HRSA Technical Assistance IDIQ

SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE

Agency/Office: HHS/HRSA/OAMP
Contracting Office Location: 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857
Title: Health Resources and Services Administration Technical Assistance
IDIQ
NAICS Code: 541611 - Administrative Management and General Management
Consulting Services
Incumbent: DS Federal, Inc.; The Bizzell Group, LLC; Management Strategists
Consulting Group, LLC
Response Due Date: January 4, 2019

This is a SMALL BUSINESS SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE (hereafter referred to as "notice) issued for the purpose of planning and market research. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations and this does not obligate the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to award a contract now or in the future.

The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding the availability and capability of qualified small businesses only (including 8(a), service-disabled-veteran-owned-small business (SDVOSB), Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) small business, small disadvantaged business (SDB), veteran-owned small business (VOSB), and women-owned small business (WOSB) to provide technical assistance to federal clients, grantees, and grantee-like entities.

This sources sought is seeking responses from small businesses from the following source:

• All sources.

No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this announcement and any follow-up information requests. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the capability assessment. All information submitted in response to this announcement must arrive on or before the closing date.

THIS IS STRICTLY MARKET RESEARCH. HRSA WILL NOT RESPOND TO QUESTIONS REGARDING THE RESULTS OF THIS MARKET RESEARCH. REQUESTS FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION WILL NOT BE PROVIDED.

Background

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and is the primary Federal agency for improving access to health care services for people who are uninsured, isolated or medically vulnerable. The mission of HRSA is to improve health and achieve health equity through access to quality health services, a skilled health workforce and innovative programs. HRSA's programs assure the availability of quality health care to low income, uninsured, isolated, vulnerable and special needs populations. HRSA funds more than $7 billion in Federal awards on an annual basis. These awards are administered by various programs that work in synergy to improve access to care for the more than 28.5 million Americans who are uninsured, of those 40 million Americans who live in medically underserved areas. Likewise, almost 4 million uninsured Americans live in non-metro/rural areas. In fiscal year 2018, over 1,000 of HRSA's grantees include telehealth as a way of improving access to care. The selection of the best award recipients, HRSA's monitoring and regular assessment of their performance against program requirements and standards, along with the quick deployment of technical assistance measures to support performance improvements, are key factors to assuring HRSA's success with consistently realizing its strategic goals missions.

HRSA understands that the demonstrated compliance with program requirements, by program participants, is key to the long-term success of each program and the Agency. HRSA is committed to recruiting and developing the highest functioning federal workforce, which collectively supports a culture of continuous quality improvement through innovation. As such, HRSA invests in a variety of developmental, operational, and consultative technical assistance services for its program stakeholders and federal partners. HRSA is committed to regularly assessing the effectiveness of its programs, through a variety of activities, including timely data and systems analysis, assessments of emerging health policy issues and their impacts on the health of underserved Americans.

Project Requirements

The purpose of this Indefinite-Delivery-Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) requirement is to provide a contracting mechanism in support of various Bureaus and Offices within the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

The Contractor shall be required to provide technical assistance in a range of areas. This includes providing Technical Assistance (TA) for:
• Health Centers;
• National Cooperative Agreements;
• State/regional Primary Care Associations;
• Health Center Controlled Networks;
• Health Center Program Look-Alikes;
• state agencies and local programs addressing the health and public health needs of women and children (including children with special health care needs);
• state agencies and local programs addressing the early learning needs of very young children;
• high-level state leaders who run large state-wide public health programs
• universities/academic institutions;
• rural community-based programs;
• rural public health departments;
• Critical Access Hospitals/small rural hospitals;
• health care providers;
• health care clinicians;
• AIDS service organizations;
• federal staff; and
• grant awardees/recipients.

