PWS - VOA updated Final 02.25.26.docx

Performance Work Statement Veterans Outcomes Assessment (VOA) Program Calls and Data Collection

Description of Services/Introduction: The Department of Veterans Affairs Health Administration (VHA) requires data to determine whether mental health and suicide prevention services provided by VHA are effective and satisfactory for Veterans. The purpose of this contract is to obtain services in support of this VHA agency priority, including collection of interview data from Veterans across the country who have received mental health and/or suicide prevention services; tracking of participants receiving initial interviews to ensure timely follow-up interviews; and provision of digital data from the interviews to VHA. The Contractor will provide all personnel, equipment, supplies, facilities, transportation, tools, materials, supervision, and other items and non-personal services necessary to collect interview data from Veterans as defined in this Performance Work Statement (PWS) except for those items specified as government furnished property and services. The Contractor must perform to the standards in this contract.

Background: The Government has placed high priority on rigorously examining the outcomes of mental health and suicide prevention services provided across the country by VHA facilities and staff. In addition, there is a legislative requirement from the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Act that directs VA to contract with an independent third-party evaluator to analyze the effectiveness of VA mental health services and suicide prevention programs. Data collected for this contract is called the Veterans Outcomes Assessment (VOA) and will be used to meet this requirement.

The Puppies Assisting Wounded Servicemembers Act of 2021 (PAWS) directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to conduct a pilot program providing canine training to eligible Veterans diagnosed with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The program objective is to provide data that will allow VHA to determine if the program has any impact on the PTSD symptoms of participating Veterans. The data collected as part of this contract will be provided to meet this requirement. This provision of the PWS will conclude on 2/22/27 (with the Base year of the contract).

The sampling and data collection strategies have been developed and approved by VHA. The process will be for VHA to send the Contractor contact information for a sample of Veterans who have received a mental health and/or suicide prevention appointment, contact and interview them using the interview protocol developed by VHA within a short time after their appointment (but not later than 30 days past initial appointment; see quality assurance standards for details) to determine how they are feeling and functioning, and then contact and interview the same Veteran again between 160-190 days post their initial mental health visit to provide a follow-up assessment. The process for the PAWS sample will be to interview the Veterans who are scheduled for PAWS training classes, using the interview protocol developed by VHA, within 7 days prior to the first scheduled canine training class or 7 days after the scheduled class, and then to contact and interview the same Veteran again 10 weeks after the first scheduled canine training class.

The VOA requires completion of 16,000 pairs of interviews (baseline and follow-up) and the PAWs program requires 150-200 (number is based on demand for the PAWS pilot) pairs of interviews (baseline and follow-up) per contract year with sampled Veterans. While VHA will conduct sampling, the purpose of this contract is to secure services to accomplish the interviews and transmission of data from those interviews to VHA.

Objectives: Provide data that will allow VHA to determine whether mental health and/or suicide prevention services are effective and satisfactory to Veterans, as outlined below.

· Complete 16,000 pairs of telephone interviews (a baseline and follow-up) with sampled Veterans by the end of each performance year, using a structured and scripted interview to be provided by VHA.

· Complete approximately 150-200 (number will be based on demand for the PAWS pilot) pairs of interviews (for the PAWS program), (a baseline and follow-up) with sampled Veterans no later than 6 months into contract base year, using a structured and scripted interview to be provided by VHA.

· PWS data collection will conclude on 2/22/27 (with the Base year of the contract).

· Complete the telephone interviews, data collection and transmission of the interview data with sample(s) provided by VHA.

· Conduct interviews with Veterans in a sensitive, quiet and confidential environment using qualified and trained staff. Employ agreed upon protocols for any urgent or emergent crisis that may develop with the Veteran respondent.

· Provide the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) with informal weekly status updates, via telephone or email.

· Provide a detailed quarterly report of completed interviews.

· Transmit data from all interviews in a digital file to VHA monthly using an agreed-upon secure data transmission protocol.

Scope: The types of services to be performed are Veteran contact and scheduling, interviewing and data capture from interviews. The Contractor shall use contact information provided by VHA to contact Veterans by telephone and invite them to participate in the VOA project. The Contractor will complete telephone interviews with those Veterans who agree to participate. The Contractor will re-contact those same Veterans who participated in baseline interviews within 160-190 days after the baseline to complete a follow-up interview. The Contractor will conduct enough interviews to provide data from 16,000 pairs of interviews. For the PAWS sample, contractor will conduct interviews with the sample of Veterans who are referred to a PAWS group (estimated to be approximately 150-200 Veterans) over the course of the performance year. The Contractor shall provide all data from those interviews in a digital format to the VHA monthly.

