ATTM 016 Qestions and Answers.xlsx
XLSX spreadsheet 30 KB Posted
- Attached to
- BABYNET IDEA PART C
- Solicitation number
- 5400018456
- Issued by
- Richland County, South Carolina
About this file
ATTM 016 Questions and Answers Summary
This file is a Questions and Answers document for an RFP issued by the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (SCDHHS) for an Early Intervention Case Management system. The project seeks a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution built on a service-oriented architecture to replace the current contracted system and integrate with SCDHHS's Medicaid Enterprise System (MES). The solution must support case management for the BabyNet program's Early Intervention services, managing approximately 8,083 active families and 6,484 active Individualized Family Service Plans (IFSPs) as of October 2019, with an estimated 544,740 documents uploaded annually. The system must accommodate 1,965 to 2,000 concurrent users including 29 district administrators, 1,400 service coordinators, 2,225 service providers, 74 state administrators, and 12 state viewers. Offerors are cautioned against taking exceptions to RFP requirements, risking rejection as non-responsive. The implementation phase utilizes an agile-based methodology with deliverables managed through the Consolidated Deliverables Management List (CDML), and offerors are expected to recommend the most appropriate deliverables for their proposed solution rather than including all listed items.
Historical data to be migrated includes one trailing year of transaction and reference data. Current system costs were $289,020 (SFY18), $408,530 (SFY19), and $906,340 (SFY20 estimated), though the state declined to publish a ceiling or fixed budget. The solution must comply with Section 508 accessibility requirements, ITIL v3 framework standards, and HIPAA regulations, though FTI data will not be stored in the system. Help desk support requires 90 percent of high-priority tickets to begin resolution within one hour, 85 percent of medium-priority tickets within one business day, and 85 percent of low-priority tickets within seven business days, with average monthly help desk volume of 465 tickets and Level 2 escalation requests averaging 54 monthly. Training will follow a train-the-trainer model for approximately 450 individuals. The state anticipates no upper limit on liquidated damages related to operational start date delays, calculated based on actual reported hours for state staff, contractors, and vendor partners extended beyond the scheduled operational start date.
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Sheet1
| ATTM 016 - Questions and Answers | |||||
| Question # | Page # | Section | RFP Language | Question Received | Answer |
| 1 | N/A | N/A | NA | Can a vendor propose alternative functions that are different from what is on the RFP? | Yes but offerors are cautioned NOT to take exception to any requirements or terms and conditions stated herein. By doing so offerors risk their offer being rejected as non-responsive. |
| 2 | N/A | N/A | NA | Can a vendor propose any exceptions to what are listed on the RFP? For example, the RFP asked the vendor to notify SCDHHS 30 days ahead of time for a planned downtime in section 3.17.2, we might want to propose a different time. | Maybe. Offerors are cautioned NOT to take exception to any requirements or terms and conditions stated herein. By doing so offerors risk their offer being rejected as non-responsive. |
| 3 | N/A | N/A | Pre-Proposal conference | Could you provide a copy or a list of the sign in sheet with the names and agencies that participated in the meeting? | |
| Since this was a non-mandatory conference it is not our practice to share this information at this time. See also Reg. 19-445.2010(D) | |||||
| 4 | N/A | N/A | ATTM015 SPSAQ doc | What section of the proposal would you like this document? | |
| This should be included in the offeror's Technical Proposal. See Section 4.1.2 | |||||
| 5 | N/A | N/A | N/A | In terms of SCDHHS’ current solution for Early Intervention Case Management, to date what has been the cost per year, over the course of the entire engagement, paid by SCDHHS for these services and what will the total, final, contract amount equal? | SFY18 - $289,020; SFY19 - $408,530; SFY20 - $906,340 (estimated). |
| 6 | N/A | N/A | N/A | What percentage of the scope requested in this RFP is present in the current contracted system? | SCDHHS is not able to answer this question with a percentage. A majority of the user-experience requirements identified in Section 3.6 "Solution Requirements" are present in the current contracted system. However, as of this writing, data interchange with the current contracted system is supported by a third-party clearinghouse, with claim and payment data being managed through the legacy Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS). Data integration with SCDHHS' new Medicaid Enterprise System (MES) will constitute a major portion of the work on this project. |
| 7 | N/A | N/A | N/A | What is the count of active IFSPs in the current system as of October 1, 2019? | Currently there are 6,484 active IFSPs. |
| 8 | N/A | N/A | N/A | What is the number of documents by category, including IFSPs, created in the current system between July 1, 2018 – June 30, 2019? | 4,280 - IFSPs |
4,280 - 6 Month reviews 6,420 - Change reviews Total - 14,980
| 9 | N/A | N/A | N/A | What is the count of active families in the current system as of October 1, 2019? | 8,083 |
| 10 | N/A | N/A | N/A | Can SCDHHS provide a count of users, by user role, in the current system as of October 1, 2019? | District Administrators – 29 |
Service Coordinators – 1,400 Service Providers – 2,225 State Administrators – 74 State Viewers - 12
| 11 | N/A | General | Budget | Does the State have a ceiling on the annual budget or has a fixed 5 year budget for this project? | In the interest of competition, SCDHHS does not intend to publish budgetary information. | |
