HRSA E-E IDIQ - SECTION L and M REVISED.pdf

SECTION L - INSTRUCTIONS, CONDITIONS AND NOTICES TO OFFERORS

L.1 General Instructions

1. Your attention is directed to the requirements for the technical, past performance, business proposal information, and Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) to be submitted in accordance with the following instructions establishing the acceptable minimum requirements for the format and content of proposals. Proposals must be complete at the time of proposal submission. Failure to submit a complete proposal at the time proposals are due may result in the exclusion of your proposal from further consideration by the Government for award of a contract.

Offerors are advised that the Government intends to make this award without discussions.

If necessary, the Contracting Officer may conduct oral and/or written discussions with all firms that have a reasonable prospect of award and, therefore, are included in the competitive range. Because the Government intends to make award without discussions, the initial offer should contain the Offeror’s best terms and prices.

Offerors must have a valid SAM registration when submitting proposals in order to be evaluated for award. Offerors with expired or nonexistent SAM registrations will be deemed unresponsible in accordance with FAR Part 9.104-1 and FAR Part 4.1102 and will NOT have their proposals evaluated.

2. Proposals shall be submitted single spaced, printable on 8.5 x 11-inch paper, paginated front to back, 12-point font (Times New Roman), 1-inch margins, with searchable features in the technical proposal and business proposal. 10-point font (Times New Roman) will be allowed for tables and graphics. 8-, 9- or 10-point font (Times New Roman) will be allowed for headers and footers.

Each page shall be numbered, and each volume shall be tabbed to correspond to the table of contents. The Offeror may include foldouts up to 11 x 17 inches only to display graphics, flow charts, organizational charts, or drawings, which will not be counted towards the page limit for the technical volume.

The Business Proposal shall be submitted with Excel compatible formatted content with formulas preserved as an appendix.

3. Where data and/or information appears in one part, it does not have to be repeated in any other part; however, it shall be cross referenced by indicating the specific location including the volume and page number as a minimum. The clarity, relevance, and conciseness of the proposal is important, not the length.

4. This RFP does not commit the Government to pay any cost for preparing and submitting a proposal. In addition, the Contracting Officer is the only individual who can legally commit the Government to the expenditure of public funds in connection with this proposed acquisition.

5. HHS’s or HRSA’s letterhead and/or logo should not be included in the Offeror’s proposal. The Offeror’s proposals also should not include proposals from past contracts.

6. If proprietary information is being proposed, please mark as required under the FAR.

7. A statement indicating whether any exceptions are taken to the terms and conditions of the request for proposal (RFP) shall be part of the proposal transmittal letter. Any exceptions taken must include identification of the specific paragraphs and rationale for each exception. Exceptions shall also be noted in the specific volume of the proposal, at the location of the exception. Offerors are cautioned that a proposal that fails to comply with or takes exception to a material term of the solicitation will be considered unacceptable and may not form the basis of award.

8. The proposal shall be prepared in accordance with FAR 52.215-1, Instruction to Offerors.

Proposals shall be submit as stated below to be considered responsive to this RFP (no exceptions). Proposals shall include an initial page with the information required by the clause at paragraph (c)(2) and shall be submitted in four (4) volumes as outlined below:

Volume Title

I Parent IDIQ Technical Proposal II Hypothetical Technical Proposals III Past Performance IV Price Proposal

V VPAT

The Parent Technical Proposal, Hypothetical Technical Proposals, Past Performance, Price, and VPAT Proposal volumes/information shall be submitted separately and clearly labeled. Each of these parts shall be separate and complete in itself so that the evaluation of one may be accomplished independently of the evaluation of the other.

9. Offerors shall adhere to the following page limits, with appendices and attachments excepted:

a. Volume I Parent IDIQ Technical Proposal – 100 Pages

b. Volume II Hypothetical Technical Proposals – 15 Pages Each

c. Volume III Past Performance – 25 Pages

d. Volume IV Price Proposal – Excel and 1 Page Small Business Subcontracting

Plan

e. Volume V- VPAT –

10. The Offeror’s proposal must stipulate that it is predicated upon all the terms and conditions of this RFP. In addition, it must contain a statement to the effect that it is firm for a period of at least 180 days from the date of receipt by the Government.

11. The Offeror must submit proposals and data comprehensive enough to provide the basis for a sound evaluation. Proposals that do not include details sufficient to permit a meaningful evaluation may be unacceptable and ineligible for award.

Proposals must be signed by an official authorized to bind your organization and must be submitted by 10:00 AM EDT, February 22, 2024, by email in PDF and Excel-compatible format to HRSAIDIQ@hrsa.gov. Offerors are encouraged to request a delivery receipt to serve as evidence of timely receipt of its proposal by the government.

