R--Hosptial Council of Western Pennsylvania - 2014 Annual Dues for 10/1/13-09/30/14. This is not a Request for Quote but rather a notice that the Government is intending on awarding a contract on a sole source basis.

The VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System intends to negotiate on a Sole Source basis with Hospital Council of Western, PA, 500 Commonwealth Drive, Warrendale, PA 15068, to award a one-year contract from 10/01/2013 through 09/30/2014, for the purchase annual Hospital Council of Western PA memberships for Pittsburgh, Butler and Erie VAMCs, to provide the services outlined in the Scope of Work below, for the reasons stated in the attached Sole Source Justification Memorandum: . The expected cost of the service is $48,000. The Altoona VAMC may be added at a later date which will increase the cost and may require a contract modification. Scope of Work Annual Membership to Hospital Council of Western PA (HCWP) " Annual memberships for Butler, Erie and Pittsburgh VAMCs. Altoona to possibly be added later. " All training takes place off-site at the Regional Learning Alliance in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, other locations as identified by the HCWP and virtually. " Summary of services includes the availability of data sources used to compare services and practices of local institutions, networking opportunities for collaboration on problems and issues within the industry and the ability to attend training events and regular meetings. " Membership includes: o Quality - Hospital Council supports its member's efforts to provide quality patient care by working with their quality, patient safety and risk management professionals to help them meet the requirements and improve their process while creating a forum for networking and information sharing. Current Hospital Council Quality Initiatives include: QualityBLUE Lite and Readmissions o Advocacy - Hospital Council represents member positions, interests and concerns to legislators, media and business and community leaders. Hospital Council often works in partnership on advocacy strategies with the American Hospital Association (AHA) http://www.aha.org/ and the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP) http://www.haponline.org/. o Data - Hospital Council turns the vast quantities of data into timely meaningful information and knowledge for the membership and the communities they serve. " Data services include: " Flash Survey - Produced since 1986, the Flash Survey provides information on current trends and regional benchmarks through quarterly assessments of finances, utilization and staffing to support effective strategic and financial planning. " Management Compensation Survey - Covers salary data for management positions for health care facilities in the region. The survey is conducted annually and the data is released to participating members in January of each year. " Benchmark Salary Survey - The survey covers more than 50 positions reported in health care facilities. The survey includes specific salary data for the positions and the data is offered for the overall region as well as in three sub-regions. In addition, each participating facility receives its own benchmark information through a compa-ratio report. The Benchmark Salary Survey is conducted twice a year and is released to participating members in January and in July of each year. Each region receives: summary data on actual pay practices, summary data on salary structures, individual position data tables. " Benefits Survey - Hospital Council partners with Cowden & Associates, a Pittsburgh-based firm, to offer a comprehensive benefits survey to its members. Participating members receive information on regional and national trends, benefit costs, benefit plan design, employee cost sharing and other relevant information. Key benchmarks of the survey include: " Regional and National Trends " Benefit Costs " Benefit Plan Design " Employee Cost Share " High Deductible Health Plans (HDHP) " Employee Worksite Wellness " Labor Turnover Report - Hospital Council offers this monthly report to participating members which tracks the amount of employees within a facility and offers a comparison to other facilities throughout the region. " DataBay Resources (Amerinet subsidiary) - Members receive valuable business intelligence tools to assist healthcare facilities with the overall analysis of market service areas. DataBay Resources' information helps determine the best strategies to improve market share as well as highlights opportunities for market growth. Reporting tools include: " NavigateNet " Navigate-MD " Navigate Profitability o Navigate ProfitPointSM Reports o Navigate ProfitPointSM Executive Summary " Navigate TrendPointSM " Navigate TrendPointSM Benchmarks " Navigate TrendPointSM Reports o Workforce - The Center for Health Careers serves as a regional referral and information service designed to narrow the gap between hospitals' nursing and allied health workforce needs and available supply. The Centers' mission is to promote and advance healthcare careers for member healthcare facilities. Occupational bulletins are available to members seeking to fill gaps in their facilities. o Healthcare Reform Successes/Deliverables from FY 12: " HCWP brought in roughly $25 million to its members this year as a result of HCWP's decision to engage Dale Baker & Associates on the Medicare Rural Floor appeal. The Wage lndex data scrub for Pittsburgh, Altoona and Youngstown-Sharon continue to provide significant ROI and Hospital Council continues to advocate its position on AWI at the federal level. " Hospital Council CEOs' request to the HAP Board to address the inequity in MA payments resulted in the approval of Act 49 which provided additional MA dollars. Hospital Council continues to work with HAP to revise the payment methodology in order to improve MA reimbursement for outpatient and observation. " Successfully recruited Denis Lukes to direct our reimbursement and payor relations initiatives. Denis has successfully reengaged CFOs and is providing expert consultation on payment strategies, service line analysis, and introducing several consulting services/products that will increase revenue. Jane Montgomery has implemented a robust and successful series of educational and best practices sessions with data abstractors and process improvement staff specific to complying with CMS Core Measures, CMS Meaningful Use Quality Measures and Highmark Quality Blue reporting requirements. Several members have contracted to perform assessments and conduct project work in the clinical and quality areas. This Notice of Intent is not a request for competitive proposals. Parties may identify their interest; accompanied by supporting literature, to the Contracting Officer no later than 4:00PM on 9/23/2013. Responses should be sent to Ronald [email protected]. No telephone responses will be accepted. Information received will be for the purpose of determining whether or not to conduct a competitive procurement. The determination to conduct a competitive procurement based on responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Contracting Officer. The NAICS Code for this procurement is 813920, and the Small Business Size Standard for this NAICS Code is $14 Million. Contracting Office Address: Attn: Department of Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Healthcare System, Contracting Officer, 1010 Delafield Road, (90C-A), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15215-1802 Point of Contact(s): Point of Contact - Ronald Mazzei, Contract Specialist. Ph 412-822-3770.