PAR J and A (Final and Fully Signed).pdf

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs

Strategic Acquisition Center Frederick 5202 Presidents Court, Suite 103 Frederick, MD 21703

2. Description of Action: The proposed sole source action is a firm fixed price contract with Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc. (PAR), for use of two specific psychological tests which are copyrighted Psychological Assessment Instruments detailed below.

Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI): The Personality Assessment Inventory is a comprehensive personality assessment tool that is easy to administer, and has a low reading level, making it appropriate for use with individuals with lower levels of education and those with cognitive impairment. It is briefer than other comprehensive personality inventories, and provides strong correspondence to a set of psychological constructs that are widely considered important in diagnosing and treating behavioral health issues. This makes it particularly useful in diagnostic and treatment planning activities.

NEO Personality Inventory-3 (NEO PI-3): This test is based on the Five Factor

Model of Personality, and provides feedback on individual characteristics and traits, organized around the five major personality factors of the model. It is considered an excellent test for comprehensive assessment of personality in a general, non-clinical population and can be very useful in guidance and developmental counseling settings. This feature makes the tool valuable to VA psychologists who engage in the practice of work restoration and employment counseling.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: The purpose of the contract is to obtain psychological tests that are owned by the test publisher, to be integrated into the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) Electronic Medical Record System psychological testing package. The materials required is the intellectual property such as the test questions, response choices and scoring algorithms. This allows VA to administer, score and interpret psychological tests on the Veterans Integrated System Technology Architect (VistA) System.

All psychological tests covered by the license agreement are protected by copyright. The tests are administered on-line; patients complete the tests on computers, and then the results are scored and interpreted immediately. The questions and scoring information, which are copyright protected, must be stored in the VistA database. VA will pay a usage fee for each completed administration of the specified test that occurs within the VA psychological testing package. An accounting system is programmed into VistA to collect test usage information for royalty fee payment.

The proposed contract will be a one year base period, with four (4) one-year option periods and the total estimated value is $264,675.00.

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C. § 1901 Simplified acquisition procedures implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subparts 13.106 and 13.501. In accordance with these subparts and 41

SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION

Psychological Testing

U.S.C. § 3304(e), this justification documents the circumstances of the contract action that deem only one source reasonably available (FAR 13.106-1(b)(1)(i)).

5. Rationale Supporting use of Authority Cited Above: PAR holds exclusive distribution rights from the copyright holders for all instruments included in the license agreement.

PAR grants the right to VA to utilize their copyrighted tests, scoring algorithms, and norms and place these tests on VA's own electronic psychological assessment software package, the Mental Health Assistant (MHA), which is part of the overall VistA system. It is only possible for VA to provide this type of automated psychological testing capability for the tests included in this proposed action by obtaining a license/permission of use from PAR.

These specific tests are required to provide the best possible tools to psychologists in the VA for the purposes of assessment, diagnosis and treatment planning for a variety of mental health and behavioral conditions. The tests included in the contract have been evaluated and selected for inclusion based on significant research demonstrating their validity and reliability for use with a veteran population. These assessment instruments are considered to be of the highest quality for assessing personality traits, facilitate differential diagnosis, and measure treatment effectiveness.

Selection of these specific instruments is based on their being widely used by the psychological community, as cited in the American Psychological Association's Psychological Test Usage in Professional Psychology: Report to the APA Practice and Science Directorates.

Additionally, VA monitors current graduate courses in psychological assessment, through the Society of Personality Assessment, a section within Division 12 of the American Psychological Association, to determine current trends in training in the area of psychological assessment. Specific instruments are based on the scientific evidence of their validity and reliability for individuals who fall within the population parameters of VA patients.

Furthermore, VA only works with test publishers that follow the American Psychological Association guidelines and standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. Thus, while there are many claims of tests for assessing a variety of traits, it is important that we hold to the highest possible scientific and ethical standards, and only a small number of available tests meet the criteria to provide quality level of psychological assessment for our patients.