The TA provided under this IDIQ would be in response to the specific needs of HRSA programs. This may include:
• the development of written materials, including program-related protocols;
• assisting with organizational needs;
• administrative needs;
• fiscal/federal grants management needs;
• training of HRSA staff and programs on various topics;
• improving internal systems;
• assessing and assisting in targeted program areas;
• developing and improving internal management systems;
• planning and conducting high-quality evaluations;
• collecting, aggregating, and reporting performance data;
• developing and disseminating strategies for quality improvement practices;
• peer-to-peer training;
• coordination and facilitation of webinars;
• focus groups;
• outreach efforts;
• sustainability;
• the development of training and education materials to improve access to health care for medically underserved and vulnerable populations;
• phone consultations;
• site visits;
• virtual consultations;
• note-taking/transcription services;
• report writing;
• quality assurance consultation;
• analysis and dissemination of evidence-based practices for health care delivery; and
• quality improvement recommendations.

The contractor shall have staff and subject matter expert consultants qualified and experienced in a range of specialty areas. The contractor shall have and maintain a roster of consultants that are geographically, racially/ethnically, and linguistically diverse as well as represent a range of expertise.
The contractor shall provide all personnel, materials, facilities, services, and equipment necessary for the performance of work.

Capability Statements

In response to this Sources Sought Notice, HRSA is seeking capability statements from small businesses who can demonstrate experience in providing technical assistance to federal and non-federal clients, grantees, and grantee-like entities. Capability statements are NOT proposals and do not address price/cost. The contractor community is asked for information by answering the below questions to prove that they have the expertise and capacity to meet the requirements of this work. Respondents should provide enough information for HRSA to make an informed determination of their capability to perform the work. Please provide a list of contract numbers that your organization has had (if applicable), your role on the contract (prime contractor or subcontractor) and the dollar value/percentage of the work performed. If you were a subcontractor on a particular contract, please clarify the work that you did on that contract.

No marketing literature should be submitted in response to this notice. When responding to this notice, vendors must demonstrate their experience in providing technical assistance of a similar capacity and nature for federal clients, grantees, grantee-like entities or similar entities. A mere statement that the vendor has a required capability is not sufficient.

Responses to the listed questions in this notice are required. When answering each of the following questions, vendors must provide specific and detailed examples of work that was performed that demonstrates the required capabilities and the attendant level of effort that was involved. Answers to each question shall be no more than half a page per question.

1. Do you have knowledge, understanding, and experience in applying statutory, regulatory, and sub-regulatory requirements and policies?