| 12 | N/A | General | Child Count in IFSP | How many children are currently enrolled in Part C and receiving services through the State with and without Medicaid Billing? | 6,119 | |
| 13 | 8 | 1.6 | To make all of this possible, SCDHHS is seeking a case management solution built on a service-oriented architecture (SOA) that can use both industry standard data exchange —such as x12 electronic data interchange (EDI) files — as well as proprietary file formats to integrate the solution at the data layer with SCDHHS’ enterprise service bus (ESB) and enterprise data warehouse (EDW), referred to collectively as the SCDHHS Medicaid Enterprise System (MES). | Is it the State’s preference that the solution integrate with the existing ESB or should we propose a middleware solution that includes pre-built connectors to generate x12 and other data formats and connect to MES? If the preference is to use the State’s ESB, what technology is currently being used for that platform? | SCDHHS is using Oracle Service Bus (OSB) as its data orchestrator. Data ingests are handled through a NoSQL data layer established by MarkLogic. Since the state is requesting a SAS solution we are agnostic on the offerors use of middleware to generate x12 EDI. The SCDHHS MES is prepared to ingest data using any connector or interface format provided by the data trading partner. | |
| 14 | 22 | 3.1.3 | The Implementation Phase ends upon completion of all duties and SCDHHS’ acceptance of all Deliverables assigned to this phase. | Is the State open to an agile-based implementation methodology which allows for Delivering working and potentially shippable software (go-live) in small, frequent packages? | Yes | |
| 15 | 22 | 3.1.3 | The Implementation Phase ends upon completion of all duties and SCDHHS’ acceptance of all Deliverables assigned to this phase. Numerous Implementation Phase Deliverables are identified throughout the SOO; however, the majority of Deliverables for this phase are contained in the Consolidated Deliverables Management List (CDML) (ATTM 011 CDML). | Does the State expect all of the deliverables included in ATTM 011 to be a part of the proposed solution or can the Vendor recommend what they feel is the most appropriate deliverables for this type of project? | The state expects the offeror to recommend the deliverables most appropriate for this type of project. | |
| 16 | 23 | 3.3 | 3.3 CURRENT VENDORS STAFF INVOLVEMENT IN PROPOSALS | |||
| Offerors must ensure and agree that their contract consultants, part-time employees, full-time employees, subcontractors or any agent(s) working at SCDHHS on any current SCDHHS project not participate in the preparation of your Offer. Failure to comply may result in your Offer being rejected. | Does “their contract consultants, part-time employees, full-time employees, subcontractors or any agent(s) working at SCDHHS” mean that the person works at SCDHHS on site at one of their offices? Or does this refer to SCDHHS staff who work at SCDHHS and contract with vendors? Could you please clarify and explain the reason? | |||||
| Does “any current SCDHHS project” mean any active project? Could you please explain the reason? | "working at SCDHHS" means if your primary work site is one of SCDHHS's locations on Main Street in Columbia, SC. |
| 17 | 23 | 3.2.1 | SCDHHS will apply negative incentives to the Targeted Operational Start Date, to the extent such non-compliance is a result of inadequate performance or non-performance of the required Services by Contractor. For each calendar day that the Actual Operational Start Date is late, the negative incentive shall be the actual cost for SCDHHS to extend the project, as reported in SCEIS. | Could you please give examples on “For each calendar day that the Actual Operational Start Date is late, the negative incentive shall be the actual cost for SCDHHS to extend the project, as reported in SCEIS.”? Is there an upper limit? | Calculation of the negative incentive will be based on the number of reported hours for state staff, contractors, and vendor partners dedicated to this project, for each day they must be retained on this project after the scheduled Actual Operational Start Date. The daily limit will be the actual reported hours to support the project (and not, for example, total potential value based on available staff or contractors). |
| 18 | 23 | 3.2.2 | During the Operations Phase, SCDHHS will have the option to assess liquidated damages for failure to meet the system and operational performance standards shown in ATTM 012 SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENTS (SLA) and those proposed by Offeror in its Operations Phase Statement of Work. | Would the State be open to separate contracts and associated SLAs with the software provider and the implementation services provider? | No |
| 19 | 25 | 3.6.1 | Upload and store electronic documents related to child referral submitted by parent guardians, professionals, and authorized system users. | Do you expect these documents to be saved on the State document servers? What is your archive policy? | In keeping with the requested Software as a Service (SaaS) model requested for this project, the successful offeror will maintain the electronic documents on their own solution servers. State document retention policy requires maintenance of all documents for seven years. |
| 20 | 25 | 3.6.1 | Upload and store electronic documents related to child referral submitted by parent guardians, professionals, and authorized system users. | What is the current volume (number and size) of documents being stored in the system as of October 1, 2019? If documents are not currently being stored, what would be the anticipated volume on a per year basis? | 6,485 IFSPs currently |
Future estimates are based upon each service coordinator uploading seven documents per child per month. Total - 544,740 per year.
