Amendment #3 Responses to Questions Received.pdf

STATE OF ALASKA

Department of Health Division of Behavioral Health

SAMHSA Unified Performance Reporting Tool (SUPRT)

RFP NUMBER 2026-1600-0063

Amendment # 3 ISSUE DATE May 8, 2026

This amendment is being issued to update the State’s response to Question 3.

Offerors must use Submittal Form A – Offeror Information to acknowledge this amendment.

Name: Annalisa Haynie Procurement Officer Email: Annalisa.Haynie@alaska.gov

Questions submitted by potential offerors and answers from the State:

Q# A# RFP Section Page Number Question Received / Response Provided by State of Alaska

Q1 General Question

N/A How has SOR 4 information been submitted to SPARS prior to this award?

A1 RFP page 7 states: "This information is currently gathered and manually entered by Division of Behavioral Health (DBH) staff into the SAMHSA’s Performance Accountability and Reporting System

(SPARS)."

mailto:Annalisa.Haynie@alaska.gov

Q2 General Question

N/A If a GPRA Intake or SUPRT Baseline was manually entered in SPARS, will providers manually enter the SUPRT Reassessment, Annual Assessment, and Record Closeout into SPARS, or will they be expected to create the assessments in the new system?

A2 Previously, GPRA Intake and SUPRT Baseline data in SPARS were entered manually by DBH staff. Going forward, providers will complete a contractor-issued template, and the data will be batch uploaded into

SPARS.

Q3 SEC. 1.01

Purpose of the RFP

4 “The Department of Health (DOH), Division of Behavioral Health (DBH), is soliciting proposals for a SaaS technology platform to collect client level SAMHSA Unified Performance Reporting Tool (SUPRT) data from State Opioid Response (SOR) subrecipient grantees and automate batch upload of these data to SAMHSA’s Performance Accountability and Reporting System (SPARS).”

SPARS has confirmed that they are not supporting any automation of a batch upload or error file retrieval until at least January 2027. Is DOH amenable to a phased implementation approach while SPARS develops this functionality on their end?

A3 The April 2026 SPARS newsletter announced that batch upload functionality for SUPRT-A and SUPRT-C is now available. Here is the link to that newsletter: April 2026 SPARS Newsletter. The newsletter is also attached for convenience.

Added with AMD#3 - Yes, DOH is amenable to a phased implementation approach while SPARS develops automated functionality, which is estimated to be in place around January 2027.

Q4 SEC 1.03

Deadline for Receipt of Proposal

4 Please confirm the deadline for proposals is Friday, May 15th and not Monday, May 4th like it states in the RFP document.

A4 Per RFP SEC 1.03 - the deadline is updated to May 15, 2026. Please reference the RFP document that is posted live on the Online Public Notices website here: http://notice.alaska.gov/223603.

Q5 Attachment 2, Submittal Form G

IT25 “Solutions that create, read, or update client, consumer, or other person demographic data shall integrate with DOH's Master Client Index (MCI) to ensure their demographic records are registered in the MCI and appropriately merged with matching client records in the index. Any alternatives must be approved by DOH IT.”

Is this solution expected to integrate with DOH’s MCI?

A5 Added with AMD#2 - It is acceptable for the vendors to choose Not Applicable for the MCI requirement for this RFP.

Q6 Attachment 7, Service Level

1 “The Offeror is responsible for monitoring performance against the SLAs within this RFP. Beginning in the second month after award, the selected vendor will provide a small monthly *report (see below).

Report is due at the end of the month.”

https://spars.samhsa.gov/system/files?file=privileged-resources/20260421_SPARS%20_Newsletter53_508.pdf&check_logged_in=1

Agreement

(SLA)

Given the time required to collect complete information, would DOH consider setting the reporting due date for monthly performance as the 5th calendar day of the following month?

A6 Yes, DOH will consider revising the monthly performance reporting due date to the 5th calendar day of the following month to allow sufficient time for complete collection of information for reporting.

Q7 Attachment 7, Service Level Agreement

(SLA)

1 “The application/system will maintain 99.5-99.9% uptime, excluding scheduled maintenance, measured monthly.”

Does scheduled maintenance include planned downtime for upgrades?

If it does not, would DOH consider excluding planned downtime from the uptime requirement?

A7 Per SLA, 2nd bullet, "The Offeror will communicate planned downtime due to upgrades or routine maintenance to DOH fifteen (15) calendar days prior to downtime."

Therefore, downtime that is scheduled accordingly for maintenance and upgrades is excluded from the uptime percentage requirement.

Q8 SEC 1.02

Budget

4 RFP estimates a budget of between $700,000.00 and $750,000.00 for completion of this project. Can you confirm whether this budget number encompasses all three project years or if it for the first project year only?

A8 The estimated budget range of $700,000 to $750,000 is intended to cover the full duration of the project, encompassing all three project years.

Q9 Attachment 2, Submittal Form G

Row 3 states, “The State of Alaska (and by extension DOH) requires that all business and technical resources utilized under the contract, including system development, testing, implementation, training, and located within the United States. This includes hosted services, vendor personnel, vendor contracted services, and any sub-contracted resources. All elements and services that receive, process, store, or transmit data used by the solution must be located within the United States.” We have experience working with states for SUPRT data collection and data visualization; however, one of our data visualization providers is headquartered in Germany. We have a US-based account, and our account is run through Amazon Web Services based in Oregon. If we were to use this service for Alaska’s SUPRT data collection, would proposal be disqualified?

