36S79719Q0015-003.docx

FedBizOpps Combined Synopsis/Solicitation Notice

CLASSIFICATION CODE

SUBJECT

CONTRACTING OFFICE'S

ZIP-CODE

SOLICITATION NUMBER

RESPONSE DATE (MM-DD-YYYY)

ARCHIVE

DAYS AFTER THE RESPONSE DATE

RECOVERY ACT FUNDS

SET-ASIDE

NAICS CODE

CONTRACTING OFFICE

ADDRESS

POINT OF CONTACT

(POC Information Automatically Filled from User Profile Unless Entered)

DESCRIPTION

See Attachment

AGENCY'S URL

URL DESCRIPTION

AGENCY CONTACT'S EMAIL

ADDRESS

EMAIL DESCRIPTION

ADDRESS

POSTAL CODE

COUNTRY

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

GENERAL INFORMATION

PLACE OF PERFORMANCE

* = Required Field FedBizOpps Combined Synopsis/Solicitation Notice Rev. March 2010 R IT Support Services 60141 36S79719Q0015 05-20-2019 N 541519

VA NAC / 003B6A

PO Box 76 1st Ave., One Block N of 22nd Hines IL 60141 Dreux Johnson Contract Specialist 708-786-7743

VA NAC

Building 37 1st Ave., One block N of 22nd Hines, IL 60141 Dreux.Johnson@va.gov; Valerie.Wallace1@va.gov Dreux.Johnson@va.gov

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: 541519

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.

DUNS:

DUNS+4:

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. 2/2012)

PREVIOUS EDITION IS NOT USABLE

Prescribed by GSA - FAR (48 CFR) 53.212

7. FOR SOLICITATION

INFORMATION CALL:

STANDARD FORM 1449

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

SOLICITATION/CONTRACT/ORDER FOR COMMERCIAL ITEMS

36S79719Q0015 04-19-2019 Valerie Wallace, valerie.wallace1@va.gov 708-786-7680 05-20-2019

1:00 CST

Department of Veterans Affairs OPAL / NAC / BRS / FPS Division Building 37 1st Avenue, One Block North of Cermak Hines IL 60141 X X $27.5M X N/A X

Department of Veterans Affairs OPAL / NAC / BRS / FPS Division Building 37 1st Avenue, One Block North of Cermak Hines IL 60141

Invoices shall be submitted in the Invoice Payment Processing System through Tungsten.

IT SUPPORT SERVICES

The National Acquisition Center (NAC) is seeking a SDVOSB vendor that can provide support, development, and maintenance of the NAC CM application. Support of the NAC CM application for use by the contracting staff at the NAC is provided by the Application Development function and the Database Administration function.

SDVOSB vendors shall be listed and verified in the Vendor Information Pages database.

All questions are due NO LATER THAN Tuesday, May 7, 2019.

X X X Dreux Michael Johnson 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:

Department of Veterans Affairs OPAL / NAC / BRS / FPS Division Building 37 1st Avenue, One Block North of Cermak Hines IL 60141

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.

Invoices shall be submitted in the Invoice Payment Processing System through Tungsten.

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

B.2 PRICE/COST SCHEDULE

Contractor shall provide all personnel required to complete the task outlined in the Performance Work Statement. The government will furnish office space, equipment and supplies related to the performance of the work specified in the performance work statement as specified in section B.3 8.0. On site performance will take place at the Department of Veterans Affairs located at 1st Avenue, One Block North of 22nd Street, Hines, Illinois 60141. The service period will be for a base year plus four one-year options periods to be exercised at the Government’s discretion. Services shall be provided in accordance with the Performance Work Statement and the terms and conditions contained in this solicitation and resulting contract award.