| 21 | 25 | 3.6.1 | Upload and store electronic documents related to child referral submitted by parent guardians, professionals, and authorized system users. | What are the expected types and file formats of documents that will be uploaded in the system post-award? | .pdf; .png; .gif; .jpg |
| 22 | 26 | 3.6.4 | Record the participant information on IFPS meeting. | Does the solution need to provide electronic signature capability for the IFSP or other areas of the solution? If so, is it the State’s expectation that the solution provides this natively or should it integrate with a solution such as DocuSign? | Not a requirement |
| 23 | 27 | 3.6.5 | The solution must have the ability to: |
· receive provider information to track network adequacy based on provider enrollment requirements.
· manage provider networks for BabyNet service types).
| · allow authorized users to search for a provider’s record in the case management system database through unique (National Provider Identifier, etc.) and non-unique (provider name, etc.) identifiers. | Please clarify what is intended by “manage provider networks for BabyNet service types”. Is SCDHHS looking solely for the ability for the case management system to manage users with respect to system access and permissions? | Requirement refers to keeping track of service providers by type, specialty, taxonomy, and geographic location to help ensure network adequacy. This is a reporting requirement. | ||||
| 24 | 28 | 3.6.8.1 | SCDHHS must have the capability to report transactional data directly from the System of Record in order to analyze real-time operational conditions or research escalated question. | Is the “transactional data” the audit trail on data changes here? | No Change | |
| 25 | 29 | 3.7 | “Offerors shall propose the schedule and project plan for the Implementation Phase including dates for Milestones and Deliverables” | Please verify that by Schedule, SCDHHS is referring to the required IMS in Microsoft Project Format. | Correct; this refers to the required IMS in Microsoft Project format. | |
| 26 | 29 | 3.7 | “Offerors shall propose the schedule and project plan for the Implementation Phase including dates for Milestones and Deliverables” | By “project plan,” does SCDHHS mean a narrative Project Management Plan? If not, please elaborate on the definition of the project plan as intended. | This statement refers to a list of project tasks and subtasks, milestones, deliverables, durations, start and end dates, dependencies, and resource requirements to complete the proposed project, presented in Microsoft Project format. | |
| 27 | 29 | 3.6.9 | Contractor will provide level-2 support for user issues associated with use of the system. | Will the State be the level-1-support? | No; the successful offeror will provide level 1 support as well. | |
| 28 | 29 | 3.7.1 | Dates for the Milestones and Deliverables, including the Targeted Operational Start Date | What is the State’s Targeted Operational Start Date/Go-Live Date? | Offerors should provide Targeted Operational Start Dates as part of their solicitations, which will be evaluated as part of the Technical proposal. | |
| 29 | 33 | 3.10.6 | Persistent Vacancies of Key Personnel - With respect to all persisting vacancies of Key Personnel during all phases, SCDHHS shall receive a credit of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) per month for the unavailable individual, prorated for each day or partial day until the position is satisfactorily filled. | Can SCDHHS clarify what defines “satisfactorily filled” and the time period that constitutes a “Persistent” Vacancy? |
| "Satisfactorily filled" is defined as SCDHHS reviewing and approving the position candidate proposed by the successful offeror. A "persistent" vacancy is defined as a position remaining unfilled when the project plan and schedule identifies that resource as a critical-path dependency for meeting any project milestone. | |||||
| 30 | 33 | 3.10.7 | Persistent Vacancies of Key Personnel - With respect to all persisting vacancies of Key Personnel during all phases, SCDHHS shall receive a credit of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) per month for the unavailable individual, prorated for each day or partial day until the position is satisfactorily filled. | Would SCDHHS be open to creative options around this item in order to optimize pricing? | SCDHHS cannot respond definitively to this question without specific identification of proposed creative options. Offerors must comply with all requirements. If offerors wish to propose functions, features, or services in addition to those required by the RFP, they may do so. Offerors are cautioned NOT to take exception to any requirements or terms and conditions stated herein. By doing so offerors risk their offer being rejected as non-responsive. |
| 31 | 34 | 3.13 | Offerors shall propose Contract Deliverables via the CDML. D-027 Section 508 Production Assessment | D-027 Section 508 Production Assessment: Do you think this is needed if this application is not a public-facing web application? | All agencies that receive federal funding are required to comply with Section 508. This requirement is needed. |
| 32 | 36 | 3.15.2 | Offerors shall describe how their organization operational systems and processes are aligned with the ITIL v3 framework. | Can a vendor propose a different methodology, such as Agile? | The Service Design volume of ITIL v3 supports iterative and incremental design, and recognizes Agile as an appropriate method for "batching" coding and release activities to achieve incremental product development. Whichever SDLC offerors propose to use for this project, they shall describe it in the standard ITIL terms of Service Design, Service Transition, and Service Operation (Service Strategy is the responsibility of SCDHHS). |