The interview protocols will be developed and provided by VHA.

Funding is secured for one year to conduct 16,000 pairs interviews and additional 150-200 pairs (based on the demand for the PAWS pilot) of PAWS interviews (within Base year contract only). The project is projected to extend to future years because the objective is a high VHA priority. Funding will be sought each year to continue the VOA but cannot be guaranteed.

Period of Performance: The period of performance shall be for one (1) Base Year of 12 months and four (4) 12-month option years. The Period of Performance reads as follows:

· Base Year

· Option Year I

· Option Year II

· Option Year III

· Option Year IV

Recognized Holidays: The contractor is not required to provide services on Federal holidays.

Hours of Operation: The contractor is responsible for conducting business, between the hours of 10AM and 8PM, through all United States time zones, Monday through Saturday except Federal holidays. The Contractor must at all times maintain an adequate workforce for the uninterrupted performance of all tasks defined within this PWS. When hiring personnel, the Contractor shall keep in mind that the stability of the workforce is essential.

Place of Performance: The work to be performed under this contract will be performed at the contractor facility. The interviews will take place in confidential and quiet locations.

Security Requirements: Contractors, contractor personnel, subcontractors, and subcontractor personnel shall be subject to the same Federal laws, regulations, standards, and VA Directives and Handbooks as VA and VA personnel regarding information and information system security.

Type of Contract: The government will award fixed price contract.

Key Personnel: The following personnel are considered key personnel by VHA: The Contractor shall provide a Contract Manager who shall be responsible for the performance of the work. The name of this person and an alternate who shall act for the Contractor when the manager is absent shall be designated in writing to the Contracting Officer. The Contract Manager or alternate must have full authority to act for the contractor on all contract matters relating to daily operation of this contract. The Contract Manager or alternate will be available between 8:30AM and 4:30PM, Monday thru Friday, except Federal holidays or when the government facility is closed for administrative reasons. The Contractor shall also provide a Clinical Director for the project who will be responsible for overseeing training of personnel in relevant mental health topics; development and compliance with crisis protocols; and clinical support for staff conducting interviews.

Qualifications for all key personnel are listed below:

The Contract Manager and alternate should have experience either running a call center or overseeing the conduct of telephone interviews with at least 1,000 participants.

The Clinical Director shall have at minimum a master’s or bachelor’s degree with relevant work experience in a field related to mental health such as psychology, psychiatry, social work, or counseling.

Background checks and training: All staff who will be interviewing Veterans will need to have background checks and must take VA TMS training in Information Security and HIPAA and the CITI PROGRAM training in human subjects protection. The material in the interviews is sensitive as it relates to mental health so staff should have some experience with collecting sensitive information through telephone interviews.

Identification of Contractor Employees: All contract personnel attending meetings, interviewing Veterans, or working in other situations where their contractor status is not obvious to third parties are required to identify themselves as such to avoid creating an impression in the minds of members of the public that they are Government officials. They must also ensure that all documents or reports produced by contractors are suitably marked as contractor products or that contractor participation is appropriately disclosed.

Data Rights: The Government has unlimited rights to all documents/material produced under this contract. All documents and materials, to include the source codes of any software, produced under this contract shall be Government owned and are the property of the Government with all rights and privileges of ownership/copyright belonging exclusively to the Government. These documents and materials, including interview data, may not be used, or sold by the contractor without written permission from the Contracting Officer. All materials supplied to the Government shall be the sole property of the Government and may not be used for any other purpose. This right does not abrogate any other Government rights.

Phase-in/Phase-out Period: To minimize any decreases in productivity and to prevent possible negative impacts on additional services, the Contractor shall have personnel on board, during the 30-day phase in/ phase out periods. During the phase in period, the Contractor shall become familiar with performance requirements in order to commence full performance of services on the contract start date.

QUALITY ASSURANCE. The government procedures to verify that services being performed by the Contractor are performed according to acceptable standards.

QUALITY ASSURANCE SURVEILLANCE PLAN (QASP). An organized written document specifying the surveillance methodology to be used for surveillance of contractor performance.

QUALITY CONTROL. All necessary measures taken by the Contractor to assure that the quality of an end product or service shall meet contract requirements.

SUBCONTRACTOR. One that enters a contract with a prime contractor. The Government does not have privity of contract with the subcontractor.

WORKDAY. The number of hours per day the Contractor provides services in accordance with the contract.

