Answers_to_RFP_Questions-IHS18236SOL00011_(4-3-18).xlsx

XLSX spreadsheet 25 KB Posted Apr 3, 2018

Attached to: Indian Health Service National Patient Information Reporting System (NPIRS)
Solicitation number: IHS-18-236-SOL-00011
Issued by: Department of Health and Human Services Indian Health Service

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RFP-NPIRS_Amend__1_(4-3-18).pdf	PDF	Apr 3, 2018
NPIRS_RFP__IHS-18-236-SOL-00011.pdf	PDF	Mar 22, 2018

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Sheet1

AMENDMENT #1 - ANSWERS TO RFP QUESTIONS (SOLICITATION NUMBER: IHS-18-236-SOL-00011) - April 3, 2018
LINE ITEM #	RFP PAGE #	SECTION #	SECTION TITLE	QUESTIONS	ANSWERS
1	General	N/A	N/A	1) Whether companies from Outside USA can apply for this (like from India or Canada)? 2) Whether we need to come over there for meetings? 3) Can we perform the tasks (related to RFP) outside USA (like, from India or Canada)? 4) Can we submit the proposals via email?
1) No. This procurement is subject to the Buy American requirements. 2) Face to face meetings may be required, although most issues can be addressed via teleconference. This will be determined by the IHS Program Office after contract award. 3) No. We expect the work to be performed in the United States. 4) As stated in Section L.1.3. Other Important Information and Instructions:, proposal are to be submitted by email.
2	General	N/A	N/A	1) Has a contractor performed similar work to this for the government in the past? 2) If available, please provide the incumbent contract number. 3) If you are unable to provide a contract number, is it safe to assume this is a new requirement for the government?	1) Yes 2) Alliant SB CTA, LLC; HHSI236201200013W 3) This is not a new requirement.
3	General	N/A	N/A	Has a contractor performed similar work to this for the government in the past? If available, please provide the incumbent contract number.	Yes. Alliant SB CTA, LLC; HHSI236201200013W.
4	General	N/A	N/A	Is this RFP only open to organizations who qualify under the Buy Indian legislation? If so, how do prime/subcontractors factor into this? My questions stem specifically for this requirement: Offerors must complete the attached self-certify form (Attachment #2-Indian Health Service/Buy Indian Act/Indian Firm Representation Form) that they qualify as an "Indian Firm" (HHSAR 326.602) with "Indian Ownership" (HHSAR 326.603) under the authority of the Buy Indian Act (25 U.S.C. 47).	The prime contractor must comply with FAR 52.219-14 Limitations on Subcontracting clause in allocating what percentage of work to subcontract. A contractor shall not subcontract to other than responsible Indian economic enterprises more than 50 percent of the subcontracted work when the prime contract was awarded under the Buy Indian Act. For this purpose, work to be performed does not include the provision of materials, supplies, or equipment. Insert the following clause in each written solicitation or contract to provide supplies, services, or covered construction.
5	General	N/A	N/A	1) Is there an incumbent who is eligible to re-compete? 2) What is the dollar amount of the current contract? 3) How many employees are there on this contract? 4) Is the current contractor a certified Indian enterprise?	1) N/A 2) N/A 3) N/A 4) No
6	25	G.2	Invoice Submission	Please confirm that we can break up the total dollars for the 3 month base period and annual option periods into equal monthly amounts for monthly invoice submission.	Confirmed. The vendor can submit monthly invoices for the base period and for each exercised contract option period.
7	53	L.1.3	Other Important Information and Instructions	Can the IHS please confirm that we can propose through an SBA approved Mentor Protégé JV that meets the criteria for being 51% Indian-owned? We don’t want to be disqualified for proposing under an Indian-owned Mentor Protégé JV.	Yes, JVs can propose on Buy Indian procurements if the JV meets the eligibilty requirements for the Buy Indian procurement. Pursuant to HHSAR 326.603(b) Joint ventures. An Indian firm may enter into a joint venture with other entities for specific projects as long as the Indian firm is the managing partner. However, the contracting officer shall approve the joint venture prior to the award of a contract under the Buy Indian Act.
8	55	L.2.	Technical Proposal Instructions (Volume I)	With regard to providing a milestone chart, what specific milestones should we use for this milestone chart?	This section has been revised accordingly.
9	55	L.2.	Technical Proposal Instructions (Volume I)	The RFP states “The Offeror must provide the general background, experience and qualifications of the organization.” By “organization” is IHS referring to the project team or the company? We did not find another place in the RFP to talk about the company background, so if this refers to the project team, is there another place to include the company background?	By organization we are referring to the company as a whole and assume that the project team is a work group within the company.
10	56	L.4	Past Performance (Volume II)	For a prime/sub contractor relationship, will the IHS consider the past performance of subcontractors as part of the past performance of the Offeror or will only the past performance of the prime contractor be considered?	Past Performance of both the prime and subcontractors will be considered.
