S02 36C26322Q0289_1.pdf

PAGE 1 OF1. REQUISITION NO.

2. CONTRACT NO. 3. AWARD/EFFECTIVE DATE 4. ORDER NO. 5. SOLICITATION NUMBER 6. SOLICITATION ISSUE DATE

a. NAME b. TELEPHONE NO. (No Collect Calls) 8. OFFER DUE DATE/LOCAL

TIME

9. ISSUED BY CODE 10. THIS ACQUISITION IS UNRESTRICTED OR SET ASIDE: % FOR:

SMALL BUSINESS

HUBZONE SMALL

BUSINESS

SERVICE-DISABLED

VETERAN-OWNED

SMALL BUSINESS

WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS

(WOSB) ELIGIBLE UNDER THE WOMEN-OWNED

SMALL BUSINESS PROGRAM

EDWOSB

8(A)

NAICS:

SIZE STANDARD:

11. DELIVERY FOR FOB DESTINA-

TION UNLESS BLOCK IS

MARKED

SEE SCHEDULE

12. DISCOUNT TERMS

13a. THIS CONTRACT IS A

RATED ORDER UNDER

DPAS (15 CFR 700)

13b. RATING

14. METHOD OF SOLICITATION

RFQ IFB RFP

15. DELIVER TO CODE 16. ADMINISTERED BY CODE

17a. CONTRACTOR/OFFEROR CODE FACILITY CODE 18a. PAYMENT WILL BE MADE BY CODE

TELEPHONE NO. DUNS: DUNS+4:

PHONE: FAX:

17b. CHECK IF REMITTANCE IS DIFFERENT AND PUT SUCH ADDRESS IN OFFER

18b. SUBMIT INVOICES TO ADDRESS SHOWN IN BLOCK 18a UNLESS BLOCK BELOW IS CHECKED

SEE ADDENDUM

19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24.

ITEM NO. SCHEDULE OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES QUANTITY UNIT UNIT PRICE AMOUNT

(Use Reverse and/or Attach Additional Sheets as Necessary)

25. ACCOUNTING AND APPROPRIATION DATA 26. TOTAL AWARD AMOUNT (For Govt. Use Only)

27a. SOLICITATION INCORPORATES BY REFERENCE FAR 52.212-1, 52.212-4. FAR 52.212-3 AND 52.212-5 ARE ATTACHED. ADDENDA ARE ARE NOT ATTACHED.

27b. CONTRACT/PURCHASE ORDER INCORPORATES BY REFERENCE FAR 52.212-4. FAR 52.212-5 IS ATTACHED. ADDENDA ARE ARE NOT ATTACHED

28. CONTRACTOR IS REQUIRED TO SIGN THIS DOCUMENT AND RETURN _______________ 29. AWARD OF CONTRACT: REF. ___________________________________ OFFER COPIES TO ISSUING OFFICE. CONTRACTOR AGREES TO FURNISH AND DATED ________________________________. YOUR OFFER ON SOLICITATION DELIVER ALL ITEMS SET FORTH OR OTHERWISE IDENTIFIED ABOVE AND ON ANY (BLOCK 5), INCLUDING ANY ADDITIONS OR CHANGES WHICH ARE ADDITIONAL SHEETS SUBJECT TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS SPECIFIED SET FORTH HEREIN IS ACCEPTED AS TO ITEMS:

30a. SIGNATURE OF OFFEROR/CONTRACTOR 31a. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (SIGNATURE OF CONTRACTING OFFICER)

30b. NAME AND TITLE OF SIGNER (TYPE OR PRINT) 30c. DATE SIGNED 31b. NAME OF CONTRACTING OFFICER (TYPE OR PRINT) 31c. DATE SIGNED

AUTHORIZED FOR LOCAL REPRODUCTION (REV. NOV 2021)

PREVIOUS EDITION IS NOT USABLE Prescribed by GSA - FAR (48 CFR) 53.212

7. FOR SOLICITATION

INFORMATION CALL:

STANDARD FORM 1449

SOLICITATION/CONTRACT/ORDER FOR COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS AND COMMERCIAL SERVICES

OFFEROR TO COMPLETE BLOCKS 12, 17, 23, 24, & 30

618-22-3-5155-0007

36C26322Q0289 03-04-2022

Cameron Rick 651-293-3036 03-18-2022

23:59 CDT

36C263 Department of Veterans Affairs

NETWORK 23 CONTRACTING OFFICE

316 Robert Street N. STE. 506 St. Paul MN 55101 Cameron Rick cameron.rick@va.gov

X 100

X

561410

$16.5 Million

N/A

X

36C618

Department of Veterans Affairs Minneapolis VA Medical Center One Veterans Drive

Minneapolis MN 55417

36C263

Department of Veterans Affairs

NETWORK 23 CONTRACTING OFFICE

316 Robert Street N. STE. 506 St. Paul MN 55101

Y

Department of Veterans Affairs Financial Services Center PO Box 149971

Austin TX 78714-9971

See CONTINUATION Page

This solicitation is to provide service to the Minneapolis VAMC, see attached Statement of Work, Transcription Services , base year plus 4 option years.

Note block 30 - this document must be signed and returned to the Contracting Officer by the Offer Due Date in order to be considered. Email ALL required and completed documents to:

Cameron Rick at cameron.rick@va.gov and Pamela Phillips at pamela.phillips@va.gov.

Submit any written questions via email by March 15, 2022 **No telephonic questions will be accepted.** Responses to questions will be posted as an amendment to the solicitation.

Solicitation will close at 11:59 PM CST on March 18, 2022

This solicitation is a total SDVOSB set-aside.