A9 Per RFP SEC 3.13 Location of Work: "By signature on their proposal, the offeror certifies that all services provided under this contract by the contractor and all subcontractors (subcontractors not allowed for this solicitation per SEC 3.14) shall be performed in the United States.

If the offeror cannot certify that all work will be performed in the United States, the offeror must submit a request, set out in a separate document in their proposal, that provides a detailed description of the portion of work that will be performed outside the United States, where, by whom, and the reason that is necessary.

The offeror must also provide this information when completing the DOH IT Contractual Requirements Submittal Form (Attachment 2 - Submittal Form G).

Failure to comply with these requirements may cause the state to reject the proposal as non-responsive or cancel the contract."

Q10 SEC 2.01 7 The RFP states that DBH staff currently manually enter SUPRT data into SPARS. Is this data entry up to date or would the contractor be expected to enter into SPARS any existing SUPRT data collected prior to the contract start date?

A10 Once the contract is executed, all entry will be shifted from DBH staff to contractor. There is potential for a minimal quantity of entry backlog.

Q11 SEC 3.01 8 The RFP indicates that the platform must support operational and program evaluation reporting. Has DBH determined the specific operational and program evaluation indicators they’d like the platform to report on, or will those be developed with the contractor?

A11 The table below lists the current evaluation indicators which include

(1) intake, (2) 6-month follow-up, (3) annual follow-up, and (4) discharge. SAMHSA continues to evaluate additional SUPRT indicators, so this list may change and is not exhaustive.

Q12 Would the contractor be expected to report operational and program evaluation indicators on the platform using other data sources besides data collected through the SUPRT tool?

A12 No.

Q13 Does DBH anticipate requesting SUPRT survey modifications initially during months 1 and 2 and/or regularly during the project period, or will the survey only need to be modified if SAMHSA informs grantees that the SUPRT instrument has been edited?

A13 DBH anticipates that SUPRT survey modifications would only be required if SAMHSA formally updates or revises the SUPRT instrument during the project period.

Q14 SEC 3.04 10 The timeline on page 10 of the RFP includes this activity: "Maintains portal for DOH for SOR survey deletion and return codes." Can you clarify what "survey deletion and return codes" refers to?

A14 SOR survey deletion and return codes apply when client records fail during the batch upload process.

Q15 SEC 3.04 10 The timeline on page 10 of the RFP includes this activity: "Maintains Alaska SOR grantee/program resource website." Is this a website for grantees to access the SUPRT data collection tool and training and technical assistance materials? Or is this a grantee website that is broader than SUPRT data collection activities?

A15 This is a website for grantees to access the SUPRT data collection tool, training resources, and technical assistance materials. The site may also provide links to other websites if the information is accurate and relevant.

Q16 Attachment 3, Submittal Form H

Submittal Form H (Cost Proposal) indicates a cost should be provided for each deliverable for each year (Years 1, 2, 3). Can you confirm the anticipated start and end dates for each of these years? Or, if we should assume 12 months for each year, or if the Years are aligned with grant years, where Year 1 might be shorter?

A16 Offerors should assume 12 months for each year. Depending on start date of the contract, the initial term and final term could be prorated to align with any desired performance period end date if alignment to a specific end date is required.

Q17 Attachment 3, Submittal Form H

Please confirm that the information required on Form H (Cost Proposal) is the only budget information required. Just the cost per deliverable per year, and not line item costs such as staff hourly rates by number of hours etc.

A17 Costs proposed per deliverable must be all-inclusive. Offerors shall account for all anticipated expenses and assumptions necessary to complete each deliverable, including personnel costs (salaries, wages, and fringe benefits), direct and indirect costs, materials and supplies, equipment, and administrative and overhead expenses.

Q18 COVER PAGE 1 Does an interested party need to take additional steps to register with the procurement officer in order for our offer to be accepted?

A18 No, there are no additional steps required to register with the procurement officer.

Q19 SEC 3.06,

Attachment 6

11 (Intent to Propose and Non-Disclosure Agreement), could the State provide additional context on the need for executing a NDA to access the NIST CSF Assessment Questions List, particularly given that these materials are intended to inform offerors' scope and cost?

Additionally, would the State consider allowing offerors to review and propose revisions to the NDA prior to execution, or confirm whether the NDA must be accepted without modification in order to obtain the assessment materials?

A19 Execution of the NDA is optional. Its purpose is to allow interested offerors to review the NIST CSF Assessment Question List in advance so they can better understand the depth and scope of the security assessment requirements and prepare a more accurate proposal. The NDA exists solely to protect the assessment materials from inappropriate disclosure outside the procurement process.

For this procurement, the NDA must be accepted as-is in order to obtain the assessment materials. The State will not be modifying the NDA or negotiating revisions to it as part of this RFP’s schedule.

Offerors who prefer not to sign the NDA may still submit a proposal (as long as Procurement agrees); however, they will not receive advance access to the assessment questions.

Changes to the RFP

Change 1: Submittal Form H – Incorporates Responses from AMD#1 questions 16 and 17 above.

End of Amendment #3