Virtual Pharmacy Services

Block 14 Continued

4. The following questions were submitted in response to this RFP; the Government's "Answers" are provided below:

QUESTIONS ANSWERS



May there be an extension the deadline date for proposal submission?

There will NOT be any extension provided for the submission of proposals.



Is there a required minimum unit price for roll over orders or will those automatically roll into the next month and unit price?

There is NOT a minimum unit price for roll over orders. The roll over orders reset on October 1 of each contract year.



Is there an inclusion of training hours for additional pharmacist personnel that may need VISTA training?



A basic SOP (e.g., an outline of how to process an inpatient order or an outpatient script and how to flag/what to do if there is an issue) will be available to assist in process and decision making. Assistance will be provided in training a limited number of staff members (e.g. 1 or 2 pharmacists) prior to the implementation of the contract.





Is there an opportunity for training for the outpatient prescription processing for the Wilkes-Barre VAMC?



Assistance will be provided in training a limited number of staff members (e.g. 1 or 2 pharmacists) prior to the implementation of the contract.





What will the ramp up time be once the contract is awarded?



Ramp up time has been included in the estimated award date.



Is there a VA standard range for Virtual Pharmacy number of orders processed per hour and the rate per order?



There is NOT a VA standard.





How many pharmacists are currently processing orders for the VAMC Wilkes-Barre (1500 inpatient and 19700 outpatient per month)?

That information is not available at this time. The anticipated number of monthly orders for each station is provided. Staff needs can be based according to the anticipated number of monthly orders.





Does the 19700 outpatient order for the VAMC WB include both new orders and refill requests?

New orders and renewal orders (i.e., a new prescription order that is a copy of an old prescription order after it ran out of refills). Refills will not be processed by this contract.





Is it correct to assume that the maximum value of the contract stated in the bid, which is $2,784,047.11, does not include the 19700 outpatient orders for the VAMC Wilkes-Barre?



It would be safe to assume that it DOES include the 19,700 orders. It is included per the IGCE. We estimated the outpatient orders at $1/order.





On the outpatient in the VAMC Wilkes-Barre, what is the volume of orders on Saturday's and Sunday's?



According to mail-out prescriptions processed by pharmacists' from Wilkes-Barre in fiscal year 2015, the daily average per day is as follows:

" Sunday - 124

" Monday - 870

" Tuesday - 1,148

" Wednesday - 1,012

" Thursday - 996

" Friday - 735

" Saturday - 231





5. Offerors are reminded "Failure to acknowledge receipt of this amendment may result in rejection of your offer.

Block 14 Continued

3. Reference page 19; the schedule in "The Requirements for Wilkes-Barre VAMC" has changed to read:

ITEM NUMBER DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES QUANTITY UNIT UNIT PRICE AMOUNT

0001 Base Fee (includes up to 1500 inpatient orders per month)

POP: Date of Award

POP: 09-30-2020 12.00 MO __________________ __________________

0002 Usage Fee (for all inpatient orders exceeding 1500 orders per month)

POP: Date of Award

POP: 09-30-2020 0.00 EA __________________ __________________

0003 Base Fee (includes up to 19700 outpatient orders per month)

POP: Date of Award

POP: 09-30-2020 12.00 MO

0004 Usage Fee (for all outpatient orders exceeding 19700 orders per month)

POP: Date of Award

POP: 09-30-2020 0.00 EA

0005 Roll Over Orders

POP: Date of Award

POP: 09-30-2020 0.00 EA __________________ __________________



4. The period of performance (POP) in section B.5 Price/Cost Schedule (Pages 13-21) of the solicitation reads "POP: 10-01-2015 to POP: 09-30-2020." The Period of Performance will now read "DATE OF AWARD to 09-30-2020."

?

5. The following questions were submitted in response to this RFP; the Government's "Answers" are provided below:

QUESTIONS ANSWERS

Roll Over Orders: Would you please clarify how you would like to enter as unit price and amount? Will the order roll over every month? Or it will roll over throughout the year?

Orders will roll over month to month within each year of the contract. The monthly estimates are each VAMC's "best estimate" of workload to inform vendors of an expected number of orders; however to ensure VAMCs get all the orders that they pay for (i.e., if we're paying for 1500 orders a month, and only use 1400 orders, the remaining 100 orders for that specific VAMC will roll over to the next month giving 1500 + 100 = 1600 total orders paid for). As workload varies, this was thought to be the most equitable solution. Each year is handled separately; the rolled over orders will reset annually. (Page 13)

Is there a pricing expectation for roll over order?

There are potential for overage charges, but if sites are able to bank unused orders and roll them over monthly, then those additional fees are significantly less likely in later months each contract year. Price accordingly.

For Wilkes-Barre VAMC, it stated has both inpatient and outpatient coverage. The based fee includes up to 1500 orders per month. I would like to clarify the following:



1. 1500 orders are for inpatient orders per month only?

2. If 1500 orders are just for inpatient order, what is the estimate outpatient order workload per month?

3. If outpatient orders are separate, where should I enter the price per unit order for outpatient?

4. Outpatient orders consider as CMOP orders, IMO orders, or ER orders?

1. Yes, 1500 orders a month are for inpatient only.



2. The estimate amount of outpatient orders per month is 19,700.



3. The updated schedule for Wilkes-Barre VAMC is included with the answers to questions found in Amendment A00001.



4. Outpatient orders would be prescription orders entered into the outpatient package only (no IMO, no ER) with the routing of MAIL. There is a VistA option called Complete Orders from OERR which allows a pharmacist to select outpatient pending prescription orders by routing. The Contractor's pharmacist would select by MAIL routing and would be able to process orders out of this queue.

The bid lists 7 VA Centers. Please confirm that the pharmacy must service ALL 7 centers. And if that is the case, does the pharmacy have to be licensed in all states where the centers are located?

The awarded Contractor must service all 7 medical centers. A pharmacist license in good standing from any state would be required for contract pharmacists, but pharmacists would not have to be licensed in each state served. As VHA pharmacists are Federal and Contractors provide services within the VHA system, specific state licensure requirements are not applicable.

The instrument provided (D.3 THE PAST PERFORMANCE SURVEY) for the pharmacy to provide references, doesn't appear to have an area for the referring party to identify the Pharmacy. How would you like the Pharmacy to be identified?

All emails that I have received with surveys have identified the surveyed Pharmacy in the subject line of the email, and the sender has signature blocks. This method works for me and I can continue to separate according to the current practice. Any additional information that is necessary to identify, as far as whom the survey is from or for can be annotated by the signature block of the survey.



The VA in Wilkes-Barre lists inpatient as well as outpatient needs. Does the 1500 orders per month estimate include both inpatient and outpatient orders? 1500 orders are for inpatient. There will be 19,700 estimated outpatient orders per month.



6. The HOUR and DATE proposals are due remains unchanged at December 11, 2015; 12:00 P.M. E.S.T.

7. Offerors are reminded "Failure to acknowledge receipt of this amendment may result in rejection of your offer.

1. Pre-Proposal Questions: ALL questions and inquiries regarding the solicitation shall be submitted in writing to Bruce Jackson II by e-mail to Bruce.Jackson5@va.gov no later than December 4, 2015 (12:00 p.m. EST).



2. Electronic Proposal Submission: ALL offers shall be submitted electronically via email to Bruce.Jackson5@va.gov and must be submitted on or before the offer due date (Standard Form 1449; block 8). The VAPHS e-mail size limit is 5MB, so if your documents are larger than 5MB, it will be necessary for you to separate into smaller sized documents and transmits the documents in more than one e-mail. Late offers will not be accepted.