See CONTINUATION Page 618-3620152-5155-841100 Business Office Operati- 2580 Non-Medical Contract and-0100C00G3 618-22-3-5155-0007

X X

X 1

Pamela Phillips

36C26322Q0289

Table of Contents

A.1 SF 1449 SOLICITATION/CONTRACT/ORDER FOR COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS

AND COMMERCIAL SERVICES

SECTION B - CONTINUATION OF SF 1449 BLOCKS

B.1 CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION DATA

STATEMENT OF WORK

SCOPE

DEFINITIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

TURNAROUND TIME REQUIREMENTS

PARTIAL DICTATION

LOST REPORTS

LOG SHEETS

RECORD KEEPING AND CONFIDENTIALITY

QUALIFICATIONS

QUALITY CONTROL / QUALITY OF WORK

NON-CONFORMANCE OF QUALITY STANDARDS

CONTRACTOR DESIGNEE

START UP

INVOICING

MEETINGS

VHA Supplemental Contract Requirements for Combatting COVID-19

B.2 PRICE/COST SCHEDULE

ITEM INFORMATION

B.3 52.222-55 MINIMUM WAGES FOR CONTRACTOR WORKERS UNDER EXECUTIVE

ORDER 14026 (JAN 2022)

B.4 IT CONTRACT SECURITY

SECTION C - CONTRACT CLAUSES

C.1 52.212-4 CONTRACT TERMS AND CONDITIONS—COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS

AND COMMERCIAL SERVICES (NOV 2021)

C.2 52.217-8 OPTION TO EXTEND SERVICES (NOV 1999)

C.3 52.217-9 OPTION TO EXTEND THE TERM OF THE CONTRACT (MAR 2000) ...41

C.4 VAAR 852.212-70 PROVISIONS AND CLAUSES APPLICABLE TO VA

ACQUISITION OF COMMERCIAL ITEMS (APR 2020)

C.5 VAAR 852.219-74 LIMITATIONS ON SUBCONTRACTING—MONITORING AND

COMPLIANCE (JUL 2018)

C.6 VAAR 852.219-77 VA NOTICE OF LIMITATIONS ON SUBCONTRACTING—

CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE FOR SERVICES AND CONSTRUCTION (SEP 2021)

(DEVIATION)

C.7 52.252-2 CLAUSES INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE (FEB 1998)

C.8 52.212-5 CONTRACT TERMS AND CONDITIONS REQUIRED TO IMPLEMENT

STATUTES OR EXECUTIVE ORDERS—COMMERCIAL ITEMS (JAN 2021) (JUL 2020)

(DEVIATION)

SECTION D - CONTRACT DOCUMENTS, EXHIBITS, OR ATTACHMENTS

BUSINESS ASSOCIATE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE DEPARTMENT OF

VETERANS AFFAIRS VETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, Minneapolis VA Health Care System, AND See attached document: P07 Wage Determination - Mpls

SECTION E - SOLICITATION PROVISIONS

E.1 52.212-1 INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS—COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS AND

COMMERCIAL SERVICES (NOV 2021)

ADDENDUM to FAR 52.212-1 INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS—COMMERCIAL

ITEMS

E.2 52.212-2 EVALUATION—COMMERCIAL ITEMS (OCT 2014)

E.3 52.204-24 REPRESENTATION REGARDING CERTAIN TELECOMMUNICATIONS

AND VIDEO SURVEILLANCE SERVICES OR EQUIPMENT (NOV 2021)

E.4 52.209-7 INFORMATION REGARDING RESPONSIBILITY MATTERS (OCT 2018)

E.5 52.216-1 TYPE OF CONTRACT (APR 1984)

E.6 52.233-2 SERVICE OF PROTEST (SEP 2006)

E.7 52.252-1 SOLICITATION PROVISIONS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE (FEB

1998)

E.8 52.212-3 OFFEROR REPRESENTATIONS AND CERTIFICATIONS—

COMMERCIAL ITEMS (FEB 2021) (JUL 2020) (DEVIATION)

SECTION B - CONTINUATION OF SF 1449 BLOCKS

B.1 CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION DATA

1. Contract Administration: All contract administration matters will be handled by the following individuals:

a. CONTRACTOR:

b. GOVERNMENT: Contracting Officer 36C263 Pamela Phillips

Department of Veterans Affairs

NETWORK 23 CONTRACTING OFFICE

316 Robert Street N. STE. 506

St. Paul MN 55101

2. CONTRACTOR REMITTANCE ADDRESS: All payments by the Government to the contractor will be made in accordance with:

[X] 52.232-33, Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer—System For Award Management, or

[] 52.232-36, Payment by Third Party

3. INVOICES: Invoices shall be submitted in arrears:

a. Quarterly []

b. Semi-Annually []

c. Other [X] Monthly

4. GOVERNMENT INVOICE ADDRESS: All Invoices from the contractor shall be submitted electronically in accordance with VAAR Clause 852.232-72 Electronic Submission of Payment Requests.

Department of Veterans Affairs

Financial Services Center

PO Box 149971

Austin TX 78714-9971

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF AMENDMENTS: The offeror acknowledges receipt of amendments to the Solicitation numbered and dated as follows:

AMENDMENT NO DATE

DICTATION AND TRANSCRIPTION SERVICES FOR MINNEAPOLIS VA HEALTH CARE SYSTEM

STATEMENT OF WORK

HEALTH CARE RESOURCES IN ACCORDANCE WITH PUBLIC LAW 104-262 AND 38 USC 8153 TO BE FURNISHED BY

THE CONTRACTOR AT THE MINNEAPOLIS VETERAN ADMINISTRATION HEALTH CARE SYSTEM

Provide dictation system and professional transcription service at the Minneapolis Veterans Administration Health Care System (MVAHCS), Minneapolis, Minnesota in accordance with the statement of work listed in this statement of work. Payment for services will be for actual lines typed.

