JA15-0139_Navy_Patient_Satisfaction_Survey_Bridge_(posted).pdf

Tracking #JA 15-0139

Justification and Approval for Other than Full and Open Competition Sole Source Acquisition

FAR Subpart 6.3 Other Than Full and Open Competition

I. Identification of the agency and contracting activity: Defense Health Agency (DHA), contracting activity responsible to this action will be Contract Operations Division - Falls Church (COD-FC), 7700 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church, VA 22042.

2. Nature and/or Description of Action being approved: Approval is being requested for a Finn Fixed Price sole source Bridge Contract to be awarded to IMS Government Solutions to complete work that is currently being performed under contract number N00189-09-C-Zl 15, for Navy, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, performing the Navy Patient Satisfaction Survey (PSS), expiring on 28 June 2015 pending a long tenn contract solution. The bridge contract will prevent a gap in necessary service and to provide the agency sufficient time to complete the acquisition process for a new follow-on contract. The period of performance of this bridge will be 6 months beginning on 29 June 2015 thru 31 Dec 2015.

3. Description of Supplies/Services: This action is to continue services of the current competitively awarded contract with IMS Government Solutions for six months in order to continue the release of surveys for the final quarter operations, upgrade operating system for the servers, receipt and processing of completed surveys, summary of results, and decommission the servers to allow for transition to another contract. Tasks include maintaining a database of sample and response data, analyzing survey responses rates, preparing reports and technical documentation, providing survey data and reports to B UMED Customer Relations Program Manager, maintaining IT systems for contract perfonnance in an information assurance environment certified under the Risk Management Framework, conducting statistical analysis of results, transferring data to BUMED and decommissioning of servers. The contract provides a level of support required to continue the process improvements and provide optimum care to Navy medicine beneficiaries.

The requested period of performance for the six (6) month contract is June 29th, 2015 through December 31 1

', 2015, utilizing FY 15 O&M funds. The total estimated price is -

4. Statutory Authority Cited: The statutory authority pennitting other than full and open competition for this acquisition is 10 U. S.C. 2304( c )(I) "Only One Responsible Source· and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements" as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-l(a)(2)(iii)(B)- services are deemed to be available only from the original source in the case of follow-on contracts for the continued provision of highly specialized services when it is likely that award to any other source would result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency's requirement.

5. Reason for Authority Cited: Contract N00189-09-C-Zl 15 has been consolidated with three other contracts under the Joint Outpatient Experience Survey (JOES). This consolidation was approved October 30th, 2014. This consolidation allows standardization of health care surveys for Military Health System beneficiaries and is expected to provide reduced costs, shorter cycle times, and better contract tenns and conditions. The consolidated requirement is currently in source selection, but has been delayed for reasons not within the Navy's control. That requirement includes a 2 month incoming transition period in which no surveys will be sent, leaving the Navy without patient surveys when the current bridge contract with IMS Government Solutions ends on June 28th, 2015. Additionally, the current contract requires continued release of outpatient surveys until the end date. Without a bridge contract, the Navy will not be able to receive surveys sent, but not returned by June 28, analyze the data generated from those surveys, prepare reports or decommission the servers once all analysis is complete. The anticipated award date for the extension is June 29, 2015 to allow services to continue through 31December2015.

Tracking #JA 15-0139

IMS Government Solutions is the only company capable of performing these duties at the performance start date because of technical and security requirements necessary to perform the tasks and the length of time to obtain them. Due to Navy requirements, Authorization To Operate under the DoD Risk Management Framework must be in place to process unclassified DoD information. The start-up time associated with these technical requirements is 3-6 months. IMS currently maintains all technical requirements; they will be able to continue providing services without delays and will need no start up time. Without support, the data and patient comments generated in the surveys conducted through June 28th will be lost. This information is required by the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) to make process improvements and provide optimum care to beneficiaries served at Navy hospitals and clinics.

The data collected from these surveys is an integral part of the Navy Medicine's response to the Secretary of Defense's Ninety Day Review and the media inquiries regarding healthcare delivered in the MHS.

Failure to allow for the collection and analysis of data, customer support, data servers and application maintenance will negatively impact the care provided to our Sailors, Marines and other MHS Beneficiaries.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Bids, proposals, or quotations have not been solicited from additional sources (FAR 5.207(15) & 6.302-l(a)(2)(iii) as implemented by FAR 13.5) because the expected short term of the bridge contract however, the follow-on contract is in the evaluation process with an anticipated award date in early-. .

The proposed action will be synopsized in accordance with FAR 5.207, noting that pursuant to FAR

5. I 02( e) the Government only need to provide copies of a solicitation issued under other than full and open competition to firms requesting copies that were not initially solicited, but only after advising the requester of the determination to limit the solicitation to a specified firm or firms as authorized under part

FAR6.3.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: A comparison of the proposed bridge contract pricing to the current contract pricing structure shall be used to determine fair and reasonable of price. It is anticipated that the current pricing arrangement shall continue for the additional 6 month effoi:t. At the time of contract award, these prices were determined to be fair and reasonable. The Government has assessed the level of effort and the labor mix employed under the current contract to ensure the activities required are the same services throughout the planned bridge contract. The follow-on contract is in the evaluation process with adequate competition received.

8. Market Research: No market research was conducted specifically for this bridge contract. On June 18th, 2015, the Head of Contracting activity signed a waiver to the USD (A TL) Policy Memorandum, "Action to Improve Department of Defense Competition," August 21, 2014, requirement for Request For Information/Sources Sought Synopsis for sole source justifications citing FAR 6.302-1, The follow-on contract is currently in the evaluation process with adequate competition received.

9. Other Facts:

a. A current Performance Work Statement is available for the patient satisfaction survey. The requirements contained in it have been incorporated into the solicitation for the follow-on contract, which is currently in the evaluation process.

b. History. The contract # NOO 189-09-C-Z 115 was competitively awarded for Navy Patient Satisfaction Survey to IMS Government Solutions on 28 September 2009. The contract was awarded in response to RFP N00189-09-R-Z062. A modification was issued concurrently with award of the basic contract to fund performance of patient satisfaction surveying from 29 September 2009- 28 June 2010. The initial contract award was 29 June 2010 through 28 September 20 I 0 with four option years that ended 28 September 2014. Contract was modified on 26 August 20 I 0 to exercise CLIN I 001 (option year 29 September 20 I 0-28 September 2011 ).

Contract was modified on 19 September 2011 to institute a six month pilot project to test point of

Tracking #JA15-0139 service surveying at selected Navy MTFs. Option year 2 (period of performance 29 September 2011-28 September 2012) was exercised via contract modification on 22 September 2011. A modification to the contract was issued on 21 August 2012 to revise the pilot study to incorporate NA VMISSA approach and remove paper surveys. Option year 3 was exercised on 27 August 2013. Option year 4 was exercised in 2013 for the period of performance 29 September 2013- 28 September 2014). In response to the pending award of Joint Outpatient Experience Survey, the Navy PSS contract was modified on 15 September 2014 to extend the period of performance of the contract to 28 March 2015 with three option months that ends on 28 June 2015. When the JOES contract was not awarded by March 2015, the three option months were exercised on 9 March 2015. The bridge and all option months end 28.June 2015.

10. Interested Sources: The program office has no written statements of interest in the bridge; however the competitive follow-on contract currently in the evaluation process has adequate competition.

11. Methods to overcome barriers: The agency is currently evaluating information submitted for the follow-on contract. The anticipated award date is early This J&A shall be posted in accordance with FAR 6.305.