Department of Veterans Affairs, New York Harbor Healthcare System, Network Contracting Office 2, is issuing this Notice of Intent to Sole Source to KESSLER FOUNDATION, INC., a grant for Psychologist services to prepare, conduct, analyze and report on veteran focus groups. This work is required to carry out a project funded by the Office of Patient Centered Care. SERVICES REQUIRED: Contractor shall be a licensed Psychologist and shall perform a variety of focus groups activities to align with the initiatives of the project to study the needs of veterans with Diabetes and to design an intervention to help them manage their condition. In addition to planning, conducting, analyzing and reporting on focus groups, the psychologist will be required to attend team meetings for overall project planning. The services will be for the New Jersey Health Care System VA Medical Center, 385 Tremont Avenue, East Orange, NJ 07018 during the term of six-months late September 2021 to March 2022. INTERESTED & CAPABLE RESPONSES: NCO 2 is seeking responses from businesses that are interested in this procurement and consider themselves to have the resources, rights, and capabilities necessary to provide these services. Please provide all of the following in your response: Business name, business type, socio-economic status (e.g., Veteran-Owned, Woman-Owned, Disadvantaged Small Business, 8(a), etc.), person of contact (including telephone number & email address), GSA Contract number if applicable, and DUNS number. Please also include the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code for which you propose to provide the service under for verification of your size standard. A Capability Statement which provides detailed, specific information that demonstrates understanding of the tasks required and capability to perform the tasks as stated in the attached Statement of Work. Failure to tailor capability statement to this specific requirement may result in your company being determined non-responsive. Responses must be submitted by 12:00 PM EST, Wednesday, September 15, 2021. Responses to the information requested above may be submitted via email to
[email protected]. This Special Notice of Intent to Sole Source is for planning purposes ONLY. The results of this notice may assist in the development of (1) the requirement, and (2) the acquisition strategy (e.g., small business set-aside, full and open competition, etc.). VA assumes no responsibility for any costs incurred associated with the preparation of responses submitted for this notice. STATEMENT OF WORK PSYCHOLOGIST GRANT FOR DIABETES INTERVENTION PROJECT 1. PURPOSE: The Whole Health Functional Medicine Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) office at the Veterans Affairs, New Jersey Health Care System, East Orange Campus intends to award a grant to the Kessler Foundation, Inc., for Psychologist services to prepare, conduct, analyze and report on veteran focus groups. This work is required to carry out a project funded by the Office of Patient Centered Care. The Foundation shall perform a variety of focus groups activities to align with the initiatives of the project to study the needs of veterans with Diabetes and to design an intervention to help them manage their condition. In addition to planning, conducting, analyzing and reporting on focus groups, the psychologist will be required to attend team meetings for overall project planning. . 2. BACKGROUND: The SDOH focus group project is a central mission of the Veterans Health Administration and the Whole Health Functional Medicine. Whole Health is a system of care that empowers and equips Veterans to take charge of their life and health. This project seeks to explore and address barriers to chronic disease management and Whole Health utilization, and to design an intervention to overcome identified barriers. The intervention will be administered in Primary Care to support Primary Care Providers who face the challenging task of orchestrating chronic disease control and facilitating behavioral change. The aim of the project is to study the needs of veterans with Diabetes and to design an intervention to help them manage their condition. The psychologist must be aware of other part of the project in order to conduct work appropriately. See attached Project Overview Document. Sections in blue pertain to contractor s role and responsibility in the project. 3. SCOPE OF WORK: Contractor shall furnish all services to accomplish the task of creating criteria for, conducting, analyzing and reporting on veteran focus groups. In addition to veteran focus groups, focus groups of VANJ providers will be held to ask them about challenges they face in helping patients with diabetes. Service sessions will be scheduled as per veteran and medical provider preference. Up to 250 hours of work will be required. Contractor shall plan to conduct focus groups with Veterans and their caregivers, as well as Primary Care Providers, in an attempt to better understand this health disparity. Focus group feedback will serve to inform a multifaceted Whole Health group intervention with a functional medicine component in an attempt to reduce this health disparity. Contractor shall collect the following information: Qualitative information: The goal of this project is to examine SDOH related to poor control of HgA1c in Veterans with diabetes and to establish preliminary evidence for the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of a WHSMA in this cohort at VANJ. Descriptive statistics will be utilized to characterize the cohort included in this project, including age, sex, race/ethnicity, marital status, and socioeconomic status (e.g. income and education). Descriptive disease characteristics will include comorbidities and number of hospitalizations in the 6-month period prior to and following program participation. Qualitative methods will be utilized at two time points: 1. Pre-intervention focus groups to assess Veteran and health care providers perspectives and experiences about the ways in which the SDOH impact the management of diabetes. 2. Post-intervention (follow-up) to obtain feedback about the usability of the Whole Health intervention with functional medicine tools. We will use these qualitative findings to inform the project intervention. Patient-reported, biometric, and biomarker outcomes will be examined pre- and post-intervention. Outcomes will be collected at program end (i.e., following the 10-week group) and at 10-weeks after the end of the intervention. Quantitative measures will assess quality of life (e.g., Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System), mental health (e.g., Patient Health Questionnaire-9), level of activation (e.g., Patient Activation Measure), and disease-specific behavior management (e.g., Multidimensional Diabetes Questionnaire). Biometric and biomarkers outcomes will include height, weight, waist circumference, HgA1c, comprehensive metabolic panel, and lipid profile. Patterns of responses will be examined to detect a signal in the desired direction and paired t-tests will be conducted as is appropriate, given final sample sizes. Coaches will assist Veterans in completing the Personal Health Inventory (PHI) and the Personal Health Plan (PHP) to provide measurable health goals and Veteran progress towards goals during program participation. Contractor shall report on the findings of focus groups and meet regularly with the Focus Group team as well as the larger team to participate in project planning. Contractor must be a licensed psychologist. 4. HIPAA COMPLIANCE: The Contractor must adhere to the provisions of Public Law 104-191, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 and the National Standards to Protect the Privacy and Security of Protected Health Information (PHI). As required by HIPAA, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has promulgated rules governing the security and use and disclosure of protected health information by covered entities, including the Department of Veterans Affairs. 5. PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE: The period of performance for this Grant project will be about six-months from time of award. 6. PLACE OF PERFORMANCE: All work will be done remotely via virtual platform. 7. CONTRACT SECURITY LANGUAGE: Contractors, Contractor personnel, Subcontractors, and Subcontractor personnel shall be subject to the same Federal laws, regulations, standards, and VA Directives and Handbooks as VA and VA personnel regarding information and information system security. See attached document Contract Security Language for full information.