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Customer Name Proposal Title RFP Number
Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC)
INDEFINITE DELIVERY INDEFINITE QUANTITY CONTRACT
15-0001 Solicitation 5.28.15
RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS
| Question # |
| Bidder Question |
| MACPAC Response |
| 1. |
| In the event an Offeror’s proposal contains proprietary and confidential information, may the Offeror mark those pages that it considers not to be subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act? |
| MACPAC is a legislative branch agency and is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. |
| 2. |
| Will the IDIQ contract and task orders awarded by MACPAC be governed by the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR)? |
| MACPAC is not governed by Federal Acquisition Regulations, although is follows governance rules based on the FAR . |
| 3. |
| What vendors were chosen by MACPAC under the previous IDIQ and which vendors were awarded tasks under the IDIQ? |
| The list of current vendors is posted under the presolicitation notice in FedBizOpps. Most, but not all, current vendors were awarded tasks. The list of tasks by vendor is not available to the public. However, Offerors may search the MACPAC website at www.MACPAC.gov for contractor reports to obtain a flavor for the types of analyses conducted by conrtractors. |
| 4. |
| Will the Offerors have an opportunity to negotiate the terms of MACPAC’s Contract Standard Terms and Conditions? |
Will MACPAC provide all of the potentially applicable Contract Standard Terms and Conditions in order for Offerors to add exceptions in the proposal?
MACPAC does not negotiate standard terms and conditions for its contracts.
Exceptions to the contract will not be added. Vendors who are offered IDIQ contracts may examine the standard terms and conditions before signing the contract and may choose not to participate in the IDIQ.
| 5. |
| Is there a material reason affecting our response why the five hypothetical project areas are broken up under points ii & iii in Section 3.5? |
Please confirm that the hypothetical project need only include one of these areas?
There is an unnecessary break between sections ii and iii; they are part of the same bullet.
The hypothetical project only needs to represent one of the five areas.
| 6. |
| Will these work product appendices be treated as confidential and proprietary trade secrets, and not subject to public disclosure, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)? |
| MACPAC is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. No part of any proposal submitted under the IDIQ solicitation will be made public. |
| 7. |
| Please confirm that the Work Samples requested are to be included in the Appendix section of the Technical Proposal and do not count toward the page limits for the Organizational Qualifications and Past Performance section. |
| As stated, these work samples are to be included in the Appendix and do not count toward the Organizational Qualifications and Past Performance Section page limit. However, some description of past performance should be included in the Organizational Qualifications and Past Performance Section subject to the page limit. |
| 8. |
| Can an Offeror bid a legal entity that does not have an indirect rate and profit rate structure? |
Can an Offeror bid a legal entity that is not Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) compliant?
As stated in the RFQ, subcontractors’ qualifications will not be evaluated as part of the proposal. Organizations do not have to have an indirect and profit rate structure; however, they must fill out the Fully Burdened Labor Rate Schedule and Other Direct Costs for Base and Option Periods described in section 1.3.
