36C26226Q0029.docx

SUBJECT*

678 Medical Transcription

GENERAL INFORMATION

SET-ASIDE

CONTRACTING OFFICE ADDRESS

Department of Veterans Affairs NCO 22 - Network Contracting 3601 S. 6th Avenue Tucson AZ 85723

POINT OF CONTACT*

Contracting Specialist Mark Welshans Mark.Welshans@va.gov 520-792-1450 X16066

PLACE OF PERFORMANCE

ADDRESS

Department of Veterans Affairs

NCO 22 - Network Contracting

3601 S. 6th Avenue

Tucson AZ

COUNTRY

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

AGENCY’S URL

URL DESCRIPTION

AGENCY CONTACT’S EMAIL ADDRESS

EMAIL DESCRIPTION

DESCRIPTION

THIS SOURCES SOUGHT IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this that is marked as proprietary will be handled accordingly.

Responses to this Sources Sought must be in writing.

The purpose of this sources sought is for market research to make appropriate, fair, and reasonable acquisition decisions and to gain knowledge of potential qualified, interested, and capable Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB). This does not commit the Government to contract for any supply and/or service. Responders are advised the Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs. All costs associated with responding to this Sources Sought will be solely at the interested party's expense. Not responding to this Sources Sought does not preclude participation in any future RFQ, if issued.

To be considered as a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) Set-Aside (FAR 19.14) for this scope the size standard for NAICS Code: 561410 - Document Preparation Services.

Documentation of technical expertise must be presented in sufficient detail for the Government to determine that your company possesses the necessary functional area expertise and experience to compete for this acquisition.

All offerors who provide goods or services to the United States Federal Government must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) at www.sam.gov. All Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Businesses who respond to a solicitation must have an active registration and certification with the U.S. Small Business Administration Veteran Small Business Certification (VetCert) located at https://veterans.certify.sba.gov/.

Respondents are requested to provide the following information to the listed Points of Contact:

(1) Submit your capabilities statement illustrating how your organization can/cannot meet the list of SALIENT CHARACTERISTICS requirements. For instances where your company cannot meet the SALIENT CHARACTERISTICS requirement(s), please explain. For instances where your company can meet the SALIENT CHARACTERISTICS requirement(s), please show how your company meets/exceeds each requirement.

(2) Please review the list of SALIENT CHARACTERISTICS requirements and provide any additional feedback or suggestions. If none, please reply as N/A.

(3) Please indicate the size status and representations of your business, such as but not limited to: Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB), HUBZone, Woman Owned Small Business (WOSB), Large Business, etc.

(4) Is your company considered small under the NAICS code identified in this RFI?

(5) Are you the manufacturer, authorized distributor, and/or can your company provide a solution to the required supplies/services described in the list of SALIENT CHARACTERISTICS?

(6) If you are a large business, do you have any designated/authorized distributors? If so, please provide their company name, telephone, point of contact and size status (if available).

(7) If you’re a small business and you are an authorized distributor/reseller for the items identified above, do you alter; assemble; modify; the items requested in any way? If you do, state how and what is altered; assembled; modified.

(8) Limitations on Subcontracting: How does your business ensure compliance with the limitations on subcontracting as outlined in 13 CFR § 125.6?

(9) Are the items you are identifying/providing considered Commercial of the Shelf (COTS) items as defined in FAR Part 2.101 under commercial items?

(10) Non-Manufacturer Rule: If applicable, can you confirm your business complies with the Non-Manufacturer rule? Specifically, does your company: Provide a product from a small business manufacturer or processor? Not exceed 500 employees? Primarily engage in the retail or wholesale trade and normally sell the type of item being supplied? Take ownership or possession of the item(s) with its personnel, equipment or facilities in a manner consistent with industry practice?

(11) Please indicate whether your product conforms to the requirements of the Buy American Act?

(12) What is your lead time to deliver a single unit with all components? Is there scale in lead time with greater quantities? Please elaborate.

(13) What is estimated life span of your solution? What support/services does that entail?

(14) Does your proposed equipment have FDA clearance? Please specify what FDA clearance(s) have been obtained.

(15) Does your company have a Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) GSA/NAC/SAC/BPA/NASA SEWP or any other Federal Government contract? If so, please provide the contract number(s).