ITEM INFORMATION

BASE YEAR CONTRACT

OPTION YEAR ONE

OPTION YEAR TWO

OPTION YEAR THREE

OPTION YEAR THREE TOTAL PRICE

OPTION YEAR FOUR

SIX MONTH EXTENSION IAW 52.217-8, EXTEND THE TERM OF THE CONTRACT

TOTAL PRICE FOR BASE PLUS 4 ONE-YEAR OPTION PERIODS PLUS EXTENSION: $________________

B.3 PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT (PWS)

1.0 General

1.1 Introduction

The mission of the Department of Veterans Affairs is to fulfill President Lincoln's promise “To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan” by serving and honoring the men and women who are America's Veterans. The mission of the National Acquisition Center (NAC), Business Resource Service, is to meet the VA’s five core values that underscore the obligations inherent in VA’s mission: Integrity, Commitment, Advocacy, Respect, and Excellence. The core values define “who we are,” our culture, and how we care for Veterans and eligible beneficiaries. Our values are more than just words – they affect outcomes in our daily interactions with Veterans and eligible beneficiaries and with each other. Taking the first letter of each word—Integrity, Commitment, Advocacy, Respect, Excellence—creates a powerful acronym, “I CARE,” that reminds each VA employee of the importance of their role in this Department. These core values come together as five promises we make as individuals and as an organization to those we serve. This acquisition is crucial to the mission of the NAC as it provides essential database and application support services to the NAC by continuously maintaining, upgrading and updating the National Acquisition Center Contract Management (NAC CM) database and application.

1.2 Objective

The objective of this procurement is to have the contractor provide a broad range of database administration and application programming support services for the Structured Query Language (SQL) database and application called the NAC CM which is used by the NAC to manage their contracts. This database and application are critical to the mission of the NAC and therefore, must always be operational. The NAC CM also needs to be continually updated and enhanced to keep it current with new mission requirements and new hardware and software developments. The contractor must be agile and able to respond during business hours to unexpected issues that may arise over the course of the contract.

1.3 Scope of Work

Contractor shall provide maintenance for the NAC CM application which is currently in use by the NAC contracting staff. Application maintenance consists of two areas including maintenance of several databases and maintenance of the suite of front end application user interfaces.

The front-end application, which is a browser based graphical user interface (GUI) intranet application running on Internet Information Server (IIS), exists and is supported by a collection of applications which include browser based as well as WinForms applications. These include export/upload, quality monitoring, reporting and security management applications.

Maintenance of the front-end application is based on practical knowledge of the original legacy application and is heavily dependent on an arrangement of views, layered up to seven levels deep, some of which have been part of the structure since the application's inception. Because the database is not completely relational, additional consideration is required when designing changes to the front end. The front end is developed as a combination of vb.net (legacy portion) and a C#.net object layer.

The NAC CM application pharmaceutical section is the most critical and complex portion of the application. It utilizes data from the Pharmacy Benefits Management (PBM) group database. Ongoing development and maintenance of the pharmaceutical item management section of the NAC CM determined the Contractor shall attain practical knowledge of the business practices pertaining to the calculation of the federal ceiling price (FCP), pricing types, pricing restrictions and pricing quality analysis performed by both the PBM group and NAC personnel. While the Non-federal Average Manufacturer (NFAMP) data collection and FCP calculation functions remain with the PBM group, the NAC CM support staff must interpret the results and enforce the FCP according to the business rules established by Public Law 102-585 (PL). Known business rules as well as the refinement of those rules over time are reflected in the C#.net object layer which is then enforced at the GUI.

The contractor shall develop and maintain the existing pharmaceutical item management section required in support of the interface to the VA pharmaceutical prime vendor.