| 9. |
| Quality control is described in section 2.7.7 of the RFP. Is the reference in Attachment B.3.e incorrect? Section 2.8.4 does not exist in my copy of the RFP. Please confirm. |
| Yes, this is an error. The quality control section is 2.7.7. |
| 10. |
| Please confirm that the Quality Control Plan requested can be included in the Appendix section of the Technical Proposal and does not count toward the page limits for the Management Plan section. |
| No, a quality control plan must be included in the Management Plan Section. The Offeror may include a more detailed quality control plan in an Appendix to the Technical proposal if they choose to do so; however Appendixes will not be read carefully. |
| 11. |
| Given that only the qualifications of the prime bidding organization and its staff will be considered for purposes of this IDIQ, would MACPAC prefer that bidders not include subcontractors in proposals for this IDIQ award? What about for the hypothetical project portion of the proposal? |
| Qualifications of subcontractors will not be considered for IDIQ award; therefore MACPAC would prefer that the bidders not include them in their proposals. However, subcontractors may be included in the hypothetical project portion of the proposal and their qualifications will be considered. |
| 12. |
| Should the Quality Control Plan (QCP) be included as an appendix? Is there a page limit? |
| See response to Question 10. |
| 13. |
| Should the anticipated availability listed for the principals in Section 3 be identical to the expected time commitment for the principals in Section 4? |
| No. Section 3 should include staff available for all types of projects. Section 4 includes a staff loading chart for the hypothetical project. |
| 14. |
| In general, what Medicaid and CHIP data would be made available by MACPAC to support requested analyses (e.g., MSIS)? |
| MACPAC will make all Medicaid administrative data, including MSIS and MAX data, available to contractors. For datasets for which MACPAC does not have a data use agreement in place, MACPAC will work with the contractor to obtain the data. Arrangements will vary by dataset. |
| 15. |
| If a bidder is not intending to demonstrate experience in the area of “modeling, actuarial analysis and payment simulations”, does an actuary still need to be included in the proposed list of staff? |
| No. No particular expertise is required. Staff will be evaluated based on relevant expertise to conduct Medicaid policy analysis as demonstrated in your proposal. |
| 16. |
| Does MACPAC intend to fund any of the hypothetical projects that are proposed in response to the RFP or are the hypothetical projects only used to evaluate the skills of bidders? |
| MACPAC is not committed to funding any hypothetical proposal. However, if the Offeror is selected to be an IDIQ participant MACPAC may negotiate with the contractor to fund their hypothetical proposal if it is particularly compelling. |
| 17. |
| Will the number of areas we demonstrate expertise and experience in in this proposal determine the types of RFPs we can bid on under this IDIQ? In other words, if winning the IDIQ, will we be restricted to bid on task orders only in the areas we focus on in this proposal? |
| No. Tasks will be assigned for IDIQ participants based on their overall proposal, not on the area of expertise and experience demonstrated by their hypothetical proposal. |
| 18. |
| What are the Facilities and Administrative (F&A), or indirect, costs allowed for university firms? |
| There is no specific level of F&A or indirect costs allowed. However, labor rates that are determined to be too high overall will be considered when determining IDIQ award, if rates are considered to be prohibitively high. |
| 19. |
| Does MACPAC want three years of financial statements from state universities? |
| Yes, as written on page 22. |
| 20. |
| Should the Quality Control Plan be included in the technical proposal as an appendix, the business proposal as an appendix, or as a separate stand-alone document? |
| See responses to questions 9 and 10. |
| 21. |
| The RFP requests specific staff categories. Does MACPAC request a Project Director and/or Project Manager for the ongoing IDIQ work, or will these positions be proposed under each task order? |
| Offerors need to discuss their overall IDIQ management plan as well as the management for their hypothetical task. |
| 22. |
| What years of MSIS or MAX will be made available to contractors by MACPAC? |
| MACPAC will work with CMS to obtain all MAX and MSIS files needed for analyses that can be provided through or by CMS. |
| 23. |
| Page 9 of the solicitation states that “for purposes of qualifying for the IDIQ award, only qualifications of the prime bidding organization and its staff will be considered.” Is this also true for MACPAC’s evaluation of the hypothetical project proposal? |
| Subcontractors may be proposed for the hypothetical task and their qualifications will be considered for that task. |
| 24. |
| Section 2.7.7. Quality Control asks that a Quality Control Plan (QCP) be submitted with the proposal. The instructions in Attachment A, however, do not include the QCP as a requirement. Please confirm whether a QCP needs to be submitted with the proposal. If so, where in our submission should that be included and does it count toward the page limit? |
| See responses to questions 9 and 10. |
| 25. |
| Should the “fully-loaded hourly rates for all personnel” include the cost of paid vacation, sick and personal time? |
| The offeror should list loaded rates, which include all indirect costs. |
| 26. |
| This section references “separate terms and conditions for university-based firms and others.” May we obtain a copy of these terms and conditions? |
| Standard terms and conditions used in the current IDIQ contracts will be posted on FedBizOpps. |
| 27. |
| This section states, “The offeror shall state whether or not acceptance of a contract for this project shall impact performance of other Government contracts.” |
Can you clarify whether this refers to state or federal government contracts? (Or both?)