(16) If you are an FSS GSA/NAC/SAC/BPA/NASA SEWP or any other Federal Government contract holder, are all the items/solutions you are providing information about available on your schedule/contract? Please state if all or some items are available on the contract.

(17) General pricing of your products/solution is encouraged. Pricing will be used for the purpose of market research only. It will not be used to evaluate for any type of award.

(18) Please provide your SAM.gov Unique Entity ID/Cage Code number.

Any questions and/or Information is to be submitted by electronic/email delivery to Mark.Welshans#@va.gov with the subject line SOURCES SOUGHT and shall be received no later than 12:00 PM Mountain Standard Time (MST) on Tuesday, October 07, 2025.

All responses to this Sources Sought/RFI will be used for planning purposes only. Responses to this Sources Sought Notice / RFI are not considered a request to be added to a prospective bidders list or to receive a copy of the solicitation. If further RFIs and/or a solicitation or other announcement is issued as a result of the information provided from this RFI, all interested parties must respond to the specific posting separately IAW the specifications of that announcement.

Sources Sought Notice Sources Sought Notice

Sources Sought Notice

VHAPM Part 837-3 Required Statement of Work language for all Medical Transcription Contracts

ATTACHMENT A-STATEMENT OF WORK (SOW)

1. Scope of Work:

1.1 Module 2: Dictation and Transcription Outsourcing Using Contractor Supplied Dictation Equipment.

The VA Health Care System has a requirement for digital dictation, traditional and correction editing medical transcription services using contractor supplied dictation equipment. In accordance with FAR 4.703, contract files must be maintained for 3 years after final payment. The contractor must destroy the files on the anniversary of the third year after final payment using the 35-pass Gutmann-level deep scrub method or other equivalent methods. The method proposed by the contractor must have prior approval from the CO. The contractor is not to subcontract the work or any portion of the work to another firm without prior approval from the CO.

The Contractor shall provide all personnel, equipment, materials, management, labor, tools, facilities, software, transportation, communication, and all other necessary elements required for the satisfactory performance of dictation and transcription. The Contractor shall provide a minimum of dictation equipment accessible by toll-free telephone for approximately 30 simultaneous dictators.

1.2 All transcription and verification services must be performed in the United States of America, including US territories. There are No Exceptions.

Services shall be performed by respective contractor personnel from a remote location(s) as established by the Contractor. The method of communication between the customer and the contractor shall be established by the contractor, who shall be responsible for the continuity, performance, security, and maintenance of established system(s).

1.3. Contractor shall provide on-demand off-site medical transcription services 24 hours daily, 365 calendar days per year, to include all holidays. Qualified transcriptionist shall be readily available for performance to ensure standard and STAT turn-around times and completed in a timely manner, in accordance with this document.

2. Performance Requirements:

2.1 Dictated material shall include a high incidence of technical/medical terminology and requires a knowledge of highly specialized vocabulary specific to a wide variety of specialty services to include, but not limited to: Anesthesiology, Blind Rehabilitation, Cardiology, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Dentistry, Dermatology, Drug and Alcohol Treatment, Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, General Medicine and Surgery, Gynecology, Hematology, Immunology, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Nephrology, Oncology, Ophthalmology, Oral Surgery, Orthopedics, Otolaryngology, Pathology, Podiatry, Psychiatry, Psychology, Plastic Surgery, Pulmonary Disease, Radiology, Renal, Rheumatology, Social Work, Spinal Cord Injury, Thoracic Surgery, Transplant, Urology and Vascular Surgery.

2.2 Contractor shall provide and maintain the means for required connectivity by the establishment of a toll-free number with unlimited 24-hour access available to all respective sites. Contractor shall ensure all external communication systems are secure, VA-compliant, HIPPA compliant, and will configure, install and maintain all remote workstation hardware and software at its transcriptionist stations. Upon request, contractor will expeditiously provide all requested information to each respective site

P a g e Information Security Officer (ISO) and Information Resource Manager (IRM).

2.3 Reports: The type of reports dictated for transcription by the Contractor shall include:

a. Discharge Summaries

b. Operation Reports

c. Compensation & Pension Reports

d. Consultations

e. Progress Notes to include inpatient attending and outpatient notes

f. History and Physical Examinations

g. Agent Orange/Persian Gulf Exams

h. Procedures (to include but not limited to echocardiograms, stress tests, Doppler tests)

i. Mental Status Examinations Notational Assessments and Integrated Summaries

j. Stat reports – All work types

k. Miscellaneous Reports (to include but not limited to letters and telephone consents)

l. Radiographic reports/ nuclear medicine.

m. Pathology reports

2.4 Terminology: Specialized vocabularies required for reports include terminology from all the fields of medicine, surgery, psychiatry, dentistry and diagnostic services.

