SOW_DENVER_2012-13_revised_Final.docx

Statement of Work

1.0 Title of Requirement

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS/Agency) requires the services of a certified sign language interpreter to provide sign language interpretation/oral transliteration services at the Agency’s Denver Regional Office location or at a work related function within the Denver area. In addition, there may be times when the vendor will be asked to provide interpreting services at locations outside of the Denver, Colorado region. These unique requests will be coordinated through the CMS interpreter services coordinators. Travel to and from the interpreters home to the job site is not covered. If the assignment involves off site travel, the vendor can charge for mileage (based on the current government rate). The only time travel costs (aside from mileage) will be reimbursed is when the government client is on official government travel and an interpreter has been assigned to accompany them by the COR and a travel agreement has been made between the COR and the vendor.

The interpreter shall provide services during various meetings, trainings, one-on-one discussions, large group events, and other activities. Every effort will be made to request services with no less than 24 hours prior to the job. CMS is expecting that every effort will be made by the contracting agency to obtain a sign language interpreter/oral transliterater to fulfill the reasonable accommodation request.

When an interpreter is contracted, he/she is requested to work based on a time frame specified by the COR. Should the original event get cancelled, and another event takes its place, the interpreter shall be available to provide interpreting services based on the time specified by the COR. The interpreter shall not have the opportunity to refuse a specific event because they were scheduled to interpret for another meeting.

2.0 Requiring Organization

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Office of Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights (OEOCR)

3.0 Background

Federal government agencies, in conjunction with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), have the responsibility to prohibit discrimination within the Civil Service on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, and reprisal for opposition to discrimination or participation in the complaint process. OEOCR processes requests for reasonable accommodations made by CMS employees and applicants for employment and is responsible for facilitating the day-to-day resolution of reasonable accommodation-related issues. The Agency is liable for reasonable accommodations that are not resolved. In order to protect the Agency and limit its liability, CMS is establishing a contract vehicle to ensure the availability of interpreter services for CMS activities.

4.0 Scope

CMS’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights requires the availability of contract sign language interpreting services for a period of one year. The contractor may be onsite for a period of two hours or more per day, to provide services to individuals or groups of individuals in a variety of settings (training sessions, individual meetings, group meetings, etc.).

The contractor will only invoice for the services actually provided. Services will be requested with at least 24 hours notice. If the services are canceled by CMS with less than 48 hours before the scheduled service and the interpreter can be used by their contractor elsewhere, CMS will not be billed for the cancellation. If there is a situation where CMS experiences more than 2 interpreter no-shows over the course of the contract, CMS will be credited for up to 4-hours on the 3rd event. If there are subsequent no-shows, CMS will be credited for up to 4 hours on every other additional no show, When the contractor is not engaged in providing interpreter services, she/he will conduct administrative services. As such, the interpreter will be assigned projects by the COR who is a representative of the OEOCR Reasonable Accommodations Program. The projects may include tasks such as 1) tracking the number of actual interpreting hours. 2) He/she may be asked to create documents that would assist other interpreters when they are assigned there including a list of commonly used phrases or acronyms. 3) Researching information on interpreting issues in the federal government. 4) Researching specific issues related to the reasonable accommodations program.

Overall scheduling of interpreting assignments shall be managed by the CMS Interpreter Services’ lead scheduler at Central Office (Baltimore, Maryland). Events scheduled in advance will be indicated on the Denver Interpreting Services Calendar. When the interpreter is serving in an on-call status, he/she shall be available to interpret for last minute requests made by the CMS Denver Regional Office employees.

5.0 Required Knowledge and Skills

A Qualified Sign Language Interpreter is one who is certified by a recognized certifying organization such as the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) or the National Association of the Deaf (NAD). The interpreter must be capable of providing sign language interpretation and oral transliteration services to an individual who is deaf or hard of hearing in a variety of settings (meetings, training classes, one-on-one). Fluency in sign communication includes but is not limited to American Sign Language (ASL), Pidgin Sign English (PSE), and manually coded English or oral transliteration.

The interpreter’s skill level must be such that the deaf/hard of hearing individual can fully participate in any discussion, meeting or event in the workplace; and conversely, that any hearing person can fully understand the Sign-to-English spoken communication the deaf person expresses. This communication must be conveyed effectively, accurately, and impartially, through the use of any necessary specialized vocabulary. The interpreter may also conduct sight-interpretations of English documents into sign language communication.

When applicable, the individual shall abide by all state and local laws in regards to certification and licensure of interpreters. The interpreter must be able to maintain appropriate confidentiality and adhere to establish standards of conduct as stated by the National Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) Code of Ethics. To view RID’s Code of Ethics visit http://www.rid.org/coe.html.

6.0 Agency and Agency Contact Person

The Agency will issue a task order, which will outline the specific timeframes necessary to meet the needs of the Agency.

The Contractor will be provided an Agency Contact Person (ACP) at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Office of Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights (OEOCR). The ACP will provide the relevant information needed to complete the service, including date, time, location, Deaf consumer(s) name(s), and nature of the assignment. (Actual assignments for which sign language services will be provided are subject to change based on the needs of the agency.)

Disagreements between the Agency and the Contractor should be resolved by discussion between the Agency and the Contractor. If a change is required, the Agency shall amend the assignment. If disagreements cannot be resolved, the Agency reserves the right to terminate the assignment.