| 33 | 37 | 3.17.2 | Contractor shall communicate planned downtime due to upgrades or routine maintenance to SCDHHS thirty (30) calendar days prior to downtime. | This is not aligned with the SLA (Page 3) requirement where it states that contractor has to notify providers 12 hours prior to any scheduled maintenance. Also, a lot of upgrades may need to be deployed as quickly as possible. Is it acceptable for the contractor to communicate the planned downtime 12 hours prior to downtime? | The 30 day requirement relates to the offeror's monthly maintenance schedule. The 12 hour notification is the announcement of the impending scheduled maintenance period. |
| 34 | 37 | 3.17.3 | Capacity Management | How many concurrent users are expected in the desired system? | 1,965 - 2,000 users |
| 35 | 37 | 3.17.4 | As the functions performed by each SCDHHS and the Contractor are interdependent on each other, they have a joint duty to prepare for and conduct disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity (BC) planning. These functions may be performed during any phase of the Contract. Unless otherwise agreed to by SCDHHS, the DR/BC duties shall align with other duties as assigned in this Contract. Contractor shall provide a DR/BC Management Plan. | As a part of developing a viable Disaster Recovery plan and program for the production environment and platforms, Cloud Service Provider (CSP) schedules Disaster Recovery exercises which are conducted at least annually. Overall, CSP has conducted more than 40 Disaster Recovery exercises in the production instance environment. The prime contractor will not be able to directly test our infrastructure. |
| Therefore, can this requirement be removed or modified? | This subsection of the RFP refers to DR/BC planning, not testing. | |||||
| 36 | 37 | 3.17.4 | Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity | |||
| Plan to perform business impact analysis (BIA) to define the requirements by which SCDHHS and Contractor must continue business operations in the event of a disaster. • A documentation template outlining the minimum focus areas necessary for BC planning that shall be used as the basis for ongoing BC plan management. • A BC plan management schedule by which BC planning will continue to occur to adapt to changing business availability requirements. • Propose and conduct the disaster recovery test and provide artifacts for examination by SCDHHS or its designee. | Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity activities and documentation are performed at a platform level. The State must be under NDA to review the DR/BCP documentation. The actual BIA is not available for customer review. Therefore, can this requirement be removed or modified? | Provision of the BIA documentation template is a requirement of the successful offeror and not requested as part of the solicitation response. | ||||
| 37 | 38 | 3.17.4 | Contractor shall convert to the backup site within twenty-four (24) hours of notification by SCDHHS to do so. In the event Contractor cannot return to the original production site within seven (7) business days, SCDHHS may at its sole discretion declare the backup site the new primary site, at which time the Contractor will have thirty (30) days to secure and make operational a new backup site. | CSP's Backup failover configuration is in a hot-hot site. In the event of failover activity, there is not a need to failover back to the original site as all sites are mirrors of each other. Therefore, would the State please modify this requirement? | SCDHHS interprets the approach described above as responsive to its requirement in subsection 3.17.4. | |
| 38 | 38 | 3.18.3 | Conversion is required for some but not all legacy system files. | Can more detail be provided about what data or documents SCDHHS wants to convert? | One trailing year of transaction and reference data. | |
| 39 | 38 | 3.18.4 | Conversion is required for some but not all legacy system files. | Can SCDHHS clarify the volume of historical information needed? | One trailing year of transaction and reference data. | |
| 40 | 39 | 3.18.3.2 | Contractor Conversion Responsibilities | How many years of Historical Data needs to be migrated from the Legacy System? | One trailing year of transaction and reference data. | |
| 41 | 39 | 3.18.3.2 | Convert all necessary data into Contractor’s solution. | Does CSF have IT personnel that will be able to assist in the data cleansing of legacy data prior to the data migration into the new system? | Yes | |
| 42 | 39 | 3.19.1.1 | Access Channels-To provide access to the case management solution | What do you mean by Access Channels? | Access channels are the means by which a solution's user community can access the solution. This includes secure, browser-based access to solution functions (referral form/portal, case management screens, reports) through computers, laptops, tablets, and smart phones. | |
| 43 | 39 | 3.19.1.1 | To provide access to the case management solution to the intended constituencies, Offeror shall propose a variety of access or communication channels for families, service coordinators, therapy providers, and other solution users to access program information. | What web portal features should the solution provide for families and caretakers of program participants? | Refer to Section 3.19.1.1 "Access Channels" | |
| 44 | 40 | 3.20.1 | SCDHHS identity standards require a single, unique identity, managed by the SCDHHS active directory federation services (ADFS) process as identified in the SCDHHS TRA. | Would the State be responsible for provisioning external user access through ADFS if it is integrated to the solution Portal? | Yes | |