2.5 Document Format and Distribution: The Contractor is responsible for transmitting properly formatted documents over telecommunications lines. Documents must contain accurate information for each specific author. The VA will provide the communications software (VPN). Contractor must utilize the TCP/IP file transfer protocol or another protocol agreed upon by the VA. Contractor must be able to receive dictated reports via telecommunication lines provided by the Contractor.

3. Definitions:

Authentication - Process of (1) verifying authorship, for example, by written signature, identifiable initials, or computer key or (2) verifying that a document is what it is purported to be, such as comparison with other records, or both.

Author – The person responsible and accountable for the creation, content, accuracy, and completeness of each dictated and transcribed event or health record entry.

Batch – A group of one (1) or more transcribed documents bundled together for electronic transmission.

Blank Lines – Defined as a line containing no text. If the line contains no text it will not be counted or billed.

Blank Spaces – If dictated material, after a full review, cannot be understood, a blank space will be represented by three "@" signs and five underscores, “_” which will notify the provider the need to edit the entry upon return of the report. No blanks shall be left in the text as a result of dictation, which can be understood by VA personnel.

Compensation and Pension Exams — Special examinations for service related disability rating purposes which include history and physical examination findings as well as conclusions or recommendations.

Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS) – Electronic medical record system utilized by the VA.

Consults — Reports relating medical opinion with formatting which may be similar to a history and physical report, dictated by specialists or other medical professionals.

COR — Contracting Officer's Representative. The designated individual(s) responsible for monitoring the performance of the contractor. Previously referred to as Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative (COTR).

Discharge Summary — A report summarizing an inpatient stay. No abbreviations should appear within a discharge summary.

Electronic authentication — Verification of authorship of a document, or verification that a document is what it is purported to be, or both; accomplished by electronic means or in an electronic format.

Encounter – Used synonymously with visit, refers to clinician and patient meeting.

HIMS — Health Information Management Service with oversight of the VA Transcription Section and documentation guidelines.

History and Physical — Report containing historical information as well as current physical findings, assessment and treatment plan for a patient. Report required for inpatient admissions and may be completed as part of an outpatient visit.

Information Security Officer (ISO) – Individual(s) responsible for oversight of the VA electronic information security.

Miscellaneous Reports — Reports not falling into another designated work type. Some examples are informational letters between practitioners or to patient and telephonic consents.

New Evaluation Exams - Reports which typically include historical information completed on outpatients when seen for initial visit.

Office of Information and Technology (OI&T) – The organization responsible for development, oversight and maintenance of the VA information and technology systems; formerly known as Information Resource Management (IRM).

Operation Report or Surgical Procedure — A report detailing specific required information on invasive or non-invasive procedures.

Progress Notes — Reports of outpatient visits or inpatient visits, interim summaries, or transfer summaries. Length and complexity will vary and are dependent upon complexity of the visit.

Quality assurance for medical transcription — Review process intended to provide adequate confidence that dictated patient care documentation is transcribed in a clear, consistent, accurate, complete, and timely manner and which satisfies stated or implied requirements for dictated and transcribed documentation of patient care.

Retrospective review — Quality review of transcribed reports performed after documents have been released for author signature and delivered to a patient's record. May include listening to dictation and comparing results to document content, (the dictation may no longer be available for comparison with the transcribed documents).

Stat Report — Report of such importance necessitating transcription and turnaround the VA within a maximum two (2) hours. The VA may request an expedited turnaround time for a STAT report from the Contractor telephonically in event of an emergent situation.

Text Integration Utility (TIU) – VistA based application in which transcribed documents are downloaded from transcription system for integration into the computerized patient record.

VA Transcription Point of Contact (POC) – VA employee who coordinates and monitors the VA dictation system.

Turnaround time (TAT) - Defined as a period of time from the end of dictation of the document to the time the work is uploaded to the respective facility. ending when the transcribed document is delivered and available for electronic authentication. TAT is calculated on a 24-hour basis, including weekends and holidays. Turn- around times (TAT) shall be calculated based upon Mountain Time.