The Offeror should state any work that would interfere with their potential MACPAC work.
| 28. |
| Technical Proposal Format, 6. Organizational Qualifications and Past Performance: How many references are required? |
| The Offeror should provide as many references as they believe will demonstrate their competence to conduct the work listed in the RFQ. |
| 29. |
| Please clarify if it is one salary price for all years or if there is an escalation allowed each year? (The RFP says to include the escalation, but was unclear if it applied to each optional year). |
Offerors should include increases for each option year, as applicable.
| 30. |
| Should we be submitting 2 charts/grids for the pricing tables? One with just salary prices for the IDIQ and one which also includes travel/materials for they hypothetical? |
| Offerors should fill out rates in Section 1.3, and a total budget, including all relevant costs, for their hypothetical proposal. |
| 31. |
| If there are additional positions which may be used based on tasks, but not included in the hypothetical, should the position rates be included, just without associated hours? |
| The Offeror should fill out all of the rates in Section 1.3, as these all reflect potential staff for IDIQ projects. For the hypothetical proposal we request a staffing chart for staff who would work on the hypothetical proposal. |
| 32. |
| In what section of the proposal should the Quality Control Plan specified on page 14 be incorporated? Should it part of the Management Plan in the Technical Proposal? |
| See responses to Questions 9 and 10. |
| 33. |
| The Price proposal section 4.c. states that no fee or profit will be paid on material/travel/per diem costs. Please confirm that contractors may charge fees and profit on subcontractors and other ODCs. |
| Contractors may charge fees and profit on subcontractors and other ODCs. |
| 34. |
| Are there any limits on spacing for the business proposal? |
| No, but parsimony would be appreciated. |
| 35. |
| In 1.1.2 it states : “all offerors shall provide cost and pricing data to demonstrate how the rates were determined.” Our rates were determined by an analysis of market rates when our firm was founded and are reviewed an updated periodically. Is this type of approach acceptable? |
| Yes, this approach is acceptable. Please describe in your proposal. |
| 36. |
| Our fully burdened labor rates do to not break out indirect costs or profit is this approach acceptable? |
| Yes, this approach is acceptable. Please describe in your proposal. |
| 37. |
| Do bidders have to have a government audited accounting system? |
| No. |
| 38. |
| Can the separate technical and business proposal be included as separate documents in the same email. |
| Yes. |
| 39. |
| Must the hypothetical example cover all of the areas of expertise and experience (as described in section 2.5) for which the contractor is applying, or can the hypothetical example cover one but not all of the many areas in which the contractor is applying? |
| As described in the SOW, the hypothetical proposal only needs to cover one area. |
| 40. |
| Item 1.3.1 on page 2 includes a listing of “sample labor categories as general guidance” and includes desired education and/or experience requirements for each category. Our human resources structure does not use these labor categories. Please confirm that we may use without penalty our own labor categories in lieu of these as long as the individuals in each category meet the desired education and/or experience requirements and we use a single fully burdened labor rate applicable to every individual in the category. |
| Yes, may use without penalty our own labor categories in lieu of these as long as the individuals in each category meet the desired education and/or experience requirements and we use a single fully burdened labor rate applicable to every individual in the category. |
| 41. |
| Item d.5 on page 22 in the 4.0 Business Proposal Format and Instructions section states: “Failure to propose labor rates for all labor categories will render an offeror’s proposal incomplete and the entire proposal will be subject to rejection.” Please confirm that if we identify every labor category used within our firm that includes staff who might be included in projects awarded pursuant to this IDIQ and provide labor rates for each category our proposal would fulfill this requirement. |
| Yes, identify rates in every labor category for which employees might be bid on IDIQ tasks. |
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