FURNISH DICTATION SYSTEM AND MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION SERVICES FOR THE MVAHCS IN ACCORDANCE WITH

ALL TERMS AND CONDITIONS.

Transcribe off-site dictation and transcription service material pertinent to the medical care of the patients at the Minneapolis Veterans Administration Health Care System hereinafter referred to as the MVAHCS. Dictation is done by staff at the VA Health Care System and Outpatient Clinics and transcribed into the required report format.

These reports include, but are not limited to discharge summary, operative reports, consults, compensation and pension exams, gastrointestinal procedure notes, non-OR procedures, telephonic consents, cardiology procedure notes, neurology procedure notes, outpatient progress notes and emergency room notes.

MVAHCS is requesting a 12- month long Base Year, with four additional option years to extend the contract at 12-month periods, at the discretion of the MVAHCS. Total contract will not exceed 5 years

Award will be made to the contractor whose response to solicitation is most advantageous to the Government that is most experienced, technically acceptable and reasonably priced.

Contractor shall demonstrate ability to meet or exceed all statement of work requirements by submitting documents, references, or other forms of proof at ability to perform requirements.

Schedule of items:

The quantities as listed in the “Schedule of Items” are estimated yearly requirements. The MVAHCS attempts to be as accurate as possible when providing estimated quantities, however, actual quantities required may vary from quantities as listed. All products will be requested on an “on demand, as needed” basis.

SCOPE

Provide off-site dictation and transcription service material pertinent to the medical care of patients at MVAHCS.

Dictation is done by staff at MVAHCS, Minneapolis facility and all Community Based-Outpatient Clinics, into the required report format. Reports and material to be transcribed include a high level of complex medical, surgical, pharmacological information that includes technical terminology which requires specialized knowledge, skill and ability in numerous medical specialty areas. These reports include but are not limited to: discharge summaries, operative reports, consults, non-OR procedures, clinic notes, anesthesia reports in the specialties of cardiology, cardiovascular, vascular, dermatology, dentistry, endocrinology, immunology, general medicine, colon/rectal, gastroenterology, general surgery, gynecology, hematology, oncology, laboratory, neurology, neurosurgery, ophthalmology, oral surgery, podiatry, pulmonary disease, rehabilitative medicine, renal disease, rheumatology, orthopedics, urology, substance abuse and other treatment reports.

Material is dictated by different physicians requiring adaptation to variations in accents, speech, tone, voice, volume, delivery, pronunciation, and enunciation.

DEFINITIONS

Unit of Pricing: A line is defined as 65 Visible Black Characters, strike-able and visible (see invoicing). Lines will be defined as 65 characters, 10 fonts. Bolding and underlining will not be established at additional costing.

Stat Report: A report required to be transcribed and returned within two (2) hours.

Discharge Summary: A type of report that summarizes the inpatient stay.

Operation Report: A report done for procedures performed in the operating room.

Imaging Report: A radiology report. This work type includes nuclear medicine reports.

Compensation and Pension Exams: These are special exams for rating purposes that include history and physical examination findings as well as conclusions or recommendations.

Consults: Consultation results that are prepared by specialists.

Progress Notes: Transcribed reports of outpatient encounters including procedures performed in specialty procedure rooms.

History and Physical Exams: Reports that typically include historical information on inpatients.

New Evaluation Exams: Reports that typically include historical information on first time outpatients.

Miscellaneous Reports: Reports that do not fall into another designated work type.

MVAHCS: Minneapolis Veteran Affairs Healthcare System

Blank Lines: Defined as a line containing no text. If the line contains no text, it will not be counted nor billed.

Blank Spaces: If dictated material, after full review, cannot be understood, a blank space will be represented by three ‘at’ signs (@@@) which will notify the provider of the need to edit the entry upon return of the report.

Contractor will provide second review of all @@@ prior to sending back report, more than three @@@ (blanks) per document after second review will be referred to transcription POC.

Acceptable Error Rate: Defined as 0.5% of the total lines per day for each type of report. Accuracy rate of 99.5%.

COR: Contracting Officer’s Representative. The contracting officer may delegate one or more MVAHCS employees who are responsible for monitoring the performance of the contractor. A copy of the delegation shall be provided to the Contractor after the award is made.

TAT: Turnaround time

SPECIFICATIONS

Contractor shall be responsible to provide access to the dictation and transcription systems as necessary to evaluate work done for MVAHCS under this contract to conduct quality reviews including, but not limited to, audit inaudible dictation and complete random quality reviews.

Installation, maintenance, training, updating, and repair to the Contractor-owned equipment and software are the sole responsibility of the Contractor.

The MVAHCS has a requirement for digital dictation, traditional and correction editing medical transcription services using contractor supplied dictation application. Maintain contract files for 3 years after final payment, see FAR 4.703. The contractor is to destroy the files on the anniversary of the third year after final payment using the 35-pass Gutmann-level deep scrub method or other equivalent methods. The method proposed by the contractor should have prior approval from the CO. The contractor is not to subcontract the work or any portion of the work to another firm without prior approval from the CO. Dictation system will be available for use twenty-four (24) hours a day, seven (7) days per week. MVAHCS must be able to monitor the status of dictation and/or transcription at all times.

The Contractor shall notify the COR within two (2) business hours when transcription equipment failures occur that will impair the ability of the Contractor to meet turnaround times, macros/formats are discovered to be defective or faulty or that dictations are not understandable. The Contractor shall have, as part of their system, the ability to protect dictated and transcribed material from power surges/losses, equipment failures, etc. Contractor shall be held responsible for meeting turnaround times regardless of defects in contractor owned equipment. Contractor shall have a disaster readiness plan for implementation in case of loss of power, equipment, staff, etc.