| 45 | 40 | 3.20.2 | The integration hub will be used to establish integration, automation, and data interfaces with component systems. | It is unclear which portion of the Solicitation lists all integrations to be provided by the solution. Are these encompassed in 3.6.4.1-3.6.8.1? | See file requirements listed in subsections throughout Section 3.6 | |
| 46 | 41 | 3.20.3 | Offeror shall describe how they will provide SCDHHS for the entire system, including those supporting proprietary contract materials without any restrictions for usage: Database schema, data dictionaries, entity-relationship diagrams, interface standards. | If a SaaS/COTS solution is proposed, can this requirement be waived? Can a vendor propose a different option on this requirement? | The elements described in Section 3.20.3 are required. | |
| 47 | 41 | 3.20.3 | Data interfaces to the existing Claims processing system are implemented with a proprietary flat file (PFF) format batch- transfer mechanism on varying schedule frequencies….Real-time update frequencies for transactional and operational data are required. | Can we assume that the State will supply modern RESTful or soap-based interfaces for all systems that need to be integrated? | Yes | |
| 48 | 42 | 3.21.1 | Encryption-in-transit using industry connection/networking standards such as SSL and VPN. | Does the solution need to be accessible only through VPN or if the solution is accessible via SSL (HTTPS) would this meet the requirement? | This would meet the requirement | |
| 49 | 42 | 3.21.1 and 4.1.3.7 | 5. Security and Privacy Solution |
In addition to information requested elsewhere in this solicitation, offerors should submit the following information for purposes of evaluation exerted from Section 3 SCOPE OF WORK/STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES:
1. Offeror shall explain how its solution will support the SCDHHS security principles. (See 3.21.1 Security and Privacy Controls)
| 2. Offeror shall Propose and provide documentation and a System Security Plan (SSP) (See 3.21.1 Security and Privacy Controls) | As the Cloud Service Provider (CSP) a redacted System Security Plan (SSP) could only be provided to customers that are under a NDA. Therefore, would the State please modify this requirement? | Offerors should submit an example system security plan as part of the solicitation response. See Section 4.1.3.7 | ||
| 50 | 43 | 3.21.2, 3.21.3 and 7.70 | Contractor agrees to operate systems and provide Services compliant with the approved security and privacy controls program. Operation of systems in support of SCDHHS contracted Services shall be subject to an agency defined Security Authorization Process for granting or denying of Contractor’s Authority to Operate (ATO). Issuance of Contractor’s ATO shall occur prior to any processing of government data, with ATO maintenance and review intervals determinant upon the term of Contract award. (See Section 7.70 AUTHORITY TO OPERATE (ATO) (SCDHHS). |
Contractor shall, prior to processing, storing or otherwise handling any government data, have completed and submitted to SCDHHS an Independent Assessment of Security and Privacy Controls. Assessment shall attest to Contractor’s compliance with the approved security and privacy controls program, specific to the Information System environment supportive of SCDHHS services. This activity shall have a recurring performance requirement of twenty-four (24) months from the date of the previous Independent Assessment of Security and Privacy Controls. Audit reports, statements of compliance or attestation shall be provided to SCDHHS Office of Information Assurance (OIA) within thirty (30) days of completion. Submission shall be accompanied by risk mitigation plans and will be subject to review and acceptance by SCDHHS OIA.
Authority to Operate (ATO) condition under the SCDHHS Security Authorization Program.
Contractor agrees to operate systems and provide Services compliant with the current version of the approved security and privacy controls program. Operation of systems in support of SCDHHS contracted services shall be subject to an agencydefined Security Authorization Process for granting or denying of Contractor’s Authority to Operate (ATO). Issuance of Contractor’s ATO shall occur prior to any processing of government data, with ATO maintenance and review intervals determinant upon the term of Contract award. As a multi-tenant cloud service provider, we do not typically offer a Right to Audit clause as part of the base service offering. As a multi-tenant service, compartmentalization is virtual, not physical. Annual site visits can be arranged at your organization's expense, but in consideration of our other customers, random access cannot be permitted. We have third party auditors that inspect and review our security. We undergo annual audits for compliance with additional frameworks such as SSAE 16 SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3, ISO 27001, and PCI-DSS Level 1. The results of these audits can be provided to your organization as desired under NDA. Is this acceptable to meeting the State’s requirements? The state has asked for an Independent Assessment of Security and Privacy Controls that comply with SCDHHS’ Security Authorization Process for granting or denying Authority to Operate. No request has been made by SCDHHS for random access.
Offerors are cautioned NOT to take exception to any requirements or terms and conditions stated herein. By doing so offerors risk their offer being rejected as non-responsive.
