36C24720Q0320-001.docx

STATEMENT OF WORK

COURIER SERVICE

Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) Athens, GA to Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center (CNVAMC) Augusta, GA

A. GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Title of Project: Courier services to deliver medical specimens, X-ray film and other documents from the Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) 9249 Highway 29N, Athens, GA 30601 to the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center (CNVAMC) Augusta, GA, Downtown Division Laboratory at 950 15th Street in room 2D-101 and X-ray in room 2D-200. Courier services will also be needed to pick-up mail, routine medical supplies from SPD for delivery to the Athens CBOC.

2. Scope of Work: Contractor will provide courier service for medical specimens. X-ray films and other documents will also be ready for pick-up and delivery as needed.

All lab specimens will be packaged and ready to be picked up at the agreed upon time. Courier service is to provide their own OSHA approved cooler and refrigerant packs to keep specimens refrigerated during transport. Some specimens will require room temperature transport and will only need to be protected from the heat.

Routine medical supplies, inter-office mail, and other items as necessary will be ready to pickup from the VAMC Augusta, GA, SPD Department and delivered to the CBOC in Athens and placed in the supply store room. These deliveries will be scheduled twice per week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) with additional deliveries as necessary. The time of pickup will be agreed upon by the VA and the contractor to allow sufficient time to arrive in Athens between 1:30 and 2:00 pm.

Courier may park in designated parking spaces for visitors at the VAMC Augusta, GA. And enter through the Visitors entrance. This entrance does close at 8:00pm.

3. Background: The Athens, GA CBOC is a Community Based Outpatient Clinic that provides primary care services to enrolled veterans. The Athens CBOC is located approximately 100 miles from its parent station, Charlie Norwood VAMC, in Augusta, GA. The CBOC does not have the ability to process labs or x-rays on site. All laboratory specimens collected for testing must be delivered to the laboratory at the Downtown Division, CNVAMC, in adequate time to preserve the integrity of laboratory results. The courier service is also needed to deliver x-ray films, documents, mail, and SPD supplies from CNVAMC to the Athens CBOC.

4. Performance Period: One Base year with the possibility of (4) one year option periods.

Basis

5. Type of Contract: The contract will be a Firm-Fixed-Price (Requirements) contract and payment will be on a cost-per-delivery run basis. The runs should be priced separately (per each trip). One trip is considered to be one way from the Athens CBOC to CNVAMC Augusta, GA; or from the CNVAMC Augusta, GA to the Athens CBOC.

B. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

1. Services: The contractor shall provide pick-up and delivery services once each day. Pick-up will be made at the Athens CBOC between 1:30pm and 2:00pm, Monday through Friday with the exception of Federal Holidays. Specimens shall be delivered to the Augusta VAMC Laboratory no later than 4:00 – 4:30 pm.

Delivery of mail and supplies from Augusta to Athens CBOC will routinely be scheduled twice per week, with the option of expanding that service as necessary.

Services include providing OSHA approved Laboratory containers/coolers with refrigerant packs to maintain appropriate temperature for lab specimens. Containers/Coolers must be labeled with a Biohazard label.

All contractor employees responsible for transporting specimens must have been trained and certified in accordance with OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Organization) on proper specimen handling procedures, dry ice, temperature control, record keeping, and infectious disease (Biohazardous) specimen handling in case of an accidental spill. Contractor must submit a Blood-Borne Pathologen Training Certificate from OSHA or an equivalent organization to the Contracting Officer with their proposal. This training certificate shall also be submitted to the Laboratory Manager at the CNVAMC Augusta, GA and the Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) after contract award. Accidental/Emergency Spill Kits must be carried in the vehicle at all times.

1. Quality Control: The contractor shall develop and maintain a quality control program that ensures courier services are performed in accordance with these specifications. The contractor shall develop and implement procedures to track, identify, prevent, remedy and ensure non-recurrence of defective services. The contractor shall provide a method to accept and resolve customer complaints and notify the customer of the resolution. The contract shall immediately notify the COR upon receipt of a customer complain in order that joint validation may be accomplished. The contractor is responsible for quality control and specification compliance.

2. Record of Pick-Up and Delivery: The contractor must maintain a record and log of daily courier pick-ups and deliveries indicating time and date of pickup, delivery, number of specimens and/or items and signatures.