Unit of Pricing — Referred to as pricing by the line. A line will consist of a sixty-five (65) visual black character line without spaces. Special formatting, underlining or bolding, does not justify additional charges. Vertical spaces or blank lines between paragraphs, body of report to footers or headers, are not billable. Partial lines will count as one line when the following criteria are met: (a) to complete a paragraph, (b) when part of an established form (i.e. diagnosis, admission and discharge dates). The report format will be single spaced with the space between paragraphs double spaced. Headers and footers are to be included in the line length.

Virtual Private Network (VPN) – Access tool which allows remote access into the VA electronic system.

Visible Black Character – A visible black character (VBC) 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, spaces or returns). All visible black characters can be seen regardless of whether it is viewed electronically or on a printed page.

The VBC Line or the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCll) 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.

VistA – Veterans Heath Information System and Technology Architecture software. The main software system which is the foundation for the computerized patient record and through which transcription will be received.

4. Performance:

4.1 Services Required: The Contractor shall perform all transcription services to include electronic transmission of transcription to the VA on a daily basis twenty-four (24) hours per day, seven (7) days per week including weekends and holidays. Contractor shall maintain an overall 98% accuracy rate, maintain timely completion and transmittal of transcription and provide a primary contact within Contractor Company to expedite resolution of issues that may arise.

VA Medical Center requires that the Contractor assign a Project Manager for the purpose of supervising and training contractor personnel and insuring compliance with the provisions of this contract. The Project Manager should have the full authority to act on behalf of the Contractor to handle problems as they arise. This individual or an alternate shall be available for consultation during the hours of 6:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Monday thru Friday. The Project Manager may be called by the VA in order to convey pertinent information regarding STAT reports. A response time of not more than thirty (30) minutes is required. This will be provided at no additional cost to the Government.

All contracts for performance and verification of medical transcription are required to be physically located and the work is to be conducted within the United States. These stringent requirements are due to the security and privacy concerns associated with the sensitive data that is the subject of these contracts.

4.2 TAT Time Frames: All dictation shall be transcribed and uploaded into VISTA in accordance with the following time frames:

4.3 STAT Reports TAT: Discharge summaries, transfer summaries, operative reports, radiology and nuclear medicine reports may be dictated as STAT reports at the discretion of the clinician dictating the report.

The Contractor shall provide one phone number in which they can be contacted by the VA to convey pertinent information regarding STAT reports. (Cell Phones are prohibited when discussing patient information to include and not limited to: Patient name, Social Security number, date of birth, any and all patient information, etc.) A Contractor response time of not more than thirty (30) minutes is required. This will be provided at no cost to the VA.

5. Security and Privacy:

5.1 Contractors shall comply with all national guidelines for security and privacy including the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) as amended (44 U.S.C. §§ 3541 et seq.), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), (Public Law 104-191), it’s implementing regulations, the Privacy, Security and Breach Notification rules located at 45 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 160 and subparts A and E; the Privacy Act of 1974, Public Law 93-579; and any additional Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) or VHA directives or requirements for compliance. Violation of patient confidentiality may result in contract termination.

5.2 Connectivity: Contractor will be required to provide their own Internet access via DSL or cable modem. Work will be returned via VPN directly into the VistA software. The VA shall provide the license or usage for the VA-supplied VPN. NOTE: Currently, there is no cost to the contractor for a VPN license, but this may be subject to change. Contractor's word processing software must be compatible with VA Network word processing files. Prior to providing VPN, Contractor remote personal computers must be certified to have appropriate versions of software and virus protection. Windows 2000 or newer operating system is required. Contractor must comply with VA Directive and Handbook 6500 providing certification and accreditation to Contracting Officer.

The Contractor shall have the ability to interface with Veteran’s Information Systems Technology Architecture (VISTA) and shall have adequate back-up system in place to maintain dictation/transcription coverage in the event of a primary system failure. In case of a scheduled downtime, Contractor will notify COR at least 72 hours in advance with the date and estimated period of downtime. Suggested software to transmit to Vista includes Microsoft Word/Windows - ASCII format; terminal emulation and communication software (KEA) with VT-220 or greater emulation.