2. Do you have applicable programmatic understanding of, and ability to, address the various technical assistance and consultative services described within the project background and requirements including the technical capacity to deliver on site and virtual technical assistance to the various HRSA federal and non-federal clients listed within the project background?
3. Do you have experience assessing the impact of public health programs at the community, county, or state level in congruence with statutory and programmatic requirements?
4. Do you have established collaborative relationships (either formal or informal) with a range of organizations and subcontractors with demonstrable related expertise as described in the background and project requirements?
5. Do you have the ability and experience to implement and administer an electronic feedback process to assess the impact of site visit and technical assistance activities performed?
6. Do you have experience in providing specialty areas of expertise to deliver technical assistance and perform site visits with public health organizations? Are you able to provide technical assistance for site visits, trainings, and/or other technical assistance-related projects?
7. Have you worked with health centers and other safety net providers to provide technical assistance in areas of:
a. work process improvement;
b. management consultation and coaching/monitoring;
c. strategic planning and organizational development support;
d. meeting facilitation;
e. negotiation techniques with constituents and external partners at the national, state, local, and private-sector levels;
f. leadership development and training;
g. development of peer-to-peer learning resources for managers, staff, and health centers to improve programmatic performance and grantee and employee satisfaction; and
h. systems development support?
8. How has your company worked with federal agencies or public health organizations to optimize business processes and procedures of their core operations?
9. Do you have program and project management experience providing high quality universal technical assistance in:
a. developing and implementing universal technical assistance plans based on appropriate data about technical assistance needs;
b. developing high-quality universal technical assistance products, such as webinars, e-newsletters, and written resources, within negotiated time frames;
c. disseminating these high-quality technical assistance products;
d. evaluating technical assistance; and
e. using evaluation results and other feedback to make changes to improve future projects?
10. Do you have experience planning and providing targeted technical assistance to grantees in:
a. systematically identifying annual technical assistance needs for grantees;
b. developing individualized technical assistance plans for states;
c. maintaining a coordinated, collaborative online tracking system for all targeted technical assistance requests across multiple TA partners; and
d. reporting on the status of targeted technical assistance requests ?
11. Do you have the ability and experience to providing recommendations for various project efforts to document, establish and improve the provision of technical assistance to awardees, including the development of an internal continuous quality improvement plan?
12. Do you have experience facilitating dialogues between a broad range of stakeholders with different goals and perspectives (e.g. state agencies, other technical assistance providers)?
13. Do you have experience identifying, developing, maintaining, and/or updating online collaboration tools, and ensuring compliance to federal security standards, such as awardee collaboration portals and technical assistance tracking tools?
14. Do you have subject matter expertise in:
a. evidence-based home visiting,
b. early childhood health,
c. school readiness,
d. domestic violence,
e. child maltreatment,
f. developmental screening,
g. early childhood comprehensive systems,
h. maternal depression,
i. well child and well women care,
j. home visiting models,
k. working with special populations,
l. substance abuse and mental health,
m. fiscal management, or
n. federal grants management?
15. Do you have experience in conducting on-site operational and comprehensive site visits of federal grant awardees to assess awardees' compliance with statutory, administrative, programmatic and fiscal requirements and with the federal grant award or cooperative agreement?
16. Do you have experience identifying challenges and technical assistance needs based on information from the site visit as well as preparing comprehensive site visit reports and recommendations based on the site visit?
17. Do you have experience in the following areas:
a. Identifying best practices and common challenges within a portfolio of evaluations,
b. Identifying ways to disseminate best practices and providing specific technical assistance around common challenges within a portfolio of evaluations,
c. Producing evaluation specific technical assistance tools, webinars, compendiums, and summaries aligned with federal priorities and funding announcements, and
d. Evaluating technical assistance to ensure that the technical assistance is useful and effective for the target audience and developing recommendations to improve the technical assistance.
18. Do you have experience providing technical assistance related to the development and implementation of plans for performance measurements and continuous quality improvements to ensure complete and accurate reporting of grant required performance data in accordance with federal guidance?
19. Do you have experience administering technical assistance in distance learning technologies and online collaboration technology, implementation strategies to foster sharing of best practices, communication and dissemination of evidence-based or evidence-informed practices, continuing education, strategic collaboration, and dissemination of scientific findings?
20. Do you have experience developing and presenting webinars that provide technical assistance, training and disseminate maternal child health advances to meet the needs of the maternal child health field?
21. Do you have experience with providing technical support and expertise for program innovation and development activities such as securing technical expertise and logistical support for special topical working groups and/or peer learning collaborative meetings?
22. Do you have experience with data analysis for planning and accountability such as establishing baseline indicators, analyzing performance indicators, and monitoring and reporting on the progress and impact of federal programs?
23. Do you have experience with implementing communication strategies, including creating vehicles for synthesis, translation and dissemination of program findings and information.
24. Do you have organizational experience providing technical assistance to:
a. rural public health program(s);
b. rural health community based organizations;
c. behavioral health organizations in a rural health care setting;
d. Medicare-certified Rural Health Clinics, Critical Access and Small Rural Hospitals;
e. State Offices of Rural Health;
f. organizations addressing rural opioid crisis; or
g. rural telehealth organizations.
25. Do you have organizational experience in developing adaptive technical assistance focusing on a strategic approach to program implementation, building capacity and short/long-term sustainability approaches?
26. Do you have experience hosting group technical assistance reverse site visits and providing technical assistance for a program cohort of grantees? If so, does this experience include instances in which the focus area changed from year to year?
27. Do you have experience providing technical assistance that:
a. allows for in-person extended dialogue with the participants and subject matter experts?
b. focuses on implementation of evidence-based models, analysis of evaluation or other types of data for program improvement or strategies for improved network partner collaboration?
c. provides topic options, an agenda, a plan for registration, and a description of proposed follow-up?
28. Do you have experience convening on-site state-level grantees and community-based rural health grantees to provide and address an emerging behavioral health/primary care integration issue of mutual importance or emerging rural health care policy changes?
29. Do you have the capacity and experience to provide technical assistance services to support more than 250 rural health grantees?
30. Do you have experience managing a cohort of grantees with different areas of focus and customizing technical assistance in a quick and efficient manner for rural health grantees?
31. Do you have experience and expert understanding of rural health care issues such as reimbursement mechanisms?
32. Does your organization have capacity to address emerging priorities of the Administration and rural health topics? Please explain your approach.
33. Do you have experience with rural telehealth technology and policy?
34. Do you have experience in providing technical assistance in the development, operation, or procurement of rural telehealth service delivery mechanisms?
35. Do you have expert knowledge of Federal health data, statistical systems, and experience presenting data in various formats?
36. Do you have the ability and experience to perform the following:
a. provide technical and administrative support in the development of manuals, studies, analyses, and reports;
b. research and develop resources on a wide range of areas such as needs assessments, performance standards, and sustainability plans ;
c. study and analyze current trends and issues;
d. study and analyze current advances in network organizational practices and trends in health policies; and
e. advise on program management enhancements.
37. In a rural health context, do you have the experience to
a. develop written materials on rural health issues,
b. assist with rural organizational and administrative needs,
c. train on various topics affecting rural areas and providers,
d. improve internal systems,
e. assess and assist in targeted program areas,
f. develop and improve internal management systems,
g. conduct peer-to-peer training,
h. coordinate and facilitate webinars,
i. coutreach efforts, and
j. advise on program sustainability for rural community health grantees and rural health grantee cohorts?
38. Do you have program and project management experience developing and operationalizing
a. health programs; working with various learning management platforms and collaboratives, including one-to-one and group virtual and onsite training, webinars, engagement calls, and linkage to resources to enhance and strengthen grantees' knowledge, skills, and expertise in training health professional workforce development programs; and
b. needs assessments to identify state and regional training/technical assistance needs to include variances such as geographical location and infrastructure.
39. Do you have the ability and experience with data collection and analysis, technical, scientific, managerial, and leadership capacity and infrastructure to institute and manage a technical assistance program and provide multidisciplinary assistance and training that focuses on research-based topics, program evaluation, efficacy, and sustainability.

