many frames as the smaller lab?

A. Capacity of manufacturers will be considered when determining how many IDIQ contracts will be awarded.

14. For VA locations that still issue PO’s through individual purchasing agents, how will agents receive the PO’s, how will they distinguish the PO’s between the multiple manufacturers and how will situations where the wrong PO is attached to the wrong order be resolved in a timely manner?

A. VA appreciates the question and will consider this as we develop the requirement for prescription eyeglasses manufacturing services.

15. For VA locations that use 4-Sight, how will 4-Sight be able to distinguish between orders received from multiple manufacturers?

A. VA appreciates the question and will consider this as we develop the requirement for prescription eyeglasses manufacturing services.

16. The current VA eyeglass manufacturers purchase most of their frames from the same vendors. How will VA be able to differentiate between the frames offered by the contractors if they are both asked to provide frames that meet pre-specified criteria and that are then likely to come from the same frame vendors?

A. VA will provide minimum technical specifications and features that frames must meet. An offeror may in its business judgment choose to offer higher end frames that exceed the minimum requirements. However, VA intends to award contracts based on proposals that meet VA's minimum needs and represent the best value to VA.

17. What will stop one vendor from offering higher end frames that don’t just meet but rather exceed the frame requirements in an effort to draw more veterans to their frames and as a result achieve more orders?

A. VA intends to issue salient characteristics that the contractor must “meet or exceed”. The contractor is responsible for providing a proposal based on the information provided by the government.

18. In this scenario it would not be possible for opticians to be provided by the eyeglass manufacturer as there would be more than one manufacturer frame represented at each location and VCS would likely not employ and manage the opticians as retail would not be allowed. Would VA only implement a third-party optician option in this scenario?

A. Questions pertaining to how VA will procure optician services will not be addressed. Those questions are outside of the instant requirement for prescription eyeglass manufacturing services.

19. If this option is selected and it operates under third party opticians, what would VA do to prevent a manufacturer from offering additional incentives or side deals to the third-party optician management company to push that company’s frames?

A. Questions pertaining to how VA will procure optician services will not be addressed. Those questions are outside of the instant requirement for prescription eyeglass manufacturing services.

20. As part of the VA National Contract Committee’s market research into considering this scenario, will the committee agree to visit optical shops operated by the current contractors and VA opticians and speak to the opticians directly to determine if displaying frames from multiple vendors and using multiple electronic ordering platforms to enter orders is a practical option?

A. VA appreciates the question and will consider this as we develop the requirement for prescription eyeglasses manufacturing services.

21. In this scenario, it is likely that opticians will become more comfortable with one lab over another due to among other things, their familiarity with the manufacturer having previously worked with them and being more familiar with their ordering platform, preferring one ordering platform over another, one lab being easier to work with than another, etc… How will VA ensure that orders coming out of each location remain balanced and not skewed to one manufacturer?

A. VA appreciates the question and will consider this as we develop the requirement for prescription eyeglasses manufacturing services.

22. Our recommendation would be for only 1 manufacturer to have their frames displayed at each location in an effort to prevent delays, confusion, and other issues that are likely to arise. If VA wants to use multiple manufacturers within a VISN would VA instead consider placing the manufacturer in separate locations or separate HUBS?

A. VA appreciates the recommendation.

23. Statement: Our recommendation is that veterans continue to have the option of purchasing eyewear separately and completely unrelated to their free contract pair that they receive as part of their benefit. That being said, we have the following questions:

24. We have heard that there have been complaints from veterans about paying for expensive eyewear. However, as a current contractor, we have received very few if any complaints from veterans about our upgrade and retail sales practices. In addition, VCS has confirmed that they very rarely get calls to their hotline that veterans can call with their concerns. If anything, veteran feedback is overwhelmingly positive about the retail options available to them and the prices and savings at which they can get them. Are these congressional, patient advocacy, and/or VCS complaints and what were veterans specifically complaining about? Can VA please share the source, and examples, of these complaints such as the specific VA locations and VISN’s? In addition, would VA be interested in seeing months/years of survey results from veterans who have raved about this option?

