EVVE JA FAR Part 6 Redacted J_A.pdf

Control Number VA-21-00031078

JA- FAR Part 6

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, NJ 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed sole source action is for a firm-fixed price (FFP) contract with the National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems (NAPHSIS) for the procurement of Electronic Verification of Vital Events (EVVE) subscription.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: The proposed action is required to provide the EVVE subscription service that is owned and developed by NAPHSIS, and used throughout VA to verify identity information, specifically dates of birth and dates of death. EVVE provides an additional verification source of date of birth and date of death information to approve the accuracy of that data within the Master Patient Index (MPI). All of VA uses MPI as the authoritative source for this information. This will help prevent unnecessary prescriptions from being filled and allows for cancellations of deceased Veteran's appointments thereby freeing those appointments for active patients. It also provides the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) with more accurate death information which will help prevent benefits checks from being inappropriately distributed to deceased Veterans. This information is imperative with VA’s Electronic Health Record (EHR) Modernization integration to reconcile death information between VA and the Department of Defense. EVVE provides queries to retrieve death certificates as well as downloadable copies of the certificates; queries to retrieve birth certificates as well as downloadable copies of the certificates; and queries to establish the whether or not a specific individual is deceased (i.e. fact of death). The period of performance for this effort is a 12-month base period with three (3) 12-month option periods. The total estimated value of the proposed action is .

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1 entitled, “Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.”

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: The proposed source for this action is NAPHSIS, 962 Wayne Avenue Ste 701, Silver Spring, MD 20910. EVVE provides queries to retrieve death certificates as well as downloadable copies of the certificates; queries to retrieve birth certificates as well as downloadable copies of the certificates; and queries to establish whether or not a specific individual is deceased (i.e. fact of death). EVVE allows for verification of Date of Death and Date of Birth data, using information provided from vital statistics information from participating states. The implementation of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) EHR and subsequent

Electronic Verification of Vital Events Control Number VA-21-00031078 integrations with VHA, Department of Defense and others, it has become imperative for VHA to improve the quality of death data enterprise wide. Inaccurate death data within the EHR negatively impacts patient care, availability of patient appointments, and can result in unauthorized disclosure of patient records as well as the potential for the erroneous distribution or cancellation of monetary benefits to veterans. No other subscription service can meet all of VA’s functional requirements, specifically in providing authoritative date of death information directly from State Offices of Vital Statistics. VA has been using the NAPHSIS EVVE for this purpose since 2018.

Furthermore, NAPHSIS EVVE is proprietary. Unauthorized providers do not have access to the proprietary data of NAPHSIS subscription service and that data must be available to have the capability to perform this effort. As a subscription service, VA gains access directly into NAPHSIS’ EVVE system to obtain the necessary data.

The appropriate maintenance of death data is challenging for VA as a whole, as the data often times does not get updated for months, sometimes years, while pending documentation from the family and alternative resources are very limited. Patients often have appointments made up to a year in advance. If death data is not added to the record these appointments do not get cancelled in a timely manner, therefore resulting in longer than necessary wait times for living patients needing treatment. Deceased patients also continue to receive prescriptions by mail, at a tremendous expense to VA.

In addition, in order to accurately track death rates related to COVID-19, date of death information is even more critical at this time. Without current and accurate death information within VA records, VHA could also make unnecessary payouts of benefits to deceased individuals or in the case of an erroneous date of death benefits are cancelled in error. The process of verifying and correcting erroneous death data is challenging, time consuming and depends on other systems acceptance of the updates. VHA staff at both the facility and national levels are using the EVVE functionality to validate the date of death and related data elements and to improve the quality of identity data for patients and other persons known to VA. It provides staff the ability to verify suspected death data via the Death Certification queries, therefore preventing erroneous data from being entered. EVVE has been found very useful by the Health Care Identity Management team in validating death information for Veterans received from external sources such as Social Security Administrations Death Master File, to ensure this information is accurate and complete.

Of special note, as part of the sharing agreement with the Social Security Administration and the data contained within their Death Master File, VHA agreed to process secondary checks to ensure we are not relying solely on their death data. Activity checks within our own system and the EVVE functionality are used to comply with this sharing agreement.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this document. There is no competition anticipated for this acquisition. Additionally, the proposed action will be synopsized on the beta.sam.gov page in accordance with FAR 5.201. Any proposals that are received shall be evaluated.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: To remove or overcome barriers to competition in the future, the agency will continue to conduct market research to ascertain if there are changes in the marketplace that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: The Government’s technical experts conducted market research in February of 2021 and again in March of 2021 to ascertain the ability of any other sources meeting VA’s needs. The research consisted of performing internet searches, reviewing information technology publications and two Request for Information (RFI) postings on National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solution for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V. Through these efforts various software applications were analyzed. The first RFI posting, SEWP# 183688, completed on February 26, 2021 encompassed small businesses to include Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) Contract Holders. No questions or responses were received. The second RFI, SEWP# 184539, completed on March 8, 2021 encompassed large businesses. No questions or responses were received. The outcome of the research led back to NAPHSIS providing the only requested support.

Additionally, the Contracting Officer in April 2021 reached out to NAPHSIS representatives to confirm the availability of the EVVE subscription service from alternative sources. NAPHSIS confirmed that there is only one current vendor, LexisNexis VitalChek, but they have not brought any customers onboard through this process. LexisNexis VitalChek is a reseller for EVVE Fact-Of-Death and not the traditional EVVE that is required in this procurement; therefore they cannot provide these requirements. NAPHSIS also confirmed that LexisNexis VitalChek is not on NASA SEWP nor do they hold any schedules under the General Services Administration.

Based on the market research conducted by the Government’s technical experts, it has been determined that only NAPHSIS can provide the required subscription service NAPHSIS does not have any current resellers or service providers for its traditional EVVE subscription. Failure to acquire the aforementioned subscription servicecould result in an adverse outcome for a patient due to the potential increase in data transcription errors. Based on the above, it has been determined that the EVVE subscription service can only be provided by NAPHSIS due to the uniqueness and the proprietary nature of VA’s requirement.

9. Other Facts: None.

10. Technical and Requirements Certification: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in this justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Date: ________________________________

Project Manager Signature: ____________________________

11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable based on comparing the quote to the Independent Government Cost Estimate. Additionally, price discounts will be sought.

Date: _______________________________

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: ____________________________

12. Procuring Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. As this contract action does not exceed $750,000, the certification below required by FAR 6.304(a)(1) serves as approval.

Date: _______________________________

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: ____________________________