Development and maintenance of the pharmaceutical item management section requires the Contractor to have practical knowledge of the legal and fiscal requirements, specifically Public Law 102-585, for maintaining pricing history over time, including the pricing history of an individual National Drug Code (NDC), the pricing history when a particular drug changes its NDC, and finally, the pricing history as a particular drug moves from one manufacturer to another. Practical knowledge of these requirements is a critical component to ongoing maintenance of the history information

Quality analysis applications, consisting of views and data validation, integrated into the NAC CM indicate to the user a custom view of outlier situations regarding vendor reporting, user data maintenance, and price quality. Contractor shall have practical knowledge of the business requirements surrounding the NAC CM’s internal vendor process. Support of the pricing quality analysis requires practical knowledge of the 21-point business requirement provided by Pharmacy Benefits Management Service (PBM) that ensures the correct relationship between the FCP; FSS price; Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Health and Human Services, and the United States Coast Guard all collectively known as the BIG4 price; and restricted prices. In addition, quality reports mirror the real-time quality analysis and provide greater detail for management monitoring purposes. Quality reports for pharmaceutical item quality and pricing involve a three-layered approach starting with a dashboard top level and providing drill downs to individual areas of concern. These include implementation of additional requirements for cross checking between various data sources which cannot be accomplished by simple validation at the GUI.

In addition to support of the front-end application, several supporting applications are required to be maintained to complete the suite of applications in the NAC CM system. These supporting applications include the medical/surgical pricelist export and upload application, the pharmaceutical pricelist export and upload application, the security manager application and also the original sales upload application which is available for use in the event that a manual upload of vendor sales data is required.

The contractor shall maintain the medical/surgical item upload application to ensure that the application properly detects missing or incorrect information during the upload process to prevent loss of data integrity. A critical future project in this area is the medical/surgical item maintenance development. The purpose of this effort is to provide the ability for users to edit, export and upload future medical/surgical pricing information. The user interface and underlying tables need to be redesigned and re-implemented to allow the future prices to coexist with current prices in a way that is maintainable by the users. Additionally, this development effort includes the maintenance of new data elements to support manufacturer’s part number and tracking customer data. The availability of this data will allow contracting officers to perform price comparisons across contracts and facilitate the price negotiation process. To accomplish this task successfully requires practical knowledge of medical/surgical databases to include structures and supporting application code.

The contractor shall maintain the Pharmaceutical pricelist upload application which directly supports the Public Law 102-585 process for enforcement of FCP on covered pharmaceutical items. Maintenance requires practical knowledge and enforcement of current business rules and processes surrounding the public law process. This application forms the core of the applications used during the process and thus requires frequent modification to ensure it reflects the current business processes as modified with each passing public law year.

The contractor shall maintain the active interface with the Contract Catalog Search Tool (CCST) which requires a general familiarity with operation of the CCST application.

The contractor shall maintain and develop the security manager portion of NAC CM, which requires familiarity with the role/access point/schedule security model used by the application. This model is a 3-dimensional approach involving dynamic role definitions, area of responsibility based on both division and contract type, and application function points which are tightly coupled with the implementation of the NAC CM itself. The application allows creation of new roles and the addition of new areas of responsibility by end users.

The application backend is currently based on Microsoft SQL Server 2008. Support of the application from the database perspective involves the following areas, including, first, the ten active interfaces to external customers. Development of the filters used to select the appropriate data for each of the interfaces is dependent on practical knowledge of the database's layered view structure, which, is layered up to seven levels deep, and is of a legacy design nature. Additionally, support of each of the interfaces has its own unique requirements as dictated by the recipient of the data. Each is implemented by a series of scripts, data transformation tasks as well as custom C# objects and finally scheduled as appropriate. Support of the jobs requires practical knowledge of the underlying legacy and augmented databases as well as active interception and resolution of error conditions. Specifically, support of the interface to the Pharmaceutical Prime Vendor requires practical knowledge of the business rules surrounding pharmaceutical pricing. This is critical to VA operations as errors in this area risks exposing the VA to expensive charge back operations.

