AMENDMENT TO PRESOLICITATION NOTICE: This notice is an amendment to Pre-Solicitation Notice 36C26223Q0371 and the associated Request for Quote (RFQ) for EAP services. The required services are to be performed for all eight VA Healthcare Systems within Veterans Integrated Services Network (VISN) 22. 36C26223Q0371 was posted on 05/01/2023 and quotes were originally due on 05/26/2023 at 1600 Pacific Time. The response deadline to this RFQ is now extended to 06/23/2023 at 1200 Pacific Time. The following pages are in response to interested vendor questions accompanied by a separately attached revised Statement of Work. Responses are due by 12:00 Pacific Standard Time June 23, 2023. Point of contact information: Naomi Meza, Contract Specialist, naomi.meza@va.gov. Amendment to the Solicitation This amendment incorporates the following changes to the RFQ: Refer to Technical Exhibit 4, Deliverable Specifications, of the Statement of Work on page 74, Section 1, Utilization Reports. Item 1), EAP Return on Investment, and Item 2), Return on Investment Ratio, are removed. Refer to Technical Exhibit 4, Deliverable Specifications, of the Statement of Work on page 74, Section 1, Utilization Reports. Item 14), Number of satisfaction surveys conducted and number of satisfied employees, is removed. The above changes result in a decrease from 14 items listed to 11. 3. New Section 3, Performance Survey Analysis, is added to Technical Exhibit 4, Deliverable Specifications, of the Statement of Work on page 74. Page 74 and 75; Addendum to the Statement of Work VHA Supplemental Contract Requirements for Combating COVID-19 (Amended December 14, 2021) is removed in its entirety from the requirements. An updated Statement of Work incorporating the above changes is provided with this amendment. Under heading title Contents: Page 81, #5 states The quoter shall provide evidence that the Program Coordinator/Head/Director, as a minimum, are certified as a: Licensed Certified Social Worker (LCSW) Certified Employee Assistance Professional (CEAP), and a Private Independent Practitioner (PIP) Private Independent Practitioner is replaced with Licensed Practitioner. Answers to questions submitted by interested vendors are provided below: Question #1: On page 82 of the provided SF1449, under the heading of Contents sub-bullets #8, #9 and #10, outside providing the government with past performance data, what will constitute evidence of experience in these requirements. VA Response: The quoter will provide evidence of experience for these three bullets. It is up to the quoter s discretion what constitutes evidence of experience. Question #2: On page 61, sections 5.4.1 and 5.4.2 - regarding the consultation and training in these requirements; is the requirement for live and on-site, or would virtual/web/telephonic training via a platform such as Microsoft Teams acceptable? VA Response: The VA prefers to have a mixture of on-site, web-based, phone, and/or virtual training platforms to accommodate the needs of employees and qualified family members; preference may vary between stations within VISN 22. Question #3: On page 61, section 5.4.5 - regarding the requirement for the team/building/conflict resolution up to (20) sessions per year, is the requirement for these services to be live and on-site, or would web/video/telephonic be acceptable? VA Response: The VA prefers to have a mixture of on-site, web-based, phone, and/or virtual training platforms to accommodate the needs of employees and qualified family members; preference may vary between stations within VISN 22. Question #4: Technical Exhibit 3, starting on page 66 lists the estimated number of employees anticipated to seek assistance in a given month. Can you provide the total number of employees that are eligible for care (covered) by this service for each of the following facility systems? a.           How many total employees are eligible for care or service within the Southern Arizona VA HCS? b.           How many total employees are eligible for care or service within the Northern Arizona VA HCS? c.            How many total employees are eligible for care or service within the Phoenix VA HCS? d.           How many total employees are eligible for care or service within the New Mexico VA HCS? e.           How many total employees are eligible for care or service within the Loma Linda VA HCS? f.            How many total employees are eligible for care or service within the Long Beach VA HCS? g.           How many total employees are eligible for care or service within the Los Angeles VA HCS? h.           How many total employees are eligible for care or service within the San Diego VA HCS? VA Response: Responses to this solicitation will be based on the history of VA VISN 22 usage for EAP services for calendar year 2022 and not the total number of eligible employees and qualified family members. Questions #5: Of the employees covered by this service, are there any additional employees, such as call center workers, VISN leadership personnel, domiciliary, or others that are not generally accounted for within the HCS numbers? 