Response to Vendor Questions - RFP 36C26223R0009.xlsx
XLSX spreadsheet 16 KB Posted
- Attached to
- Q515--Pathology and Laboratory Staffing Services
- Solicitation number
- 36C26223R0009
About this file
This document contains questions and answers regarding a solicitation for pathology and laboratory staffing services across multiple geographic areas for the Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Health Administration Veterans Integrated Service Network 22. The solicitation requires offerors to provide qualified staff in specialty areas including cytology, histology, medical laboratory technician, medical technologist, and others. Pricing is to be submitted on a fixed-hourly or case rate basis as specified in the price schedule. Proposals are due by 9:00 AM Pacific Time on February 13, 2023 and the resulting contract is expected to begin on April 1, 2023. Offerors must demonstrate experience providing the required staffing services but past performance will not be evaluated. The agency will review experience documentation and responsibility determinations as part of the evaluation and award process.
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Sheet1
| RFQ Questions | ||||
| VISN 22 Contracted Path and Lab Staffing Services | ||||
| #36C26223R0009 | ||||
| # | VENDOR QUESTIONS | ANSWERS | x | |
| 1 | RFP Reference - Multiple Sections of B.4 Statement of Work: Please confirm whether employees must be U.S. Citizens, or can they instead just be authorized to work in the United States if they hold one of the following: | |||
| o | A permanent resident card (green card) | |||
| o | An Employment Authorization Document (work permit) | |||
| o | An employment related visa which allows you to work for a specified employer. | All staff provided under the contract must be authorized to work in the United States and must be verified through the E-Verify system as required in FAR 52.222-54. | ||
| 2 | RFP Reference – Section 3.3.2. (i.e., Qualifications of Medical Laboratory Technician): The RFP currently lists the requirement as “Completion of a medical technician practice program and certified as a MLT (ASCP).” Would the Government consider changing this requirement to read: “Completion of a medical technician practice program, while a current certification American Society of Clinical Pathology (ASCP) is preferred.” | No. | ||
| 3 | Does the resulting contract from RFP 36262230009 require the agency to provide the Health & Welfare allowance in addition to the minimum Wage Determination for each sub-specialty in each geographic VA facility | Contractors must comply with the provisions under the Service Contract Act (SCA). | ||
| 4 | Is this a SCA contract - does the contract require the agency to provide SCA benefits for each subspecialty employee | Yes, the Service Contract Act (SCA) applies to this requirement. | ||
| 5 | Are there Wage Determinations for all of the counties named in this RFP for all the subspecialties for anatomic pathology staffing - Cytotechnologists, dieners, histology Technicians, histology Technologists and pathological assistants and for Medical Laboratory Technologists | For any subspecialties that are not specifically listed, please refer to the closest related position. | ||
| 6 | The qualifications and responsibilities for each position have been specified, therefore what are the qualifications, experience, and responsibilities for the Diener and the pathologist assistant ? | Please see updated Statement of Work, Section 3 on amended solicitation. | ||
| 7 | Does the Department of Veterans Affairs need one personnel for each position or more? | Estimated annual hours are listed in Attachment A - Schedule of Pricing. | ||
| 8 | Do the resumes need to be included in the proposal? | No, resumes do not need to be included in the proposal at this time. | ||
| 9 | Is having past performances in anatomic pathology, clinical pathology, or both staffing services are mandatory or Can the offeror utilize another healthcare staffing service if they don't have previous experience offering anatomic pathology, clinical pathology, or both staffing services? | Past performance will not be evaluated, as experience will be evaluated. Offerors may provide a subcontractor's experience in accordance with VAAR 852.219-75. | ||
| 10 | For more clarification, should separate bids be made for each geographic area if the offeror intends to bid on all of them? | No, each offeror shall submit one proposal that includes all geographic area they intend to bid on. | ||
| 11 | Is this solicitation a re-compete? and if so what would be the reason for non-renewal? | No, this solicitation is not considered a re-compete. | ||
| 12 | Will this contract start April 1, 2023? or later? | The resulting contract will start April 1, 2023. | ||
| 13 | Does the contract require all employees to be W-2? or are 1099 workers permitted? | It is at the discretion of the contractors how they employ their staff, as long as they meet the Government's requirements of being authorized to work in the United States and comply with all other requirements in the solicitation. | ||
| 14 | Regarding Past Performance, is it a requirement that the Prime, a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), have relevant past performance if their subcontractor has relevant past performance and experience (for example, ASCP certified Pathologists' Assistant also certified as a Histotechnologist) ? | Past performance will not be evaluated. Rather, experience will be evaluated as per FAR clause 52.212-2. Offerors may provide a subcontractor's experience in accordance with VAAR 852.219-75. | ||
| 15 | Will the contractor be responsible for Regulatory, Compliance and CAP (College of American Pathologists') Inspections? or JCAHO (The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations) ? | No, this is part of the Governments responsibilities. | ||
| 16 | B.3. Price Schedule (Pages 8-19) – The price schedule requires vendors to price all line items related to the specialty area “Diener” by “Case” rather than “Hourly”. Can the Government either provide an estimate of the number of hours per case or convert the price schedule so vendors can simply supply an hourly rate for the Diener line items? | Dieners will be charged by case basis. | ||
| 17 | B.4 Statement of Work (page 29) - Section 18. Hours of Operation states work schedules for contractor staff shall be specified in the task orders issued against this contract. The price schedule does not provide vendors the ability to identify rates for shift differentials, worked holidays and regular overtime. Since contractor employees are entitled to these forms of compensation, how does the Government want these items addressed in the price schedule? | The Government pays a single rate to the contractor. Various pay differentials are at the discretion of the contractor to pay their employees. | ||