3. Contractor Couriers/Drivers:

a. All contractor employees must maintain a valid driver’s license for the type of vehicle operated as required by the States operating therein. A record of each driver as to character and physical capabilities for performing as a courier must be maintained and made available for inspection to the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center upon request.

b. The contractor personnel performing services to the Government shall at all times conduct themselves in a professional manner, present a neat appearance and be easily recognized as a contract employee by having the company name and employee name affixed to the clothing. The contractor shall be responsible for furnishing all vehicles, personnel, equipment, vehicle fuel, name tags and/or bags for performance under this contract. Employee identification shall be worn in clear view above the waist.

c. The Government reserves the right to restrict any contractor employee from performing services under this contract who does not meet the required qualifications or who violate Federal regulations or are identified as a potential threat to the security, safety, health and/or operation mission of VA and its Veteran patients. The restriction of such contractor personnel shall not relieve the contractor from performing all the required services in accordance with all terms, conditions, and schedules contained herein.

d. The Certification and Accreditation requirements for IT security do not apply, and a Security Accreditation Package is no required.

4. Contractor Vehicles: The vehicles used in the performance of this Contract must be licensed and meet the minimum requirements by the States And cities operated therein.

5. Federal Holidays:

The 10 holidays observed by the Federal Government are:

Any other day specifically declared by the President of the United States to be a national holiday.

7. Data Security Information Gathered or Created or Created in Performance of Services

a. Information, including, but not limited to, veteran individually-identifiable information (iii) and personal healthcare information (PHI), gathered or created by the Contractor in the performance of this contract is the exclusive property of VA and must be received, gathered, stored, backed up, maintained, used, disclosed and disposed of in accordance with the terms of this contract and applicable federal and VA information confidentiality and security laws, regulations and policies, including VA Directive and Handbook number 6500.

b. The Contractor shall provide access to VA information only to employees, subcontractors, and affiliates only: (1) to the extent necessary to perform the services specified in this contract, (2) to perform necessary maintenance functions for electronic storage or transmission media necessary for performance of this contract, and (3) only to individuals who first satisfy the same conditions, requirements and restrictions that comparable VA employees must meet in order to have access to the same VA information. These restrictions include the same level of background investigations, where applicable. The level and process of background security investigations for contractors must be in accordance with VA Directive and Handbook 0710, Personnel Suitability and Security Program. The Office for Operations, Security, and Preparedness is responsible for these policies and procedures.

c. Contractor and its subcontractors must ensure that VA III and PHI is secure at all times and will ensure proper security is used on contractor or subcontractor computers with VA III or PHI information is stored. To avoid risk of loss or theft, VA III and PHI shall NOT be transferred by contractor or its subcontractors to paper, diskettes, CDs, DVDs, USB flash drives, external computer drives, computer notebooks, home computers or any other medium, and shall NOT be removed from the contractor or subcontractor site under any circumstances without specific written authorization of the VA Information Security Officer. VA III and PHI shall NOT be transferred between contractor or subcontractor computer unless permission is granted by VA for such transfer of data and secure encrypted transmission methods approved by the VA Information Security Officer are utilized. Contractor employees shall be required to sign VA National Rules of Behavior before they can be authorized access to VA information systems.

e. The Contractor shall immediately (on the date of discovery of the incident) report any incident of theft, loss or comprise of VA sensitive information to the Contracting Officer, the COR and any other VA Official designated by the Contracting Officer. This report shall be in writing and contain the fullest explanation possible and all the details of the incident available to the contractor. VA must receive notice from the contractor on the date contractor discovers incident.

f. The term “security incident” means an event that has, or could have, resulted in unauthorized access to, loss or damage to VA assets, or sensitive information, or an action that breaches VA security procedures. The contractor/subcontractor shall immediately (on the date of discovery of the incident) notify the COR and simultaneously, the designated Information Security Officer (ISO) and Privacy Officer for the contract of any known or suspected security/privacy incidents, or any unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information, including that contained in system(s) to which the contractor/subcontractor has access.

g. The contractor/subcontractor shall provide notice to VA of a “security incident” as set forth in the Security Incident Investigation section above. Upon such notification, VA must secure from a non-Department entity or the VA Office of Inspector General an independent risk analysis of the data breach to determine the level of risk associated with the data breach for the potential misuse of any sensitive personal information involved in the data breach. The term 'data breach' means the loss, theft, or other unauthorized access, or any access other than that incidental to the scope of employment, to data containing sensitive personal information, in electronic or printed form, that results in the potential compromise of the confidentiality or integrity of the data. Contractor shall fully cooperate with the entity performing the risk analysis. Failure to cooperate may be deemed a material breach and grounds for contract termination.

