QA_Amend 0001.pdf

Amend 0001 to provide Q&A and to extend the response date to August 08, 2025 by 03:00 PM (MT).

Solicitation Page #

Section # Section Title Question Answer

NA NA General

Badger Health & Associates LLC was previously awarded this requirement. Are they still performing the work under the current contract?

No.

NA NA General Is there an incumbent contractor? If so, please provide the contract details.

No.

6 Section 5 Scope of Work / Requirements

Will the government provide laptops or PCs to perform this work, or is the contractor required to provide laptops or PCs?

No.

6 Section 5 Scope of Work / Requirements

Are the coders only responsible for coding, or are they also required to submit UB-04 or CMS 1500 claims?

Coding Only.

5-6 Section 5 Scope of Work

Does this requirement include DRG coding (inpatient), surgery and anesthesia coding?

Please provide the clinical settings where coding is done. Ex: Clinic, Lab etc.

No. Podiatry, Optometry, ER/UC, Dental, Physical

Therapy/Occupational Therapy, Primary Care, Observation.

NA NA General Are there any federal employees currently working as coders on this project at the facility?

Yes.

NA NA General

This opportunity is being released for the third time in the past two years. We submitted proposals during both prior rounds; however, on both occasions, the award was made to a company offering a very low price one that is realistically not feasible given the scope of services. In both cases, it was stated that technical capability and past performance were more important than price. However, the awards still went to the lowest-priced vendors.

We would like to ask whether, for this round, the government plans to consider price realism to ensure that the selected offeror can actually perform the work successfully and not just offer to the lowest priced offeror.

All evaluation factors will be considered.

Section

Past Performance

Assessment

Can the government confirm whether references may email completed surveys directly to the Contract Specialist, or must vendors collect and submit them with the proposal?

Vendors shall collect and submit with their quotation packet.

NA NA

Proposal Due date

We respectfully request that the proposal submission deadline be extended by 4 to 5 business days after the government's answers to vendor questions are released.

This will be taken into consideration.

Is travel required for remote workers to satisfy any part of the solicitation request?

No.

We don't offshore our work, but some of our competitors do. Is that allowed in this solicitation?

No.

6 6a Productivity Would you please clarify the meaning and expectation of “actions per day?”

Total per day (excludes corrections).

6 6a Productivity Is there a variance in the level of effort required from action to action?

Yes.

Will the government accept past performance references of contractor leadership in former roles/former organizations?

Is there an incumbent? If so, could you please provide the company name, current / previous contract number, and how much was the last bid?

No, incumbent at this time.

How many vendors will be selected for the contract?

Only one vendor will be selected.

Section B #3.

Which specialties and place of service (office, hospital, Primary Care, ER, Urgent Care, etc.)

does this RFQ include?

All.

How many locations and/or cost centers are under this RFQ?

This is for one location.

Which EMR and practice management systems are ZCCHC currently using?

RPMS/EHR.

Can past performance of a sub-contractor be used?

Does IHS provide Encoder software for assisting with the coding?

If an encoder software is provided, will vendor coders be granted user licenses? Also, is the encoder software interfaced with the EHR?

N/A

Would you be providing laptops and/or equipment for the contractors?

Please share the number of hours the current coders have been contracted for each month for the past year.

N/A

What is the QA volume and cadence expectation per coder?

Section 6 Productivity.

What is the approximate total number of Ambulatory Procedure encounters to be coded per year?

not available at this time.

What is the expected ratio of diagnosis coding (ICD-10) vs. procedure coding (CPT / HCPCS) for this contract?

All visits have ICD-10 dx CPT codes varies depending on visit.

When can we expect the single response to vendor questions to be published after the submission deadline?

Within two to three days from due date.

5 C.1 Description of Services – Scope of Work

Can you clarify the actual current backlog or average volume of coding cases per week or month?

37,900 Plus.

6 C.6.f Description of

Services – Productivity

What are the primary specialties or departments to be coded (e.g., ER, family medicine, dental)?

primary, urgent care, emergency room, dental, optometry, physical/occupational therapy, podiatry, observation, radiology, laboratory.

5 C.1 & C.2 Description of

Services – Scope

Will the same coder(s) be expected to handle all specialties, or can we propose a team with divided specialties?

Yes, all specialties.

of Work & Work Schedule

6 C.4.a–e Access to IHS-

Network System

Will IHS provide any specific technical configuration guidelines or onboarding support for the VPN and RPMS/EHR system?

Yes.

6 C.4.d Access to IHS-

Network System

Can coders use MacOS, or is a Windows-based setup required for RPMS/Vista Imaging compatibility?