| 51 | 44 | 3.25 | “Develop and deliver training related to the Contractor’s solution to, at a minimum, SCDHHS.” | How many total staff would SCDHHS anticipate/desire to be recipients of the training? | Using a train-the-trainer model, approximately 450 individuals would need to be trained (supervisors at DDSN, SCSDB, therapy providers, and state staff). |
| 52 | 44 | 3.25 | Develop and propose methods of knowledge transfer (training, coaching, materials, etc.) to build skills and experience for SCDHHS staff as appropriate. | What is the preferred training method (End-User vs. Train-the-Trainer)? | Train-the-trainer |
| 53 | 44 | 3.26.1 | Offerors may also propose that certain CDMLs listed in the Attachments are not relevant for their proposed solution. For each listed CDML that is not applicable for the Offeror’s solution, the Offeror shall mark the N/A box in the Initial options in the Status row of the CDML. The Offeror must also enter a justification as to why it believes the CDML is not applicable. | Instead marking the N/A box in the Initial options in the Status row of the CDML, can we put all not-applicable CDMLs with the deliverable# and deliverable name in a list? This way, we do not have to copy the whole the deliverable form to the proposal? | This is acceptable as long as the requested information is received. |
| 54 | 45 | 3.27 | 24x7 for technical support of online and batch transactions (support means a call back within 10 minutes if the call is not answered directly). | We assume the technical support is from 8:30 am to 5 pm excluding state holidays and it is not 24X7. Can you confirm this? | See Section 3.27 |
| 55 | 45 | 3.27 | Personnel providing help desk Services must be able to provide answers and responses, without limitation, for items such as: Inquiries on system processes and system trouble shooting from members, providers, value-added networks (VANs), State and Contractor users. | If possible, please share current statistics related to help desk volume, submission type and priority to assist Contractors with establishing appropriate resources to meet required service level agreements. | Please note that the help desk for BabyNet consists of all types of questions, not just those related to the BRIDGES system. They are answered by one of the 4 Regional Coordinators and marked resolved once completed. |
Numbers based upon the following:
April = 342 May = 239 Aug = 760 Sept. = 519 Average: 465 56 45 3.27 Resolution of help desk tickets shall be as follows:
· High Priority: 90% of tickets will begin resolution within one (1) hour of creation or receipt.
· Medium Priority: 85% of tickets will begin resolution within one (1) business day of creation.
· Low Priority: 85% of tickets will begin resolution within seven (7) business days of creation or receipt. Please provide SCDHHS’ definitions for each priority category. High-priority tickets are business critical, representing a complete loss of production system service or a significant feature that is completely unavailable, and no workaround exists.
Medium-priority tickets are for degraded service, including intermittent issues and reduced quality of service, where a workaround may or may not be available.
Low-priority tickets are for general issues, including product questions, feature requests, and development issues.
| 57 | 45 | 3.27 | Hours of operation should include: | |||
| · General help desk support during hours of business operations, 8:00 am to 5 pm ET Monday through Friday except for state holidays | Section 3.27 specifies that Help Desk hours are indicated as 8 am – 5pm. Can you clarify how tickets submitted outside of normal operating hours are expected to be handled, given the SLA requirement that 90% of high priority tickets will begin resolution within one (1) hour of creation or receipt? | To satisfy the "begin resolution" requirement, the successful offeror will provide a means of validating that a service ticket submitted by an authorized user has been received by the offeror's production support team, including a timestamp of when the ticket was received, contact information for the individual to whom the ticket is assigned, and an estimated date/time of issue resolution. For service tickets submitted outside of help desk hours, the estimated date/time of issue resolution shall use the start of the next business day to calculate its estimate. | ||||
| 58 | 45 | 3.27 | Inquiries on system processes and system troubleshooting from members, providers, value-added networks (VANs), State and Contractor users. | Can SCDHHS provide information from current Help Desk metrics – How many Level 2 tickets have been submitted over the last 12 months, broken down by type of user (member, providers, VANs, State & Contractor users)? | Level 2 requests are currently sent to the current vendor by the Regional Coordinators. Questions that originate in the help desk are then worked by the Coordinators and escalated when necessary to the current vendor for resolution. |
Numbers based upon the following:
April = 16 May = 22 Aug = 131 Sept. = 46 Average: 54
| 59 | 45 | 3.28.1 | Certain items like 3.28.1 having to do with invoices looks like it's simply putting us on notice, in this case that we can't bill more than once per month. Do you expect bidders to proactively acknowledge in writing or is it for our information? | See Section 4.1.3.2 | ||
| 60 | 45 | 3.28.2 | Any Work contracted and performed on a labor hours basis will use fixed labor rates established in Contractor’s Proposal. Hourly rates include… | Is it the State’s preference that the Vendor’s proposal be priced as Firm Fixed Price Deliverables or Time and Materials all-inclusive Labor Rates? Is the Vendor required to submit prices for both categories (Tabs A and B in ATM 009)? | Please respond to pricing structures as designed in ATM 009. | |
| 61 | 51 | 32 | Offeror’s solution shall explain how it will facilitate access through Web browsers to support the distributed and mobile nature of SCDHHS’s providers, members, staff and stakeholders within the security requirements identified in this RFP. | Does the solution need to be accessible on mobile devices? If so, what types of mobile devices does the solution need to support? | Refer to Section 3.19.1.1 "Access Channels" | |
