P03 - Sole Source Justification 36C24E-23-AP-0390 - Survey Data Research PR.pdf

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION UNDER SIMPLIFIED PROCEDURES FOR CERTAIN COMMERCIAL ITEMS IN

ACCORDANCE WITH FAR 13.5

Acquisition Plan Action ID: 36C24E-23-AP-0390

1. Contracting Activity:

Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Procurement Office-East R&D 1010 Delafield Road. Bldg. 32, Suite 1A111 Pittsburgh, PA 15212

Requesting Activity:

Department of Veterans Affairs VA Boston Healthcare System Research and Development Office (ORD) 150 South Huntington Avenue Boston, MA 02130-4817

2237 Number: 523-23-3-7176-0417

2. Nature and/or Description of the Action Being Processed: This procurement is for survey data for the impact of moral injury research services in accordance with FAR 13.5 Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Items and specifically FAR 13.501 Special Documentation Requirements, where acquisitions conducted under Simplified Acquisition Procedures are exempt from the requirements of FAR Part 6, but still require a justification using the format of FAR 6.303-2. This is for a new firm fixed price contract to fulfill the requirements of a recently funded Department of Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation Research and Development grant entitled “The Prevalence and Functional Impact of Moral Injury in US Veterans”, awarded to Dr. Brett Litz (principal investigator) at the VA Boston Healthcare System. The research is designed to be a national epidemiological study to determine the US Veteran population prevalence of moral injury, which is the varied mental and behavioral health outcomes associated with exposure to morally transgressive military experiences. The research plan requires an accomplished survey company that has extensive experience examining the mental health of US Veterans and that has can conduct an online survey of an existing probability-based national representative panel of US Veterans.

3. Description of Supplies/Services Required to Meet the Agency’s Needs: The following services are required to meet the VA Boston Healthcare System research needs:

1. Expertise in random probabilistic population-based survey methods.

2. Successful experience conducing epidemiological surveys of Veterans’ mental and behavioral health for the

Department of Veterans Affairs.

3. An established nationally representative probability-based online survey panel of Veterans that also provides internet connections to non-internet households.

a. The Veteran panel shall be representative of the U.S. Veteran population in terms of sex, age, race, ethnicity, income, and educational attainment.

b. The Veteran panel shall contain existing information on age, whether participants were

36C24E-23-AP-0390 Survey Data for Impact of Moral Injury deployed to post-9-11 operations, and degree of combat exposure, to allow close monitoring of the completion rate among those two subgroups for the project.

4. Established survey cooperation rates of 70% or higher for Veteran surveys.

a. Can flexibly extend data collection period and send multiple reminders to participants, if necessary.

b. Can incentivize participation with direct payments to help with the completion rate.

5. Can format the survey for smartphones.

6. Can conduct quality control interview-based testing of the survey to ensure proper wording and formatting.

7. Can collect survey data on a password protected secure server.

The estimated amount for these services is $330,120.00 for a one (1) year contract. The period of performance is from: 07/17/2023 through 07/16/2024.

The total price for one (1) year includes:

Initial survey for pilot testing $ 16,506.00 Report detailing findings and recommendations for finalizing survey and its format $ 9,903.60 Finalized survey $ 33,012.00 Report detailing finalized sampling $ 23,108.40 Cleaned and weighted data set (electronic delivery) $ 214,578.00 Draft report $ 13,204.80 Interview Schedule $ 19,807.20 Total Estimated Value $ 330,120.00

4. Statutory Authority Permitting Restricted Competition:

FAR 13.5 Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Items. The statutory authority for applying the Simplified Procedures for Commercial Items of FAR 13.5 is 41 U.S.C. § 1901 and is implemented by FAR 13.106-1(b)(2) for restricting competition on this procurement. Competition is restricted on this procurement for the reason below:

(X) Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements ( ) Unusual and Compelling Urgency ( ) Industrial Mobilization, Engineering, Developmental or Research Capability or Expert Services ( ) International Agreement ( ) Authorized or Required by Statute ( ) National Security ( ) Public Interest

5. Demonstration that the Contractor’s Unique Qualifications or Nature of the Acquisition Requires the Use of the Authority

Cited Above (applicability of authority): Ipsos Public Affairs, LLC (“Ipsos”) uniquely maintains the largest, longest-standing, all-online, probability-based panel, known as KnowledgePanel. Ipsos has a long history of successfully surveying Veterans on KnowledgePanel. KnowledgePanel is the oldest and largest probability-based online survey panel in the United States and Ipsos has pre-identified Veterans on KnowledgePanel that can be used for the project. This will save the VA Boston Healthcare System time and money. This research project requires the use of the on-line KnowledgePanel database to provide a random selection of research subjects. As an entirely online panel, KnowledgePanel eliminates mode effects and allows the use of graphics, audio, and video clips, and for a portion of the panel video recordings of participants’ responses to survey questions. KnowledgePanel includes representation of the roughly 8%-12% of U.S. households that do not have Internet access. And its address-based sampling (ABS) recruitment method covers the growing number of cell-phone-only households (recently estimated at 55% of all households, and higher for young adults, lower income, and less educated). One of the key justifications for using the highly specialized database KnowledgePanel is that it provides the only large (50,000+), scientific, probability sample of U.S. households that participate in a research panel using only the Internet. The VA investigators need to utilize this specialized database platform for their on-going research and data analysis.

Accordingly, Ipsos Public Affairs, LLC is the only firm capable of providing the supplies and services described in Section III above without the Veteran’s Health Administration experiencing substantial duplication of cost that could not be expected to be recovered through competition and unacceptable delays in fulfilling its requirements.