5.3 Start Up: Contractor may be required to have a representative or representatives on-site during the start- up period in order to ensure that training is accomplished and the uploading process for competed dictation is in place and running smoothly. The start-up period is estimated to be three to five workdays; however, it may be longer or shorter depending on problems that arise and staffing schedules. COR shall be responsible for coordinating on-site start-up meetings.

5.4 Contract Employee Security Requirements. Contractor is responsible for ensuring the following actions are completed prior to submitting Requests for Access to VA:

1. All required background checks and/or fingerprinting is completed.

2. The following Talent Management System Trainings are completed and submitted with access request:

a. VA Privacy and Information Security and Rules of Behavior – Item #10176

b. Privacy and HIPAA Focused Training – Item #10203

6. Reports:

6.1 Transmission of Reports: The Contractor shall electronically transmit all required reports into the hospital's mainframe, VistA through the TIU package. The transmission and upload shall be completed either from remote microcomputers using ASCII protocol upload, or from Host Files (e.g., DOS or VMS ASCII files) on the host system. Connect charges will be at the Contractor's expense. The VA retains the option to have transcribed documents uploaded directly to each individual electronic patient record in the VA VistA system to be mutually agreed upon by Contractor and COR. This may include STAT reports such as History and Physical Exams and Transfer/Discharge Summaries. Contractor transmittal logs will be sent with each batch transmitted to the VA. Contractor transmittal logs will be at no additional cost to the VA.

A Contractor transmittal log will be transmitted with each batch of transcribed reports uploaded to the VA. Each log will contain the following information:

1. Batch Identification: A unique sequential alphanumeric order which identifies the batch as follows:

2. TU 050206-01 whereas TU stands for Tucson ; 05 is the month; 02 is the day of the month; 06 is the calendar year; and -01 is the first (1st) batch of the day.

3. The document job number, 4.Transcription ID number,

5. Patient's complete name if provided by dictator,

6. Complete social security number,

7. Name of dictating clinician,

8. Type of report,

9. Total lines per report.

6.2 Retransmission of Reports: Contractor shall re-transmit, free of charge, all requested reports, including reports that have been returned due to errors in spelling, verbiage, grammar, punctuation or that are of unsatisfactory quality. Retransmission of reports requiring correction shall be returned to the COR or VA Transcription Point of Contact within four (4) hours from the time of return to the Contractor for correction, at no additional charge to the VA.

6.3 Lost Reports: VA verified dictated reports which have not been delivered or uploaded into the VA system. Contractor shall be accountable for any lost reports. Any transcription redone due to a lost report by a Contractor shall be transcribed and delivered and/or uploaded within four (4) hours after receipt of request from the VA at no charge to the VA. All transcribed documents will be retrievable by a job number.

6.4 Order of Precedence: With the exception of "STAT" reports as well as operation reports, all other reports shall be transcribed in the order of receipt (first in, first out). The dictation system is programmed to prioritize History and Physicals to be STAT reports, operation reports are then programmed to be moved to the top of the available jobs to transcribe thereafter. Reports which must be returned according to established turnaround times, regardless of day of week.

6.5 Abbreviations: The VA has an unapproved abbreviation list. The most current version of this list will be provided upon contract award and to Contractor when subsequent updates are completed. The Contractor shall be responsible to provide a copy of unapproved abbreviations to each transcriptionist.

Contractor shall confine abbreviations to those that have been approved by the VA. Symbols and abbreviations shall not be used in History & Physical reports, Operation Reports, Consults or Discharge Summaries. Symbols and abbreviations may be used in progress notes. Abbreviations in progress notes text will be expanded only once and thereafter abbreviations may be used.

6.6 Length of Reports: The length of each report will vary according to the type of report required. The reports will be created and saved as ASCII text with only printable characters, single spaces, and carriage returns and line feeds. The body of the text is single spaced with a double space between paragraphs. No report shall include any text other than what was dictated. Instructions to the transcriptionists shall not be included in the body of the report. Comments or questions shall be sent as separate correspondence, referencing the dictation system job number. Typed comments or questions are not counted as billable.

6.7 Report Formats: Specific report formats provided by the VA upon contract award. Formats for various reports may change throughout the life of the contract. When this occurs, the Contractor shall be required to convert to the new format within three (3) work days from the initial request from the VA at no additional cost to the VA. If appropriate formatting is not utilized, the COR or VA Transcription Point of Contact will notify Contractor and the report will be corrected within four (4) hours using the proper format at no additional cost to the VA.