| 62 | 51 | 4.1.3.6 | Offeror shall propose a variety of access or communication channels for families, service coordinators, therapy providers, and other solution users to access program information. Offeror’s solution shall explain how it will facilitate access through Web browsers to support the distributed and mobile nature of SCDHHS’s providers, members, staff and stakeholders within the security requirements identified in this RFP. (See 3.19.1 Request Fulfillment) | Item 32 is the same as items 36 combined with 37 – please confirm this is not intentional. | See revised Section 4.1.3.6 | |
| 63 | 51 | 4.1.3.6 | Offeror’s solution shall be designed to support changes and additions to new access channels that may become available or popular over the life of this Contract. (See 3.19.1 Request Fulfillment) | |||
| 34. Offeror’s solution shall be designed to support changes and additions to new access channels that may become available or popular over the life of this Contract. (See 3.19.1 Request Fulfillment) | Items 33 and 34 are the same - please confirm this is not intentional. | See revised Section 4.1.3.6 | ||||
| 64 | 53 | 4.1.3.11 | 1. Offer shall explain how they will conduct effective communications. (See 1.1. Communications). | 1.1. is Acquire Services, is that the section you want us to reference, or is there a different section? | ||
| See revised Section 3.14 | ||||||
| 65 | 53 | 4.1.3.12 | 1. Offer shall explain how they will conduct effective communications. (See 1.1. Communications). | Could you be more specific regarding effective communication does that apply amongst the vendors team or with SCDHHS? | Offer should explain approach to effective communications with SCDHHS business owners, Medicaid Enterprise System (MES) dev ops team for data integration, Clemson University for claims adjudication, and the Department of Administration SCEIS team for payment processing. | |
| 66 | 55 | 4.1.3.17 | Offer shall list engagements/contracts supporting the relevant experience since January 1, 2011 on the Experience Table using the template in Attachment 007 | Attachment 007 is: CERTIFICATION FOR CONTRACTS GRANTS LOANS AND COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS Did you mean Attachment 013 Experience Table, instead of attachment 007-Experience table? | Yes ATTM 013 is correct and this change has been made. | |
| 67 | 55 | 4.1.3.17 | Offeror shall list engagements/contracts supporting the relevant experience since January 1, 2011 on the Experience Table using the template in Attachment 007. There is no limit to the number of relevant engagements/contracts that may be listed in the Experience Table. | In areas where “all” experience is requested, would you allow a response that provides the most relevant experience as opposed to “all” for each category? | It is up to the offeror to determine what is included. | |
| 68 | 58 | 5 | N/A | Which section of the proposal would you like the Section 5 Qualifications lists under? | This should be included in the offeror's Technical Proposal. | |
| 69 | 58 | 5.3 | You may be asked to submit the following information or documentation for you and for any Subcontractor (at any tier level) that you identify pursuant to the clause titled Subcontractor - Identification. Err on the side of inclusion. You represent that the information provided is complete. (a) The general history and experience of the business in providing work of similar size and scope. (b) Information reflecting the current financial position. Include the most current financial statement and financial statements for the last two fiscal years. If the financial statements have been audited in accordance with the following requirements, provide the audited version of those statements. [Reference Statement of Financial Accounting Concepts No. 5 (FASB, December, 1984), as amended.] (c) A detailed, narrative statement listing the three most recent, comparable Contracts (including contact information) which have been performed. For each Contract, describe how the supplies or services provided are similar to those requested by this solicitation, and how they differ. (d) A list of every business for which supplies or services substantially similar to those sought with this solicitation have been provided, at any time during the past three years. (e) A list of every South Carolina public body for which supplies or services have been provided at any time during the past three years, if any. (f) List of failed projects, suspensions, debarments, and significant litigation. [05-5015-2] | (1) Could you please clarify if this is required for the proposal, since it states “You may be asked to submit” | ||
| These items are used to determine responsibility and should not be included in the offerors proposal unless stated in Section IV. Upon determination of the highest ranked offeror, we may ask for any or all of this information in order to determine responsibility. Offerors will be asked for this information at that time if needed, however offerors should understand that if this information is requested according to Section 5.3, a quick turnaround deadline (48 hrs) may be given. | ||||||
| 70 | 78 | 7.58.3.3 | Contractor shall confer with SCDHHS prior to installing any major release, shall provide SCDHHS with the results of its testing and evaluation and a detailed implementation plan and shall not install such release if directed not to do so by SCDHHS. | The Cloud Service Provider (CSP) offers SaaS/PaaS in a multi-tenant cloud environment and provides multiple major release upgrades annually that do not affect customers' configured solutions on CSP's platform and which customers can typically opt-in to upgraded functionality. CSP has one maintenance and upgrade schedule that supports thousands of customers. CSP gives prior notice of changes/updates but CSP’s maintenance/upgrade schedule cannot be changed. Additionally, upgrades are provided at no additional cost to the State and are delivered in a transparent manner (no install needed). Can the State please adjust this requirement accordingly? Will the above meet the intent of the State's requirement? | SCDHHS interprets the approach described above as responsive to its requirement in subsection 7.58.3.3. | |
| 71 | 83 | 7.69 | The Contractor agrees to comply with all applicable federal laws and regulations including constitutional provisions regarding due process and equal protection of the laws and including, but not limited to:...includes |
•http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/administrative/omnibus •IRS Publication 1075 Does the State anticipate storing FTI data as a part of the solution? If so, will you accept a hybrid solution where FTI data is stored on-premise or in a third-party solution that meets IRS 1075 requirements?