L.2 Inquiries

1. All questions and / or inquiries concerning this solicitation must be submitted via email to HRSAIDIQ@hrsa.gov by 10:00 AM EDT, January 25, 2024. Questions submitted after the due date will not be accepted. Any resulting addition, deletion, or change to the RFP document will be made by issuing a formal amendment, which may be downloaded from http://www.SAM.gov. Offerors are instructed specifically to contact only the issuing contract office in connection with any aspect of this requirement prior to contract award.

All questions concerning this solicitation must be submitted in the following Excel format:

# Question Section of RFP Page # Government Response (To Be

Provided)

Questions submitted in a different format may not receive a Government Response.

2. The government will post all questions received from Offerors and respective answers from federal staff in response to this solicitation and associated responses on the SAM.GOV website at http://www.SAM.gov via formal amendment. Any addition, deletion, or change to the RFP document will also be made by issuing a formal amendment, which may be downloaded from http://www.SAM.gov. It is the Offerors responsibility to monitor http://www.SAM.gov for documents related to this solicitation.

L.3 Volume I Parent IDIQ Technical Proposal

1. Volume I shall not contain references to price/cost; however, resource information such as data concerning labor hours and categories, materials, subcontracts, etc., must be contained in the technical proposal so that your understanding of the Statement of Work may be evaluated. It must disclose your technical approach in sufficient detail to provide a clear and concise presentation that includes the requirements of the technical criteria.

2. Offerors shall submit a single complete Volume I Parent IDIQ Technical Proposal.

Volume I Parent IDIQ Technical Proposal shall not exceed 100 pages, excluding mailto:HRSAIDIQ@hrsa.gov mailto:HRSAIDIQ@hrsa.gov http://www.sam.gov/ http://www.sam.gov/ http://www.sam.gov/ http://www.sam.gov/ attachments, addendums, resumes (individual resumes shall not exceed three (3) pages) and other required appendices.

3. In order to establish uniformity and to facilitate the evaluation, Offerors shall submit a

Volume I Parent IDIQ Technical Proposal organized in the following sections:

Factor 1 – Technical Subfactor 1 – Technical Approach Subfactor 2 – Understanding the Problem Subfactor 3 – Project Management, Personnel and Staffing, Planning Approach Subfactor 4 – Organizational Experience

4.

Subfactor 1 - Technical Approach

The Offeror shall demonstrate an understanding of, and ability to, address each of the key technical skills/capacities listed below. The Offeror shall include a specific example of recent (within the past 5 years) and relevant experience pertaining to health, public health and/or populations similar to those served by HRSA, for each individual technical skill/capacity.

The key technical skills/capabilities related to program evaluation include the following:

• Obtaining and reviewing background information/materials on the program to be evaluated including 1) broad-based environmental scan and/or literature review on relevant/pertinent questions to be addressed; 2) interviews with key stakeholders (e.g., program staff, study program participants, other interested parties); and 3) review of data on program operations and assessment of current research on the program to be evaluated.

• Identifying appropriate evaluation design and methodology, based on evaluation purpose, available resources (time, staffing, and funding), and program size and complexity, including experimental, quasi-experimental, and non-experimental designs.

• Developing and implementing each evaluation design, methodology, and type included in Appendix A of the statement of work.

• Developing or revising data collection instruments, using plain language principles.

Offeror shall describe experience/expertise, including relevant examples of surveys and other data collection instruments.

• Preparing and submitting Office of Management and Budget (OMB) clearance packages, Institutional Review Board (IRB) Human Subjects Protection requests, and prepare documents for IRB and OMB review, as appropriate.

• Identifying appropriate sampling procedure(s) to be employed with each evaluation method (e.g., purposive, probability, and/or convenience sample).

• Collecting quantitative and/or qualitative data using appropriate strategies, including survey tools, focus groups, case studies, and semi-structured interviews from a variety of key stakeholders, constituents, recipients, and special populations (e.g., rural, maternal/child, hard to reach populations).

• Compiling and analyzing primary, secondary, and supplementary data for addressing key evaluation questions.

• Implementing procedures such as data abstraction templates, inter-rater reliability, and measures of internal consistency among survey items to ensure consistent estimates among data collectors for the same observation(s).

• Developing instruction manuals and training materials to support data collection.

• Conducting data analyses and developing statistical models using a variety of appropriate methodologies including qualitative and quantitative methods.

• Performing statistical data analysis and developing statistical models using a wide range of analysis software, including SAS, STATA, R, SPSS, Excel, Python, Tableau, NVivo (for qualitative analyses) or other appropriate analytical and/or programming/modeling tools.

• Conducting analysis on small sample sizes to include methods such as Laplace, Convenience Sampling, and/or T Tests to get higher statistical power for small sample size data.

• Providing relevant training on the analysis of data related to evaluation studies and/or evaluation-related services.