11	56	L.4	Past Performance (Volume II)	If the past performance of subcontractors in a prime/sub contractor relationship will be considered, does the IHS desire the subcontractors to submit Attachment 1? If so, how many Attachment 1 references are required for the prime contractor and subcontractor?	Past Performance of both the prime and subcontractors will be considered. The RFP has been clarified to state three (3) Attachment 1 references are required for the prime and three (3) for any subcontractors.
12	56	L.4	Past Performance (Volume II)	Does the IHS want us to provide any narrative on our past performance or does the IHS only want to receive the Past Performance Surveys? If narrative needs to supplied along with the Attachment 1 Surveys, what should we cover?	1) The Offerors are to send out the Past Performance Survey to their previous customers. Previous customers are to complete the forms and email them directly to vito.pietanza@ihs.gov . The Past Performance Surveys should not be submitted to IHS by the offeror.
13	57	L.5.1. (b) 1.	Administrative and Management Data	We do not have audited indirect cost rates by a cognizant Government audit agency. We are confused by the need for audited indirect cost rates on this fixed price proposal. Since we will be providing the requested data that will be comprehensive enough to provide IHS with the basis for a sound evaluation, will the IHS consider removing this requirement? If not, will we be considered non-responsive?	This requirement has been removed.
14	57	L.5.	Price Proposal Instructions (Volume III)	It states that the vendor will need to travel to IHS facilities to obtain data needed to complete the cost assessment of this contract. The next sentence says that IHS will not reimburse the Contractor for any travel costs. This is followed by the statement that travel costs should be included as part of our cost proposal. Can IHS please clarify if IHS will reimburse the Contractor for the proposed travel costs?	Contractor travel is not required; therefore, IHS will not reimburse contractors for travel costs. If necessary, IHS representatives will travel to visit the contractor. (Section L.5. was modified).
15	57	L.5.	Price Proposal Instructions (Volume III)	Please clarify what is meant by shipping and packaging costs? What shipping and packaging costs does the IHS see associated with this contract?	There are occassional requirements to package and/or ship and/or receive artifacts to/from customer or stakeholders as applicable. IHS will be responsible for all shipping and packaging costs associated with product delivery. (Section L.5. was modified).
16	Attach-ment 1	Attachment 1	Attachment 1	The Client Information contains a check box for a Commercial Client and a Federal Client. Which box should we check for a State government and National Laboratory client?	Commercial Client
17	Page 55 and Page 56			On Page 55, it states the following: A list of names and proposed duties of the professional personnel, consultants, and key Subcontractor employees assigned to the project must be provided. Their resumes shall be included and should contain information on education, background, recent experience, and specific scientific or technical accomplishments. The approximate percentage of time each individual will be available for this project must be included with a milestone chart. And then on Page 56, it states the following: The Offeror must submit resumes for all Key personnel to be utilized in the performance of these requirements. Offeror shall clearly note which requirements section that the individual being proposed would work in. Also, the Offeror must certify that the information on each key personnel submitted is true and complete and that the individuals named are available for assignment by the date the contract is effective. The Offeror must submit a resume showing all relevant training, education, and work history that are pertinent to this requirement for each person being proposed to work under this Contract. Our question is “Does the Indian Health Services want resumes for all personnel assigned to the project in addition to the Key Personnel or just the resumes for the four Key Personnel identified on page 32 of the RFP?” In order to maintain contract continuity and knowledge retention, we intend to recruit and hire from the incumbent workforce and getting all of the incumbent workforce’s resumes has proven to be difficult. Could the RFP please be modified to read as follows: A list of the duties of the professional personnel, consultants, and key Subcontractor positions assigned to the project must be provided. Information on the minimum requirement for education, background, recent experience, and specific scientific or technical accomplishments must be presented for each position. The approximate percentage of time each individual will be available for this project must be included with a milestone chart.	Resumes are to be provided for the key personnel. Section L.2. was modified as recommended with additional revisions.
18	54	L.I.3.	Other Important Information and Instructions	We recognize that the questions we are asking may not be clear. Hence, some of the answers we receive back may be unclear or confusing to us. Will we be afforded the opportunity to submit follow up questions to the answers provided?	We do not acnticipate another round of questions and answers.