Header: Required by each document, the header will conform to standards provided by the VA by document type. The header includes the document type, patient social security number, date of encounter, date of surgery or date of admission as applicable, work type, the document author, dictation date and time, location, and attending physicians as applicable. It is the Contractor's responsibility to assure all header required text information complies with the dictation work type requirements.

Footer: Format will include one line which contains the job number, the date and time dictated, date and time transcribed, and transcriptionist's initials.

Identification of Transcriptionist: Transcriptionist will place their initials within the footer of the documentation. These initials are unique to the transcriptionist and represent the transcriptionist who transcribed the dictated report.

6.8 Retention of Reports:

The Contractor shall retain dictation recordings for a minimum of 60 days from time of original dictation. The Contractor shall maintain transcribed reports on archive disks for twelve (12) months.

The Contractor logs shall be retained for twelve (12) months, then purged from their system.

The Contractor will erase all media containing VA reports that are aged more than twelve (12) months.At each erasure, the Contractor must certify to VA that the information has been destroyed.

The contract files must be maintained 3 years after the final payment.

7. Report Errors and Corrections:

7.1 Errors: Errors are defined as incorrect or omitted medical terminology that is clearly dictated, punctuation or spelling which changes the meaning of the sentence, entering material that is not dictated, entering material that is not part of the report such as dictator’s directions to the transcriptionist, unauthorized abbreviations, misspelled words, and blank lines, *-*for dictation that is clearly unintelligible. Errors include but are not limited to:

1. Omitted material that is legible or intelligible

2. Misspelled words 3.Transposed letters or numbers

4. Information located in the wrong category or field unless it cannot be determined where it belongs

5. Typing other than what is dictated

6. Punctuation if it changes the context of the sentence

7. Use of unapproved abbreviations including inappropriate use of abbreviations in the discharge summary.

8. Failure to edit report to be grammatically correct provided context is not altered.

9. Failure to comply with standard required information format on each document transcribed, transcriptionists initials, reports type, attending physician, admission/discharge/procedure dates or case numbers if applicable. If dictator provides spelling of patient name and social security number, this would also apply.

7.2 Inaudible Reports: If any dictation should prove to be significantly or totally inaudible or otherwise not transcribable, the Contractor shall notify the COR or designee within one (1) day of discovering such problems.

7.3 Partial Dictation: A partial dictation is any incomplete report. Dictation may be interrupted if there is an equipment malfunction or if the dictator terminates the dictation prior to the end of the report.

Contractor shall make every effort to combine segments of the same report prior to final preparation, delivery, and billing to the VA, and should notify the COR or VA Transcription POC.

7.4 Correction of Reports: Any reports returned to the Contractor for correction for reasons stated herein, or reports that are otherwise unacceptable to the VA will be returned to the Contractor, and shall be corrected within four (4) hours for routine reports and within one (1) hour for STAT work at no additional cost to the VA.

7.5 Upload Errors: Upload errors interfere with appropriate placement of transcribed notes into the VA system. These may be due to incorrect information transcribed in the header or footer section of each document transcribed. The VA will provide the Contractor with specific header and footer information to be utilized for each report. Contractor errors in the header or footer section of a report may be attributable but not limited to incorrect spelling of dictator, incorrect patient social security number, incorrect spelling of patient name, incorrect name or spelling of expected co-signer, incorrect date of visit. This information is either keyed in by the dictator into the central dictation system or dictated by the clinician. Contractor shall correct upload errors by verifying and editing header and footer information as necessary for successful upload of transcribed reports to the correct patient record identified by social security number (SSN), visit, date, author, title and location. The Contractor shall notify the COR or the VA Transcription

POC via telephone regarding all unresolved uploading problems within four (4) hours of completed transcription.

8. Quality Management:

Quality Control (QC): Contractor shall follow industry standards regarding quality of work, establish a quality control review process which results in mediation of potential and/or actual issues throughout the scope of contract performance. Quality control shall include processes for corrective actions without dependence upon VA direction. Contractor shall maintain records of all Contractor QC inspections and corrective actions which may be may be subject to review by COR upon request of the COR on a frequency as determined by quality assurance reviews.