VA is the largest employer of psychologists in the nation, and psychologists work in a variety of medical and psychiatric settings. They need to be able to select the tests that are most appropriate for their setting and their patient population in order to complete a comprehensive and accurate assessment of their patients’ needs. VA provides a wide range of psychological assessment instruments within the Mental Health Assistant software package in order to allow clinicians to select the instruments most suited to the clinical situation in which they work. These instruments covered in this contract are a necessary component of that package, and license to use the specific instruments, the PAI and NEO PI-3 can only be obtained from PAR. No other tests on the market are substantially similar to them.

Efforts to Obtain Competition: As discussed above, PAR has exclusive distribution rights from the copyright holders for the tests included in the license agreement, the PAI and NEO PI-3.

Other venders do supply the same tests for the same prices but they cannot give the VA the distribution rights. VA maintains psychological testing contracts with multiple test publishers for the right to use their specific tests. Having multiple tests from multiple test publishers available in our electronic assessment package provides the VA clinicians with the best available options for assessment in each specific clinical setting that they may work. In accordance with FAR 13.501, the Justification & Approval (J&A) for sole source procurement will be posted to Contract Opportunites formerly known as FedBizOpps required by 6.305(a) within 14 days after contract award.

6. Market Research:

The following techniques were used to complete market research:

a. Personal knowledge in procuring supplies/services of this type.

b. Contact with knowledgeable persons in Government and industry regarding the commercial nature of this requirement and standard industry practices in this area of supply/services. Identify those contacted (name and title) and date or timeframe of contact:

American Psychological Association Testing Services, October 2009

c. Review of Government and/or commercial databases for relevant information.

Reviewed Interagency Contract Database, October 2009, for psychological test contracts. DoD, IHS, HHS, and Bureau of Prisons all have contracted with PAR. Only other test publisher with listed federal contracts for psychological assessment was The Psychological Corporation, which is now a subsidiary of Pearson Assessments, whom VA also contracts with for psychological assessment tools. The primary difference in VA’s contract is that VA will not be purchasing published materials from the test publisher but acquiring permission to integrate the tests into our electronic testing package, which is a unique feature that is only available within VA.

d. Review of source lists for identical or similar items obtained from Government, professional, and/or industry sources.

Reviewed American psychological Association Survey of Psychological Test

Usage in Professional Psychology to identify top assessment instruments.

Review of Tests in Print and Buros Mental Measurement Yearbook to identify tests that meet VA requirements in terms of scientific evidence of reliability and validity, appropriateness for use in VA patient populations, and measuring clinical domains needed by VA clinicians to adequately perform their jobs.

Market research reveals that PAR has exclusive distribution rights from the copyright holders for the PAI and NEO PI-3. They are the only source that can provide a license to VA for placing these instruments on our VistA software system. These instruments are determined to best meet the needs of VA psychology for personality assessment purposes.

7. Other Facts: In previous years, PAR has offered VA a discount over their published list price. During FY07 and FY08, VA did not contract nationally with PAR for the use of these instruments, and local facilities had to purchase them directly from PAR. The cost for all facilities to purchase directly from PAR (on an annual basis) during that time frame was more than twice the cost of the national contract during FY06.

8. Interested Sources: Psychological Assessment Resources (PAR),16204 N. Florida Avenue, Lutz, Florida 33549

9. Overcome Barriers: It is VA’s intent to provide the best psychological assessment tools available in the clinical psychology field to our clinical staff and patients in order to provide the highest level of care. This typically involves contracting with a number of test publishers to include a variety of psychological assessment instruments in our electronic testing package. It is our intent to insure that the best tools are available, and we will continue to strive to provide these as a part of VA’s electronic medical record assessment package.

10. Technical and 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.

October 26, 2020 Karen E. DeVolder Date VHA Office of MHSP, Informatics Section AO

11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination & Contracting Officer Certification and Approval: In accordance with FAR 13.106-3, it is hereby determined that the anticipated price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable, and the price reasonableness determination will be included in the contract file documentation. I further certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Lindi Sylvester Date Contracting Officer

KAREN E DEVOLDER

217791

Digitally signed by KAREN E

DEVOLDER 217791

Date: 2020.10.26 13:49:29 -04'00'

November 3, 2020