| 18 | C.2 52-216-18 Ordering (page 40) - Paragraph (a) states delivery orders can be issued from 04/01/2023 through 09/30/2027 (includes optional six-month ordering period). Can the Government clarify if the services procured in those delivery orders must all be completed prior to the end of this contract vehicles period of performance (either 30 Mar 2027 or 30 Sep 2027 if extended)? | This timeframe illustrates the ordering periods in which task orders may be placed. The contract ordering periods cannot exceed this date, however task orders approriately placed within this timeframe may extend beyond the contract expiration date. | ||
| 19 | E.2 Addendum to Instructions to Offerors (page 66) - Paragraph (5) states, "Offerors may submit proposals for one, more than one, or all Geographic Areas to be serviced under this procurement. However, the Offeror must propose pricing for each VISN 22 Healthcare System located in each Geographic Area for which a proposal is submitted." There are three Geographic Areas with two service areas each. How many proposals is the Government requiring from each vendor? For example, if a vendor intends to bid all three Geographic Areas, do they need to submit three separate proposals or just specify that their proposal includes the three Geographic Areas? | Vendor can provide a single proposal encompassing all geographic areas they decide to participate in. | ||
| 20 | Size of Submission: Please advise if the size is 7MB total for all volumes or 7MBs for each volume; should each volume be a separate email? | |||
| (1) | Offerors shall submit proposals via email in three (3) attachments as indicated below. Email size shall not exceed 7MB. It is the responsibility of the Offeror to ensure their proposal submission has been received. | No one proposal on an individual email shall exceed 35MBs. Proposals that exceed 35MBs shall be submitted via additional emails. | ||
| 21 | Past Performance References: Does Attachment M – Staffing Services Experience Worksheet constitute all of the past performance reference information required? What is the minimum/maximum number of references? | Offerors shall submit a minimum of one reference contract and no maximum number of references for each specialty area they are proposing for. Please note, this is not Past Performance rather Experience in providing contracted pathology and laboratory staffing services. | ||
| 22 | Can subcontractor experience be submitted as part of Attachment M? | Yes, in accordance with VAAR 852.219-75. | ||
| 23 | Please clarify: (4) Past Performance. The past performance of the apparent successful offeror will be reviewed by the contracting officer prior to award as part of the contracting officer’s responsibility determination per FAR Part 9. Will the contracting officer be reviewing past performance in addition to the experience submitted in Attachment M? | Past performance will be reviewed as part of the contracting officer's responsibility determination per FAR Part 9. However, past performance is not included in the evaluations of proposals. | ||
| 24 | Cover Letter: Will additional information about the bidder’s experience, teaming arrangement, etc. be reviewed if submitted within the cover letter? | Please submit all experience in Attachment M per the solicitation instructions. | ||
| 25 | SF1449 Block 6 and 8 - We would like to ask the government to extend this deadline due to the specific nature of what is considered an “ Acceptable “ proposal, more time is needed to find subcontractors who can help teams meet the minimum acceptable standard of providing experience references for every labor category. | The deadline for this solicitation will be extended to 9:00AM Pacific Time on Monday, February 13, 2023. | ||
| 26 | E.3 52.212-2 - Requirements for Histology Technician and Histology Technologist are very similar. Can experience in either of these two labor categories count toward experience in both labor categories? | No. | ||
| 27 | General - How many cases per day are typically expected of the diener? | Please refer to Attachment A for estimated annual cases. | ||
| 28 | E.3 52.212-2 - As primarily a morgue position, most contractors will not be able to provide evidence of past performance for a diener in a medical facility, severely limiting competition. Will the government remove this deiner experience as a requirement for an acceptable proposal? If not, what is the justification for including it? | Any experience providing a diener service shall be considered. | ||
| 29 | E.3 52.212-2 - A medical technologist would be qualified to do the work of a medical laboratory technician, can experience providing a medical technologists be substituted for experience as medical laboratory technician? | No. | ||
| 30 | E.3 52.212-2 - Companies with exceptional past performance providing medical staffing outside of the listed labor categories in the solicitation can provide value to the government with no discernable risk. If a contractor can prove they have the expertise and resources necessary to recruit these positions, would the government deem their proposal acceptable? | Proposals will be evaluated based on the criteria provided in the solicitation. | ||
| 31 | General - Have there been any labor category that has been difficult for contractors in the preceeding IDIQ to fill? If so, what were they? | Offerors are advised to perform their own market research regarding the availability of staff in the markets for the medical centers to be served. VA is unable to provide any information regarding the availability of these staff specialties in the marketplace. | ||
| 32 | General - Other than the identified subspecialties of cytology and histology, what are the predominate subspecialites historically utilized for medical technologists and/or medical laboratory technologists? | Please refer to Attachment A for subspecialties. | ||
| 33 | PWS3.5.1 - Will the government consider anatomy and clenical lab specialist who have obtained their experience in the military in lieu of the educational and experience requirements outline in the solicitation? | No. | ||
| 34 | PWS3.5.1 - Will the government a DD-214 in lieu of academic transcripts and/or clinical practice experience? | No. |
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