IHS Drug Information and Pricing Database and Decision Support Tools

Added: Jul 15, 2015 3:25 pm This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts or quotations. All responses may be used for market analysis in determining the availability of potential qualified businesses for the purposes of determining an appropriate acquisition strategy.
The Indian Health Service (IHS) Division of Acquisition Policy (DAP) intends to award a contract to First DataBank for continuity of support services. DAP will utilize acquisition procedures under the authority of FAR Part 6.302-2 "Unusual and Compelling" for the Indian Health Service. This notice of intent to award is not a request for competitive proposals. The purpose of this notice is merely to obtain capability statements to allow interested firms an opportunity to demonstrate their qualifications for the standards below.
Project Background:
This special notice is for IT services to support proprietary drug information and drug pricing updates required to maintain current information in RPMS pharmacy package and Electronic Health Records.
Historically, this acquisition has been an optional task of the VA's contract #VA118-14-C-0012 exercised and funded via an Interagency Agreement. The RPMS system is specifically designed and programmed to utilize proprietary licensed information from FDB via RPMS software patches obtained from the VA and directly from FDB data transfer.

Maintaining current, up-to-date drug information is critical to patient safety and revenue generation. Drug information data is used to update automated checks within the RPMS pharmacy package and EHR for patient allergies to medications as well as drug-drug interactions and duplicate drug therapy. Pricing updates are utilized by pharmacy billing software to send current prices to insurance companies to maximize revenue generation and prevent fraudulent billing. Additionally, updates to FDA-required Patient Medication Information Sheets (PMIS), auxiliary warning labels for patient medication bottles, and max dosage order checks are provided.

RPMS drug file and pricing update mechanisms have been uniquely programmed by IHS and VA to utilize specific updates as provided by FDB. Failure to update drug information and pricing would lead to undesired risk to patient safety, risk of fraudulent billing, and negative impact on revenue generation.
Market research has been conducted. Companies identified in the market research resulted in changes that would be costly to implement; possibly with costs exceeding the cost of the actual purchases. In addition, these changes would take approximately 2.5 years to accomplish which would put the Indian Health Service at risk of failing to support the core mission.
This procurement action is to allow the continuation of the current project. Interested concerns may identify their interest and submit a capability statement that demonstrates their ability to provide the services required in the timeframe required. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. THIS NOTICE IS NOT A REQUEST FOR COMPETITIVE PROPOSALS. NO SOLICITATION IS AVAILABLE; THEREFORE, REQUEST OF SUCH DOCUMENT WILL BE CONSIDERED INVALID RESPONSES. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed requirement is solely within the discretion of the Government. If no affirmative responses are received within 7 days from the date of this notice, the Contracting Officer will proceed with issuance of an award to First Databank under the authority of 41 United States Code (U.S.C.) 253(c)(1) as set forth in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-2.
Qualified firms must also include the following information
a. DUNS.
b. Company Name.
c. Company Address.
d. Current GSA Schedules appropriate to this Award.
e. Do you have a Government approved accounting system? If so, please identify the agency that approved the system.
f. Type of Company (i.e., small business, 8(a), woman owned, veteran owned, etc.) as validated via the Central Contractor Registration (CCR). All offerors must register on the CCR located at http://www.ccr.gov/index.asp
g. Company Point of Contact, Phone and Email address
All responses are due to the Contract Specialist NLT Wednesday, July 22, 2015 3:00PM (EST). Capability statements should be e-mailed directly to the Primary Point of Contacts (POC) listed below. SUBMISSIONS WILL ONLY BE ACCEPTED VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL. No telephone calls will be accepted. Capability statements will not be returned and will not be accepted after the due date. The maximum number of pages for submission is three (3) pages. If no capability statements are received which specifically demonstrate the requirements above, the Government shall proceed with a contract to:
First Databank
500 E. 96th Street, Suite 500
Indianapolis, IN 46240

Disclaimer and Important Notes: This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract. Any information provided by industry to the Government as a result of notice is strictly voluntary. Responses will not be returned. No entitlements to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges to the Government will arise as a result of contractor submission of responses or the Government's use of such information 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 to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work. Respondents must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM).

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. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published on a government GPE. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.

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).