WORK WEEK. Monday through Friday, unless specified otherwise.

GOVERNMENT FURNISHED PROPERTY, EQUIPMENT, AND SERVICES

GOVERNMENT FURNISHED ITEMS AND SERVICES:

Services: The Government will provide digital files containing samples of Veterans eligible to participate in VOA to the Contractor every week. The files will contain all telephone contact information that is available to VHA. The Contractor will not be required to supplement contact information on their own.

Materials: The Government will provide copies of both the VOA and PAWS baseline and follow-up survey instruments, along with scripts for callers. The interview instruments are not negotiable; however exact language of scripts for callers is negotiable. The Government will also provide draft materials on the call protocol such as the number of times and whether Veterans should be contacted or re-contacted; however, the details of this call protocol are negotiable.

CONTRACTOR FURNISHED ITEMS AND SERVICES

CONTRACTOR FURNISHED ITEMS AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

General: The Contractor shall furnish all supplies, equipment, facilities, and services required to perform work under this contract that are not in this PWS.

SPECIFIC TASKS

Basic Services.

Every week VHA will provide the Contractor with digital files containing contact information for Veterans eligible for VOA or PAWS participation, which consist of Veterans who meet eligibility criteria for VOA participation in the previous week. The Contractor will contact Veterans in those samples to complete baseline and follow up interviews over the course of the performance year. The Contractor will use refreshed samples of Veterans provided by VHA throughout the year so that all Veterans contacted will be within a few weeks of their first mental health appointment. The Contractor will contact Veterans in those samples within two weeks of receiving their contact information from VHA. Baseline interviews should be conducted no later than 30 days from the receipt of veterans contact information.

VHA will provide the questions and scripts for the structured interviews, appropriate for Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI). The time needed to conduct the interviews will be variable based upon interview responses, however, they will generally average 30 minutes and will range between 20 and 45 minutes each. It is estimated based upon pilot work with these instruments and contact protocol that response rates for baseline interviews will be about 10-15%.

The Contractor shall re-contact same Veterans who have completed a baseline interview between 160-190 days after the first interview for a follow-up interview. The Contractor shall conduct 16,000 pairs of interviews and additional 200 pairs of interviews (for PAWS program), (both baseline and follow-up for a single Veteran) by the end of each performance year.

Because follow-up rates will be lower than 100%, the Contractor will need to conduct a significantly larger number than 16,000 of baseline interviews in order to complete the contract mandated 16,000 follow-up paired interviews. For the PAWS program the Contractor will conduct an estimated 200 baseline and 150 follow-up interviews. The Contractor can adjust their protocol according to experienced recruitment and follow-up rates, as long as the final interview counts are reached.

Data from both interviews, along with a data field to link baseline and follow-up interviews together will be delivered electronically to VHA once per month in a standardized format agreed upon with VHA.

Due to the nature of the interviews and the health of Veterans being contacted, there is a standardized protocol for contacting the Veterans Crisis Line if needed. The Contractor will follow that protocol.

QUALITY ASSURANCE SURVEILLANCE PLAN (QASP).

(Performance Requirements Summary)

Method of Surveillance

PRS # 1.

The Contractor shall contact and interview Veterans at baseline, that is within two weeks of receipt of data set of eligible Veterans as per section 5, paragraph 1.

The Contractor provided business plan.

PRS # 2

The Contractor shall conduct interviews in a manner sensitive to individuals with mental disorders.

Examination of interviews conducted as per the Contractor provided QCP. Contractor will respond to complaints or feedback received by VHA from Veterans.

PRS # 3

The Contractor shall conduct at least 16,000 pairs of interviews and approximately 150 (amount will vary dependent on demand for PAWS program) pairs of interviews (for the PAWS program) over the course of the performance year.

The Contractor provided business plan.

PRS # 4

The Contractor shall provide interview data from all conducted interviews in a digital format agreed upon with VHA on a monthly basis The Contractor provided business plan.

DELIVERABLES SCHEDULE

ESTIMATED WORKLOAD DATA FOR ONE YEAR

ITEM

NAME

ESTIMATED QUANTITY

*This is VOA calculated as follows:

Approximately 3,000 calls made per week in order to secure about 310 baseline interviews per week (10% response rate).

Approximately 390 calls made per week to secure 310 follow-up interviews per week (80% response rate).

Call administrative time (scheduling, data entry, leaving messages etc.) about 6 minutes per unanswered call, 30 minutes per interview call.

Interview time averaging 30 minutes each.

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