5a) If so, how many, and please define which systems these workers are a part of. VA Response: Employees of VISN 22 include call center workers and leadership personnel, as well as employee qualified family members as defined within the RFQ. Question #6: Of the employees covered by this service, how many total employees are eligible for care or service under this EAP? VA Response: See the answer to Question #4. Question #7: Technical Exhibit 3, starting on page 66 lists the estimated number of employees anticipated to seek assistance . Can you please define what seeking assistance means, as it relates to these numbers? For example, is attending a counseling session considered seeking service? Would a telephonic call to the toll-free number count as seeking service? Is online/web/mobile app to access informational topics and self-help tools considered seeking service? If yes for any/all of the above, were those various methods captured within the provided numbers in Technical Exhibit 3? VA Response: Yes, for all of the above; the various methods of seeking assistance were considered in the usage history. Question #8: How many face to face, virtual, or telephonic counseling sessions were accomplished last year for: VA Response: Period of January 2022 December 2022 a. Southern Arizona VA HCS? 148 b. Northern Arizona VA HCS? 115 c. Phoenix VA HCS? 240 d. New Mexico VA HCS? 110 e. Loma Linda VA HCS? Covers QTR 3 & QTR 4: 59 f. Long Beach VA HCS? Covers QTR 1, QTR 3, QTR 4: 108 g. Los Angeles VA HCS? Covers QTR 3 & QTR 4: 98 h. San Diego VA HCS? Covers QTR 1, QTR 3, QTR 4: 179 Question #9: How many cases were opened last year and what was the average number of sessions utilized per each case for: VA Response: Period of January 2022 December 2022 a. Southern Arizona VA HCS OPEN CASES: 128 SESSIONS: not annotated or accounted for in report b. Northern Arizona VA HCS OPEN CASES: 105 SESSIONS not annotated or accounted for in report c. Phoenix VA HCS OPEN CASES: 218 SESSIONS not annotated or accounted for in report d. New Mexico VA HCS OPEN CASES: 103 SESSIONS not annotated or accounted for in report e. Loma Linda VA HCS (QTR 3 & QTR 4) OPEN CASES: 41 SESSIONS are not annotated or accounted for in report f. Long Beach VA HCS (QTR 1, QTR 3, QTR 4) OPEN CASES: 69 SESSIONS are not annotated or accounted for in report g. Los Angeles VA HCS (QTR 3 & QTR 4) OPEN CASES: 67 SESSIONS are not annotated or accounted for in report h. San Diego VA HCS (QTR 1, QTR 3, QTR 4) OPEN CASES: 143 SESSIONS are not annotated or accounted for in report Question #10: General Information, section 1.17 states The Contractor agrees to attend any post award conference convened by the contracting activity or contract administration office in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation Subpart 42.5. The contracting officer, Contracting Officers Representative (COR), and other Government personnel, as deemed appropriate by the contracting officer or COR, may meet periodically with the contractor to review the contractor's performance . Will these meetings be required as live, on-site at the VA, or will these meetings be held virtually? VA Response: These meetings can be held virtually. Question #11: On technical Exhibit 4, beginning on page 74, 1.1 and 1.2 requires an EAP Return on Investment and a Return on Investment Ratio . While there have been studies that show that national clients have seen presenteeism improve and absenteeism decrease, with work engagement increase by members who used the program, ROI is an inaccurate estimation tool with a wide range of potential variations of what is calculated within ROI. Will the government provide what factors they would want considered within ROI reports? For example, many ROI calculators factor historical attendance rates compared to recent quarter attendance. We assume the government would not provide that data.  Alternatively, as there are various factors that we would not have access to, would the government consider striking these requirements as any ROI data we would provide would be estimates only and not statistically significant. VA Response: This requirement will be removed. The ROI has not been a critical element when completing evaluation reports. Question #12: Regarding the Counseling Plan, listed on Pages 64 & 65, PRS #4 the contractor shall submit a counseling plan , and again on page 74, #2. The counseling plan is not defined in Part 2 beginning on page 47. Can you please define the counseling plan and its purpose? More so, Counseling Plans are typically associated with Fee-For-Service contracts, where the vendor will supply the government with an itemized breakdown of the services being rendered during a fixed (or capped, limited) amount of hours. Being that this is a firm fixed price contract, we believe that a counseling plan is superfluous to the unlimited service plan as described. If so, would the government strike this requirement? VA Response: The counseling plan is appropriate for actions identified in 2.75 (page 56) & 5.4.5 (page 61) Refer to 2.75 (page 56) 2.75 OVER AND ABOVE SERVICE. The