1 DEAPARTMENT OF VETERAN AFFAIRS REQUEST FOR INFORMATION PURPOSE This is a SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE / REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI); not a pre-solicitation notice or solicitation for proposals/quotations. VA IS NOT OBLIGATED TO ISSUE A SOLICIATION AS A RESULT OF THIS RFI. THIS IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. The purpose of this notice is to: Determine if sources capable of satisfying the agency's requirements exist; Determine if commercial items suitable to meet the agency's needs are available or could be modified to meet the agency's requirements; and Determine the commercial practices of companies engaged in providing the needed service or supply. Competition and set-aside decisions may be based on the results of this market research. The Veterans Affairs Commodities and Services Acquisition Service, in support of Veterans Health Administration (VHA), is contemplating the need and requirements for influenza vaccination services for eligible Veterans at retail pharmacies. The VA is interested in industry standards for real-time eligibility requests and data information exchange through eHealth exchange. The purpose of this RFI is to provide interested parties the opportunity to inform VA of their capabilities to perform these services, for VA to gain a better understanding of industry practices and resources associated with the Health Information Exchange technologies. The VA utilizes several platforms, messages and outlets for Health data exchange including but not limited to the Sequoia project which certifies the provider/retail pharmacy access to the Veterans Health Information Exchange (VHIE) health information exchange project which leverages the eHealth Exchange to exchange health information over a secure internet and the processes for obtaining Veterans consent directives authorizations, restrictions, revocations and claims. VHIE Health is a program that shares certain portions of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) with other entities. VHIE Health leverages the eHealth Exchange infrastructure to exchange electronic health information with Non-VA healthcare providers that are also participating in the eHealth Exchange. VA and participating private healthcare provider organizations exchange data over a secure network. The eHealth Exchange is a collection of standards, protocols, legal agreements, specifications, and services that enables the secure exchange of health information over the internet. It provides a common platform for health information exchange across diverse entities, within communities and across the country. Other systems include, ChangeHealth (formerly EMDEON), EDI, BHIE, HL7, and FHIE among others. This RFI is issued to understand the participants, boundaries and any additional information interested parties are willing to provide. The VA is interested in the participation of Non-VA entities and their capability to become a member of the eHealth Exchange network (VHIE), utilizing this exchange for influenza vaccination information exchange and ChangeHealth for the upfront eligibility verification. DESCRIPTION VA is committed to the prevention of influenza through robust influenza vaccination campaigns within VHA facilities. Partnering with pharmacy retailers and/or national pharmacy benefits management (PBM) organizations strengthens Veterans access to the vaccine and increases the overall uptake of vaccinations. Last influenza season, about 2 million Veterans received their influenza vaccination at a VA facility and pharmacy retail partnership with Walgreens. VA seeks to continue and expand our retail program to increase access and influenza vaccinations among Veterans enrolled in VA care. VA is interested in continuing to advance the convenience of providing influenza immunizations at retail pharmacy and/or PBM providers combined with integrated immunization health records to increase access to influenza vaccinations, to improve access to healthcare for rural Veterans, and to improve overall immunization rates for all Veterans nationwide starting August 1, 2019. The contractor must have the vaccines available to the public before August 1, 2019 for the beginning of the influenza season. The VA is requiring Quadrivalent formulation only due to the VHA guidance for staff at local VAMCs, CBOCs and clinics. VA currently has solutions in place for the electronic sharing of health information. The VA uses eHealth exchange (http://sequoiaproject.org/) which allows organizations to become a participant in the eHealth exchange community. VHIE is neither an information technology program nor an information service provider. Rather, VHIE is a multi-faceted business and technology initiative that includes a portfolio of health, benefits, personnel, and administrative information sharing capabilities. VA has two active projects underway as part of the VHIE Program, which are the query-based exchange and VA Direct projects. VA is interested in the retail pharmacy chains and/or national PBM s ability to onboard with the VHIE Exchange program and the ChangeHealth services so the VA can directly exchange health information through VHIE s Exchange and eligibility information through ChangeHealth services. VA is interested in advancing the national program to acquire influenza vaccinations for eligible Veterans regardless of 3rd party insurance coverage for the 2019-2020 influenza season. The purpose of this request for information is to further understand which retail pharmacy chains or national PBM s can sign up for VHIE and ChangeHealth for exchanging eligibility, health information, and Eligibility verification. VA is asking for retail pharmacy chains and/or national PBM s to sign up with the eHealth Exchange and ChangeHealth to integrate bi-directional electronic messaging, which would include; verification of eligibility, and claims processing for influenza vaccinations. The VA utilizes eHealth Exchange which is designed to give VA clinicians, providers, as well as partnered private or public healthcare providers access to patient information that has been authorized to be shared by