Description
Statement of Work (SOW) 1. Background. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has a requirement to furnish eyeglasses to those eligible veterans that require eyeglasses and are eligible for assistance at the Edward Hines VA Hospital, 5000 South 5th Street, Hines, IL 60141-1457 (Currently room 1051- adjacent to the Patient Advocate office). The fabrication of the eyeglasses will be performed by a VA-owned laboratory in Indianapolis, IN. The contractor will operate as the dispensing optician. 2. Scope. The contractor shall provide all labor, travel, materials and the necessary equipment to provide optical dispensing services for the Edward Hines VA Hospital in Hines, IL. 3. Specific Tasks and Deliverables. 3.1 The contractor shall operate as the on-site dispensing optician. Dispensing services will be provided at the Edward Hines VA Hospital, 5000 South 5th Street, Hines, IL 60141-1457 (Currently room 1051 - adjacent to the Patient Advocate office). 3.1.1 Dispensing services will include the fitting, adjusting, and minor repair of eyeglasses at no cost to the veterans for the life of the eyeglasses. Minor repairs do not include the replacement of the entire frame, the ear pieces, or silicone nose pads. Minor repairs are repairs that do not require replacement of major components such as fronts, temples, soldering of guard arms that hold nose pads. When these components are in need of replacement, a new pair of eyeglasses will be approved by the VA Prosthetics Service. The minor repairs however allow the Veteran continued use of their eyeglasses much faster than if total replacement would be necessary. 3.2 Contractor shall enter into a retail concession agreement with the Veteran's Canteen Service (VCS) to offer commercial optical services for veterans, at a significant discount below national optical chain store prices. 3.2.1 Sale of any additional eyewear purchases external to the dispensing, fitting and repair of eyewear under this contract to patients will be made at the expense of the Veteran, and will not be billed as part of this contract. This includes possible upgrades to VA provided eyewear, as well as the purchase of eyewear not provided by the VA. The contractor is prohibited from recommending upgrades or services to Veterans but may acknowledge their availability. 3.2.2 Additionally, the contractor's concessionaire agreement with the Veteran's Canteen Service will handle upgrades to the standard frame and lenses provided through the VA for eligible Veterans, as well as services for ineligible Veterans, Veterans' families, and VA employees and families. For the eligible Veterans who are seeking upgrades (special frames, tinting, etc.) not normally provided by VA prescription, the concessionaire agreement would provide an opportunity for the Veteran to obtain and pay for these upgrades at a better price than at a retail eyeglass company. It also allows an alternative for the ineligible Veteran, Veteran's families and VA employees, at their own expense. 3.2.3 In addition, the contractor shall be able to provide: 3.2.3.1 On-site tinting and UV/scratch coating of lenses. 3.2.3.2 Their own dispensing equipment / instrumentation not limited to pupilometry lensometry and adjusting tools at both locations. 3.2.3.3 Their own dispensing furniture / frame boards that are in good physical condition at both locations. 4. Hours of Operation. Normal hours of coverage for the facilities are listed below, excluding holidays. Hours of operation for Edward Hines VA Hospital: Monday through Friday: 9:00am - 4:30pm Holidays include: Holiday Date Month New Year's Day 1st January Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday 3rd Monday January President's Day 3rd Monday February Memorial Day Last Monday May Independence Day 4th July Labor Day 1st Monday September Columbus Day 2nd Monday October Veterans Day 11th November Thanksgiving Day 4th Thursday November Christmas Day 25th December And any other day specifically designated as a national holiday by the President of the United States. 5. Place of Performance. Edward Hines VA Hospital 5000 S. 5th Street Bldg. 228, Room 1051 Hines, IL 60141-1457 6. Period of Performance. Base Year: May 1, 2015 through April 30, 2016 Option Year One: May 1, 2016 through April 30, 2017 Option Year Two: May 1, 2017 through April 30, 2018 Option Year Three: May 1, 2018 through April 30, 2019 Option Year Four: May 1, 2019 through April 30, 2020 7. Reporting. The contractor shall submit a monthly report to the Edward Hines VA Hospital Chief of Ophthalmology, with the following information: 7.1 Patients' complete name, last 4 digits for their social security number, date of exam at VA eye clinic, date eyewear arrived at dispensing clinic, date eyewear dispensed by the contractor to the Veteran, and the total number of eyeglasses dispenses for the month. The items required on this report can be changed at the Government's discretion. This information will be recorded by the contractor and kept on the Edward Hines VA Hospital secure server under a shared folder titled "Eye Image" to which the VA Eye Clinic staff and COR will have access. 