JA AudioCare Updated Redact_Redacted.pdf

AudioCARE Systems Control Number VA-25-00031859

LIMITED-SOURCES JUSTIFICATION

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

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

2. Description of Action: The proposed sole source action is for a firm fixed price (FFP) task order for the Payton Merger Sub II, LLC. Doing business as AudioCARE for 38 brand name AudioCARE software licenses, maintenance, and technical support. This effort is being conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program;

the proposed effort will be awarded under the General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) 47QTCA22D00CM to Payton Merger Sub II LLC, 1025 Chapala St., Santa Barbara, CA 93101-3245.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA has the requirement for the following functionalities via telephone calls: prescription refills, ad-hoc communications, patient surveys, wellness health messages, and recalls pertaining to medications and equipment. VA requires a system that supports these secure medication communications and requires a system that interfaces with VA’s VistA system and medical record so communications can be automated in a manner directly related to VA patient records. These functionalities provide a secure, end user interface for beneficiaries and staff.

The AudioCARE Pharmacy Suite products consists of AudioPREFILL, TM-PREFILL, AudioCOMMUNICATOR, TM-COMMUNICATOR, ACS-TM-BASE, and ACS-U-4. The system constantly checks VistA for prescriptions being released and sends text messages to the patients based on their cell phone number on record in VistA.

The system integrates with the host system (VistA) Pharmacy package to obtain the necessary data about the Prescriptions (Rxs) that need to be to be filled or renewed, and the associated patients to be contacted with the Rx reminders. Site parameters are customizable to limit notifications for only refills, only renewals or for both, as well as the number of days of medication remaining for the trigger of the reminders. In addition, pharmacies can select the drugs to be included based on their classification to enable the feature for only veterans on maintenance medication. The period of performance shall be 12 months from the date of award, with three 12-month option periods. The total estimated price of the proposed action is (inclusive of options).

4. Statutory Authority: This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple- Award Schedule Program. The specific authority providing for a limited source award is Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B), “Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized.”

AudioCARE Systems Control Number VA-25-00031859

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on market research as described in Section 8 of this justification, AudioCARE is the only solution that can fulfill the Government’s requirements. Specifically, the AudioCARE system is the only system that is compatible with VA’s existing infrastructure. Only the AudioCARE software can interface with VA’s VistA system, the database which holds VA patient information in multiple applications. VistA is programed using the MUMPS programming language and interfaces to VistA and this programming language is not available in the marketplace. , AudioCARE developed a single interface connection to VistA that can pull information for all the different AudioCARE modules. Using proprietary database communication protocols, AudioCARE reads and manipulates data points within VistA that were structured specifically for the AudioCARE product.

Specifically, AudioCARE uses a proprietary database protocol called Enterprise Cache Protocol that directly accesses VistA data, whereas other VistA connected products use Health Level 7 messaging. This type of direct access to VistA, which is a VA functional requirement, requires a very tight integration of the codebase between AudioCARE and VistA. Any system must interface and be integrated with Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA). Currently, this interface is accomplished using AudioCARE language. Specifically, the VistA applications that interface with the AudioCare systems are Pharmacy, Scheduling, and Clinical Patient Record System (CPRS). If any other brand name software was utilized in the infrastructure, the codebase would require a complete rewrite to function with any other brands. A rewrite of the codebase is an extremely extensive effort, and Government estimates for another vendor to come in and perform it would take approximately 18 months and $750,000 based off previous VistA code writing efforts. This tight integration between VistA and AudioCARE provides an end-to-end solution for automating communications with Veterans regarding appointment scheduling and prescription refills. In addition, only AudioCARE can provide the software maintenance, help desk support, and software module support because access to AudioCARE’s proprietary code is required to ensure all the services provided are properly configured. No other vendor would have access to AudioCARE’s proprietary code and therefore could not provide maintenance or bug fixes in the AudioCARE code. Training and support can only be provided by AudioCARE since the materials used are proprietary and are not provided by any other sources. Only AudioCARE has the access required to support the AudioCARE systems.

AudioCARE system is the only solution that is compatible with the existing VA Infrastructure. An inability to procure the required AudioCARE system would directly and adversely impact Veteran care as no other messaging system has access to the actual Veteran prescription data, and therefore, there would be no effective messaging application to inform Veterans of their Rx status.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in Section 8 of this document. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government’s requirements. There is no competition anticipated for this acquisition. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 8.405-6(a)(2) the award notice for this action will be synopsized on the SAM.gov website and this justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award.

AudioCARE Systems Control Number VA-25-00031859

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The Government 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: VA experts reviewed the websites of Artera and Relatient, though both of these companies provide similar services, it was determined that neither of these options have the required interface with VA medical records, therefore only AudioCARE can meet VA’s minimum requirements.

For the reasons cited in Section 5 above, it is not feasible for any company other than AudioCARE to provide the required supplies and services. Any additional responses received will be evaluated by the Contracting Officer prior to award.

Furthermore, AudioCARE confirmed that all of AudioCARE’s systems and applications are proprietary, and several have been issued patents. Therefore no other company can provide these products or support for these products. Additionally, since AudioCARE retains ownership of each system and software license, AudioCARE is responsible for licensing and supporting this equipment. No other party can provide license renewal or maintenance services on any of the AudioCARE equipment, due to the proprietary nature of these products. As a result of all the market research results, AudioCARE was determined to be the only authorized source that can provide the VA requirements.

9. Other Facts: None.