The key technical skills/capabilities related to other evidence-building activities, including logic models/theories of change, needs assessments, evaluability assessments, organizational assessments, performance, and quality measurement, systematic reviews, policy analyses, exploratory studies, descriptive studies, and predictive analytics include the following:

• Leading in the development of a logic model to illustrate the program’s intended impact and goals; the sequence of intended effects; the correlation between activities and program effects; and where to focus outcome and process evaluations.

• Identifying a set of data points that can be used to evaluate progress and develop a specific set of performance measures or objectives, to track progress toward program goals.

• Conducting scans assessing various relevant Federal and state laws and policies (e.g., financial) and their effects on identified program(s).

• Assessing external context of identified programs and how forces in the overall health landscape (e.g., health and human service systems; social, economic, and political changes; social determinants of health; and health information technology operations and limitations) affect identified programs and their progress toward achieving goals and objectives.

• Developing a clear statement of the relevant existing policy issue(s), including the effectiveness and/or effects of policy-related strategies implemented in the field to address a specific public health issue.

• Compiling qualitative and quantitative data, previous analyses, previous policy/mission statements, previous projection analyses, and other relevant information.

• Compiling and analyzing primary, secondary, and supplementary data for addressing key evaluation questions.

• Conducting analysis on small sample sizes to include methods such as Laplace, Convenience Sampling, and/or T Tests to get higher statistical power for small sample size data.

• Applying quantitative and qualitative approaches to the analysis of policy/program alternatives using appropriate methodologies, such as case studies, survey research, statistical analysis, model building, and impact assessment.

• Assessing various policy alternatives, including implementation of various legislative requirements, that are related to identified programs or interests (i.e., how actual, planned, or potential changes in current public and private policies and implementation strategies affect the attainment of program goals and objectives).

• Determining strengths, challenges, impact, and likely future success/possible impediments of identified policy/program alternatives, on the identified program(s).

• Describing and providing a better understanding of areas for innovation and/or adapting to technological advances and the impact on health care (e.g., telehealth, mobile health systems, health IT).

The key technical skills/capabilities related to communication and dissemination include the following:

• Developing communication and dissemination plans using established approaches to scale up and sustain effective program interventions.

• Learning how interventions known to be effective can be better disseminated, facilitating the identification of key barriers, and addressing the levers that can be affected, including: 1) identifying stakeholders, target audiences, engagement roles and points of contact; 2) addressing information need(s) of the requestor including enhanced programmatic decision-making; and 3) conveying complex information in intuitive and meaningful ways for all target audience(s).

• Developing promotion and marketing strategies that leverage existing communications mechanisms (e.g., TV/radio, social media, print).

• Developing mechanisms (e.g., reports, graphical representations, dashboards) to disseminate results/findings, models of care, and evidence-based best practices among key stakeholders (e.g., program staff, recipients, other entities).

• Developing communication/dissemination resources that promote translation, implementation, and replication of evaluation studies and evidence-building findings, as well as successful models of care into improved practice for service providers.

• Seeking and incorporating feedback from internal and external entities relevant stakeholders, including people with lived experience, in support of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

• Disseminating information through a variety of mechanisms, including reports (short reports, topical reports, interim reports of findings, final reports, issue briefs, other analytical reports, including detailed methodological appendixes); data visualizations (web-based-tools, presentations, infographics, dashboards, reports, maps); and publications (publications related to evaluation study and/or evaluation-related service methodology and results developed for peer-reviewed journals, policy briefs, abstracts for meeting/conference presentations).

• Complying with all HRSA communication policies including 508 compliance and formatting of documents, presentations etc.

The key technical skills/capabilities related to data optimization (for both quantitative and qualitative data) include the following:

• Identifying and purchasing data for analysis.

• Ensuring data quality and security, integrity, and availability of data.

• Storing datasets/files on a secure server in compliance with HHS security policies on data collection, transmission, and storage.

• Complying with all HHS and Federal IT policies including firewalls, data encryption, two-factor authentication, privacy, and security.

• Converting raw data files into summary/analytic files.

• Experience with harmonizing raw data processing/collection/storage and integration.

• Compiling, linking, aggregating, and consolidating data from multiple data sources, such as administrative data, public use files, or national data sets, into a summary/analytic file.

• Developing data documentation such as metadata and data dictionaries.

• De-identifying/anonymizing/aggregating data to ensure no personally identifiable information, public health information, or other sensitive data is released to unauthorized users, including the public.

• Conducting other related activities (e.g., data cleaning) needed to prepare data for analysis, or develop data documentation.

• Leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning, and algorithms to support data analysis.

Subfactor 2 - Understanding the Problem

The Offeror shall:

• Demonstrate a general understanding of the vision, mission, goals, objectives, organization, and operation of HRSA as a public health agency of the federal government.