COR/designee will notify the Contractor in the event of a computer Network, VISTA, or any other system being utilized experiences downtime.

Contractor will be required to provide their own Internet access via phone line or cable modem. At MVAHCS’s discretion, work will be returned via Virtual Private Network (VPN) or as directed, Network directly into the Veterans Health Information System and Technology Architecture (VISTA) software. This requires accessing each patient record individually, selecting an author and/or co-author, selecting a note title, selecting corresponding visit or consult, and copying and pasting of transcribed document. Contractor’s word processing software must be compatible with MVAHCS Network word processing files. Prior to providing VPN or RAS access, remote personal computers must be certified to have appropriate versions of software and virus protection.

Training will be provided to the Contractor by the MVAHCS staff via remote electronic meetings. Training will include topics such as accessing VISTA, Patient DATA Inquiry, and inputting reports on VISTA. Initial training will be scheduled and provided by MVAHCS COR or designee upon award of the contract. Additional training will be provided as needed at the request of the COR or Contractor, contact the COR with training requests.

The Contractor will provide MVAHCS staff training on their equipment to all providers and users of the system.

All charges associated with access to the dictation systems and/or VISTA are the sole responsibility of the contractor.

Lines will be defined as 65 characters, 10 font. Bolding and underlining will not be established at additional costing.

The Contractor must have the capability to transcribe approximately 125,000 lines per month. A character is defined as a keystroke, to include spaces between words. Headers and footers are included in the line length, if applicable. Vertical spaces between lines, paragraphs, or text and footers are not billable. Reports shall be single-spaced with double spacing between paragraphs.

Workload projections are based on estimates only as the volume of actual dictation cannot be determined.

Contractor shall have adequate coverage to meet contract turnaround times as stated below. MVAHCS providers may dictate anytime within the 24-hour day.

Contractor shall transcribe dictated material in required VA formats. Report formats will be provided to the Contractor by the COR or their designee upon award of the contract and upon each subsequent revision to the format during the lifetime of the contract and at no expense to MVAHCS. The COR or their designee shall be responsible for determining all report formats. If the transcription format changes, the Contractor will be provided with new specifications by the COR/designee. MVAHCS will furnish a list of current physicians and other staff names, as appropriate, within thirty (30) days after award of the contract and updates as appropriate.

Material is dictated by many different providers from many disciplines and shall require adaptation by the medical transcriptionists to variations in speech, tone, voice volume, delivery, pronunciation, enunciation, and accents.

Dictators will include persons for whom English is a second language. The Contractor is responsible for correct spelling and comprehension, including unfamiliar words.

The Contractor shall be responsible to check medical and English dictionaries, and other reliable reference sources as needed for distinguishing between similar sounding medical, surgical, radiology, and pharmaceutical and laboratory terms. The Contractor shall provide MVAHCS with a list of reference books to be used which must be current publications.

The medical transcriptionists shall use correct grammar, punctuation, and correct spelling, and dictation will be transcribed in the proper tense. Incorrect grammar, incorrect punctuation, misspelling, and blank spaces will be considered as errors. The Contractor is required to exercise proper judgment in discerning between errors or omissions without changing sentence structure. Changes in sentence structure, which are clerical in nature, misspelling of proper names, incorrect social security numbers, incorrect admission and/or discharge, and incorrect date of surgery, are all errors. The Contractor will edit the document for grammatical errors while ensuring that the medical content of the document is not altered in doing so. The Contractor shall refer ambiguous items needing correction or clarification to the MVAHCS Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) or Designee for clarification or correction and does so by means of Microsoft Team, e-mail, or telephone.

If any dictation should prove to be significantly or totally inaudible or otherwise not transcribable, the Contractor shall immediately notify the COR/designee within ONE (1) HOUR of discovery of such problem(s).

Blank spaces because of totally inaudible will be designated as three (3) consecutive ‘at’ signs (@@@). No blank spaces shall be left because of dictation, which can be easily understood by MVAHCS personnel when reviewed.

Contractor will have access to, and be expected to use, Person File in Vista to verify staff.

The MVAHCS accepted abbreviations are in the most current edition of Stedman’s. No abbreviations are to be used in the diagnosis or listing of operations or procedures. Standard abbreviations shall be acceptable in the body of the report, if dictated, and should not be spelled out for higher character count. The following abbreviations are never to be used: U, u, IU, Q.D., Q.O.D., MS, MSO4, MGSO4, TIW, H.S., lack of zero before a number (example .1 mg must be 0.1 mg) and trailing zero after a number (example 1.0 mg should be 1), and all additions to this list by The Joint Commission. If any unapproved abbreviation was dictated, the contractor is to spell out the word(s).

The Contractor shall be responsible for ALL proofreading. Work containing major errors will be returned for correction at no additional cost to the Government. All work returned to the Contractor will be returned within four (4) working hours from the time of notification at no cost to the Government. Transcribed work received, which contains omissions, spelling/grammatical errors, and/or is completed in a manner which is unacceptable to the MVAHCS will be returned to the Contractor for correction at no additional charge to the Government.

The Contractor shall ensure that the date/time dictated, date/time transcribed, and transcriptionist’s initials appear on each document at the lower left hand corner at the end of the text in the following manner:

D: mo./da/yr. T: mo./da/yr.

Upon award of the contract, initial training will be provided by the MVAHCS for designated employees of the Contractor. Training will be approximately eight (8) hours or as needed, including topics such as accessing VISTA, Patient DATA Inquiry, appointment selections, surgery package, and inputting reports in VISTA, looking up provider information, etc.

