Section_J-Attachment_H.4_Sample_list_ACA_Open_Enrollment_Activity_Attachment-20160916-1.pdf

TIRNO-16-R-00026 IEP 1.5

SECTION J-ATTACHMENT H.4 Sample List ACA Open Enrollment Support Activity Support

Sample ACA Open Enrollment Activity Attachment

This is a sample list of open enrollment readiness activities and open enrollment activities accumulated to as of 2016.

Contractor is required to conduct the following Open Enrollment activities:

Support Peak Open Enrollment periods as defined in IRS/CMS Service Level Agreement and as dictated by IRS ACA program.

Preparation for increased traffic from external submissions must be planned and reportable to the IRS program office. All IEP ACA environments are in scope during these crucial periods.

Dedicated staff participates in the execution of Inter-agency testing sessions prior to open enrollment periods. This testing is conducted with external partner CMS through IEP ACA environments to the IRS backend. Scheduling is dictated by IRS and CMS.

Dedicated staff participates in the preparation and execution of Interagency Performance testing involving end to end testing with CMS through IEP ACA to IRS backend performance environment. Scheduling is dictated by IRS and CMS.

Prior to testing and before production readiness, perform any configuration changes needed by IEP or CMS (i.e. endpoints, ports, private keys and connection settings).

Prior to testing perform any schema updates provided by the IRS ACA program.

Prior to testing ensure WSDL conformity validation is current.

Maintain and update error codes and error handling libraries.

Security Certificate management is priority in preparation for Peak Period Readiness. No certificate expiration will be allowed and must be immediately addressed if the need arises.

Support TLS Protocol version configuration updates to support integration with CMS and IRS backend systems. Support emergency change required to avoid connectivity issues will be addressed immediately to restore service.

Maintain connectivity between CMS, IEP ACA and IRS as a crucial priority during peak open enrollment seasons.

Conduct 24x7 monitoring of critical ACA functionality during peak enrollment periods.

Design health checks to immediately detect transaction throughput or connectivity errors and preclude any disruption in service and report to IRS.

Support IRS End-to-End monitoring platform integration with IEP ACA, defining thresholds and reporting.

Support open season control room with staff physically available at the locations agreed to by IRS.

Provide resources to participate in daily operational standup calls during IEP ACA peak enrollment periods.

Provide dedicated Service Desk support for Bulk Peak Hours.

Provide peak period metrics reporting to IRS program management as defined in collaboration with IRS managers using both COTS tool reporting capabilities and existing IEP ACA reporting platform.

Support Incident Management and Trouble Ticket resolution as defined by IRS KISAM standards.

Submit and respond to change request using a Change Management process integrated with IRS internal processes.

Support disaster recovery to avoid an event occurring during peak period.

Below table lists a few planned service targets for 2016-2017 for reference.

Target ACA

Peak Enrollment Periods Open Enrollment: 11/1/2016- 1/31/2017

Information Returns Filling Season: 01/30/2016 – 06/30/2016

Peak Hours Transactional: Mon-Fri: 12:00AM to 11:59PM; Sat: 08:00 AM-11:59 PM

Bulk (Bulk): Mon-Fri 12:00AM to 03:00AM; Sat: 12:00AM to 07:00AM

Downtime (Planned

Maintenance)

Downtime Sun 12:00 AM – 7:00AM (if required)