• Identify and discuss no more than ten (10) major program and policy areas and related issues for HRSA priority populations around health care and public health topics that have or may have implications for services provided by HRSA areas over the next five years. These major program and policy areas shall include the key priorities identified by the Administration, by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and by HRSA. For each of the major program and policy areas and related issues, the Offeror shall describe the specific implications for HRSA priority populations and programs and provide an example of how they have addressed it working with HRSA or a similar public health program. The Offeror also shall include a summary matrix listing past projects on HRSA program and policy areas and related issues for HRSA priority populations. An example of this matrix is below.

HRSA Program/Policy Area HRSA Priority Populations Experience Area 1 Area 2 Population 1 Population 2 Offeror Project Title Subcontractor(s) Project Title

• Demonstrate a working knowledge of the key Federal evaluation and evidence-building requirements (e.g., through federal legislation, OMB guidance, and HHS policy and priorities), and their potential impact/influence on HRSA's current and future evaluation studies and evidence-building services.

• Demonstrate knowledge and previous experience in developing and implementing strategies/approaches, involving development of multiple communication mechanisms (e.g., white papers; visualizations; twitter messages) to disseminate findings from evaluation studies, evidence-building activities (e.g., policy studies), and data optimization projects. These strategies shall highlight results and recommendations through a variety of mechanisms to a wide range of audience and end users, to promote knowledge and use of findings. Offeror shall include up to three (3) recent (within 5 years) and relevant examples of communication and dissemination strategies used for evaluation studies, other evidence-building activities (e.g., policy studies) and data optimization projects.

• Demonstrate knowledge and previous experience using HHS and HRSA data assets and systems that are relevant to conduct program evaluations and other evidence-building activities for public health and health-related programs. Offeror shall provide up to three (3) examples of recent and relevant work for each data asset or system with which they have experience. The Offeror also shall include a summary matrix of these relevant HHS and HRSA data assets and systems, indicating those assets and systems with which they have recent (within past 3-5 years) and relevant experience. An example of this matrix is below.

HHS Data Assets/Systems HRSA Data Assets/Systems Experience Data Asset/

System Name 1 Data Asset/ System Name 2

Data Asset/ System Name 1

Data Asset/ System Name 2

Offeror Project Title Subcontractor(s) Project Title

• Include a brief narrative description of one project for each of the data assets/systems with which they have experience.

• Demonstrate an understanding of the sensitive nature and importance of the information being evaluated/studied and propose appropriate measures to keep this information secure and confidential, in compliance with federal requirements.

Subfactor 3 - Project Management, Personnel and Staffing, Planning Approach

Project Management

The Offeror shall:

• Provide a detailed management, staffing, and project plan that indicates how it will support efficient and effective project management (including identifying challenges, barriers, risks, and solutions in the execution of the task order), divide organizational roles and responsibilities, make decisions, monitor work (including tasks, activities, milestones), ensure the quality of products and deliverables, and adhere to established timelines and deadlines.

• The Offeror’s project management plan shall include clear strategies for regular, timely, and complete oral and written communication with the Contracting Officer’s Representative (and other appropriate HRSA staff, as named by the COR) on project progress, including progress on developing, submitting, and ensuring the quality of task order deliverables. The Offeror’s Project Management Plan shall include procedures for regular, timely, and complete record keeping on the project.

Procedures to communicate with the U.S. Government regarding problems or potential problems relating to program and project activities including proper financial management of the contract.

• Include a plan with clear strategies for handling data security, including security of personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI), in compliance with federal privacy and security requirements and guidelines, including the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA).

• Include a plan for ongoing and proactive identification, assessment, and mitigation of risks to the project or individual project tasks.

• Describe practices to ensure that documents are created, assessed, distributed, and disposed of in a secure and efficient way. The Offeror shall demonstrate the capacity to transfer sensitive files securely and electronically. The Offeror shall describe a plan for records management in compliance with federal requirements.

Personnel and Staffing

• Provide the names, educational background, professional experience (including number of years of experience), and professional/technical accomplishments of all personnel, organized by Task Area (found in the statement of work/Attachment A of the RFP) and labor category (found in Attachment B of the RFP).

• Individuals leading, participating, and/or supporting activities included in this IDIQ, as well as related Requests for Task Orders (RFTOs), shall have training and experience in the areas of health sciences, public health, health services research, health care administration, economics, other relevant social sciences, health informatics, health information technology, and related aspects of program evaluation and policy analysis needed to address the various task areas included in the statement of work.

• The Offeror shall include a summary matrix of available personnel, by labor category and task area, noting areas of specific expertise or experience in specific activities.