Reports will be considered transcribed when a report is received in the VISTA system.

VISTA ISSUES:

The Contractor will be given access to the VAMC VISTA System in order to accomplish various tasks required by this contract.

Contractor shall comply with all MVAHCS memoranda and Information Technology policies concerning Automatic Data Processing Security and Access to the VISTA system. Copies of all memoranda and policies will be provided to the Contractor. Any new memoranda and policies or changes to existing memoranda or policies will be communicated to the Contractor who will have thirty (30) days to identify any adverse impact to the Contracting Officer.

Contractor will provide the Contracting Officer or Contracting Officer Representative (COR) or designee a list of all current employees on a yearly basis and new employees as they are hired who will be performing transcription so that unique Access Codes and Verify Codes can be assigned on the VISTA System. Individual “applications” for such access/verify codes will be required.

Contractor will not maintain a list of their employees’ Access Codes or Verify Codes to the VISTA System.

Contractor will ensure that their employees do not divulge their Access Code or Verify Code to the VISTA System to anyone else.

Contractor will notify the MVAHCS Information Technology Services immediately of any actual or suspected compromise of security or privacy, or within four (4) hours of any employee having an Access Code and Verify Code to the VISTA system who will no longer be performing transcription services for the Medical Center so their computer system access can be terminated, or as directed by MVAHCS.

Contractor employees will be given access to only those VISTA System menu options needed for the input and editing of transcription reports.

Contractor will provide and pay for leased communications lines and/or communications equipment that are used for their access to the VAMC VISTA System and printers. The equipment must be compatible with the VAMC communications network. Access to the VISTA system will be done via VPN connection.

DICTATION ISSUES:

The Contractor shall protect against loss or misuse of all dictated and transcribed documents. The documents described in this solicitation are irreplaceable medical information.

The Contractor shall ensure the confidentiality of all patient information and shall be held liable in the event of breach of confidentiality.

The Contractor shall ensure that dictation is NEVER COMINGLED in any way with data for another agency or corporation.

The MVAHCS will identify transcription via access codes (pooled per transcriptionist) for which the Contractor shall be responsible to transcribe.

TRANSCRIBED REPORTS ISSUES

The Contractor shall return transcribed notes to the MVAHCS using one of two methods at the discretion of the facility: direct entry into VISTA system or uploading directly to VISTA located at each facility. The Contractor will be notified of any changes to the method of returning reports ten (10) days in advance of the change. The Contractor shall have ten (10) days to identify any changes or adverse impact to the Contracting Officer.

The Contractor shall transcribe reports according to the Turnaround Time Requirements specified below.

In the event of a prolonged failure (lasting or expecting to last four (4) or more hours) of the leased lines used by the Contractor to access the VISTA system, the Contractor shall abide by the site’s contingency plan regarding all transcribed reports that were to be filed in the VISTA system. Additionally, as soon as the communication line(s) are restored, the Contractor shall be required to file these reports into VISTA at no additional cost.

If batch uploading: The Contractor shall provide the MVAHCS with a list of uploaded reports per batch (log sheets), via secured email to include the job number, patient SSN, patient name, dictator name and number of lines charged.

Subcontracting – should the Contractor subcontract any transcription requirements, all provisions of this contract shall without any exception apply to the subcontractor. The contractor is not to subcontract the work or any portion of the work to another firm without prior approval from the CO.

CONTINGENCY PLAN

The Contractor shall include with the quote, a written emergency contingency plan. This shall address:

How the Contractor will provide continuity of transcription services during contractor employee outages;

telecommunications failure; dictating system failure; other atmospheric problems, which, if not addressed, would impede operations; and the expected timelines for plan with progressive steps until up and running normally.

The Contractor shall provide a comprehensive plan describing the methodology of transcribing when the volume exceeds twenty (20%) percent of the weekly average. The Contractor shall remain responsible for meeting turnaround time for work fluctuations up to fifty (50%) percent over the weekly average.

Moving this work off-shore (outside of United States borders) is prohibited. Perform all transcription and verification services in the United States of America, including US territories. There are No Exceptions.

CONFIDENTIALITY, PRIVACY, AND SECURITY

Contractors shall comply with all national guidelines for security and privacy including the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) as amended (44 U.S.C. §§ 3541 et seq.), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), (Public Law 104-191), it’s implementing regulations, the Privacy, Security and Breach Notification rules located at 45 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 160 and subparts A and E; the Privacy Act of 1974, Public Law 93-579; and any additional Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) or VHA directives or requirements for compliance.

Confidentiality: The MVAHCS will provide the Contractor with access to pertinent patient information for the purposes of providing service to the MVAHCS. The Contractor shall ensure confidentiality of patient information and shall be held liable in the event of breach of confidentiality. Contractor shall adhere to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) standards. Any person who knowingly or willingly discloses confidential information from the VA may be subject to criminal penalties.

Privacy Act and Authorization to Release Information: As a result of this task, the Contractor shall be subject to the Privacy Act of 1974. The medical reports described in this solicitation are irreplaceable medical information that must be safeguarded at all times. Contractor shall refer to the Privacy Act Notification (FAR 52.224-1) and Privacy Act Clause (FAR 52.224-2) as found in the clauses section. Contractor shall develop and maintain a method of tracking all dictated and transcribed documents. The Contractor is not authorized to release any medical record information. The MVAHCS is the sole entity authorized to release any information upon written authorization from the patient.

Patient Medical Information: Contractor personnel who obtain access to medical records or access hardware/software that may store drug or alcohol abuse data, sickle cell anemia treatment records, records or tests or treatment for infection with HIV, medical quality assurance records, or any other sensitive information protected under 38 U.S.C. 4132 or 3305, as defined by VA, shall not have access to the records unless absolutely necessary to perform the requirement. Any Contractor employee required to access pertinent data shall not disclose to anyone that is not involved in the performance of this task. Any violation of these provisions may involve criminal penalties.