The second major area the contractor will be required to support is the export and import of medical/surgical and pharmaceutical item data. The item data for medical and pharmaceutical based contracts is unique in its changing nature. Over the lifetime of each contract, the vendor catalog corresponding to that contract is constantly in a state of flux. Thus, capabilities must be provided to enable the contracting officers to keep their catalogs current. This is a critical function in that it ensures that our veterans always have access to the most advanced medical supplies and drugs provided by industry. A critical future project in this area is the migration of the underlying database to SQL Server 2014. The additional security restrictions imposed by this migration has required the redesign of certain aspects of the export and import functionality of the medical/surgical and pharmaceutical data. To accomplish this task successfully requires an extremely practical knowledge of the existing medical/surgical and pharmaceutical business rules, data structures and supporting application code to provide continued availability of these features after the migration.

Thirdly, the contractor shall support the Fiscal group for receipt and maintenance of payment information for payment of the Industrial Funding Fee (IFF) or Cost Recovery Fee (CRF) provided by vendors to the VA as required by the contract. Payment information is received via an interface from the GSA sales reporting vendor portal via pay.gov into the NAC CM database as supported by a series of jobs which retrieve and process the GSA sales and pay.gov activity files. Most critically, the processing of the debit vouchers requires practical knowledge of the business processes of how to apply the changes against the existing payment records. Support must also be provided to enable the database to interface to the NAC CM front-end application sections.

The application data structure, in addition to being dependent on the legacy views, is several databases working in concert. The databases include the main NAC CM database, the pharmaceutical item management database, and the security database. The NAC CM application “offers” section provides Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) users with the ability to track vendor offers. Support of the offers database requires an understanding of the relationship between an offer and its awarded contract as well as practical knowledge of the business practices codified in the Federal Acquisition Regulation/VA Acquisition Regulation (FAR/VAAR) surrounding the process flow as an offer is evaluated for contract award.

Each database has its own challenges. The main database was built many years ago with limited practical knowledge of relational database concepts and limited planning. Existing table structures that are part of the legacy portion of the database are not consistently constructed using a normal relational model. This has resulted in a complex structure that has evolved over the course many years rather than one created by design. This constraint sometimes requires unique approaches to obtaining the desired result. For example, there is increased complexity for performing otherwise common tasks, such as relating new tables with legacy tables, due to the specialized practical knowledge required to implement such tasks. All recently created objects, however, follow a strict relational model.

The pharmaceutical item management database, in addition to maintaining current catalog items, also has item and pricing history, and presents the information is required by Public Law 102-585. In addition, the pricing history must be gathered and summarized for use by the GUI level as well as for various reports used to investigate the pricing history of a particular drug item. Practical knowledge of the business requirements for the sequencing, splitting, replacing or updating of the history records is a critical component to the ongoing maintenance of the history database.

The security manager database is designed for performance to provide authorization support for the main NAC CM GUI as well as the second-tier applications which support it. The security manager makes heavy use of stored procedures that address the implementation of the three-dimensional security model by maintaining encoded lists of function points within individual fields. The lists are packed and unpacked using a set of custom encoding and decoding functions implemented in SQL.

In addition to the above requirements, support for the NAC must be adaptable and agile to respond to issues as they come up; as well as ever changing laws, regulations, court decisions and business practices which impact on the design, functionality, and user experience of the application and supporting database. Currently, there is a project this fiscal year to move the NAC CM servers from their current location to another location. This will require the close cooperation of the contracted personnel with the supporting IT technical staff to ensure that the performance of the database and application are not adversely affected by the move. Not only is maintenance of the current application and database required but there is always a standing list of enhancements to the application and database that are continuously being developed, tested, and put into production.

1.4 Background

The NAC CM database and application was developed over 10 years ago. Historically, it has been continuously supported by contracted personnel through a non-personal service contract. Historically this has included a database administrator, and an application programmer. It is envisioned that contractor support will continue for the foreseeable future. It is also envisioned that the NAC CM will continuously evolve through programming and database changes throughout the course of its existence.