19	9	C.4.1.C	Task - Maintain and Support the NPIRS System Environment	Describe the manual inspection of duplication/unduplication of source data files.
Occassionally there are manual data analysis and validation that is required, aside from the automated process to unduplicate data. This may require development of sql code to resolve, identify data discrepancies.
20	9	C.4.1.C	Task - Maintain and Support the NPIRS System Environment	What IHS tools are there to be leveraged to automate project management?	Microsoft Project is the tool of choice for project management.
21	9	C.4.1.L	Task - Maintain and Support the NPIRS System Environment	What type of help desk support is requested?	Ability to respond to help desk tickets related to the NPIRS services. Additional support is required to report and mangae help desk tickets that have been satisfied by the vendor to demonstrate ability to meet SLA or provide insight into how KPI's are met.
22	9	c.4.1.b	Task - Maintain and Support the NPIRS System Environment	Across which sources?	Question not specific enough.
23	9	c.f.1.f	Task - Maintain and Support the NPIRS System Environment	Is there a current inventory of IHS hardware and software?	Yes, there is currently an inventory of hardware and software that support the NPIRS environment that will be maintained by the vendor.
24	11	C.4.4. a	Technical Operations National Data Warehouse (NDW)	What are the high level IHS headquarters and program area reporting?	To be reviewed once contract is awarded.
25	9-10	C.4.1.j, k, n, m and o	TASK	Is the entire information security office support function. is the intent of this solicitation to provide 100% support for security or is there a NPIRS Agency Information System Security Program Manager (ISSPM) that is responsible for the oversight and formal reporting of all security functions?	NPIRS will work in collaboration with the agency security office/officer to ensure adhereance to secrutity requirements.
26	General question			Currently, are there any known Big Data requirements?	No big data requirements at this time, but a consideration for future state vision.
27	General question			Volume of systems getting incorporated into BI solution.	The NPIRS environment houses all historical information that it persists from electronic health record systems (currently terabytes but could reach petabyte).

