Description
The US Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity intends to issue a sole source purchase order to RXHub, LLC, 380 St Peter Street Suite 530, St, Paul, MN 55102, for a 12-month contract to conduct a feasibility analysis to facilitate DOD's participation in the commercial eRx environment. No solicitation document exists. Any firm that believes it can provide the stated capability is invited to submit written notifiction to the Contracting Officer within 7 calendar days from the date of this publication of this notice. Supporting evidence must be furnished in sufficient detail to demonstrate the firm's ability to provide the stated capability. Information can be sent to the Contracting Officer at: USAMRAA, ATTN: JODI CARDOZA, 820 Chandler Street, Fort Detrick, MD 21702-5014. No telephone requests will be accepted. Responses received will be evaluated; however a determination by the government not to compete the proposed procurement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the government. If no responses are received; USAMRAA will proceed with the sole source contract. Justification and Approval For Other than Full and Open Competition Log Number 08-096 1. Contracting Activity. U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA) 820 Chandler Street Fort Detrick, MD 2. Description of Action. Request a sole source, firm fixed price new contract, with RxHub LLC, using FY08 O&M funds. 3. Description of Supplies or Services. DoD Pharmacy will engage RxHub, LLC to conduct a feasibility analysis to facilitate DoDs participation in the commercial eRx environment. DoD Pharmacy requires a feasibility analysis to determine whether DoD can fully participate in a commercial eprescribing intermediaries Master Patient Index (MPI). Based on extensive market research, DoD Pharmacy has concluded that one of the key MPI parameters used to identify patients, zip code, presents a unique problem. Active duty members and their family members may have zip codes on file which do not accurately reflect their current assigned location. This would affect the ability for a MPI to locate them correctly. This analysis would permit DoD to 1) confirm that zip code is not an appropriate search parameter, and through this effort, 2) explore alternative attributes that would be beneficial in matching persons if zip code information is determined to be unreliable. 4. The Statutory Authority For This Action Is. 10 U.S.C.2304(c)(1) as implemented by FAR 6.302-1(a)(2) -- Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements. 5. Reason for Authority Cited. Based on DoDs research of the commercial ePrescribing arena, there exists two commercial eprescribing intermediaries, RxHub and SureScripts. However, there exists a significant difference between the two intermediaries. RxHub electronically routes prescriptions from the provider to the major mail order pharmacies and SureScripts electronically routes prescriptions to retail pharmacies. Current DoD policy is to undertake programs and initiatives to shift the filling of prescriptions by DoD beneficiaries from the retail environment (CVS, Walgreens, etc.) to the mail order program (TMOP). RxHub has proprietary algorithms within its MPI to facilitate the beneficiary search function. RxHub is a privately held corporation and is under no obligation to provide 3rd Party access to its proprietary systems for this analysis. If the POD released an RFP for this analysis, RxHub would be under no obligation to provide access to its systems, sites, or business proprietary data or search algorithms. RxHub is not currently under any obligation to open its systems to DoD or any DoD contracted vendor. RxHub only engages 3rd Party vendors it deems necessary in the normal course of its commercial business operations. (A comparable analogy would be for DoD to contract with a 3rd Party vendor to do an analysis of Googles internal search algorithms. As these are business proprietary, Google would not allow a 3rd Party vendor the required access to conduct such an analysis. Other comparable examples are available.) Therefore, there are no reasonable or viable alternatives to RxHub for this feasibility analysis. 6. Efforts to Obtain Competition. No efforts were undertaken to obtain competition. Based on our extensive and timely market research, no reasonable competition could be undertaken. RxHub is a privately held corporation and is under no obligation to provide access to its proprietary systems unless it deems necessary in the normal course of its commercial business operations. RxHub does not currently have any contractual obligations to the US Govt and is not required to provide access to its proprietary systems to any 3rd Party entity. 7. Actions to Increase Competition. Upon completion of this feasibility analysis, DoD Pharmacy will assess the results of this feasibility analysis and determine what future contracting actions will be required. 8. Market Survey. The POD has conducted extensive market research in the area of electronic prescribing. Over the past several months, March-June 08, the POD has not identified any other vendors on the GSA IT schedule. The POD also attended the (HIMSS) conference in Feb 08 which is the preeminent showcase for health IT vendors, products and services. During the product expo, the POD reviewed what other technologies would meet the RxHub MPI analysis requirement. POD has not identified any new vendors or capabilities that would provide the tools and products necessary to meet the requirement. The POD has a robust understanding of the current commercial eRx industry and its market leaders. DoD Pharmacy continues to closely follow industry trends and attends a variety of industry specific conferences and education sessions. For the current effort, we have determined that RxHub is and remains the only candidate capable of conducting an analysis of the RxHub MPI consistent with DoD requirements. 9. Interested Sources. To date, no other sources have written to express an interest. A notice will be posted in FedBizOpps describing the Governments requirement and intent to procure sole source. Any potential offeror expressing an interest in this requirement will be given an opportunity to submit a proposal. 10. Other Factors. a. Procurement History. N/A (1) Contract numbers and dates of the last several awards: This is a first time procurement of this nature. (2) Competitive status of these actions: N/A (3) Authority for less than full and open competition previously used: N/A (4) If a justification was prepared to support the procurement made before this one, provide a summary of the contents of paragraph 7 of the justification for that procurement and an explanation of the results. N/A (5) If any prior award was accomplished by full and open competition, provide a detailed explanation of the changed circumstances. - N/A (6) Provide an explanation of any unusual patterns which may be revealed by the history, e.g., several consecutive, urgent buys. - N/A (7) If a justification was prepared to support the procurement made before this one, briefly describe the circumstances justifying the buy and whether there have been any significant changes. - N/A b. Acquisition Data Availability. The purpose of this effort is solely to establish a framework intended to assess the opportunity for improvements in quality of patient care, reduction of medication management errors, and process and cost efficiencies. Subsequent to the completion of the feasibility analysis, the Department of Defense will be able to accurately identify the most appropriate product/service that corresponds to a similar scope (if applicable). Accordingly, the Department of Defense will then be able to properly craft technical data packages, specifications, engineering descriptions, Statements of Work, or purchase descriptions suitable for full and open competition as deemed necessary for the intended effort. However, due to the limited scope of this effort and limited sources available to complete this requirement, it is believed that the aforementioned documents suitable for competition cannot be produced at this time. c. Unusual and Compelling Urgency. N/A d. Subcontracting Competition. N/A