1.5 Period of Performance

The period of performance of this contract is 1 year plus four 1-year option periods to be exercised at the discretion of the Government. Performance of the contract shall begin upon completion of background checks and receipt of identification badges. Contractors should anticipate commencing onsite performance within 10 days after award to allow for completion of background checks and the issuance of identification badges. The Contractor will be notified when to report to work. Background checks are initiated and paid by the VA.

1.6 Background Checks

Contractors shall be subjected to the following background check. Tier 2 Moderate Risk Public Trust (Requires Suitability Determination with Moderate Risk Background Investigation - MBI). The contractor shall work in conjunction with the COR to initiate the background check within 5 days after award of the contract.

1.7 Place of Performance

This contract shall be performed at Department of Veterans Affairs, Building 37, Hines, Illinois. Support staff must be located on site. The contract manager may be located off-site.

1.8 Applicable Documents

The following links to publicly available websites which are fed from data in the NAC CM are listed below:

Contract Catalog Search Tool (CCST): https://www.va.gov/nac/ GSA eLibrary: https://www.gsaelibrary.gsa.gov/ElibMain/home.do GSA Advantage: https://www.gsaadvantage.gov/advantage/main/start_page.do VA Publications: https://www1.va.gov/vapubs/search_action.cfm?dType=2 NIST Publications: https://www.nist.gov/publications/guide-applying-risk-management-framework-federal-information-systems-security-life-0

2.0 Specific Requirements/Tasks

2.1 Task One Provide ongoing developmental and maintenance support for the NAC CM applications throughout the performance period of the contract

Provide maintenance and enhancement support for the suite of front end application user interfaces Provide maintenance and enhancement support for the pharmaceutical item management section of the application Provide maintenance and enhancement support for the pharmaceutical and medical/surgical pricelist export and upload applications Provide maintenance and enhancement support for the sales upload application Provide maintenance and enhancement support for the reporting application Provide maintenance and enhancement support for the security manager application

2.2 Task Two Provide ongoing developmental and maintenance support for the NAC CM databases throughout the performance period of the contract

2.6 All work is required to be performed onsite at the National Acquisition Center in building 37 at Hines, IL. Contractors are required to be onsite during the hours of 8:00am until 4:30PM Central time Monday through Friday excluding federal holidays. Onsite support is required because of the nature of the programming and database support work being performed which requires high speed connection to the database and application which can only be provided by being directly connected to the VA network and not through any remote VPN connection.

3.0 Contractor Quality Control Plan.

Offeror shall provide a Quality Control Plan with their Technical Quote that details the contractor’s “Quality Control Inspection System”. The plan should be concise and include measures to detect, remedy, document, and deter recurrences of discrepant performance or materials. The Quality Control Plan will identify the lines of supervision and ensure the levels of authority are adequate to allow all corrective actions necessary to ensure a high quality of work.

The Government will monitor contractor performance through reports, meetings and weekly reviews and evaluations of the results of contractor performance. The Government will monitor and measure contractor performance that are the core of the government’s internal Surveillance Plan. Performance standards and acceptable quality levels are provided in Section D. These elements run from maintenance and troubleshooting of the database and application; to database and application updates and upgrades; to enhancements and changes to the database and application to accommodate emerging demands.

4.0 Contract Deliverables

A monthly written report in the format provided by the report template in section D shall be submitted to the CO and the COR no later than the first three business days of the following month that summarizes work performed in each of the major areas of application development and database administration such as in the development; testing; and debugging of new application code and the implementation of new data models and database schemas. It also should include the uptime statistics of the various components of the database and application servers such as the production NAC CM application and database themselves, as well as the development and test servers. A weekly report is required to be submitted to the COR on the Friday of each week which documents ongoing work as well as work that is planned to be done in the near future. The weekly report shall also include the minutes from the weekly meeting that occurs with the COR and other VA staff to discuss the status of ongoing work and planned future projects.

5.0 Meetings

Meetings will be conducted in-person at the National Acquisition Center location at Hines, Illinois for onsite contractor personnel or through alternative methods of communication such as online meetings or conference calls. The contractor’s contract manager is required to attend these meetings.

