MEDICAL CODING HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT CODING
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SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE ( SSN )
36C10G-20-Q-0007
MEDICAL CODING
HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT CODING
THIS IS A SSN ONLY to identify sources that can provide the required services to meet the needs as identified herein. Please see FAR 5.201(c), FAR 19.501(c), and FAR subpart 7.3 for general information. This is a follow-up to SSN 36C10G-19-Q-0089 and 36C10G-19-Q-0107. Because of the delay in time from the aforementioned SSN to the anticipatory solicitation release date, and refined Market Research, the United States Government ( USG ) seeks updated and additional information. Interested sources shall indicate that they are capable of providing the required services (medical coding services) and must answer the below eight (8) items. This information is being sought to determine the medical coding industry base and possible socio-economic set-asides, if any:
(1) Full name and address of the firm;
(2) DUNs number;
(3) Size status (i.e., large business, small business, 8(a), HUBZone, service disabled veteran owned small business (SDVOSB));
(4) Self-verification of firm status, e.g., SB or SDVOSB, et cet.;
(5) Gross dollars in Federal Contracts for FY2017, 2018, and 2019 regardless if cash accounting or accrual accounting method of accounting is used and a breakdown of those dollars as prime contractor or sub-contractor;
(6) Whether or not your firm currently has in excess of 100 full-time, medical coders who are W-2 employees for the preceding, consecutive 12 months (September 1, 2018 to September 1, 2019; and full time employee is defined as 40 hours per week for 52 weeks per year);
(7) Whether or not your firm has the current capitalization to pay the equivalent of the total, combined monthly payroll for at least 100 full-time medical coders who are W-2 employees for at least six (6) consecutive months; and,
(8) Whether or not your firm has, at a minimum, the ability to document at least 3 million encounters with a minimum accuracy rate of 95% or better during FY2019 or FY2018, or both (vendors shall breakdown this 3M threshold as either achieved in FY2018 or FY2019, or it is a combined total for those two years).
Item #5 shall be in an excel spreadsheet in any format as long as the USG can easily understand the data and columns are clearly labeled, et cet.
Items #6 and 7 require solely a yes or no answers to those questions. Please do not submit anything other than a yes or no answer for these two questions.
Item #8 requires a yes or no answer along with a simple chart or sentence which states the number of encounters for FY2018 and/or FY2019 and whether or not your firm can document at least 3M encounters with a 95% or better accuracy rate during those periods.
No other information is required at this time. DO NOT SUBMIT A NARRATIVE, PROPOSAL, BROCHURES OR ANY ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AT THIS TIME.
The information provided in this SSN is subject to change and is not binding on the USG. This SSN is issued solely for informational, planning purposes, and a tool for market research findings it does not constitute a Request for Quote ( RFQ ) or a promise to issue an RFQ in the future. The U.S. Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this SSN; all costs associated with responding to this SSN will be solely at the interested party s expense. If a solicitation is released, a decision will be made to issue the same competitively or sole sourced and whether or not there will be any set-asides.
All responses are due no later than October 30, 2019, (Wednesday) by 5 PM EST. Vendors shall send their submissions to:
Mark Blevins at Mark.Blevins2@VA.Gov
Contracting Officer, Procurement Division 7-C
And
James Modlin at James.Modlin@Va.Gov
Contract Specialist, Procurement Division 7-C
Strategic Acquisition Center (SAC)
Office of Procurement, Acquisition and Logistics (OPAL)
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
10300 Spotsylvania Ave, Suite 400
Fredericksburg, VA 22408
Description: North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for Medical Coding is 541219 Other Accounting Services . It falls under Subsector 541 Professional, Scientific and Technical Services. The applicable size standard is $20,500,000 in US Dollars.
Background Information: During FY2015 the SAC awarded six (6) BPAs with 60-month ordering periods in accordance with ( IAW ) FAR Sub-Part 8.4 to six separate contractors who were small businesses and possessed FSS GSA contracts. These BPAs expire during the month of December 2019. The SAC anticipates issuing a solicitation prior to the expiration of the six noted BPAs. Based upon historic data it is evident that portions of the actual coding are being sub-contracted to large businesses. The VA adheres to the Rule of Two analysis in accordance with Kingdomware Technologies, Inc. vs. United States, 579 U.S. B (2016) and 38 U.S.C. B'8127.
Issuing BPAs to small businesses, VOSBs, or SDVOSBs in which those firms simply sub-contract a large portion of that work to large businesses can pose inherent risks and undue costs to the tax payers. VA seeks value for the tax dollars it spends and having a pass-through or straw-man small business creates additional costs and defeats in some measure the policies and goals behind set-asides. Further, current trends appear to suggest firms hire 1099 employees (see www.irs.gov/form1099) to avoid DOL WDs, and/or Executive Orders 13672 13706, and 13788. Alternatively, firms with a very small employee base turn into hiring/recruiting agencies at the time of quote to meet USG solicitations. Limitations on sub-contracting is governed by FAR 52.219-14 (DEV. 2019-o0003) 12/3/2018. Additionally, the SAC has had to engage prime contractor(s) (small businesses) under the current award(s) to ensure the latter paid their sub-contractor(s) (large businesses). These issues, among others, have created substantial risks, costs, and undue administration to the USG. Further, the applicable NAICS Code size standard may necessarily preclude small businesses from these BPAs depending on the number of BPAs awarded.
Medical Coding is a very common commercial service. The scope of VA s anticipatory BPAs is to assign the current HIPAA standard code sets as appropriate, e.g. International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition Clinical Modification and Procedural Coding System; Common Procedural Terminology; and Healthcare Common Procedural Coding System Level II codes based on health record documentation of outpatient, surgical, inpatient care, and inpatient professional services provided at or under the auspices of a Veterans Health Administration facility, to include all Community Based Outpatient Clinics, when applicable, and to conduct coding audits of billable and non-billable inpatient and outpatient episodes of care as requested by a Veterans Health Administration facility.
Questions: Questions regarding this SSN shall only be submitted in writing by e-mail to Mark.Blevins2@VA.Gov and James.Modlin@VA.Gov. It is in the discretion of the contracting officer to respond to any questions. Telephone calls will NOT be accepted.
James A Modlin
Contract Specialist
540.735.3887
james.modlin@va.gov