| If the State does not anticipate storing FTI data in the solution, can the State please adjust and remove the RFP requirements that refer to mandatory 1075 compliance? By not removing this requirement, this will make a significant difference in complexity and cost in the vendor's proposed solution. | FTI data will not be stored in the offerors case management system. | |||
| 72 | 85 | 8.1.2.4 | Member Based activities |
· Claims adjudication services
· Mailroom services
· PAs
| · Maintenance and exchanging of files required to adjudicate Claims | Are all claims adjudication activities happening within the MMIS, and if so, what are the expectations for the vendor to provide claims adjudication services? | The claims adjudication services referred to in this section include the capture of service logs for services rendered by providers in the case management system, with relevant information necessary to generate an 837P file for transmission to the agency's adjudication system. | ||
| 73 | 85 | 8.1.2.4 | Member Based activities |
· Claims adjudication services
· Mailroom services
· PAs
| · Maintenance and exchanging of files required to adjudicate Claims | Can SCDHHS also provide information around the purpose and volume of activities related to “Mailroom services”? | See revised Section 8.1.2.4 | |||
| 74 | 90 | 9 | ATTACHMENT 014 - LIST OF INCLUDED SYSTEM REPORTS | There is no reference to ATT014 in the RFP of it needing to be completed. If it needs to be completed, could you provide additional details for completing? |
| See revised Section 4.1.3.1 | |||||
| 75 | 90 | 9 | ATTACHMENT 014 - LIST OF INCLUDED SYSTEM REPORTS | Where in the proposal you would like it to be placed? | This should be included in the offeror's Technical Proposal. |
| 76 | ATTM 012 SLA P3 | 9 | Changes or upgrades to any part of the system that will affect worker’s or providers ability to check in or check out must occur between 9 pm and 5 am eastern time, unless a different time is agreed upon by both parties. |
| Contractor must notify providers and SCDHHS staff by email at least twelve (12) hours prior to any scheduled maintenance. | We would like to propose a maintenance window from 5 pm to 5 am during the work days and anytime during the weekend and State holidays instead of 9 pm to 5 am. This will give the vendor flexibility to deploy upgrades to the system, which can benefit the users. Will this be acceptable? | |||
| Maybe. Offerors are cautioned NOT to take exception to any requirements or terms and conditions stated herein. By doing so offerors risk their offer being rejected as non-responsive. | ||||
| 77 | ATTM 012 SLA P4 | 10 | Changes or upgrades to any part of the system that will affect worker’s or providers ability to check in or check out must occur between 9 pm and 5 am eastern time, unless a different time is agreed upon by both parties. |
| Contractor must notify providers and SCDHHS staff by email at least twelve (12) hours prior to any scheduled maintenance. | We propose to notify all the users within the data system instead of using emails. This way, it is not too intrusive. Most of the deployment interruption will take less than 2 to 15 minutes. If the notification is within the system, this will not bother the users who do not need to use the system around the time of the deployment. Will this be acceptable? | Offerors must comply with all requirements. If offerors wish to propose functions, features, or services in addition to those required by the RFP, they may do so. Offerors are cautioned NOT to take exception to any requirements or terms and conditions stated herein. By doing so offerors risk their offer being rejected as non-responsive. | ||
| 78 | ATTM 012 (SLA) | #17 - High Priority: 90% of tickets will begin resolution within one (1) hour of creation or receipt. | In SLA #17, SCDHHS requires that high priority tickets will begin resolution within one (1) hour of ticket creation or receipt. |
| Please clarify further what is meant by "begin resolution"? For example, does this mean that steps have been initiated to resolve the ticket, or that the issue stated in the ticket has been resolved? | To satisfy the "begin resolution" requirement, the successful offeror will provide a means of validating that a service ticket submitted by an authorized user has been received by the offeror's production support team, including a timestamp of when the ticket was received, contact information for the individual to whom the ticket is assigned, and an estimated date/time of issue resolution. | ||||
| 79 | ATTM 012 (SLA) | Liquidated Damages – Financial Penalties | To allow the vendor and SCDHHS time to fully implement the solution, would SCDHHS consider applying SLA penalties/damages only after a designated rollout period? | Specific SLAs apply to either the implementation or the operations phases of the project. No operations based SLAs will be used to levy financial penalties during the implementation phase. | |
| 80 | ATTM 012 (SLA) | Liquidated Damages – Financial Penalties | Would SCDHHS be open to negotiating liquidated damages with the selected vendor to limit risk and realize cost efficiencies? |
For example, related to SLA #5 Access and Delivery – Client Support, would SCDHHS be willing to work with a vendor who is prompt in communication to negotiate options to avoid penalties related to specific timeframes around responses to calls or emails? A creative option in this example might include allowing multiple emergency contacts such that the vendor is not viewed as unresponsive if for some reason one contact is inaccessible. See Section 6.4 "Discussions and Negotiations - Optional". Any portion of the Solicitation or Offer MAY be negotiated.
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