6. Description of Efforts Made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as deemed practicable: A search was done in the VA’s VIP database to check for possible SDVOSBs/VOSBs available for this requirement, which resulted in three companies. These three companies did not have the medical research capabilities needed for this requirement. A search was also conducted in the Small Business Administration Dynamic Small Business Search (SBA DSBS) using keywords “Veterans Survey”, which resulted in no small business available for this requirement. A sources sought was posted on FBO and GSA on 06/08/2023 under 36C24E23Q0145, and one response was received from Ipsos Public Affairs, LLC, a large business. IPOS has the capabilities to successfully perform these services. It is unlikely that a small business could meet the contract requirements needed for this research project. There are requirements in this solicitation that would make it difficult for a non-established or small vendor to satisfy, such as formatting for smartphones or response rates of 70% or higher.

7. Determination by the CO that the Anticipated Cost to the Government will be Fair and Reasonable: A price analysis will be conducted to determine the pricing fair and reasonable. The pricing will be compared to Ipsos’s current GSA pricing, past history on similar contracts, and other potential open market pricing.

8. Description of the Market Research Conducted and the Results, or a Statement of the Reasons Market Research Was Not Conducted: A search was done in the VA’s VIP database using NAICS code 541910, PSC code R422, and keywords Survey Veterans, which resulted in two SDVOSBs, CrestPoint Solutions, and John J. Usera, and one VOSB, Research America available for this requirement. CrestPoint’s capabilities show they analyze IT data processing. John Usera’s capabilities show data collection for program and service improvement and strategic planning. Research America’s capabilities show they are experts in coding, analytics, surveying, and recruiting. None of the above companies show producing surveys, interviewing Veterans, and collecting medical research data on Veterans. A search was also conducted in the Small Business Administration Dynamic Small Business Search (SBA DSBS) using keywords “Veterans Survey”, which resulted in no small business available for this requirement. A sources sought was posted on FBO and GSA on 06/08/2023 under 36C24E23Q0145, and one response was received from Ipsos Public Affairs, LLC, a large business. IPOS has the capabilities to successfully perform these services. They uniquely maintain the largest, longest-standing, all-online, probability-based panel, known as KnowledgePanel with a history of successfully surveying Veterans on KnowledgePanel and has pre-identified Veterans on the KnowledgePanel data base. This will save time and money on this project. A pre-solicitation notice with intent to sole source was published on FBO under 36C24E23Q0145 on 06/15/2023 and no responses were received. As described in Section 6 above, market research, in accordance with FAR Part 10, was conducted by synopsis of the proposed acquisition, advising industry of the pending acquisition and soliciting inquiries from interested parties and no responses were received. The recommendation is to sole source this requirement to IPOS, a large business.

9. Any Other Facts Supporting the Use of Other than Full and Open Competition: The research plan requires an accomplished survey company that has extensive experience examining the mental health of US Veterans and can conduct an online survey of an existing probability-based national representative panel of US Veterans. The services and data provided by the survey company is critical to this research project and must incorporate statistical weights that contain probabilities of selection and projections to population benchmarks. The survey company needs to use

ABS sampling methodology, providing a probability-based starting sample of U.S. households. The survey company needs to be able to electronically deliver a cleaned and weighted data set that includes population weights (such that the sum of weights equals the total eligible adult population) to include a SAS dataset with appropriate coding and data labels that contain no protected health information. The survey company needs to ensure that younger Veterans and Veterans who had deployed to post-9-11 operations with sufficient combat exposure will be oversampled, and the survey company can deploy a 30-minute survey nationally to a sufficient number of Veterans to obtain at least 3000 completed responses from respondents. Ipsos Public Affairs, LLC uniquely maintains the largest, all-online, probability-based panel KnowledgePanel and has Veterans on KnowledgePanel that can be used in this study.

10. Listing of Sources that Expressed, in Writing, an Interest in the Acquisition:

Ipsos Public Affairs, LLC 301 Merritt 7 Norwalk, CT 06851-1070 Phone: (202) 831-5358 Contract Administrator: Susan Skinner, Susan.skinner@ipsos.com https://www.ipsos.com

11. A Statement of the Actions, if any, the Agency May Take to Remove or Overcome any Barriers to Competition before Making subsequent acquisitions for the supplies or services required: No future services are anticipated for this project once this study is completed. However if a follow-on grant were to be proposed, appropriate market research would be conducted to identify responsible sources capable of executing the required services.

12. Requirements Certification: I certify that the requirement outlined in this justification is a Bona Fide Need of the Department of Veterans Affairs and that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in the justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Date

JOSHUA

MAHONEY

Digitally signed by

JOSHUA MAHONEY

Date: 2023.06.15

___________________16:46:53 -04'00'__________

, Mental Health VA Boston Healthcare System

13. Approvals in accordance with the VHAPM Part 806.3 OFOC SOP:

a. Contracting Officer or Designee’s Certification (required): I certify that the foregoing justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Ann Marie Stewart Date Contracting Officer Regional Procurement Office-East R&D

b. One Level Above the Contracting Officer (Required over SAT but not exceeding $750K): I certify the justification meets requirements for other than full and open competition.

Seth Custer Date Division Chief Regional Procurement Office - East

6/21/2023

ANN MARIE

STEWART

Digitally signed by ANN

MARIE STEWART

Date: 2023.06.20 10:16:27 -04'00'

Seth J. Custer 430886

Digitally signed by Seth J. Custer 430886 Date: 2023.06.21 15:55:01 -04'00'