JA CHAMPVA 8.1.24_Redacted.pdf

CONTROL NUMBER VA-24-00020336

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 a one-year hybrid type firm-fixed price (FFP) type contract for the deployment, management, and iteration of the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA), Camp Lejeune Family Member Program, and Foreign Medical Program (FMP) forms on VA.gov. The proposed contractor is Agile Six Applications, Inc. 12830 Vineyard Crest Pl, Lakeside, CA 92040.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: The proposed action will provide for a contractor team that will focus on digitizing the above-named forms and building them on VA.gov. Forms will be made to use VA.gov’s existing design system, content style guide, and forms system. The goal is to allow a user to complete the form and submit it online. Initially, the forms will be submitted to a back-end file system for processing where there will be an automated file pickup and transfer to PEGA workflow. Some of these forms will also integrate with the Veteran Enrollment System (VES) via a webservice for a solution that will be built towards the end of 2024. The scope of work includes working with the VES team on this integration including any custom services that need to be built for this. This team will coordinate with the VA Notify team to send notifications of successful or failed form submission for each form type. This proposed FFP contract is for a 12-month base period, with one (1) optional task for transition support. The total estimated value of the proposed action is .

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition for this acquisition is 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(5), “Authorized or Required by Statute”, as implemented by FAR 6.302-5. For this action, 38 U.S.C. 8127(c), known as the Veterans First Contracting Program provides the authority to directly contract with a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) or a Veteran- Owned Small Business (VOSB).

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: The proposed source for this acquisition is Agile Six, Inc. Agile Six is a certified SDVOSB and is technically qualified to support the suite of forms as required by the Performance Work Statement (PWS). Agile Six won a competitive task order in September 2023 to perform this work and has performed successfully to date. The existing task order expires on September 24, 2024, however, the need for continued support and iteration on the forms is an ongoing need beyond this task order. Specifically, VA has been working to digitize five CHAMPVA and VFP forms, with two (2) of these

Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA), Camp Lejeune Family Member Program, and Foreign Medical Program

(FMP)

forms being completed and available for Veteran use within the next several months and right as the current contract is ending. A continuation of this current effort is required to ensure these forms are released successfully, that any issues discovered are fixed immediately, to complete digitizing the remaining forms, and to perform on-going production support and maintenance of the digitized forms. Digitizing CHAMPVA forms will allow surviving spouses and dependents of veterans who are disabled to apply for and receive health care. Digitizing FMP forms will allow veterans with service-connected disabilities living overseas to get care where they live and be reimbursed by VA. If access to digitized forms is hindered by a break in the current contractor support the result would be that Veterans and their caregivers would have to continue to mail/fax forms, causing significant delays in receiving these well-deserved benefits.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted in May of 2024, as discussed in Section 8. Upon determination that a sole source award to Oddball was in the best interest of the Government, the Contracting Officer confirmed that Agile Six meets all of the requirements detailed in VAAR 819.7008. Consistent with the guidelines of the Veterans First Contracting Program, the proposed action described herein will be synopsized and this justification will be posted on the Contracting Opportunities Page in accordance with FAR Part 5.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The current task order was competed and awarded on the Customer Experience, DevOps, Agile Releases (CEDAR) Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract. The contract ceiling of CEDAR is accounted for, and therefore the continued forms work cannot be obtained via the CEDAR IDIQ. A new IDIQ, the Secure, Performant, Reliable, and User-Centered Experiences (SPRUCE) contract is planned to replace CEDAR, however it is currently in the evaluation phase and not expected to be awarded in time for this work to be competed on it. Continued digitizing of forms and building them on VA.gov is needed to bridge the gap between the CEDAR and SPRUCE contracts. It is expected that future needs for this work will be competed on the new IDIQ contract in fiscal year 2025. CEDAR (and SPRUCE, once awarded), are the preferred vehicles to acquire the type of software development services under this action as they are 100% set asides for SDVOSBs and the awardees have proven software development capability.

8. Market Research: Market research was conducted in May 2024 and the Contracting Officer considered other contractors in the marketplace. Given that the CEDAR contract is nearing its ceiling and is no longer a viable vehicle for this work, and the follow-on IDIQ contract, SPRUCE, is not yet awarded, it is not in the Government’s best interest to compete for a short-term bridge effort as it may result in a transition to a different contractor, and then a transition to a third contractor once SPRUCE is awarded. The potential for three different contractors to have to transition this work in roughly 12 months would likely result in disruptions to the services being performed. Such a disruption would severely impact VA’s ability to deliver and support the digitized suite of forms on VA.gov which allow Veterans to apply for important health benefits, such as surviving family members applying for VA healthcare and Veterans applying for healthcare coverage outside the United States. Therefore, it is in VA’s best interest to award this action to the contractor currently performing the work, Agile Six, with the planned follow-on action to be competed under SPRUCE.

The Veteran Small Business Certification (VetCert) database was accessed on June 27, 2024. This search concluded that Agile Six is registered and certified and qualifies as a SDVOSB in accordance with the federal small business size standard for the applicable North American Industry Classification System Code (NAICS) 541519. It was verified on June 27, 2024 that Agile Six is registered in the SAM.gov database and is eligible to receive a government contract.

Additionally, the Contracting Officer reviewed all 28 of Agile Six’s performance ratings in the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS).

Agile Six had no rating lower than “satisfactory” for all rating categories, with 18 of 28 being rated “exceptional” under the Quality category, demonstrating it is a responsible contractor with respect to performance.

9. Other Facts: The Procuring Contracting Officer has determined that this proposed action meets all the requirements of 38 U.S.C. 8127(c) and VAAR 819.7008. This acquisition is below the $5,000,000.00 threshold, Agile Six is a responsible SDVOSB for performance of the services described herein, the proposed contract can be awarded at a fair and reasonable price, and award to Agile Six is in the best interest of the Government.

10. Technical/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.

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 an analysis of historical prices paid by the Government for the same services. The contracting officer will use existing CEDAR labor rates, which have previously been determined to be fair and reasonable, to verify Agile Six’s proposed price is fair and reasonable per FAR 15.404-1(b)(2)(ii).

12. Contracting Officer Certification/Approval

I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.