the Veteran. The VHIE Exchange is a query-based tool that exchanges Veteran healthcare information with integrated healthcare partners providing healthcare services to a Veteran. The information is primarily displayed as a summary within a generated document known as a Continuity of Care Document (C-CDA, C32, and/or C62) as well as any associated clinical notes. VA also is currently integrated with ChangeHealth (formerly Emdeon) for insurance, eligibility checks, instance pre-claim eligibility checks 270/271 eligibility and 837 claim transactions. The eHealth Exchange is one program VA is currently engaged in and we request industry understanding of availability and which program will fulfill all the needs of the influenza vaccination services. The VA is also interested in the internal and external process communication/advertising/campaign to inform the Veteran community of this influenza vaccination program. The contractor should work with VA to create an advertising package that features print/electronic imaging that is compatible with both external marketing venues as well as internal VA messaging such as social media platforms and local VAMC information technologies. The VA plans to partner with retail pharmacy chains and/or national PBM s to communicate the influenza vaccination program to all Veterans internally and look to the retail pharmacy chains and/or national PBM s to provide a communication campaign on their own to drive Veterans to use the program. All Contractor and subcontractor personnel shall be subject to the same Federal security and privacy laws, regulations, standards and VA policies as VA, including the Privacy Act, 5 U.S.C. §552a, and VA personnel, regarding information and information system security. Contractors must follow policies and procedures outlined in VA Directive 6500, Information Security Program which is available at: http://www1.va.gov/vapubs and its handbooks to ensure appropriate security controls are in place. The Contractor will have access to Sensitive Information contained in Veterans or service members' records. All Contractor's and subcontractor's personnel working with VA Sensitive Information are subject to the same investigative requirements as those of regular VA appointees or employees who have access to the same types of information. The level of background security investigation will be in accordance with VA Directive 0710, Handbook 0710, which are available at: http://www1.va.gov/vapubs and VHA Directive 0710 and Implementation Handbook 0710.01, which are available at: http://www1.va.gov/vhapublications/index.cfm. Contractors are responsible for screening and training their employees to ensure that all front line employees in a retail setting provide accurate and timely program information associated with Veteran eligibility, medical data transfer, vaccine options and third party billing issues. 3.0 DISCLAIMER This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation. Additionally, this RFI does not obligate the Government to the issuance of a Request for Proposal. All information received in response to the RFI that is marked Proprietary will be handled accordingly. Responses to the RFI will not be returned. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI. 4.0 SUBMISION AND CONTACT INFORMATION Please submit responses to the questionnaire via email by 12/07/2018 to the Contracting Office at the below listed email address. You may also submit supplemental hardcopy materials such as brochures etc. to the Contract Specialist, Ms. Caroline West, at the address provided below. All supplemental material must be received by deadline date. Email:
[email protected]. Mail: Commodities and Services Acquisition Service 555 Corporate Ave Golden, CO 80401 Questionnaire Name of Organization/Corporation: Corporate Address: DUNS Number: Point of Contact Name & Title: Phone Number: Email Address: Socio-Economic Category (if known): HUBZone 8(a) Small Business Veteran Owned Small Business Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Women Owned Small Business QUESTIONS - Please provide the following information: A brief narrative describing the capabilities of your organization to become certified in the VHA VHIE eHealth Exchange program and the ChangeHealth services. Please state if you are familiar with the Sequoia Project and if you are in the process of being certified or already certified. Have you worked with the VA before on patient contacts? Do you know the procedures for Report of Contact (ROC) if there was an issue with providing an influenza vaccination to a Veteran? Do you have a point of contact for issues with field staff/personnel relating to Veterans contact at your facilities? What experience does your organization have with Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Eligibility checks, for instance pre-claim eligibility checks 270/271 eligibility? What limitations, if any, are there on your organization s capacity in terms of number of immunizations/transactions it could handle per day, per week, per month? If there was a need to re-verify if the patient was indeed a Veteran do you have a point of contact that can provide information to the VA about the patient? Do you have a survey or sampling of how well the patient liked or disliked the service which was provided at the Veteran/patient level? What are your survey/surveying capabilities? What are the reporting capabilities in your company, can you provide weekly reports of patient contacts, influenza vaccination counts regionally, state, and local facility level? What are your encrypted email capabilities? What system do you use to send encrypted emails? Please indicate the estimated percentage of work to be performed by your company if you were awarded a contract for these services as the result of a Request for Proposal (RFP). Additionally, indicate which types of services your organization typically will subcontract. What capabilities do you have to provide outreach communications to the Veteran population, for example website postings, posters, table tents, social media blasts, blogs etc.? Provide the VA with estimated pricing for your quadrivalent influenza vaccines.