A. Questions and requests pertaining to veteran-paid upgrades and retail opportunities will not be addressed. Those questions are outside of the instant requirement for prescription eyeglass manufacturing services, which are limited to the provision of medically necessary, prescribed eyeglasses to eligible Veteran beneficiaries. Retail sales and promotion of such will not occur within VA's optical labs.

25. If VA does not want to allow veterans the option of upgrading the free contract pair because VA wants to keep a clean separation between what the VA is providing as part of the veterans benefit and what the veteran pays out of pocket, will VA consider still allowing veterans to make separate full retail (non-contract pair related) second pair purchases such as a back-up pairs, sunglasses, eyewear with premium frames, etc… so long as pricing and selling policies are fully regulated by VCS?

A. Questions and requests pertaining to retail opportunities will not be addressed. Those questions are outside of the instant requirement for prescription eyeglass manufacturing services, which are limited to the provision of medically necessary, prescribed eyeglasses to eligible Veteran beneficiaries. Retail sales and promotion of such will not occur within VA's optical labs.

26. Being able to purchase fashionable and functional eyewear at discounted prices is a benefit that the veterans, and in many cases their spouses, have become used to. Taking this benefit away will not be viewed in a positive light. In the event that no retail options are available who will the opticians be told to direct veteran complaints to (eye clinic, prosthetic, or contracting)?

A. Questions and requests pertaining to retail opportunities will not be addressed. Those questions are outside of the instant requirement for prescription eyeglass manufacturing services, which are limited to the provision of medically necessary, prescribed eyeglasses to eligible Veteran beneficiaries. Retail sales and promotion of such will not occur within VA's optical labs.

27. It was mentioned during the one on ones that VA is wanting to have the veterans more involved in the eyeglass selection process. That said, what has VA done, or is VA planning to do, to survey the veterans to get their opinion on losing the benefit that they currently enjoy of being able to purchase discounted eyewear at the VA and instead potentially having to go to outside retail stores which will cause them inconvenience and added costs?

A. Questions and requests pertaining to retail opportunities will not be addressed. Those questions are outside of the instant requirement for prescription eyeglass manufacturing services, which are limited to the provision of medically necessary, prescribed eyeglasses to eligible Veteran beneficiaries. Retail sales and promotion of such will not occur within VA's optical labs.

28. As part of the market research for the national contract, will the contract committee agree to visit VA optical shop locations where retail options are currently available to gain a better understanding of how the upgrade/retail process works? In doing so, the committee should see that veterans are educated on the options available to them in a pleasant manner, options are professionally displayed with examples available of their benefits, and refunds and warranty policies are readily displayed and easy to understand.

A. Questions and requests pertaining to retail opportunities will not be addressed. Those questions are outside of the instant requirement for prescription eyeglass manufacturing services, which are limited to the provision of medically necessary, prescribed eyeglasses to eligible Veteran beneficiaries. Retail sales and promotion of such will not occur within VA's optical labs.

29. As you indicated, this RFI is nationwide. Does this mean the VA is planning to change from current 18 regional VISN procurement system to 1 centralized VISN purchasing system in the future? If so, what would be plan for VISN 10/20 which have their own optical labs?

A. VA's in-house optical labs will continue to meet the needs of VISN 10 and VISN 20. Local ordering processes have not been finalized and will be coordinated in accordance with FAR and VAAR requirements.

30. Would VA consider issuing multiple contracts for different products/services (for example, issuing separate contracts for optical lab service, optician service, frames, lenses)? This way, a greater number of capable SDVOSBs may bid, and VA would have bigger pool of vendors and options available to produce prescription eyeglasses for the veterans.

A. This requirement is for prescription eyeglasses manufacturing services. Optician services are not included. VA intends to award multiple IDIQ contracts. VA does not intend to further limit the scope of this requirement.