Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity 29SEP26_Redacted.pdf

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JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

10 U.S.C. § 3205

Pursuant to the requirements of the Competition in Contracting Act (CICA) as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 16.507-6(d)(2) (FAR Class Deviation 26-04 Rev. 11), this justification for an exception to fair opportunity is supported as follows:

1. Agency and Contracting Activity.

Department of Homeland Security, United States Coast Guard (USCG), Office of Contracting & Procurement (C&P) Air Acquisitions (CG-AIR-C12)

2. Nature and/or Description of the Action being Approved.

(a) Nature of the action: The Coast Guard plans to award a non-competitive sole source contract for project management and implementation support for essential healthcare IT services.

(b) Name and address of the contractor:

Ellumen, Inc.

8403 Colesville Rd, STE 340 Silver Spring, MD 20910

(c) Contract Type: Firm Fixed-Price Task Order.

(d) Estimated total value (including options): $1,867,913

Period Period of Performance (POP) Total

Base Year

09/30/2026 - 09/29/2027

$1,867,913

(e) Type of funding: Operations and Support (O&S) Funds.

(f) Year of funding: Fiscal Year 2026.

(g) Solicitation number: 70Z02326R93330003

1 In this document, citations to RFO Parts 6, 10, 15, 16, and 25 are citations specifically to FAR Class Deviation 25- 11 for FAR Part 6, FAR Class Deviation 25-06 for FAR Part 10, FAR Class Deviation 26-08 Rev. 1 for FAR Part 15, FAR Class Deviation 26-04 Rev. 1 for FAR Part 16, and FAR Class Deviation 25-09 Rev.1 for FAR Part 25, which were issued as part of the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul (RFO), implemented in response to Executive Order 14275, Restoring Common Sense to Federal Procurement, signed April 15, 2025.

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(h) Background information about the requirement: This requirement was previously competitively procured and awarded on 30 September 2022, as firm-fixed price Task Order # 70Z02322F93330002, in the amount of $2,863,770.18 for the Base year. The Task Order was competed under the NITAAC CIO-SP3 Small Business GWAC vehicle HHSN316201200132W and established for a One (1) 12-month Base Period and Three (3) 12-month Option Periods. The following table provides an overview of Task Order 70Z02322F93330002 detailing the Periods of Performance and the Total Obligated Amounts per period:

Period Period of Performance

(POP)

Total Obligated Amounts Inclusive of Modifications

Base Period 09/30/2022 to 09/29/2023 $2,863,770.18 Option Period 1 09/30/2023 to 09/29/2024 $2,854,111.75 Option Period 2 09/30/2024 to 09/29/2025 $2,001,601.39 Option Period 3 09/30/2025 to 09/29/2026 $1,783,720.04

3. Description of Supplies/Services.

The USCG requires continued professional program management, acquisition, and deployment support services for the ongoing initiative to acquire and deploy an EHR solution aboard USCG afloat assets.

The contractor will continue to provide critical acquisition, implementation, and system integration support for the Joint Operational Medicine Information System (JOMIS) suite of software solutions. The JOMIS suite provides the USCG with an integrated inpatient/outpatient “Best of Suite” (BoS) solution to meet Department of War (DoW) -approved standards and interface with the existing USCG/DoW health record solution ecosystem. This ecosystem supports the associated Patient Care Location (PCL) Build locations utilized by all USCG ashore and afloat clinics, sickbays, and cutters/icebreakers.

This support is essential to:

Protect Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and Personal Health Information (PHI).

Enhance core and priority USCG healthcare delivery.

Improve system interoperability with the DoW Military Health System (MHS GENESIS) and the Veterans Administration (VA).

4. Exception to Fair Opportunity.

The exception to fair opportunity is RFO 16.507-6(b)(3) – The new work is a logical follow-on to an original order, and the order was placed in accordance with the fair opportunity process and was not issued under sole-source or limited-sources procedures.

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5. Identification of Exception to the Buy American Statute.

This section is not applicable (N/A) as this procurement is for professional IT and program management services and does not involve the acquisition of end-use supplies or construction materials.

6. Supporting Rationale of the Exception.

(a) Rationale for the Authority Cited: The need for the logical follow on is the result of USCG’s inability to transition to the new software solution implementation that was planned to be in place by the end of fiscal year (FY) 2026. This issue is due to unexpected technical and delivery delays incurred by the Defense Health Agency (DHA)/DoW, owner of the new software. These technical and delivery delays are expected to be resolved within the next twelve months.

This logical follow on means that USCG would be able to leverage the incumbent Ellumen, Inc.’s highly specialized deep technical knowledge of the JOMIS software suite, the complex USCG afloat/ashore network architecture, as well as their unique insight into the integration requirements of the Patient Care Location (PCL) Build locations. Without the external support provided by Ellumen the USCG does not have the organic experience or technical personnel to manage and integrate this complex military health ecosystem.

Awarding to a new vendor that lacks this knowledge would require significantly higher administrative efforts from the USCG team and would potentially come at a much higher award price.

Extending the current vendor's services for an additional 12-month period is the only viable method to align support with the revised deployment schedule of the new DHA software, making it a necessary and proportional extension to achieve the original project goals. Finally, the estimated value of this follow-on action is commensurate with the original contract's pricing structure for a similar 12-month period, ensuring continuity at a fair and reasonable price.

By the end of the logical follow-on contract’s period of performance, the USCG plans to have competitively procured a large contract covering all healthcare applications within the Health and Safety portfolio, including eHRa.