The Offeror shall provide resumes for all personnel included in the Task Area personnel matrices. These resumes shall be provided in an appendix to the Offeror’s proposal and shall not exceed three (3) pages per individual. If an individual appears on more than one Task Area personnel matrix, the resume need only be included once. An example of this matrix is below.

Task 1: Evaluation Studies Personnel Years of

Experience

Fo rm at iv e Ev al ua tio n

Im pa ct E va lu at io n

Pr oc es s/

Im pl em en ta tio n

Ev al ua tio n

O ut co m e/

Su m m at iv e

Ev al ua tio n

Ec on om ic

Ev al ua tio n

Labor Category 1 Name, credential Labor Category 2 Name, credential

• Submit only information on education or experience that is relevant to the proposed effort. The Offeror shall delineate the specific duties of each individual as well as their expertise and skills. The Offeror shall delineate the staff competence and demonstrated experience in the skills necessary for the requirements included in the statement of work.

• Describe their method of recruiting employees and retaining them for long-term assignments, as well as explain under what conditions the Offeror will use full-time permanent employees, part-time employees, temporary employees, term-of-contract personnel, independent consultants, and subcontractors. The Offeror shall describe their method for timely identification and recruitment of staff with specialized skills that are required for a Task Order including plans for onboarding and knowledge transfer for the newly proposed staff to ensure continuity of operations on the project.

• Describe their method of ensuring that employees maintain current skill sets (e.g., areas of technology and data analytic tools/approaches) in order to successfully address/respond to emerging areas of need in the RFTOs submitted under this IDIQ.

• Include a plan for initial staffing, and for meeting future staffing requirements, ensuring that identified staff have the appropriate education and experience necessary for executing a particular Task Order. The Offeror shall detail plans and procedures for the administration of task assignments, including ensuring adherence to established timelines and quality control of the deliverables associated with a particular Task Order.

• Provide a description of their approach for timely communication to the COR any changes to key personnel over the course of the contract.

• Provide a plan for managing sub-contractors/consultants including reporting and invoicing procedures and formats, to ensure compliance and alignment with prime Contractor systems and federal requirements.

Planning Approach

• Present an overall approach to project planning. This approach shall explain how the

Offeror’s proposed approach to project management and staffing will support initiating projects quickly, executing projects efficiently by conducting multiple tasks concurrently, completing complex tasks within narrow timeframes, and assuring quality of products/services.

• Identify all the facilities and equipment including software and IT platforms that are necessary for successful implementation of project tasks and describe how it will acquire these resources to ensure timely execution of project tasks. The Offeror shall describe its approach for securing timely clearance of contractor staff to access government systems. The Offeror shall include previously successful strategies they have used to address challenges associated with delays that may occur in obtaining Federal clearance.

• If the Offeror proposes to use consultants or subcontractors to carry out specific elements of the project, within the requirements, the Offeror shall specify within the project planning approach how the Offeror, consultants, and/or subcontractors will work together, how the tasks will be coordinated, and how quality assurance will be accomplished.

Subfactor 4 - Organizational Experience

• Describe its corporate technical and analytic experience related to program evaluation and other evidence-building activities, highlighting experience that is relevant to HRSA policies, programs, and data. The Offeror shall describe its corporate technical and analytic experience working with Federal, state, and/or local government health and human services programs similar to those administered by HRSA in the areas of evaluation, evidence-building, and policy studies related data collection, preparation, analysis, and presentation. The Offeror shall describe its experience in analyzing and assessing evaluation data and emerging health policy issues, conducting cost-benefit analyses for a wide range of programs and sample sizes (e.g., clinical settings with both high and low volume of patients) as well as experience working with small, large, and heterogenous populations. The Offeror shall explain how the experience is relevant to fulfilling the demands of this IDIQ Contract.

• A brief narrative description shall be included for one example of each issue(s) and/or population(s) depicted in Volume I Subfactor 2 Understanding the Problem section with which the Offeror has previous experience.

• Submit synopses of four (4) past projects, at least one of which shall reflect programs similar to those administered by HRSA. Through at least one past project, the Offeror will demonstrate its ability to work with small samples/small population sizes; through at least one past project, the Offeror will demonstrate its ability to work with large heterogenous populations.

• Program evaluation. Evaluating programs similar to those administered by

HRSA;

• Other evidence-building. Building evidence on issues that may affect HRSA programs, using one of the types of evidence-building listed in Task 2 of the statement of work;

• Communication and dissemination. Developing a variety of strategies and materials used to communicate and disseminate results/findings of evaluations, policy related studies, and evidence-building activities; and

• Data optimization. Conducting quantitative and qualitative data collection (both primary and secondary), data validation, and preparation of data files for analysis.