Responses Requested

Please submit your responses by 4:00pm EST on January 4, 2019, to Patrick Mauro at PMauro@hrsa.gov in the following format:

• Microsoft Word (or PDF) document with page size 8.5 by 11 inches, with a minimum of 1" margins.
• Times New Roman, font size 12 with single spacing between lines.
• Submission shall not exceed 20 pages and no more than half a page per question. Cover page is not included in the total page count

Respondents are requested to state their capabilities and expertise in clear and concise language. Respondents are strongly encouraged to avoid use of excessive marketing and sales language.

Note: Language in any resultant RFP will require all small businesses to recertify their size status at the submission of proposal. You are not required to respond to this sources sought notice if you cannot recertify your size as small.

Cover Page

Vendors shall include the following Business information on the Cover Page:
a) Sources Sought Notice number, title, and date of issuance
b) DUNS
c) Company Name
d) Company Address
e) Company Point of Contact, Phone and Email address
f) Current GSA Schedules appropriate to this effort
g) Validation of small business status under NAICS: 541519 - Other Government Related Services (Size Standard: $27.5 million). Additional information on NAICS codes can be found at www.sba.gov.

Confidentiality

No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).

Disclaimer and Important Notes
This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed. Information provided will be used to assess alternatives available for the potential requirement and may lead to the development of a solicitation. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted.
Respondents will not be notified of the results of this market research. Capability statements will not be returned, and will not be accepted after the due date for responses.

Teaming Arrangements

Firms seeking to respond to this notice as a team or to rely on subcontractors to perform any portion of the work must include the above-requested information and certifications for each entity on the proposed team or each proposed subcontractor. Responses must clearly indicate the nature of the teaming arrangement.

The contractor and any subcontractors must not have any relationships or arrangements through business operations or its employees that could be considered as possibly lessening the company's objectivity concerning any aspect of the proposed tasks. If such relationships or arrangements exist, contractors or subcontractors shall be required, during the procurement process (if one occurs), to identify potential conflicts of interest and discuss how the conflicts will be addressed and mitigated.

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