VA Quality Assurance: Quality assurance for Contractor performance shall be conducted by the COR and reported to the VA Contracting Officer. This may include reviews of quality control reports furnished by the Contractor, random reviews for compliance of turnaround times, upload errors, and compliance with corrective actions when necessary.

Failure to Meet Quality Compliance: Upon recognition of failure to meet any compliance standard or identified issue which may affect quality of the transcription process will result in submission of a plan for corrective action with subsequent follow up reporting by the Contractor to the COR. COR will submit periodic performance reports to the Contracting Officer. In the event one or more quality standards are not met for three consecutive months without any contractor effort in improvement, the Contracting Officer will initiate appropriate action with the Contractor, up to and including possible contract termination.

8.1 Quality Standards:

Upload Standards: Contractor is responsible for uploading transcribed reports to the VA with correction of upload errors under this contract. The Contractor must confirm that the upload is complete and the report is available in VistA for authentication. Contractor will be notified by the VA if the batch uploading process failed. Contactor will upload the entire/partial batch without additional cost to the VA. Any errors corrected by the VA staff in note titles assigned during upload, upload to incorrect patient name, SSN, or appointments/admission date (or date of admission or procedure), or deviations from the VA location list provided by the VA, and errors in the name of the dictating provider and attending physician (if applicable) assigned during upload shall be at no cost to VA. Upload errors caused by errors of omission on the part of the VA author do not count against the Contractor's turnaround time performance provided the Contractor notified the COR or the VA Transcription POC in a manner mutually agreed upon between the transcription project manager and COR. Medical transcription reports shall be uploaded a MINIMUM of two times each day including weekends and holidays. The two uploads must be accomplished prior to 2:30 pm pacific time. Additional uploads can occur at any time at the Contractor’s discretion or at the site’s request. Reports will be considered transcribed when a report is received in the VistA system. Uploading reports to a wrong VHA facility is considered a privacy/security violation and is a reportable incident under Federal Law. Three separate reportable incidents within a base or optional period may be significant cause for termination of this contract. Once incident of uploading a report to a non-VHA facility may be cause for termination of this contract.

Turnaround Standards: It is expected that 100% of all the reports are transcribed and uploaded within the stated turn-around time. Each document that is not returned in the specified time shall be transcribed at NO cost to the government.

Standards of Transcribed Reports: Reports shall be of the highest professional quality in the body of the text as well as the information in the header and footer. Contractor shall use a medical spell checker on each document and perform corrections for spelling and grammar. The Contractor shall be responsible for ensuring that all transcription is prepared using correct grammar, spelling and medical terminology, including that particular to all subspecialties of medicine, surgery, psychiatry, neurology, and rehabilitative medicine. Contractor shall be responsible for checking medical dictionaries and current reference sources as required to distinguish between similar sounding medical terms.

Screening and Proofreading: The Contractor shall maintain a procedure that provides for screening and proofreading for accuracy of ALL reports prior to transmittal to the VA in compliance with requirements set forth in this document and industry standards.

9. Reporting and Billing:

9.1 Weekly/Monthly Report: The Contractor shall provide to the COR on a weekly basis the total number of lines and reports transcribed/submitted the week prior. In addition to the weekly verification of typed reports and number of lines it is required that a monthly electronic or faxed report which shall include total lines transmitted for the month be provided to the COR. Invoice is to be submitted monthly in arrears to the COR.

9.2 Billing: Billing/invoicing shall be done on a monthly basis in arrears and reflect the following: inclusive dates of the billing period, invoice number, obligation number, contract number, total visible black character (VBR) count by report type and total overall VBC count; and total charge submitted to each facility per report type and total facility charge. With each invoice the contractor shall provide the necessary documentation allowing each facility to verify the total VBCs being billed. VA will discount payment for reports not delivered within specified TATs and documents that do not meet quality assurance standards. Contractor shall NOT be paid IAW line pricing. VBC is MANDATORY.

A task order awarded shall be awarded with a Not To Exceed (NTE) spending limitation by the respective Administrative/Ordering Contracting Officer. On a monthly basis, the contractor shall provide the Procuring Contracting Officer with a spreadsheet detailing, as a minimum, the initial NTE limit for SAVAHCS, the monthly and cumulative VBC total for SAVAHCS, and the remaining spending limit available for continued services. Contractor shall design the spreadsheet and submit to the PCO or approval.