Amendment 00001 JD_03.30.10.docx

The purpose of this amendment is to incorporate the following changes to the solicitation. As a result, the solicitation is amended as follows:

SECTION L – INSTRUCTIONS, CONDITIONS AND NOTICES TO OFFERORS

1. L.11. i - Record Retention, on page 87, is deleted in its entirety and replaced as follows:

L.11.i Reserved

2. L.14. c. - Tab C2.(2): Innovations, on page 94, is hereby deleted and replaced as follows:

(2) If the Offeror has proposed innovations and/or process improvements that are not part of its current operations, the Offeror shall provide a schedule that provides the timeline for completing/implementing the proposed innovations and/or process improvements. The schedule shall identify the tasks required to implement the proposed innovations and/or process improvements. This “schedule” shall include the start date, end date and any major milestones leading up to the implementation of an innovation. CMS is not requiring a complete thorough project schedule, although CMS may ask discussion questions to test the offerors thoroughness of planning. These “schedules” shall count towards the page count limit. In addition, the Offeror shall discuss the research performed to support the stated benefits for the proposed innovations and/or process improvements. Research may be internal investigation the Offeror performed on its operations and/or research conducted externally on similar operational systems. Finally, the Offeror shall provide a contingency plan for proposed innovations and/or process improvements in the event that there is a delay in the Offeror’s implementation.

3. L.14. c. - Tab C3: Medicare Review Strategy, on page 94, is hereby deleted and replaced as follows:

Tab C3: Medicare Review Strategy (included in 60-page limit)

The Offeror shall submit a sample Medical Review strategy and identify the risk to the Medicare Trust Fund for this jurisdiction. The proposed Medical Review Strategy shall include the workloads by the categories identified in section L.11 (including the automated review categories identified in the notes row under the Medical Review workload heading). The strategy shall include all assumptions used in establishing those proposed workloads.

The Offeror shall describe its approach to perform data analysis for the identification of Medicare program vulnerabilities and its approach to monitor DME utilization and medical review outcomes for the jurisdiction. The Offeror shall describe its approach for identifying patterns of provider or service billing aberrancies and analyzing Medicare program vulnerabilities that may pose a risk to the Medicare Trust Fund. The Offeror shall describe actions to prevent inappropriate payments while ensuring that services rendered to Medicare beneficiaries are medically necessary, correctly coded, and reimbursed to legitimate providers. The Offeror shall demonstrate its ability to understand and interpret Medicare policies and demonstrate its ability to implement the necessary action(s) to prevent or address identified vulnerabilities.

The Offeror shall also describe its quality assurance process for its Medical Review activities. The Offeror shall describe its ability to develop and implement cost effective editing options and describe its approach to monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of edits. The Offeror shall also describe its approach to working with CMS and other business partners to reduce the Medicare DME paid claims error rate.

*Note: The Offeror’s oral presentation will also be considered when assessing technical understanding. Section L.19 of this solicitation provides the organization and instructions for the oral presentation.

4. L.14. d. - Tab D: Attestations, on page 95, is hereby deleted and replaced as follows:

d. TAB D: Attestations The Offeror shall submit two attestations with its Proposal to demonstrate that it complies with CMS’ requirements: Information Security Attestation and Corporate Experience Attestation. The attestations do not count towards the Written Technical Proposal page limit.

(1) Information Security Attestation The Offeror shall attest that its Information Security Plan is in compliance with CMS policies, procedures, and requirements set forth in the Business Partner System Security Manual found at www.cms.hhs.gov/informationsecurity. Specifically, the Offeror shall complete and submit the attestation template provided in Attachment J-20.

(2) Corporate Experience Attestation The Offeror shall attest that either the Offeror (as the prime contractor) , or the Offeror and its subcontractor(s) have performed work similar in scope and size to the work required under the DME MAC SOW. Specifically, the Offeror shall complete and submit the attestation template provided in Attachment J-21. Additionally, CMS will confirm this attestation with the Past Performance Questionnaires submitted per Section L.16.d of this solicitation.

As specified in Attachment J-21, if the Offeror attests that the collective work experience of the Offeror (as the prime contractor) and its subcontractor(s) is similar in size and scope to the work required under the DME MAC SOW, then both the Offeror and its subcontractor(s) shall sign the Corporate Experience Attestation (Attachment J-21). In addition, both the Offeror and subcontractor shall complete Appendix A of Attachment J-21. The subcontractor(s) may submit Appendix A to CMS under a separately sealed package.

5. L.16.a.2 - Travel, on page 98, is deleted in its entirety and replaced as follows:

2. Travel: All travel costs proposed shall be reimbursed on a cost reimbursement basis in accordance with the Federal Travel Regulation (FTR). Offeror is required to submit a breakdown of proposed travel expenses consisting of the following: “From” and “To” cities, number, types and purpose of trips, number of travelers, duration of trip for each destination, mileage, per diem, air fare, and miscellaneous expenses. Offeror shall complete the Travel tab found in the Cost Templates for each CLIN of the contract.

Offerors shall provide all proposal assumptions for both its Technical (Volume I) and Business (Volume II) proposals in detail that are used in preparing their business proposal spreadsheet submission. The Offeror shall use Attachment J-24 Assumption Template to document these assumptions. The Offeror shall clearly mark each assumption as applying to either the Technical or Business Proposal. Assumptions should include rationale for all business proposal elements.

The business proposal narratives shall be used to support the business proposal spreadsheets (Volume IIA) and include, at a minimum, the following:

Labor:

· The Offeror’s proposed labor rates shall be supported with payroll information, letters of intent or salary survey information.

· If the labor rates are escalated, the Offeror shall provide rationale for the proposed escalation rate.

· The Offeror’s productive labor hours for exempt and non-exempt employees.

· Offeror shall clearly identify Key Personnel positions in their proposed labor mix. Offerors shall identify where the costs for Key Personnel are located (direct or indirect charge) and explain the allocation decision

· The Offeror shall provide labor rationale by labor category and should describe how the basis of the hours was determined (e.g. historical data, technical experience, etc.).

Travel:

· The Offeror shall provide the basis of estimate and detailed rationale for all travel.

· The Offeror shall submit a copy of their corporate travel policy.

ODCs:

· The Offeror shall provide the basis of estimate and detailed rationale for each item of ODC.

Fee:

· The Offeror shall provide the basis of estimate and detailed rationale for all proposed fee. The Offeror shall also disclose if any fees are added to the subcontractors.

7. L.16.b. - Tab J: Adequate Accounting and Estimating Systems, on page 103 delete the following at the end of paragraph b “(Amendment 000003)”.

Section M - EVALUATION FACTORS FOR AWARD

The Technical Evaluation Panel (TEP) will evaluate Volume I of the Proposal by applying the evaluation factors in Section M.4. Each technical proposal will be evaluated qualitatively and categorized using adjectival ratings in relation to the evaluation factors listed in Section M.4.

The TEP will evaluate the Offeror’s proposal against following the evaluation subfactors which are equal in order of importance:

1. Past Performance

2. Technical Understanding

End of Amendment 000001, all other terms and conditions remain unchanged.