Pharmacy Refill Request and Appointment Reminder Solution (RxRefill)
Title: Pharmacy Refill Request and Appointment Reminder Solution (RxRefill)
Introduction:
1. This announcement constitutes a Request for Information (RFI). This announcement does not constitute a commitment, implied or otherwise that a solicitation will be issued. This is not a request for proposal (RFP) or an invitation for bids (IFB).
2. Please note that the collection of this requested information does not obligate the U.S. Government to incorporate any solicited comments nor does it obligate the Government to procure the services. Proprietary information should not be included in the RFI response. Responses to this RFI will not be returned. The Government is not liable to pay any costs associated with companies responding to this RFI.
3. All information received resulting from this RFI will be used by the Defense Health Agency (DHA) for acquisition planning and market research purposes only. However, your response may be releasable to the public under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). If you wish the DHA to consider any portion of your response as "confidential commercial information", you should clearly mark the portion as "confidential commercial information".
4. The Defense Health Agency (DHA), at its discretion, may request respondents to this RFI to elaborate on information in their written response. Respondents to this RFI will not be notified of any results derived from a review of the information provided.
5. The DHA invites all interested parties to submit a written response to this Request for Information (RFI). This RFI is issued for the sole purpose of conducting market research in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 10.
Background
The DHA is the Department of Defense (DOD) organization responsible for managing the TRICARE health care benefits. This includes integrating state of the art technologies to enhance patient safety, efficiency, and cost effectiveness. Under DHA, the Enterprise Support Activities initiative was established with the goal to consolidate resources, standardization, and reengineer processes. These are essential elements in order to improve performance, decrease costs, and enable the MHS to operate more efficiently as an integrated health system. As part of this goal, DHA is seeking information from the industry to assist in the implementation and deployment of a comprehensive and commercially available Pharmacy Refill Request and Appointment Reminder Solution for the MHS.
Statement of Capability
The Defense Health Agency (DHA) is conducting market research to determine the current functionalities of commercial entities offering a comprehensive commercial off the shelf interactive voice response (IVR) system via telephone, and mobile solution. This solution is to be deployed enterprise-wide across all Military Treatment Facilities (MTFs) within the DOD. Our intent is to enhance the pharmacy refill capabilities within the Military Health System (MHS) by using state of the art technologies and best commercial business practices. DHA also intends to address opportunities to realize savings through the adoption of common clinical and business processes as well as the consolidation and standardization of various shared services.
Please provide the following information regarding the Pharmacy Refill Request and Appointment Reminder Solution. Responders should feel free to discuss or add information regarding the solution that is not listed below.
Components:
• Pharmacy prescription refill request processing (approx.14.8 mil/year).
o Place reminder calls and/or electronic notifications to beneficiaries who fail to pick up prescription refills based on business rules provided by the Government.
• Place clinic appointment (approx. 17.4 mil/year) and referral (approx.. 5.1 mil/year) reminder calls and/or electronic notifications to beneficiaries.
• Provided beneficiary notifications/communications (e.g. data calls, drug recalls, etc.).
Functional Capabilities:
• Automated Pharmacy Prescription Refill Request System.
o Process patient or system initiated pharmacy prescription refill requests.
• Processing new prescriptions and walk-up prescription refills for times when the MHS Pharmacy system is unavailable (e.g. network downtime, scheduled maintenance, etc.).
• Prescription renewal requests.
o Patient may request a prescription renewal which is sent directly to the corresponding physician/clinic.
• Patient data calls.
o The patient is provided with scripted questions and responses. Reports are generated from the recorded responses. Types of data calls may include: beneficiary satisfaction, disease management, etc.
• Patient notification messages.
o Types of messages may include: medication recalls, changes in hours of operation, etc.
• Staff recall capability.
o In the event of a situation that requires recorded communication with staff members, the recall capability will provide the means for the facility to contact (e.g. telephone, text messages, email, etc.) all personnel with the same message in a timely manner.
• Clinic appointment and referral reminder services.
o Access and utilize the appropriate data off the host system and apply business rules (e.g. contact exclusions, method of communication, etc.) to data prior to activation of reminder communication process.
o Allow customized messages using vendor provided professional voice recordings with local override capability as needed.
o Allow beneficiaries to confirm or cancel their clinic appointments and reminders.
o Clinics have the capability to inform the beneficiary of an appointment cancellation.
• Allow beneficiaries to receive customized electronic message (e.g. text, email, etc.) notifications (e.g. appointment reminders, prescription pick up reminders, drug recalls, etc.)
• Reporting.
o Provide local and enterprise reporting capabilities.
o Describe the data retrieval process to include but not limited to: exporting, and archiving.
o Provide the capability to generate and export predefined and ad-hoc reports.
• Interface and maintain simultaneous connections with legacy hosts (i.e. Composite Health Care System) and MHS Pharmacy System (i.e. MHS GENESIS) and for dual processing of prescription refill requests and inquires.
Maintenance and Support:
Describe the process for providing ongoing support and maintenance for optimal use and sustainment of solution including but not limited to the following:
• Customer Support (e.g. web-based customer portal, phone support).
• Response time for (e.g. issues requested via phone, online portal, or e-mail).