5.1 Post-award Kickoff Meeting

Within 5 business days of contract award, the Government will conduct a post-award kickoff meeting at the National Acquisition Center location at Hines, Illinois. Meeting may be conducted via teleconference or phone. The Government shall not be held liable for any Contractor related travel costs associated with attending this meeting onsite. All incurred costs are the responsibility of the Contractor.

5.2 Intermittent Project Weekly Meetings

Contractor shall attend weekly meetings, currently scheduled every Tuesday at 10:00 am CST. The government may change the day and time of the weekly meeting if determined in the best interest of the government with notice to the contractor. Updated reports arising from the meeting shall be provided to the government on the following Friday.

5.3 Monthly Project Status Reviews

Contractor shall attend a monthly meeting to address ongoing service interruptions or performance issues, when necessary. The Contractor is responsible for reporting any risks, issues, or concerns, and actual or recommended actions for their mitigation), and projected activities for the following month.

5.4 Program Management Review

The Government will conduct quarterly program management reviews at Hines, IL or via conference calls or online meetings to review the progress of the program, identify any risks, issues, or concerns, and provide feedback on the Contractor’s progress and performance.

6.0 Required Travel and Other Direct Costs (ODCs)

The principal place of performance is Department of Veterans Affairs, Service and Distribution Center located at Building 37, Hines, IL. Accordingly, reimbursable travel and per diem for the contractor’s employees performing work on a regular basis at this place of performance is not authorized. Further, no travel or ODCs will be provided for the contract manager.

7.0 Special Instructions

The successor, if not the incumbent, is obligated to cooperate fully with the incumbent’s contractors during transition as per FAR 52.237-3—Continuity of Services.

8.0 Government Furnished Property/Equipment/Information

The contractor shall be provided one office, a maximum of two desks, computers (with related software), and desk phones. The contractor will also have access to a common use networked printer. All government furnished property shall remain on site, and the contractor shall not remove the property for any reason. The contractor shall not provide their own equipment in place of any government furnished equipment. All other materials needed for the daily accomplishment of tasks must be provided by the contractor. Upon contract completion, contractor shall return all Government Furnished Property in same condition as issued. Contractor shall be responsible for all damages.

9.0 Glossary of Abbreviations and Acronyms

CCST - Contract Catalog Search Tool CO – Contracting Officer COR - Contracting Officer’s Representative CRF - Cost Recovery Fee FAR - Federal Acquisition Regulation FCP- Federal Ceiling Price FSS-Federal Supply Schedules GSA – General Services Administration GUI – Graphical User Interface IFF- Industrial Funding Fee IIs - Internet Information Server IT- Information Technology NAC – National Acquisition Center NAC CM – National Acquisition Center Contract Management NFAMP - Non-federal Average Manufacturer PBM - Pharmacy Benefits Management PL – Public Law SQL – Structured Query Language VA – Veteran Affairs VAAR – VA Acquisition Regulation

10.0 CONTRACTOR RESPONSIBILTIES

The Contractor shall assign a contract manager who is responsible for assigning and monitoring the work of the contractor’s staff and acting as the contact point between the contractor and the contracting officer representative (COR). The contractor, not the VA will determine their weekly schedule and hours, and be responsible for ensuring all task are completed satisfactory and timely. This individual shall also be responsible for ensuring all contract deliverables (reports) are provided in accordance with the contract terms and conditions. The contract manager is not required to work on site, though is expected to participate in all aspects of this requirement, and submit, in writing (memorandum, e-mail or any other medium as specified herein) all correspondence associated with this requirement.

The contract will be for non-personal services. These contract personnel shall not be considered VA employees for any purpose. The contractor, not the VA shall have the duty of overseeing contractor personnel and coordinating performance with the contracting officer or COR.