28	5	C.1	Background	Is the current Master Person Index (MPI) centrally managed?	Yes
29	6	C.2	Objective	Approximately how many environments are there today, approximate size, and database type?	To be discussed/review upon contract award.
30	7	C.3	Scope of req’s	Does there exist a data catalog for these databases today?	There is a rdbms catalog but no enterprise catalog of data.
31	8	C.4.1	Maintain & Support NPIRS env	What is the means of authentication for the users today? – Active Directory, IDM, etc.	Active Directory.
32	8	C.4.1	Maintain & Support NPIRS env	Where are the physical locations and how many of these databases and data marts exist today?	The data stores are managed at the agency data centers in Albequerque Mexico and Rockville.
33	5	C.1	Background	The government states this project started 30 years ago. How long has this been officially federally supported with reporting requirements to the federal government if not for the entire 30-year period?	The project is based off of a legacy requirement. It started in the 1990's and is federally supported.
34	8	C.4.1	Maintain & Support NPIRS env	Approximately how many environments are there today, approximate size, and database type?	To be discussed/review upon contract award.
35	8	C.4.1	Maintain & Support NPIRS env	What is the frequency of the federal status reporting?	To be discussed/review upon contract award.
36	5	C.1	Background	What is the current status of system compliance to HIPAA, SAS-70, and PII standards?	To be discussed/review upon contract award.
37	5	C.1	Background	Is the current Master Person Index (MPI) centrally located?	This question was answered above.
38	5	C.1	Background	Does the IHS Personal Health Record (PHR) provide for two factor authentication today?	To be discussed/review upon contract award
39	6	C.2	Objective	Reporting – Are there any centrally-managed specific production tools in-place to support the entire user-base for reporting?	There are centrally managed tools and decentralized tools that the area offices or program offices may utilize.
40	6	C.2	Objective	Data Management – Does there exist a centrally documented source-to-target mapping of data schemas for all known data sources today with input timings?	No consistent enterprise mapping.
41	6	C.2	Objective	Data Governance - Are there currently created, approved, and adopted policies and procedures for the overall NPIRS systems management?	One of our target goals.
42	6	C.2	Objective	Data Discovery – Do any specific tools exist to support data mining and predictive analytics discovery?	We do have enterprise tools that support data mining and predictive analysis.
43	7	C.3	Scope	What is the primary means currently for users to interface with the NPIRS system? If browsers, then which browsers or clients or operating systems are currently supported?	The vendor should be postured to support any interface to the NPIRS data (i.e., browsers, clients, odbc, jdbc, etc.).
44	6	C.2	Objective	Technology and Change Management– What is the current Capability Maturity Model Integration level (CMMI, levels 1-5) that is estimated currently for the support of the NPIRS system?	We are not CMMI Level 3.
45	6	C.2	Objective	Are there controls in place for all development, test, QA, and production codebase version control and code migration for all NPIRS current systems and sub systems?	There is a legacy process that supports SDLC.
46	7	C.3	Scope	Does the current NPIRS system carry only textual information (unstructured/structured)?	Most of the data is structured.
47	7	C.3	Scope	How many sub-systems within NPIRS carry this type (unstructured/structured) information?	NPIRS is comprised of a data warehouse and many functional data marts.
48	8	C.4.1	Maintain & Support NPIRS env	What is the expected uptime requirement (percentage) for the NPIRS system going forward?	NPIRS SLA is 24/5.
49	8	C.4.1	Maintain & Support NPIRS env	What is the current certified capability compliance and auditability level of the NPIRS system and if there are, what provisional authorities to operate (POAM) and how many are there at this time?	To be discussed/review upon contract award.
50	8	C.4.1	Maintain & Support NPIRS env	Is there a dedicated security compliance team (with specific roles) for the NPIRS system?	Yes.
51	8	C.4.1	Maintain & Support NPIRS env	Does the current system have a specific “out-of-band” security structure formalized and in place in production?	To be discussed/review upon contract award.
52	8	C.4.1	Maintain & Support NPIRS env	Is there a formally defined and approved/adopted security manual in place today for the NPIRS system?	Yes.
53	8	C.4.1	Maintain & Support NPIRS env	Is there a formally defined and approved/adopted operations manual (run book) in place today for the NPIRS System?	There is not an official runbook but various documents that support the environment.
54	8	C.4.1	Maintain & Support NPIRS env	What are the formally defined and approved/adopted disaster recovery manual and procedures in place today for the NPIRS system?	To be discussed/review upon contract award.
55	8	C.4.1	Maintain & Support NPIRS env	Are there end-user service levels documented and if so, what reporting cadence to compliance is there currently?	SLA's exist and to be discussed/reviewed upon contract award.
56	8	C.4.1	Maintain & Support NPIRS env	What is the overall capability maturity model (CMMI) level formally confirmed as of today (1-5)?	Answered above.
57	8	C.4.1	Maintain & Support NPIRS env	What is their current overall SDLC (agile for instance) deployed overall? If there are multiple ones then which ones are formally recognized, employed and approved today?	NPIRS adopts the HHS SDLC framework - we leverage agile or a hybrid.
58	8	C.4.1	Maintain & Support NPIRS env	Are there formally documented process flows from the business users for the NPIRS system (RUP, ABC, BPMN).	Some but immature.
59	8	C.4.1	Maintain & Support NPIRS env	If so what percentage of the system is documented today?	75%
60	8	C.4.1	Maintain & Support NPIRS env	What numbers of users and percentage of expected effort for current NPIRS systems SME’s are expected and/or able to participate in the project effort?	Various SME's support the NPIRS system reporting requirements.
61	10	C.4.3	Security Requirements	When was the last system-wide Certification and Accreditation (C&A) audit performed for the NPIRS system?	To be discussed/review upon contract award.
62	10	C.4.3	Security Requirements	What was the audit outcome?	To be discussed/review upon contract award.
63	11	C.4.4	National Data Warehouse	What is(are) the current ETL/ELT tool(s) for data loading and data management used for the NPIRS system?	SSIS and custom developed code support ETL/ELT.
64	11	C.4.4	National Data Warehouse	How many "business-owners" Persons of Contact (POC) are identified in the NPIRS system currently?	To be discussed/review upon contract award.
65	11	C.4.4	National Data Warehouse	What is the current formally defined and approved "transmission guide" for inbound data ingestion and cleansing with refresh schedule today (quarterly, yearly)?	To be discussed/review upon contract award.
66	8	C.4.1	Maintain & Support NPIRS env	What method is currently employed for the prioritization of technical and functional changes in the overall NPIR system’s development?	To be discussed/review upon contract award.
67	8	C.4.1	Maintain & Support NPIRS env	How many dedicated resources for development of the NPIRS system are there in place today?	The current team has approximately 14-15 resources.
68	8	C.4.1	Maintain & Support NPIRS env	How many dedicated resources for production support of the NPIRS system are there today?	The current team has approximately 14-15 resources.
69	2	B.3	Contract & Price	What is the purpose of base period of three months instead of 12?	To be discussed/review upon contract award.
70	N/A	N/A	N/A	The NAICS code has changed with the two last procurements. Please explain the rational? The current one is 541513.	The requirements of this work has changed over time.
71	32	H.8	Other Personnel Replacements	The Government list 4 LCATS’s. What is the current size of the team performing this work?	The current team has approximately 14-15 resources.
72	56	L.4	Past Performance (Volume II)	Based on your definition of past performance could any project that we have in our portfolio be considered that can attest to the quality of our work as well as how we performed on that contract?	Basically, as long as it is performance existing contracts and/or performance on prior contracts.
73	N/A	N/A	N/A	Who is the current incumbent?	Answered above in Line Item 3.

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