• Downtime (e.g. scheduled and unscheduled).
Technical Capabilities:
• Interface/Integration capabilities, compatibilities and interoperability (e.g. secure messaging, pharmacy management systems, existing electronic information medical systems).
• Standard Messaging (e.g. HL7, VoiceXML, CCXML, MRCP).
• Telephony - Supporting Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP).
• Performance (e.g. processed refills/hour, throughput, multi-threading ability).
• Reliability (e.g. solution uptime, response time, mean time to failure (MTTF), accuracy)
• Real Time Monitoring (e.g. Network Connectivity, system load, etc.).
• Integrated User Interface- required hardware/software for the user to interact with the solution (e.g. keyboard, CAC reader, touchscreen, mouse pointers, single or multiple applications).
• System Administration/Management (e.g. user management, patient management).
• Operation Controls (e.g. auditing, electronic documentation).
• Data Processing and Recovery (e.g. data collection process, data retention capabilities, and downtime data retrieval, storing data, retrieving data, data security measures).
• Security Measures- describe the security posture on the ability to comply with DOD Information Assurance requirements. (e.g. data at rest capabilities or process).
o IPV6.
o DOD/DHA approved software - describe the ability to install and utilize approved software within the solution (e.g. Reflection, Citrix Viewer).
• Virtualized Regional Configurations.
o Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS) / Platform as a Service (PAAS).
• System Requirements (Storage requirements, number of CPUs, RAM, etc.).
Background:
Provide a description of the company or team's background, technical expertise, experience, staffing, and other capabilities that demonstrate the capacity to provide the anticipated Pharmacy Refill Request and Appointment Reminder Solution requirements.
Scalability:
Describe the capability to provide, maintain, and support an enterprise that has a wide array of pharmacy settings/pickup locations (e.g. refill center, hospital pharmacy, discharge pharmacy, etc.).
Training:
Describe the methods of training (e.g. remote, on site, webinars, FAQs) including how the training methods are structured (e.g. continuous, modules).
Pricing Method:
Note: Do not include actual cost information (e.g. dollar figure) for any services or products offered; provide only the structure/schema for the items requested.
• Describe the licensing and pricing structure that would be best suited for the solution.
• Describe the pricing method for training offerings.
• Describe the pricing structure for support activities not covered as maintenance.
Data Storage:
• Describe the capabilities for protecting Protected Health Information (PHI) / Personally Identifiable Information (PII) data.
• Describe the disaster recovery and backup plans.
Provide any other information or capabilities that may be relevant to this project to include emerging trends not listed in this appendix. These capabilities must be clearly marked if integrated or optional.
Information Submission Instructions:
The Government encourages responses from interested parties who are capable of responding to the entire scope of the RFI, as well as interested parties who may have specific expertise in only limited areas of this RFI.
Respondents are advised that the Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the responding party's expense. Proprietary information may be submitted; however, interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary, restricted or competition sensitive information contained in their response. Proper restrictions shall be marked as such on each page. Only the Government will review this RFI.
Interested qualified interested parties, small or large organization, should submit information for this request. The information, to include graphs, tables, figures, should not exceed 100 single side pages, using 12 point Arial font. All responses should be submitted using MS Word format with subject "RFI Pharmacy Refill Request and Appointment Reminder Solution (RxRefill)."
Only electronic submissions will be accepted. Electronic files larger than 10 MB should be broken down into multiple files with no one (1) file exceeding 10 MB. Each electronic submission shall include:
a) RFI number and "Pharmacy Refill Request and Appointment Reminder Solution (RxRefill)" in the subject line.
b) If the submission includes more than one (1) electronic email, the file number and total files being submitted (e.g., File 1 of 4, File 2 of 4, etc.) in the subject line.
c) A brief summary of the email's content, the vendor's name, and mailing address.
All responses to the RFI must be submitted electronically (via e-mail) to: Lois Jones (lois.a.jones20.ctr@mail.mil), the Contract Analyst and a copy to Mr. Astley Davy (Astley.b.davy.civ@mail.mil), the Contracting Officer no later than 4:00 pm EST, on Friday, May 10, 2019. Receipt time will be determined by the recorded time of receipt in the Contracting Officer's email box. In the event submissions include multiple electronic files, all files must be received in the electronic mail box by the due date specified above to be considered timely.
Include the following information with responses to this notice:
1. Response to Sources Sought Notice
2. Vendor's Company Name, Address, Contact Person Information;
3. Vendor's DUNS Number/CAGE Code; and
4. Business Size and Size Standard / Classification relative to North American Industry
Classification System (NAICS) codes.
If applicable, provide a list of all relevant Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts and Federal Supply Schedule contracts your firm previously held and/or currently holds. Please include the contract number and expiration date for each.
Although providing a response to this RFI will not automatically include you in the acquisition process, declining to do so does not preclude your participation in any future RFP, if one is issued. If a solicitation is released, it will be on the Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) website: https://www.fbo.gov, and/or the GSA E-Commerce Central website: http://www.gsa.gov. It is the responsibility of the potential offerors to monitor these sites for additional information pertaining to this requirement.
Lois A. Jones, Email lois.a.jones20.ctr@mail.mil
