Request for Information (RFI): IHS Healthcare Leadership and Management Support Contract

Request for Information: IHS Healthcare Leadership and Management Support Contract

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

Indian Health Service (IHS)

Office of Quality (OQ)

The Indian Health Service (IHS), Division of Acquisition Policy (DAP) is issuing a Request for Information (RFI) to support the Office of Quality (OQ). This RFI is issued solely for informational and planning purposes. This is not a Request for Proposal (RFP) and shall not be considered an Invitation for Bid (IB), or Request for Quotation (RFQ). Additionally, there is no obligation on the part of IHS to acquire any products or services described in this RFI, nor are responders entitled to payment for direct or indirect costs that are incurred in responding to this RFI.

Responders must also understand that a solicitation is not being issued at this time, and this notice shall not be construed as a commitment by IHS to issue a solicitation, nor does it restrict IHS to a particular acquisition approach. Any information provided by industry to IHS as a result of this RFI is strictly voluntary, responses will not be returned, nor will IHS reimburse for the information submitted. While the information obtained from industry responses to this RFI may be used for planning purposes, and/or in the development of an acquisition strategy and future RFP, there is no guarantee that any solicitations will result from this notice. No funds have been authorized, appropriated or received for this effort. Responders are responsible for sufficiently annotating proprietary, restricted or competition-sensitive information contained in their response.

I.  Introduction / Background

The Indian Health Service (IHS) provides ambulatory health services to Tribal nations across the United States. The user population is approximately 2.56 million American Indians and Alaska Natives. These primary, specialty, oral health, and inpatient behavioral health services occur in 24 hospitals, 51 ambulatory health care centers, and 6 Youth Regional Treatment Centers (YRTCs provide behavioral health inpatient services). IHS healthcare facilities are accredited and/or certified to incentivize delivering high-quality, safe, evidence-based care and support third-party billing for eligible patients. IHS’s mission is “to raise the physical, mental, social, and spiritual health of American Indians and Alaska Natives to the highest level.”

The IHS has experienced issues maintaining accreditation and quality of care at individual facilities, resulting in losing facility accreditation or the threat of loss. To address these issues, IHS has utilized site-by-site contract support and various strategies to support facility leadership in ensuring they can meet IHS’s mission. While positive results have been achieved, a more comprehensive approach with an agency wide contract vehicle prepared in advance of accreditation issues being identified is essential to more effectively addressing problems when identified and ensuring that a mechanism for ongoing support and engagement is available to ensure Facility, Area, and Headquarters can maintain the highest medical quality standard.

II. Anticipated Outcome / Objectives

The IHS seeks to establish an Agencywide Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) type contract to provide expertise in the areas of hospital leadership mentoring, including the executive team (C-suite), support maintenance of The Joint Commission (TJC) accreditation standards and elements of performance (EPs) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Conditions of Participation (CoP) within the Indian Health Service (IHS) system, and provide development of organizational gap analysis to improve and sustain hospital accreditation and compliance with CoPs, including, but not limited to leadership and governance, infection prevention and control, patient safety, plant facility safety (environment of care and life safety standards) the credentialing and privileging, nursing, laboratory, radiology and Quality Assessment and Performance Improvement (QAPI) functions, according to accreditation standards and EPs and CoPs (further referred to as accreditation support).

Specifically, under an established IDIQ, the IHS would like to respond to the need of services via the issuance of task orders consisting of onsite support composed of approximately two (2) to three (3) full-time staff equivalents engaged full-time at each site, with specialist support available to provide expertise on a more limited basis for each engagement.

Attached to this RFI for industry review, comment and questions, is a draft copy of the IHS Performance Work Statement (PWS) “IHS-25-RFI-DraftPWS-1493358” and anticipated labor categories “IHS-25-RFI-DraftLC-1493358”.

III. Specific Questions

RFI respondent’s input is solicited to the following questions below related to the above introduction and draft documentation, along with your experiences. Based on the services, products, and/or solutions your company offers, you are encouraged to first focus on the questions that highlight what you do best, then answer any others to the best of your ability where it makes sense and each response must identify its respective question. It is also understood that respondents may not have answers to each and every question.

1. What commercial solutions are available, if any, at fixed prices- and what input would be required from the Government to provide accurate pricing under this method?
2. What labor categories are typically utilized for the completion of these services?
3. What input/details have been most useful when developing level of effort/number of hours required to complete work in the task areas included? 3a.Based on your previous experiences, what information is useful when developing travel related pricing?
4. What has your experience been with the roles and responsibilities, for both the contractor and the Government when providing these services?
5. What has your experience been in regards to the need for meetings with the Government (i.e., weekly, bi-weekly, etc.)?
6. What milestones are typical for the work described in the task areas? 
7. What deliverables are typical for the work described in the task areas?
8. Does industry anticipate that regional pricing/rates are applicable to this requirement?
9. What recommendations does your organization have regarding providing/obtaining technical assistance to establish or manage system-wide or facility-specific quality improvement programs for a rural hospital or health care system that serves underserved and diverse populations?

IV. Instructions for Submission

RFI respondents are encouraged to provide responses and comments to all or a portion of the questions above, general feedback and recommendations related to this request are also welcome. Questions can be answered either sequentially and/or annotated throughout your responses. Responses and comments may be utilized in the development of additions or modification to future draft RFP(s). Responses to the RFI must be submitted with the subject header ‘IHS-25-RFI-1493358’ and ‘your company’s name’ to Christopher.McGucken@ihs.gov on or before February 12th, 2025 by 4:30 PM Eastern Time. No verbal responses will be accepted. Email responses should not exceed 25MB in size nor exceed a page count of 20 pages. Proprietary information may be submitted; however, RFI respondents are responsible for adequately marking proprietary, restricted or competition sensitive information contained in their response. All submissions will be protected from disclosure outside of the Program Office.