PC JA 09102024 Redacted.pdf

Funding Source (s): Program Operations Direct: Disc

Name of Proposed Contractor(s): Bellese Technologies, LLC Street Address: 300 Red Brook Blvd.

City, State, Zip: Owings Mills, MD 21117

2. Description of Supplies or Services:

CMS awarded the PCS MPSM BPA Call on September 15, 2021, using fair opportunity amongst GSA MPSM BPA holders in accordance with the competitive procedures in FAR

8.4. Since award in 2021, the MPSM PCS Contractor, Bellese Technologies, has supported CMS by designing, developing, and operating products that enable the agency to provide responsive, correct, and accessible pricing and coding of Medicare services for claims processing and payment.

Current BPA Call Period of Performance:

Period Period of Performance

Base Period 09/15/2021-09/14/2022

Option Period One 09/15/2022-09/14/2023

Option Period Three 09/15/2023-09/14/2024

Additional Periods:

CMS anticipates extending the current MPSM PCS call with a period of performance of one year. This will enable the continuity of services without a lapse or disruption given the respective value, expertise, and technical skill set of services provided. This support has been essential and is vital to support as CMS works towards steady state operations.

Period Period of Performance

Option Period Four 09/15/2024-09/14/2025

CMS seeks to reduce complexity and burden by designing and building claim pricing and procedure/drug coding functionality that will allow CMS to implement changes quickly and decrease the need for operational workarounds. This effort includes development work, and continued support (with appropriate product manager(s), designers, and engineers, in addition to any other necessary staffing) that will be able to work iteratively, integrating the discovery, design, and development processes in a fully agile approach to product development. The development team works closely with the Operations and System Reliability Engineering (OSRE) team, who hold or, at minimum, share responsibility in the MPSM environment for establishing common services and platforms such as: (a) common build platforms and CI/CD processes; (b) shared cloud hosting environment and services;

(c) licenses for MPSM-hosted products & services; (d) production documentation and operational support; (e) logging monitoring, alerts and dashboards; (f) product and service integrations with legacy mainframe systems; (g) incident management teams and processes; and (h) custom automation/code solutions to improve the maintainability, velocity, performance, security, or CMS management visibility.

The development team collaborates and works independently of the Shared System Maintainer (SSM) responsible for the operations and maintenance of the pricing fee schedule. The Contractor follows modern DevOps practices in developing pricing services, including operational support of any necessary Application Programming Interfaces (API).

This work includes collaborating with the OSRE team and SSM teams where appropriate.

3. Authority:

☒:ORDER AGAINST FSS: Authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program, Title III of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (41 U.S.C. 251, et seq.); Title 40 U.S.C. 501, Services for Executive Agencies; and Section 803 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2002 (PL 107-107) and implemented by FAR 8.405-6. Mark the applicable exception and for each discuss how the cited authority applies in accordance with FAR 8.405-6(c)(2)(iv).

☐ An urgent and compelling need exists, and following the procedures would result in unacceptable delays (FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(A));

☐ Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level or quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized (FAR 8.405-6(a)(i)(B)); or ☒ In the interest of economy and efficiency, the new work is a logical follow-on to an original Federal Supply Schedule order provided that the original order was placed in accordance with the applicable Federal Supply Schedule ordering procedures. The original order or BPA must not have been previously issued under sole-source or limited sources procedures (FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(C));

It is in the best interest for CMS to extend the current PCS BPA Call for an additional one year because it will mitigate significant impacts to the program. This extension allows the Contractor to continue to complete the following critical tasks: 1) Consistent maintenance of APIs; 2) Completely develop all fee schedules and 3) Transfer all fee schedules and prepare them for regular updates. Once all the price fee schedules are transferred to the cloud and testing of the fee submission system shows a smooth process for Medicare Administrative Contractors (MAC), the PCS contract will transition to a maintenance state. This maintenance state is where price fee schedules are being referenced, used for claims, and can interact with other CMS platforms that are currently in development. By the end of Fiscal Year 2025, the Government anticipates its PCS products will be in a completely consistent maintenance state where regular proactive updates occur, and the products are able to interact with other platforms CMS is developing.

Currently under the PCS contract, the contractor is adding fee schedules and reference files to the cloud, integrating with Multi Carrier System (MCS), Fiscal Intermediary Shared System Development and Maintenance (FISS), and ViPS Medicare System (VMS), creating MAC reports, implementing methods for disseminating reports, creating a data upload system, and creating full fee schedule and coding file downloads. To finish the work, the Contractor will complete the following:

CMMI Models

4. Market Research:

This acquisition is being conducted as a modification to an existing MPSM BPA call for PCS. It is necessary for the PCS services to continue without disruption. In accordance with FAR 10.002(b)(1), market research was completed on a limited basis since this is a one-year extension whereby the services to be performed are critical to continue without a lapse or disruption.

CMS has knowledge of the market for these services based on ongoing market research for related acquisitions and interactions with various industry partners. As a result of that expertise and experience, OIT-AMG is confident no information received from market research would change the contracting approach.

5. Actions to Increase Competition:

This work is an extension to an original Federal Supply Schedule MPSM BPA whereby the original BPA call was placed in accordance with the applicable MPSM Fair Opportunity ordering procedures and not as sole source or limited source procedures.

Future procurement using fair opportunity is anticipated following the extension described herein.

6. Any other facts supporting the justification: N/A

Approvals:

1. Program Office Certification: This is to certify that portions of this justification have been developed by the undersigned program office personnel, including supporting information and/or data verifying the Government’s minimum needs, schedule requirements and other rationale, which form the basis for this Limited Source Justification.

Contracting Officer Representative (COR) / Date

Program/Project Manager (P/PM) / Date

2. Contracting Officer Certification and Best Value Determination:

This is to certify that the justification for the proposed acquisition has been reviewed and that to the best of my knowledge and belief, the information and/or data provided to support the rationale and recommendation for approval, is accurate and complete.

By my signature below, after review of the relevant documents, I have determined that the order subject to this Limited-Sources Justification represents the best value for the Government as set forth in FAR 8.404(d) and constitutes a fair and reasonable price.

The basis for my determination is as follows:

GSA has already determined the prices of supplies and fixed-price services, and rates for services offered at hourly rates, under schedule contracts to be fair and reasonable. This effort will be a modification under the GSA MPSM BPA PCS for the Bellese Technologies. The proposed labor mix and level of effort will be evaluated for price reasonableness. In total, the CO is confident that there are sufficient resources and information to negotiate a fair and reasonable price, on a sole source basis, with Bellese Technologies.

Contracting Officer / Date

3. CMS Competition Advocate Approval

I hereby confirm the circumstances described above apply and approve the Limited Source Justification.

Name / Date

4. Head of Contracting Activity (HCA) Approval

I hereby confirm the circumstances described above apply and approve the Limited Source Justification.

N/A

5. Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization

_______N/A__________________________________________

6. OGC Legal Review

_______________N/A__________________________________

7. HHS Competition Advocate Approval

___________________N/A________________________________

8. Senior Procurement Executive (SPE) Approval

Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby confirm the circumstances described above apply and approve the Limited Source Justification.

N/A