11.0 CONTRACTING OFFICER REPRESENTATIVE (COR):

VA Contact Person(s): (COR): Mr. Raymond Schraeder Telephone Number: (708) 786-5211 for all services defined herein.

A COR designation letter will be provided after contract award detailing the COR roles and responsibilities.

12.0 HOURS OF OPERATION

A. Normal hours of operations at the VA are Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm, excluding holidays. All work will be performed during normal hours of coverage unless requested or approved by COR or his designee.

B. Federal Holidays observed by the VA are:

13.0 PROTECTION OF GOVERNMENT PROPERTY

During work execution, the Contractor shall take special care to protect Government property identified in section 8.0. Damage resulting from Contractor operations shall be repaired by the Contractor, or replacement (if necessary), at no additional cost to the Government. Contractor shall be held responsible for any damage, which may be caused as a result of the Contractors failure to adhere to these requirements.

DAMAGE: Extreme caution shall be exercised to prevent damage to the building and its contents. Any damage must be reported to the COR immediately for appropriate action. Any damage caused by the Contractor will be repaired and or replaced to the satisfaction of the Government at the Contractor’s expense.

14.0 INSURANCE

A. Worker compensation and employer's liability. Contractors are required to comply with applicable Federal and State Worker Compensation.

B. General Liability. Contractors are required to have Bodily Injury Liability Insurance coverage written on the comprehensive form of policy of at least $500,000 per occurrence.

C. Property Damage Liability. Contractors are required to have Property Damage Liability insurance coverage of at least $500,000.

15.0 IDENTIFICATION, PARKING, SMOKING, AND VA REGULATIONS:

The Contractor's Personnel shall wear visible identification at all times while on the premises of the VA. It is the responsibility of the Contractor to park in the appropriate designated parking areas. Information on parking shall be coordinated between the contractor and the COR. The VA facility will not invalidate or make reimbursement for parking violations of the Contractor under any conditions. Smoking is prohibited inside any buildings at the VA facility. Possession of weapons is prohibited. Enclosed containers, including tool kits, shall be subject to search. Violations of VA facility regulations may result in citation answerable in the United States (Federal) District Court, not a local district, state, or municipal court.

B.4 IT CONTRACT SECURITY

VA INFORMATION AND INFORMATION SYSTEM SECURITY/PRIVACY

1. GENERAL

Contractors, contractor personnel, subcontractors, and subcontractor personnel shall be subject to the same Federal laws, regulations, standards, and VA Directives and Handbooks as VA and VA personnel regarding information and information system security.

2. ACCESS TO VA INFORMATION AND VA INFORMATION SYSTEMS

a. A contractor/subcontractor shall request logical (technical) or physical access to VA information and VA information systems for their employees, subcontractors, and affiliates only to the extent necessary to perform the services specified in the contract, agreement, or task order.

b. All contractors, subcontractors, and third-party servicers and associates working with VA information are subject to the same investigative requirements as those of VA appointees or employees who have access to the same types of information. 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. Contract personnel who require access to national security programs must have a valid security clearance. National Industrial Security Program (NISP) was established by Executive Order 12829 to ensure that cleared U.S. defense industry contract personnel safeguard the classified information in their possession while performing work on contracts, programs, bids, or research and development efforts. The Department of Veterans Affairs does not have a Memorandum of Agreement with Defense Security Service (DSS). Verification of a Security Clearance must be processed through the Special Security Officer located in the Planning and National Security Service within the Office of Operations, Security, and Preparedness.

d. Custom software development and outsourced operations must be located in the U.S. to the maximum extent practical. If such services are proposed to be performed abroad and are not disallowed by other VA policy or mandates, the contractor/subcontractor must state where all non-U.S. services are provided and detail a security plan, deemed to be acceptable by VA, specifically to address mitigation of the resulting problems of communication, control, data protection, and so forth. Location within the U.S. may be an evaluation factor.

e. The contractor or subcontractor must notify the Contracting Officer immediately when an employee working on a VA system or with access to VA information is reassigned or leaves the contractor or subcontractor's employ. The Contracting Officer must also be notified immediately by the contractor or subcontractor prior to an unfriendly termination.