• Present projects completed within the last five years, if available. The Offeror shall highlight any instances where the Offeror worked collaboratively with Federal staff to develop a public-facing report or peer-reviewed journal publication on a health- or public health-related topic where Federal staff members were included as co-authors with the Offeror.

• Describe its corporate technical and analytic experience working with Federal, state, and/or local government health and human services programs similar to those administered by HRSA in communicating and disseminating findings from evaluation studies, evidence-building activities, and data optimization projects to technical and non-technical audiences. The Offeror shall describe its corporate technical and analytic experience developing long- and short-form written materials (from social media posts to briefs to white papers to peer-reviewed publications) as well as visual displays of information (from infographics to data visualizations to PowerPoint presentations), including any interactive communication materials.

• Include three (3) examples each of both short- and long-form written materials and three (3) examples of visual displays of information. The Offeror may include peer-reviewed journal articles and presentations at national conferences for organizations such as the American Public Health Association (APHA) as well as recently published articles on relevant topics of interest.

• Describe their capacity to begin work on a Task Order within as little as two weeks after award, including having appropriate staff on board to execute tasks. The Offeror shall document it has sufficient on-board staff capacity and subject matter knowledge to minimize time and dollars spent for start-up and new learning. The Offeror shall describe their capacity to execute multiple simultaneous projects.

• Describe their experience in conducting briefings to high-level policymakers and decision makers, including the types of briefings and audiences. The Offeror shall include three (3) examples of briefing materials.

• Provide a detailed description of its internal quality control policies and procedures related to the technical, administrative, and logistical aspects of their contractual efforts; and its system for ensuring that all documents and presentations prepared under this contract will be comprehensively reviewed and edited for quality, accuracy, and thoroughness.

L.4 Volume II Hypothetical Technical Proposals

HRSA reserves the right to award any of the hypotheticals provided as the first task order under this IDIQ. All technical proposals submitted in response to the hypotheticals should be submitted as if the proposal will result in an award.

In order to establish uniformity and to facilitate the evaluation, Offerors shall submit a Volume II Hypothetical Technical Proposal response organized in the following sections:

Subfactor 1 – Technical Approach , Understanding the Problem Subfactor 2 – Project Management, Personnel and Staffing, Planning Approach

The Offeror shall provide a proposed technical approach ONLY (no cost or past performance volumes) to the four hypothetical projects listed below.

Subfactor 1: Technical Approach, Understanding the Problem

For each hypothetical project, the offeror should include a detailed project plan that reflects an understanding of, and ability to address, the key technical skills and capacities required to execute the proposed projects, including a description of Offeror’s approach to each of the identified project components.

If needed, the Offeror is authorized to generate hypothetical answers to any assumptions and/or outstanding questions relevant to these hypothetical projects that may be required to develop the response.

Subfactor 2 - Project Management, Personnel and Staffing, Planning Approach

For each hypothetical project, the Offeror shall describe the project management, staffing and planning approach to adequately staff, organize and manage the tasks required to address the hypothetical evaluation requirements. The project management, staffing, and planning approach shall indicate how organizational role and responsibilities will be divided, decisions made, work monitored, and quality and timeliness of products/services ensured.

If the Offeror proposes to use any consultants or subcontractor employees to carry out elements within the requirements, the management and staffing plan shall specify how the Offeror, consultants, and/or subcontractors will work together, how the tasks and activities will be coordinated and how quality assurance and timeliness of products/services will be accomplished. The Offeror shall identify all facilities and equipment available for the completion of all contract requirements.

Hypothetical Projects

Hypothetical Project #1: Impact Evaluation Project

The Offeror shall prepare an impact evaluation of the Health Centers program.

Community health centers, located throughout the United States, provide primary health care services to underserved populations, racially and ethnically diverse populations, individuals with income below 200% of the Federal Poverty Guideline, individuals with no insurance or on Medicaid).

The program's goals are to provide access to quality healthcare services, increase the utilization of services by the target population, to maximize its financial reimbursement opportunities, and improve health outcomes among the population it serves.

The impact evaluation developed in response to this hypothetical program should assume a two-year timeframe and address each of the following project requirements:

• Identify a representative sample of health centers on which to conduct the evaluation;

use appropriate sampling methodology to reduce selection bias.

• Develop an evaluation framework including an evaluation plan and evaluation questions to address the impact of the health centers program on its recipients/patients.

• Identify and develop an approach to evaluate program operations, and specifically consider the question, "Is the program designed to achieve its stated goals in the most efficient and effective manner possible?"

• Describe an approach for identifying and engaging relevant stakeholders, including people with lived experience, on the evaluation design, key questions, and distribution of findings.

• Specify program outcome(s) to be evaluated, as well as an approach to determine the extent to which changes in those outcomes can be attributed to the health center program.

• Assess the impact of the program’s goals and objectives over time and examine the factors associated with improved patient behaviors, health center utilization, and health center patient outcomes.