Patient Medical Records Handling and Storage: VA will allow the Contractor staff to work off-site (i.e., at the employee’s primary residence). However, the Contractor is responsible for ensuring that their employees maintain the records in a safe and secure environment. Any examples for content, reference, or formatting must be de-identified.

Property in Possession of Contractors: In accordance with FAR SubPart 45.510, the Contractor shall require any of its subcontractors possessing or controlling Government property to adequately care for and maintain property and assure that it is used only as authorized by the contract. It is anticipated that the only Government property that will be furnished the Contractor will be the VA Virtual Private Network (VPN) software that will be used on the

Contractor’s computers to provide access to VISTA. Immediately after the software has been uploaded on the contractor’s computers the original computer media shall be surrendered to the Contracting Officer.

Contractor staff and subcontractors are not to store/copy anything on any medium, cannot be saved on individual local drive; can only save to approved server.

The contractor is required to ensure all current employees complete Privacy Awareness and Information Security Training yearly or as per regulations, providing documentation to the COR/designee upon completion of training.

Security Plan will also include the security plan to ensure background checks, secure computer access, and secure data transmission.

TURNAROUND TIME REQUIREMENTS

Medical transcription reports shall be returned to MVAHCS per TAT set for report types, including weekends and holidays or at the request of the MVAHCS.

Reports will be considered transcribed when a report is uploaded and received in the VISTA system.

The Contractor shall provide all transcribed reports in accordance with the following deadlines. Reports shall be completed and returned as follows:

Discharge Summaries 24 hours

Stat Reports* 2 hours

Surgical Procedure Reports 2 hours

Pathology/laboratory Reports 24 hours

Compensation and Pension Exams 24 hours

Consultations 24 hours

Progress Notes 48 hours

Assessments (History and Physical Exams) 4 hours

Miscellaneous Reports 48 hours

*Note: The Contractor shall ensure that an individual is available to provide telephone support and service to the MVAHCS at all times. MVAHCS requires that the Contractor provide one number that can be called by MVAHCS in order to convey pertinent information regarding unmarked STAT discharge summary reports, which will comply with the 2 hour turnaround time for STAT reports. This will be provided at no expense to MVAHCS.

Normal business days are Monday through Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. excluding the following Federal holidays:

January 1 or designated business day New Years Day

3rd Monday in January Martin Luther King, Jr., Day

3rd Monday in February President’s Day

Last Monday in May Memorial Day

June 19 Juneteenth

July 4 or designated business day Independence Day

1st Monday in September Labor Day

2nd Monday in October Columbus Day

November 11 or designated business day Veterans Day

4th Thursday in November Thanksgiving Day

December 25 or designated business day Christmas

And any other day specifically declared by the President of the United States to be a national holiday.

With the exception of “Stat” reports, all other reports shall be transcribed in the order of receipt (first in, first out).

RETENTION

1. Dictation shall remain available for listening review for twelve (12) months from the date of the original dictation.

2. Dictation logs shall be retained by the contractor for duration of the contract.

3. Contractor shall provide backup file service reports, holding them for a period of six (6) months, with the ability to retrieve the report(s) by patient name, type of report, date of dictation, or date of transcription. Line count for requested retyped reports shall be included in the total line count of the contract for each facility.

4. The Contractor shall not purge files for six (6) months after expiration of contract

PARTIAL DICTATION

A partial dictation is any incomplete report. Dictation may be interrupted if there is an equipment malfunction or if the dictator terminates the dictation prior to the end of the report. Contractor agrees to combine segments of the same report to final preparation, delivery, and billing to MVAHCS.

LOST REPORTS

Lost reports are defined as reports dictated by the provider, verified by MVAHCS but not delivered to MVAHCS.

Contractor shall be accountable for any lost reports. Any transcription redone due to a lost report, by a Contractor, shall be transcribed and returned within twenty-four (24) hours after receipt at no charge to VA.

LOG SHEETS

The Contractor shall maintain a daily log to record the line counts for each report transcribed and submit the logs with the invoice at the end of the billing period. The documentation must also include an indication of any cut-offs, problems, etc. A grand total of all work types shall be included. The following information will be included on log sheet:

Patient identifier

Job number or case number as appropriate

Dictating provider’s name

Type of report

Date of dictation

Date of transcription

Lines transcribed

Cost of document

RECORD KEEPING AND CONFIDENTIALITY

Contractor shall insure the confidentiality of all patient and employee information and shall be held liable in the event of a breach of confidentiality. The Contractor shall comply with the provisions of the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 USC 552a), Confidentiality of Drug Abuse, Alcohol Abuse, Sickle Cell anemia, and HIV/AIDs treatment records (38 USC 7332 and 4132) and Confidentiality of Medical Quality Assurance Records (38 USC 5705 and 3305) as well as any other statutes that pertain to confidentiality. Any person who knowingly or willingly discloses confidential information from VAMC Minneapolis dictation may be subject to fines up to $20,000.

All costs associated with the record retention and disposal as stated under Retention are the Contractor’s responsibility. Reports shall be disposed of according to Confidentiality of Sensitive Information Non-Disclosure Statement (provided to contractor by the facility upon award) which must be signed by the Contractor. This Statement also requires compliance with MVAHCS policy and procedures regarding sanitization of media when it is no longer to be used to access MVAHCS sensitive data. Contractor will also be required to sign and abide by the MVAHCS Computer Access Security Agreement and/or the Rules of Business Agreement for Information Security (whichever may be required by the respective facility).