3. VA INFORMATION CUSTODIAL LANGUAGE

a. Information made available to the contractor or subcontractor by VA for the performance or administration of this contract or information developed by the contractor/subcontractor in performance or administration of the contract shall be used only for those purposes and shall not be used in any other way without the prior written agreement of the VA. This clause expressly limits the contractor/subcontractor's rights to use data as described in Rights in Data - General, FAR 52.227-14(d) (1).

b. VA information should not be co-mingled, if possible, with any other data on the contractors/subcontractor's information systems or media storage systems in order to ensure VA requirements related to data protection and media sanitization can be met. If co-mingling must be allowed to meet the requirements of the business need, the contractor must ensure that VA's information is returned to the VA or destroyed in accordance with VA's sanitization requirements. VA reserves the right to conduct on site inspections of contractor and subcontractor IT resources to ensure data security controls, separation of data and job duties, and destruction/media sanitization procedures are in compliance with VA directive requirements.

c. Prior to termination or completion of this contract, contractor/ subcontractor must not destroy information received from VA, or gathered/ created by the contractor in the course of performing this contract without prior written approval by the VA. Any data destruction done on behalf of VA by a contractor/subcontractor must be done in accordance with National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) requirements as outlined in VA Directive 6300, Records and Information Management and its Handbook 6300.1 Records Management Procedures, applicable VA Records Control Schedules, and VA Handbook 6500.1, Electronic Media Sanitization. Self-certification by the contractor that the data destruction requirements above have been met must be sent to the VA Contracting Officer within 30 days of termination of the contract.

d. The contractor/subcontractor must receive, gather, store, back up, maintain, use, disclose and dispose of VA information only in compliance with the terms of the contract and applicable Federal and VA information confidentiality and security laws, regulations and policies. If Federal or VA information confidentiality and security laws, regulations and policies become applicable to the VA information or information systems after execution of the contract, or if NIST issues or updates applicable FIPS or Special Publications (SP) after execution of this contract, the parties agree to negotiate in good faith to implement the information confidentiality and security laws, regulations and policies in this contract.

e. The contractor/subcontractor shall not make copies of VA information except as authorized and necessary to perform the terms of the agreement or to preserve electronic information stored on contractor/subcontractor electronic storage media for restoration in case any electronic equipment or data used by the contractor/subcontractor needs to be restored to an operating state. If copies are made for restoration purposes, after the restoration is complete, the copies must be appropriately destroyed.

f. If VA determines that the contractor has violated any of the information confidentiality, privacy, and security provisions of the contract, it shall be sufficient grounds for VA to withhold payment to the contractor or third party or terminate the contract for default or terminate for cause under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) part 12.

g. If a VHA contract is terminated for cause, the associated BAA must also be terminated and appropriate actions taken in accordance with VHA Handbook 1600.01, Business Associate Agreements. Absent an agreement to use or disclose protected health information, there is no business associate relationship.

h. The contractor/subcontractor must store, transport, or transmit VA sensitive information in an encrypted form, using VA-approved encryption tools that are, at a minimum, FIPS 140-2 validated.

i. The contractor/subcontractor's firewall and Web services security controls, if applicable, shall meet or exceed VA's minimum requirements. VA Configuration Guidelines are available upon request.

j. Except for uses and disclosures of VA information authorized by this contract for performance of the contract, the contractor/subcontractor may use and disclose VA information only in two other situations: (i) in response to a qualifying order of a court of competent jurisdiction, or (ii) with VA's prior written approval. The contractor/subcontractor must refer all requests for, demands for production of, or inquiries about, VA information and information systems to the VA contracting officer for response.

k. Notwithstanding the provision above, the contractor/subcontractor shall not release VA records…