Each risk analysis shall address all relevant information concerning the data breach, including the following:

Nature of the event (loss, theft, unauthorized access);

Description of the event, including:

(1) date of occurrence;

(2) data elements involved, including any PII, such as full name, social security number, date of birth, home address, account number, disability code;

(3) Number of individuals affected or potentially affected;

(4) Names of individuals or groups affected or potentially affected;

(5) Ease of logical data access to the lost, stolen or improperly accessed data in light of the degree of protection for the data, e.g., unencrypted, plain text;

(6) Amount of time the data has been out of VA control;

(7) The likelihood that the sensitive personal information will or has been compromised (made accessible to and usable by unauthorized persons);

(8) Known misuses of data containing sensitive personal information, if any;

(9) Assessment of the potential harm to the affected individuals;

(10) Data breach analysis as outlined in 6500.2 Handbook, Management of Security and Privacy Incidents, as appropriate; and

(11) Whether credit protection services may assist record subjects in avoiding or mitigating the results of identity theft based on the sensitive personal information that may have been compromised.

Based on the determinations of the independent risk analysis, the contractor shall be responsible for paying to the VA liquidated damages in the amount of $37.50 per affected individual to cover the cost of providing credit protection services to affected individuals consisting of the following:

(1) Notification;

(2) One year of credit monitoring services consisting of automatic daily monitoring of at least 3 relevant credit bureau reports;

(3) Data breach analysis;

(4) Fraud resolution services, including writing dispute letters, initiating fraud alerts and credit freezes, to assist affected individuals to bring matters to resolution;

(5) One year of identity theft insurance with $20,000.00 coverage at $0 deductible; and

(6) Necessary legal expenses the subjects may incur to repair falsified or damaged credit records, histories, or financial affairs.

i. HIPAA Compliance. The Contractor must adhere to the provisions of Public Law 104-191, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 and the National Standards to Protect the Privacy and Security of Protected Health Information (PHI)

g. Security Considerations: A background investigation will be required for this acquisition.

9. ACCESS AUTOMATED DATA PROCESSING FILES - In performance of official duties, the Contractor's employee(s) have regular access to printed and electronic files containing sensitive data, which must be protected under the provisions of the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 USC 552a), and other applicable laws, Federal Regulations, Veterans Affairs statutes and policies. The Contractor's employee(s) are responsible for (1) protecting that data from unauthorized release or from loss, alteration, or unauthorized deletion and (2) following all applicable regulations and instructions regarding access to computerized files, release of access codes, etc., as set out in a computer access agreement which the Contractor's employee(s) sign.

10. Security Requirements for Contractor Employees

a. The contractor, their personnel, and their subcontractors shall be subject to the Federal laws, regulations, standards, and VA Directives and Handbooks regarding information and information system security as delineated in this contract. Contractor shall insure the confidentiality of all patient and employee information and shall be held liable in the event of breach of confidentiality. Any person, who knowingly or willingly discloses confidential information from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, may be subject to fines of up to $20,000.00.

b. Records: Contractor personnel who obtain access to hardware or media which may manipulate or store drug or alcohol abuse data, sickle cell anemia treatment records, records or tests or treatment for or infection with HIV, medical quality assurance records, or any other sensitive information protected under 38 U.S.C. 4132 or 3305, as defined by the Department of Veterans Affairs, shall not have access to the records unless absolutely necessary to perform their contractual duties. Any individual who has access to these data will disclose them to no one, including other employees of the Contractor not involved in the performance of the particular contractual duty for which access was obtained. Violation of these statutory-provisions as stated in department regulations by the Contractor's employees may involve imposition of criminal penalties.

11. Training

a. All contractor employees and subcontractor employees requiring access to VA information and VA information systems shall complete the following before being granted access to VA information and its systems:

(1) Sign and acknowledge (either manually or electronically) understanding of and responsibilities for compliance with the Contractor Rules of Behavior, relating to access to VA information and information systems;

(2) Successfully complete the VA Privacy and Information Security Awareness and Rules of Behavior (VA 10176) training and annually complete required security training;

(3) Successfully complete the appropriate VA Privacy & HIPPA (VA 10208) training and annually complete required privacy training; and

(4) Successfully complete any additional cyber security or privacy training, as required for VA personnel with equivalent information system access [to be defined by the VA program official and provided to the contracting officer for inclusion in the solicitation document – e.g., any role-based information security training required in accordance with NIST Special Publication 800-16, Information Technology Security Training Requirements.]

b. The contractor shall provide to the contracting officer and/or the COR a copy of the training certificates and certification of signing the Contractor Rules of Behavior for each applicable employee within 1 week of the initiation of the contract and annually thereafter, as required.

c. Failure to complete the mandatory annual training and sign the Rules of Behavior annually, within the timeframe required, is grounds for suspension or termination of all physical or electronic access privileges and removal from work on the contract until such time as the training and documents are complete.

12. INVOICES:

Payment will be made upon receipt of a properly prepared detailed invoice, prepared by the Contractor, validated by the COR.

A properly prepared invoice will contain:

· Invoice Number and Date

· Contractor’s Name and Address

· Accurate Purchase Order Number

· Supply or Service provided

· Inclusive dates and quantity supply or service provided

· Total amount due