Windows

9 C.9

Conditions of Contract Services

– Fingerprinting Requirements

What is the typical timeline to obtain VPN credentials and security access post-award?

6-8 weeks

6 C.6.a–b Description of Services – Productivity

Is payment tied to number of visits coded or a fixed hourly rate? Can you clarify how ‘completed actions’ are tracked and validated?

Total completed visits.

SF 1449 /

Pricing Table

Pricing Table – Estimated Usage and Price Per Completed Action

Is there any cap or ceiling on the monthly invoice amount, or can contractors’ invoice for all services rendered within the max estimated usage?

Min – Max visits per solicitation

9 C.9

Conditions of Contract Services

– Fingerprinting Requirements

Is there a required turnaround time for submitting onboarding documents and fingerprints post-award?

1-2 weeks

9 C.9

Conditions of Contract Services

– Fingerprinting Requirements

Will the IHS cover costs for required background checks and fingerprinting?

No.

SF 1449

Block 10

Effective Date of Contract

Is there an anticipated start date for services? TBD

C.6.a–e and C.7

Productivity & Reporting Requirements

Can you clarify the metrics that will be used in the CPARS evaluation—especially around timeliness and accuracy?

Completed coding visits with no corrections.

33 Section L Instructions to Offerors – Volume I

Can we submit resumes for proposed personnel with conditional language (i.e., contingent on award)?

No.

5 C.1.a Scope of Work – Estimated Staffing

If we propose fewer than 4 coders (e.g., 2), will our quote still be considered responsive?

No

B – subsecti on 6

GENERAL

CONTRACT

INFORMATION/

Schedule of Charges (table)

Please define what a completed action is?

Completed visit coded accurately and ready for billing.

SECTION

M -

EVALUTI

ON

FACTORS

FOR

AWARD

3. Past Performance Assessment.

Can we submit CPARS in lieu of past performance survey?

What does charges mean? Is that the amount of charts? Please explain.

The schedule of charges refers to the detailed outline of costs associated with the delivery or performance of a contract.

6 6e Productivity

We interpret “This includes abstracting information to reflect the treatment received, identify secondary complications and comorbidity conditions, while sequencing codes with coding principles and conventions to accurately reflect services received by a patient.” to mean the coders will utilize the provider documentation to correctly identify ICD-10, CPT, HCPCS diagnostic, procedural codes with modifiers, as well as proper sequencing of the primary diagnosis, is this correct? Is this a targeted review or a full code capture?

Yes, full code capture.

6 6f Reporting requirements

Please clarify this statement “This includes verifying the dates of services, location of services, taking appropriate steps to modify, merge, delete or create files to reflect accurate patient care visits.”

What is meant by merging, deleting, and creating files? We interpret this to mean reviewing the medical or patient records and validating the pertinent patient identifiers to determine if any discrepancies exist. If so, those are noted and anything missing would be updated/corrected by either create/modify/delete/merge of the patient information into RPMS/ EHR program, is this correct? Is the expectation for a contract coder make unsupervised change to EHR records?

modify-inaccurate codes no-creation of files will not be performed.

7 7b Reporting requirements

Please clarify this statement “The Contract coders shall also recommend appropriate modifications to include specificity/clarification of documentation, justification of medical necessity and adherence to correct coding policy under the Correct Coding Initiative (CCI), facility policy and regulatory requirements. “Does this mean the coder will review the provider documentation and identify any possible discrepancies or inconsistencies and will request further clarity directly from the provider to assist in accurate coding and provider education? We also interpret coders will not provide clinical recommendations as it is non-compliant with coding guidelines.

Will the coding backlog and/or current workload include Dental encounters?

Will the coding backlog and/or current workload include Hospitalizations, Deliveries, and Day Surgeries, in addition to Outpatient services?

If coders are coding both inpatient and outpatient, the productivity metric varies widely depending on the healthcare setting, the complexity of cases, and the coding systems used. Will the minimum and maximum visits expected to be coded be different for inpatient and outpatient visits?

Outpatient visits only.

What is the estimated volume of the coding backlog?

37,900 PLUS.

Will the DXV Report be generated based on visits marked as “reviewed/completed,” or will it include “all visits regardless of coding status”?

reviewed/completed

How is the term “per action” defined within the scope of this solicitation? Does it include the following activities?

o Merging of encounters o Marking encounters as incomplete or requiring follow-up o Moving ancillary data o Reviewing encounters with no changes made o Reviewing encounters with no changes made

Or is “per action” limited solely to visits that are coded and completed?

Completed will include all these actions.

The previous solicitation for this facility was hourly and not “per action”. What caused the change?

Productivity.