monthly service includes EAP related services to include Critical Incident Stress Management, Team Building/Conflict Resolution Services and Training/Educational Services. Any additional EAP related services will be exercised through a task order modification at the rates established in the schedule. Refer to 5.4.5 (page 61) 5.4.5 Team building/conflict resolution or other similar activity group sessions up to twenty (20) sessions per year per facility identified in paragraph 1.1. Each group session shall be limited to one (1) hour. A plan of action will be provided to the facility POC after the initial session outlining future sessions for approval. Additional hours for a facility may be arranged thru the COR at additional cost. Question #13: Page 74, Technical Exhibit 4 states The two reporting deliverables identified in Technical Exhibit 2 should provide the following fields of data. . Technical Exhibit 2 lists 3 deliverables. Technical Exhibit 4 only details two, the utilization reports and the counseling plan. Would the government please detail the deliverables for the Performance Survey Analysis, if the PSA is required? If the PSA is not required and will be removed. VA Response: 1. The requirement stated in the Statement of Work under Utilization Reports (Page 74) number 14 to be removed. 14) Number of satisfaction surveys conducted and number of satisfied employees The following requirement replaces number 14: 3. Performance Survey Analysis Question #14: Page 82, #5 states The quoter shall provide evidence that the Program Coordinator/Head/Director, as a minimum, are certified as a:             Licensed Certified Social Worker (LCSW)             Certified Employee Assistance Professional (CEAP), and a             Private Independent Practitioner (PIP) We are not familiar with the term Private Independent Practitioner. Can you please define this? It appears the government may be seeking what is most commonly (in our experience) called an Independently Licensed Practitioner, which are licensed through the appropriate state boards. A PIP may be specific to a certain state(s), which may unduly restrict competition. We respectfully request that the requirements for this section be or instead of (CEAP), and a meaning that the program head would have one of the three certifications or licensures, and also change the PIP to read Licensed practitioner . Additionally, The Joint Commission (TJC) removed the use of licensed independent practitioner from its hospital standards, as of 19Feb2023, and now uses the term licensed practitioner , which we feel further supports this request. I ve attached an article detailing this change, if interested. https://www.psqh.com/news/joint-commission-eliminates-use-of-licensed-independent-practitioner/#:~:text=The%20Joint%20Commission%20%28TJC%29%20will%20no%20longer%20use,2023%2C%20the%20term%20%E2%80%9Clicensed%20practitioner%E2%80%9D%20will%20be%20used. VA Response: Under the heading Contents number 5, third bullet, Private Independent Practitioner to be removed and replaced with Licensed Practitioner. Question #15: Is this a new or existing requirement? If existing, can you provide the contract number and incumbent vendor name for this requirement? VA Response: This is not applicable for this requirement. Question #16: Please provide the current PEPM (Per Employee Per Month) rate for the following years: 2022 2021 2020 VA Response: The information provided under Technical Exhibit 3 is based off data from the previous year of service with an additional margin of percentage for future years of service. Question #17: What was your annual 2022 EAP cost? VA Response: This information will not be provided. Question #18: Can you provide a utilization report for the following years: 2022 2021 2020 The report should provide a breakdown of EAP services. VA Response: Refer to Question #8 in addition to Technical Exhibit 3. Utilization is only available for calendar year 2022. The information provided under Technical Exhibit 3 is based off data from the previous year of service with an additional margin of percentage for future years of service. Question #19: How many onsite critical responses: VA Response: Reports for 2022 show no onsite critical responses (RRCI) Rapid Response Critical Incident or (CIR) Critical Incident Report. Utilization is only available for calendar year 2022. The information provided under Technical Exhibit 3 is based off data from the previous year of service with an additional margin of percentage for future years of service. Question #20: How many training hours of the following services were supported last year? VA Response: Onsite? 8 Health fair? 1 Webinar Training? 0 Question #21: How many employees have an active Commercial Driver's License (CDL)? VA Response: This information is not available and not pertinent to this requirement. Question #22: Can you provide eligible employees' city, state, and zip code? We will provide a coverage map of service providers in your area. VA Response: Refer to Technical Exhibit 3 for facility locations. Eligible employee information will not be provided.