(b) Details of Events: The DHA/ DoW, as the external provider of the primary software solution selected by the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), experienced unexpected technical and delivery delays while balancing the USCG implementation requirements with competing, mission-critical requirements from other military services. These competing priorities affected DHA/DoW’s ability to deliver the software capability according to the original USCG deployment schedule. As a result, DHA/DoW shifted delivery of the software capability by approximately one year. This shift correspondingly delayed the USCG’s deployment, integration, testing, and transition activities required to reach a complete operational launch.

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Segregating any portion of the work to allow for competition is not in the best interest of the USCG, the program management and integration support cannot be split into smaller competed tasks without fracturing the core coordination of the EHR rollout, creating substantial delivery risks, and violating standard technical integration protocols.

(c) Summary of Alternatives: Transitioning this requirement to a new contractor at this juncture would require a lengthy transition and ramp-up period (estimated at three (3) to six (6) months). Such a transition would completely disrupt ongoing activities and cause unacceptable further delays to a high-priority military readiness and public safety healthcare program that has already been delayed a year by DHA.

(d) Impact: Competing a short-term, one-year requirement is economically disadvantageous to the Government. A competitive solicitation for a 12-month effort would incur substantial, unnecessary administrative and procurement overhead. Furthermore, the mandatory transition, knowledge transfer, and hand-over processes would result in duplicated expenses that could not be recovered through competitive pricing.

7. Determination by the Contracting Officer that the Anticipated Cost to the Government will be Fair and Reasonable.

The Contracting Officer has determined that the final price to the Government for this action will be fair and reasonable. This determination is based on the expectation that the forthcoming proposal from Ellumen, Inc. will align with previously established pricing structures.

The final price reasonableness will be formally established through a comprehensive analysis of the contractor's proposal, which will include:

(1) A direct comparison with the labor rates and overall pricing established under the original competitively awarded Task Order (70Z02322F93330002). As this new work is a direct continuation of scope, the historical pricing provides a valid baseline for assessing the reasonableness of the new proposal; and

(2) Verification against the parent contract vehicle. All proposed labor rates will be cross-referenced and verified to ensure they do not exceed the ceiling prices established in the NITAAC CIO-SP3 Small Business parent contract.

Upon receipt of the contractor’s proposal, the Contracting Officer will conduct an analysis to ensure the final negotiated price is fair and reasonable before making an award.

8. Description of Market Research.

Detailed market research was conducted from March 2026 to June 2026 by the requiring office, with review and approval from the CG-AIR-C12 contracting officer.

Mandatory Sources: A formal review of AbilityOne was completed on July 8, 2026. The required professional health IT and program management services are not available through AbilityOne.

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DHS Strategic Sourcing Vehicles (SSVs): SSVs were evaluated on July 8, 2026. General IT vehicles—including General Services Administration (GSA) Alliant 2, VETS 2, and 8(a) STARS III—were reviewed. While these vehicles host highly qualified IT firms, they are not specifically geared or optimized to support highly specialized military health IT systems and JOMIS/MHS GENESIS integrations.

CIO-SP3 Small Business: This vehicle was identified as the preferred source. Its specialized task areas (including Task Area 1: IT Services for Biomedical Research, Health Sciences, and Healthcare) align directly with the program's requirements. This vehicle is widely utilized across the military health IT community, including the DoW MHS GENESIS PMO.

Existing Coast Guard SSVs: CG Maverick was reviewed on April 2, 2026. Its scope is restricted to general IT infrastructure support and does not cover clinical health record management services.

GSA MAS: GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) is applicable under NAICS 541611, but it is geared toward general administrative program management rather than specialized military healthcare IT integration.

Databases Reviewed: Search queries were run in Procurement Co-Pilot, SAM.gov Contract Management, and SAM.gov Contract Opportunities to verify federal market conditions. No other sources with the specialized JOMIS integration experience on USCG afloat assets were identified that could perform this work immediately without substantial duplicated costs and critical schedule delays.

9. Other Facts Supporting the Use of Other Than Full and Open Competition.

The deployment of the EHR aboard USCG afloat assets (cutters and icebreakers) involves highly complex operational environments, physical shipboard space constraints, and stringent communications protocols. Due to these unique operational environments, any lapse or change in project management personnel would directly disrupt coordination with shipyard availabilities, cutter deployment schedules, and DoW/DHA joint integration offices.

A transition to an alternate vendor would require a complete re-baseline of the PMO, causing a direct loss of project momentum. This would result in significant duplicated transition costs to the Government.

A transition to a new contractor would result in significant duplicated costs estimated to be between $466,978 and $933,956. This estimate is derived from the following factors:

Contractor Transition & Knowledge Transfer (three (3) to six (6) months): A new vendor would require a minimum of three (3) to six (6) months to acquire the specialized knowledge held by the incumbent. This includes understanding the JOMIS software, USCG afloat network architecture, and existing project progress. This ramp-up period would overlap with the incumbent's efforts, resulting in duplicated labor costs for knowledge transfer and project re-baselining.

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Government Personnel Overhead: USCG personnel would need to dedicate significant time to pre-award contracting efforts and orienting the new contractor, leading to a loss of productivity on other critical tasks.

These duplicated costs, representing approximately 25-50% of the total contract value, would provide no benefit to the Government and would remain unrecoverable through a short-term competitive action.

10. Actions, if Any, the Agency May Take to Remove or Overcome Any Barriers to Competition Before Any Subsequent Acquisition for Supplies or Services Required.

The USCG will take definitive steps to ensure full and open competition for any subsequent requirements for these services. During the 12-month extension period of this logical follow-on, the Government will formalize and document all critical program management processes, technical integration requirements, and system architecture details currently managed by the incumbent contractor. This development of a comprehensive technical data package will mitigate specialized knowledge barriers, enabling a wider range of qualified vendors to compete effectively for the work in the future. Any subsequent acquisitions for these services if needed, will be competed at the appropriate level.