The facility for which services are contracted will provide Automated Information Systems (AIS) security awareness to all contractor employees requiring access to Protected Health Information (PHI) and/or Electronic Protected Health Information (EPHI).

QUALIFICATIONS

Contractor must have verifiable multi-specialty medical transcription experience and must be one or more of the following:

1. Certified medical transcriptionist with a current working knowledge of medical terminology.

2. Graduated from a medical transcription program with two years of medical Transcription experience.

3. Have completed two (2) or more years of employment in the medical transcription department of an acute care hospital where a wide range of medical terms are transcribed.

The medical transcriptionists assigned to this contract must be skilled transcribing a wide range of medical specialties in an acute hospital setting to include radiology and surgical pathology, with a wide knowledge of the specialized vocabulary particular to a wide variety of subjects in the medical and surgical fields.

Upon award of the contract, the Contractor will provide within 30 days of contract to include number of transcriptionists, name of each, their length and depth of experience in medical transcription, the average lines transcribed per hour and number of hours on average per month for each transcriptionist, and whether voice recognition program is used in transcribing dictation.

QUALITY CONTROL / QUALITY OF WORK

Contractor must maintain a quality control system to assure complete and accurate reports. The contractor will maintain a 99.5% level of accuracy.

Errors (include but are not limited to):

a. Omitted material that is legible or intelligible

b. Misspelled words

c. Transposed letters

d. Information located in the wrong category or field unless it cannot be determined where it belongs

e. Typing other than what is dictated

f. Punctuation if it changes the context of the sentence.

g. Use of unapproved abbreviations including inappropriate use of abbreviations in the diagnoses and operations and procedures portions of the discharge summary.

h. Upload/entry of document into Vista with any error:

author title location consult request date turn-around-time

Contractor will perform quality reviews on all their staff to meet the quality standards as described. If subcontracting, quality reviews of the subcontracting staff will also need to be completed to meet these standards as described. For all staff as well as employees transcribing new report types, quality control checks will be performed for 100% of their work completed until achieving a level of 99.5% accuracy based on error to lines. If the accuracy rate is met, random, monthly samples of no less than 300 lines transcribed of all transcriptionists should be checked. If the accuracy rate is not met, then 100% quality control checks should continue until such time.

The Contractor will be notified by telephone or in writing (writing may be email or fax) of any errors found. At the Government’s option, reports with errors may be returned to the Contractor for correction at no additional cost to the MVAHCS and returned within four (4) hours or corrected by facility employees. Errors over the acceptable error rate of 0.5 % per total lines for day, at the Government’s option, may be returned to the Contractor for correction at no additional charge to the MVAHCS and returned within 4 hours or corrected by facility employees and a deduction of $0.60 will be taken from the amount otherwise to be paid to the Contractor for each error in typing data which is verifiable.

The Contractor must submit a monthly quality control report of any documents returned for errors. This report must address corrective action taken and follow-up.

The Contractor must submit a quarterly quality control report of a valid sample (no less than 100 documents checked) of all audits performed on MVAHCS work, to include dictated reports and uploading (no less than one full day of uploads per month of documents checked) of reports.

The MVAHCS reserves the right to make corrections of any transcribed material. The contractor will be notified in writing on a monthly basis of any corrections made by the MVAHCS as a result of contractor errors. Non-conformance of quality standards will be subject to the procedures stated in this contract.

The COR/designee will periodically inspect the Contractor’s final output for accuracy.

Quality standard is not to exceed an error rate of over 2% per total lines per month. If the Contractor exceeds this error rate over a period of three (3) months, the contract may be terminated.

NON-CONFORMANCE OF QUALITY STANDARDS

In the event that turn-around time is not met three times or quality standards are not met in any three months in a twelve-month period, the following procedures will be initiated:

On the first and second occurrence of not meeting the quality standards or the expected turn-around time during a twelve-month period, the cost per line of the affected work will be decreased by two cents ($0.02) per line for the month.

On the third occurrence of not meeting the quality standard or expected turn-around time during a twelve-month period, the cost per line of the affected work will be decreased by four cents ($0.04) per line for the month; or the contractor may be terminated.

CONTRACTOR DESIGNEE

The Contractor must inform the COR/designees of any problems or questions with dictations to avoid confusion in transcription.

Phone inquiries to the Contractor will be responded to during the same working day unless initiated after normal working hours.

START UP

Contractor may be required to have a representative or representatives on-site during the start-up period in order to ensure that training is accomplished and the uploading process for completed dictation is in place and running smoothly. The start up period is estimated to be three to five workdays, however, it may be longer or shorter depending on problems that arise and schedules of staff. COR/designee shall be responsible for coordinating on-site start-up meetings.

INVOICING

Billing shall be based on a 65-Visible Black Character line

1. (1) Visible Black Character. A Visible Black Character is defined as strike-able and visible characters and includes any printed letter, number, symbol, and/or punctuation mark, excluding any or all formatting (e.g., bold, underline, italics, table structure, formatting codes). All visible black characters can be seen with the naked eye as a mark, regardless of whether viewed electronically or on a printed page.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Q r s t u v w x y z

` 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - = [ ] \ ; ‘ , . / “

(2) Visual Black Character (VBC) Line or ASCII no Spaces Line. A VBC Line is defined as the total number of characters you can see with the naked eye, divided by 65. It includes any character contained within a header or footer. Spaces, carriage returns, and hidden format instructions, such as bold, underline, text boxes, printer configurations, spell check, etc., are not counted in the total character count. A VBC Line is calculated by counting all visual characters and simply dividing the total number of characters by 65 to arrive at the number of defined lines.