• Identify performance and quality measure(s) to define how success is being measured for achieving program outcomes as well as for use by HRSA for required annual reporting through the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010.

• Assess the health centers’ capacity to collect and report data and implement strategies related to the evaluation of program operations.

• Develop a data collection and data analysis plan that describes primary data collection and incorporates secondary data sources.

• Propose data collection efforts that align with parallel efforts across HRSA, where appropriate.

• Develop and prepare a complete OMB clearance package.

• Assure reliability and validity of evaluation results, including through the development and analysis of a database used to collect, store, aggregate, summarize, and report results.

• Develop a statistical analysis plan for quantitative data and textual analysis plans for qualitative data.

• Develop recommendations and actionable strategies/methodologies that the program can use to inform future program policies and investments.

• Identify key questions to assess any environmental and policy changes that may affect the program's ability to achieve its goals and objectives.

• Develop an approach to publish evaluation findings report in cooperation with Federal staff (with authorship considerations, as appropriate). Final reports should be reviewed by an editor prior to submission. Key elements in final report review include proofreading and editing for clarity, and tailoring language to the target audience. Final report should include infographics and data visualizations to improve audience understanding of results.

• Develop an approach to submit a manuscript(s) to peer reviewed journals with authorship considerations, as appropriate. Manuscripts should be reviewed by an editor and subject matter experts prior to submission. Editorial review should include, but not be limited to, proofreading, copy-editing, and ensuring that the manuscript complies with the requirements with the peer reviewed journal. Subject matter review should include the content of key references and technical clarity.

Identify the specific journals to which the manuscripts will be submitted. Ensure that submitted manuscripts acknowledge that published work was supported with HRSA funding. If HRSA authors are included, the manuscript will need to undergo HRSA clearance.

Hypothetical Project #2: Policy Analysis Project

The Offeror shall prepare an analysis of a policy issue (e.g., contextual and/or policy change) related to a HRSA program that will be reauthorized within the next year. The policy issue may be one that currently exists, is anticipated in the future, or one that the Offeror thinks should be brought to the attention of policymakers.

In preparing the analysis of this policy issue, the Offeror shall assume a nine-month timeframe and shall address each of the following project requirements:

• Define the policy issue, including background and explanation of associations and/or causal relationships between the policy and the program, as well as implications of the policy for the program's purpose, program implementation, and components, awardees (recipients of HRSA funding), and program participants.

• Develop a strategy to determine/assess the national, state, and local context for the policy issue through the analysis of national, state, and local data.

• Describe which underserved HRSA populations may be affected by the policy issue and how they are likely to be affected.

• Describe an approach for identifying and engaging relevant stakeholders, including people with lived experience, on the policy and options for changes.

• Identify and provide a balanced assessment of options that policymakers could consider pursuing to address concerns associated with the policy issue.

• Develop an approach for working within limited resources (time and budget).

• Describe an approach for developing a report appropriate for publication, written in cooperation with Federal staff (with authorship considerations, as appropriate).

Reports should be reviewed by an editor and subject matter experts to ensure technical accuracy and appropriate reading level.

Hypothetical Project #3: Descriptive and Predictive Analytics Project

The Offeror shall develop descriptive and predictive analytics for a community-based program with a small number of grantees located in rural communities throughout the United States. The program’s goal is to improve access to behavioral health care and maternal health care in rural communities. This project will help HRSA better target its investments to support access to care.

In preparing the descriptive and predictive analytics project in response to this hypothetical program, the Offeror shall assume a two-year timeframe and shall include the identification of strategies developed to address each of the following project requirements:

• Develop a data collection and data analysis plan that describes primary data collection and incorporates secondary data sources.

• Develop a plan/approach for working with a small sample size (i.e., 12 grantees), including mitigation of data limitations, capacity and resources for extensive data collection.

• Define the project parameters, including definitions for behavioral health care providers, maternal health care providers, and rural areas/communities.

• Identify necessary data sets to be acquired and analyzed to perform descriptive and predictive analytics.

• Prepare data use agreements for federal, state, or local data sets to be acquired.

• Describe the process for securely transferring and storing data sets.

• Conduct data analysis to identify trends over the last five (5) years of access to behavioral health care and maternal health care in rural communities.

• Conduct data analysis to identify trends over the last five (5) years of the costs of delivering behavioral health care and maternal health care in rural communities.

• Conduct data analysis to identify trends over the last five (5) years of behavioral health and maternal health-related outcomes.

• Use statistical modeling to forecast future trends for access to behavioral health care and maternal health care in rural communities over the next five (5) years.

• Develop a plan for an interactive website/web page, internal to HRSA, to display past trends and future projections, enabling HRSA staff to apply filters (such as for geographic location or type of care) and modify assumptions (such as provider supply and patient demand).

