VISN-wide Open-Continuous-NHC

This is a SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE only. Responses to this notice will be used for information and planning purposes. No proposals are being requested or accepted with this notice. THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION FOR PROPOSALS AND NO CONTRACT SHALL BE AWARDED FROM THIS NOTICE. This notice shall not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation on the part of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Responses to this sources sought is not a request to be added to a prospective bidders list or to receive a copy of the solicitation.

The Department of Veteran Affairs, Veteran Health Administration, Network Contracting Office, Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 15 is conducting market research to identify qualified firms capable of providing community nursing home care services to qualified veterans in the VISN15 area which includes the states of Kansas, Missouri, a portion of Southern Illinois, and small sections of Indiana and Kentucky in the Tri-State area (see map: http://www.visn15.va.gov/v15/sites cboc map.asp .

NAICS Code 623110 (Nursing Care Facilities) with a small business size standard of $25.5M will be utilized. Any firm interested in proposals must be licensed by their respective states and must be Medicare/Medicaid qualified.

Qualified firms would be able to provide community nursing home care services for qualified veterans serviced by VA facilities located throughout the VISN 15 area of responsibility. The existing VA owned nursing home capacity is extremely limited and insufficient to care for the large veteran population within VISN 15. In addition, projected number of veterans requiring nursing home care services is expected to increase significantly in the next 20 years due to aging population.

Resource Utilization Group (RUG) IV rates will be established through negotiations based on the facility's Medicaid rate plus. Care will be in accordance with the RUG IV case-mix, the industry standard. RUG-IV defines patients for clinical and reimbursement purposes. This system utilized information from the Minimum Data Set, Version 3.0 (MDS-3) assessment to classify Skilled Nursing Facility residents into a series of groups representing the resident's relative direct care resource requirement. Medicaid and Medicare qualified facilities will be required to comply with 42 USC, § 1396R.



Placements will be made in contract facilities based on availability of facilities, veteran health needs, and the desires of the veterans and their respective families. Because it is impossible to determine actual usage of any particular contract facility, the VA uses Basic Order Agreements with no guaranteed minimums. Suitable community organizations to provide community nursing home care services generally will require:



" Assessment of need with consideration of relevant veteran population in specific areas and number of existing Agreements already serving those areas.

" Distance of contract facility from area of consideration.

" Number of available beds.

" Nursing Home Compare rating of Average (3 stars) in each of the three areas of review.

" Current State License

" Prospective Contractor must have current registration in System For Award Management (SAM).

" Prospective Contractor must have a current professional liability policy in the amount of $1,000,000 prior to award

" Prospective Contractor must submit a completed VA Form 10-1170, "Application for Furnishing Long-Term Care" prior to consideration for award.

" Prospective Contractor must pass a VA exclusion review (fire safety, general safety, and compliance review conducted by VA personnel) prior to award

Offerors having the capabilities necessary to provide the above stated services are invited to provide information to contribute to this Sources Sought notice including commercial market information and company information via e-mail to Grace Windler at grace.windler@va.gov no later than December 26, 2013. Offerors are strongly encouraged to register in the SAM Database at https://www.sam.gov . Registration in SAM is required prior to award of any Federal contracts. Please note there is no charge to register in SAM. Any website requesting payment is not the correct website.

RESPONSES SHOULD INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION: company name, address, point of contact, phone number, e-mail address and business size/socio-economic classification. Any questions or concerns may also be directed to Grace Windler via e-mail.

CONTRACTING OFFICE ADDRESS: Department of Veteran Affairs, Network Contracting Office (NCO15), 3450 South 4th Street Trafficway, Leavenworth, Kansas 66048-5014.