MEETINGS

Meetings, at COR/designee’s request, shall be held by conference call, to address areas of concern and exchange information to ensure consistent high levels of services. These meetings will be scheduled after the award of the contract and will be scheduled as needed.

VHA Supplemental Contract Requirements for Combatting COVID-19

1. Contractor employees who work in or travel to VHA locations must comply with the following:

a. Documentation requirements:

1) If fully vaccinated, contractors shall show proof of vaccination.

i. NOTE: Acceptable proof of vaccination includes a signed record of immunization from a health care provider or pharmacy, a copy of the COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card (CDC Form MLS-319813_r, published on September 3, 2020), or a copy of medical records documenting the vaccination.

2) If unvaccinated, contractors shall show negative COVID-19 test results dated within three calendar days prior to desired entry date. Test must be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use or full approval. This includes tests available by a doctor’s order or an FDA approved over-the-counter test that includes an affiliated telehealth service.

3) Documentation cited in this section shall be digitally or physically maintained on each contractor employee while in a VA facility and is subject to inspection prior to entry to VA facilities and after entry for spot inspections by Contracting Officer Representatives (CORs) or other hospital personnel.

4) Documentation will not be collected by the VA; contractors shall, at all times, adhere to and ensure compliance with federal laws designed to protect contractor employee health information and personally identifiable information.

2. Contractor employees are subject to daily screening for COVID-19 and may be denied entry to VA facilities if they fail to pass screening protocols. As part of the screening process contractors may be asked screening questions found on the COVID-19 Screening Tool. Check regularly for updates.

a. Contractor employees who work away from VA locations, but who will have direct contact with VA patients shall self-screen utilizing the COVID-19 Screening Tool, in advance, each day that they will have direct patient contact and in accordance with their person or persons who coordinate COVID-19 workplace safety efforts at covered contractor workplaces. Contractors shall, at all times, adhere to and ensure compliance with federal laws designed to protect contractor employee health information and personally identifiable information.

3. Contractor must immediately notify their COR or Contracting Officer if contract performance is jeopardized due to contractor employees being denied entry into VA Facilities.

4. For indefinite delivery contracts: Contractor agrees to comply with VHA Supplemental Contract Requirements for any task or delivery orders issued prior to this modification when performance has already commenced.

B.2 PRICE/COST SCHEDULE

ITEM INFORMATION

ITEM

NUMBE

R

DESCRIPTION OF

SUPPLIES/SERVIC

ES QUANTITY

UNI

T UNIT PRICE AMOUNT

0001 1,300,000.

EA _______________

Transcription Services to Mpls VAMC. Estimated number of lines 1,300,000.

Price per line.

Contract Period: Base POP Begin: 04-01-2022 POP End: 03-31-2023 PRINCIPAL NAICS CODE: 561410 - Document Preparation Services PRODUCT/SERVICE CODE: R603 - Support - Administrative:

Transcription

1001 1,300,000.

EA _______________

Transcription Services to Mpls VAMC. Estimated number of lines 1,300,000.

Price per line.

Contract Period: Option 1 POP Begin: 04-01-2023 POP End: 03-31-2024 PRINCIPAL NAICS CODE: 561410 - Document Preparation Services PRODUCT/SERVICE CODE: R603 - Support - Administrative:

Transcription

2001 1,300,000.

EA _______________

Transcription Services to Mpls VAMC. Estimated number of lines 1,300,000.

Price per line.

Contract Period: Option 2 POP Begin: 04-01-2024 POP End: 03-31-2025 PRINCIPAL NAICS CODE: 561410 - Document Preparation Services PRODUCT/SERVICE CODE: R603 - Support - Administrative:

Transcription

3001 1,300,000.

EA _______________

Transcription Services to Mpls VAMC. Estimated number of lines 1,300,000.

Price per line.

Contract Period: Option 3 POP Begin: 04-01-2025 POP End: 03-31-2026 PRINCIPAL NAICS CODE: 561410 - Document Preparation Services PRODUCT/SERVICE CODE: R603 - Support - Administrative:

Transcription

4001 1,300,000.

EA _______________

Transcription Services to Mpls VAMC. Estimated number of lines 1,300,000.

Price per line.

Contract Period: Option 4

POP Begin: 04-01-2026 POP End: 03-31-2027 PRINCIPAL NAICS CODE: 561410 - Document Preparation Services PRODUCT/SERVICE CODE: R603 - Support - Administrative:

Transcription

GRAND TOTAL _______________

B.3 52.222-55 MINIMUM WAGES FOR CONTRACTOR WORKERS

UNDER EXECUTIVE ORDER 14026 (JAN 2022)

(a) Definitions. As used in this clause—

‘‘United States’’ means the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Johnston Island, Wake Island, and the outer Continental Shelf as defined in the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1331, et seq.).

“Worker”—

(1)(i) Means any person engaged in performing work on, or in connection with, a contract covered by Executive Order 14026, and—

(A) Whose wages under such contract are governed by the Fair Labor Standards Act (29 U.S.C. chapter 8), the Service Contract Labor Standards statute (41 U.S.C. chapter 67), or the Wage Rate Requirements (Construction) statute (40 U.S.C. chapter 31, subchapter IV);

(B) Other than individuals employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity, as those terms are defined in 29 CFR part 541; and

(C) Regardless of the contractual relationship alleged to exist between the individual and the employer.

(ii) Includes workers performing on, or in connection with, the contract whose wages are calculated pursuant to special certificates issued under 29 U.S.C. 214(c).

(iii) Also includes any person working on, or in connection with, the contract and individually registered in a bona fide apprenticeship or training program registered with the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration, Office of Apprenticeship, or with a State Apprenticeship Agency recognized by the Office of Apprenticeship.

(2)(i) A worker performs on a contract if the worker directly…