• Prepare an infographic/fact sheet for distribution to a non-technical audience summarizing the key findings from the project.

• Document the methodology used for the analytics, the data analyzed, and the limitations of the project.

• Institute a comprehensive review process to ensure the quality, accuracy, and thoroughness of all products.

Hypothetical Project #4: Data Optimization Project

The Offeror shall develop a data optimization project to identify current data collection efforts, external data collection efforts, and a harmonized data collection approach for provider screening/testing of sexually transmitted infections, currently, an activity tracked by multiple programs within HRSA, as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH).

In developing the data optimization project in response to this hypothetical program, the Offeror shall assume a two-year timeframe and shall include the identification of strategies developed to address each of the following project requirements:

• Identify and acquire datasets from HRSA, CDC, CMS, and OASH (through data use agreements), and/or external sources (through data purchase), to answer the following questions:

o What percentage of adolescents (by program) receive routinely recommended doses of HPV vaccine?

o What percentage of adults are screened/tested for syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, and HIV?

o What are the syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, and HIV rates for adults?

• Ensure secure electronic data transfer of datasets, as appropriate.

• Use best practices including machine learning where applicable for data asset integration.

• Provide a summary report, a quality control/sensitivity report to assess performance, and all analytic code or extraction-transfer-load (ETL) procedures generated for HRSA to incorporate into its data systems.

• Provide recommendations for making HRSA-collected and HRSA-acquired data more interoperable. This may include consistent use of geographic data, unique identifiers (e.g., UEI, EIN, TIN, CCN, etc.), or data formats that are easier to manipulate and import into analytic software packages. Specifically, data interoperability measures should include identifying the key variable(s) that uniquely identify the providers or programs across each data set, and to the greatest extent possible, contain a standardized, uniform listing of provider names, street addresses, city and state names, ZIP codes, and geographic coordinates.

• Establish an internal repository of data analytic products with associated programming codes (e.g., SAS, Structured Query Language [SQL] scripts, statistical package syntax, Extraction Transfer Load [ETL] code, Juypter notebooks, R program code, Python script, etc.) available to HRSA statisticians, epidemiologists, and evaluators.

• Store datasets/files on a secure server in compliance with HHS security policies on data collection, transmission, and storage, as well as in a 508-compliant version.

Follow all HRSA, HHS, and Federal IT policies including firewalls, data encryption, two-factor authentication, privacy, and security.

• Identify gaps and inconsistencies in data collection across data sets.

• Propose a common, harmonized data collection instrument for HRSA, with specific data variables to be collected. Ensure compliance with OMB, HHS, and HRSA data collection requirements, including requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act, Human Subjects Protection and Institutional Review Board.

• Develop a data instrument that will collect information from clients about the performance of providers in providing STI screening and testing, according to program specifications (no more than 10 questions, no protected identifiable information, unique identifier).

• Develop an instruction manual identifying the data definitions, response options, data source, and instructions on completing the questions.

• Develop training materials and deliver live and recorded trainings, using a variety of tools to include PowerPoint presentations, hands on, live demos to the data abstractors (program staff).

L.5 Volume III Past Performance

Offerors shall submit a total of three (3) past performance references for the Volume I technical quote where the Offeror was the prime contractor or subcontractor for relevant work completed within the past three (3) years as required by this solicitation. “Relevant” is defined as similar in size, scope and complexity to this procurement. Out of the three

(3) past performance required, one (1) may be from a proposed subcontractor.

Past Performance references are not required for the hypothetical proposals (Volume II).

If the Offeror has not held any relevant Federal contracts, then the Offeror may submit references from state/local, private sector clients, or Federal clients using the Past Performance Questionnaire (Attachment D). Offerors shall forward a copy the Past Performance Questionnaire to their clients to complete. The completed questionnaire shall be submitted by the client via email in PDF format to HRSAIDIQ@hrsa.gov no later than 11:00 AM EDT on February 15, 2024. If not received by the deadline, the questionnaire may or may not be considered as a reference.

The Government reserves the right to obtain information for use in the evaluation of past performance from all sources including sources outside the government.

If the references are with a Government agency that utilizes CPARS, then Offerors shall submit their finalized CPARS ratings that are relevant to this solicitation in Volume III.

In the case of an Offeror without a record of past performance or for whom information on past performance is not available, the Offeror may not be evaluated favorably or unfavorably on past performance.

Acceptable methods for providing a total of three (3) past performance references are:

a. Past Performance Questionnaire (Section J Attachment E).

b. Contractor Performance Assessment System (CPARS) reports/ratings.

c. Combination of questionnaires and CPARS reports/ratings.

L.6 Volume IV Price Proposal

The Offeror's price quote shall consist of the…