7.2 Eyeglasses that are sent by the VA laboratory in Indianapolis to the on-site dispensing optician shall be inspected by the contractor for quality and accuracy. This will include all prescriptions fabricated either at the VA lab or (if patient pay) private lab(s). The on-site dispensing optician shall report deviations from American National Standards Institute (ANSI) International Organization for Standardization 8980-1:2004 Ophthalmic optics - Uncut finished spectacle lenses - Part 1 and standard of two week delivery to the Chief of Optometry. The report shall separate VA vs. private lab errors. The percentage of prescriptions that require remakes will be reported and sorted by VA lab vs. private lab vs. doctor errors. 7.3 Through the required report at 7.1, the Contractor shall track delivery times for those eyeglasses sent from the VA laboratory to the on-site dispensing optician for delivery. Deviations from the standards listed above will be reported by the on-site dispensing optician to the Chief of Optometry. Those sent directly to the patients will be monitored by the VA lab or prosthetics service. 7.4 The Contractor shall be responsible for verifying prescription accuracy and tracking delivery times from the VA lab and privately contracted fabricating labs consistent with the standards listed above. Deviations will be reported to the Chief of Optometry. 8. Special Contract Requirements. 8.1 Qualifications. Personnel assigned by the Contractor to perform the services covered by this contract shall: 8.1.1 Be proficient in spoken and written English language (38 USC 7402). 8.1.2 Be computer literate because patient documentation is directly inputted in the patient's electronic medical record. 8.1.3 At least one board certified optician shall be present on-site at either facility at all times when the shops are open. 8.1.4 Adhere to the educational requirements of the VA, identified above in paragraph 6 of Section B.2 IT Contract Security, through TMS or equivalent online programs. 8.2 Personnel Policy. The contractor shall be responsible for protecting the personnel providing services under this contract. To carry out this responsibility, the contractor shall provide the following for these personnel: 8.2.1 Workers compensation 8.2.2 Professional liability insurance 8.2.3 Health examinations 8.2.4 Income tax withholdings, and 8.2.5 Social security payments. The parties agree that the contractor, its employees, agents and subcontractors shall not be considered VA employees for any purpose. 8.3 Record Keeping. Contractor's employee(s) shall report to the Surgical Service upon arrival at and departure from the VA. Monitoring of contractor's employee's time shall be demonstrated through sign-in/sign-out sheets. 8.3.1 The payments for any leave, including sick leave, holiday, or vacation time, are the responsibility of the contractor. 8.4 Designation of Contracting Officer Representative. A VA representative of the Contracting Officer will be designated to represent the Contracting Officer in furnishing technical guidance and advice regarding the work being performed under this contract. The Contracting Officer Representative does not have authorization to interpret or furnish advice and information to the Contractor relative to the financial or legal aspects of the contract. Enforcement of these segments is vested in and is the responsibility of the Contracting Officer. 8.5 Key Personnel and Temporary Emergency Substitutions. The Contractor shall assign to this contract the following key personnel: Optician 8.5.1 During the first ninety (90) days of performance, the Contractor shall make NO substitutions of key personnel unless the substitution is necessitated by illness, death, or termination of employment. The Contractor shall notify the Contracting Officer, in writing, within 15 calendar days after the occurrence of any of these events and provide the information required by paragraph (c) below. After the initial 90-day period of the contract, the Contractor shall submit the information required by paragraph (c) to the Contracting Officer at least 15 days prior to making any permanent substitutions. 8.5.2 The Contractor shall provide a detailed explanation of the circumstances necessitating the proposed substitutions, complete resumes for the proposed substitutes, and any additional information requested by the Contracting Officer. Proposed substitutes shall have comparable qualifications to those of the persons being replaced. The Contracting Officer will notify the Contractor within 15 calendar days after receipt of all required information of the decision on the proposed substitutes. The contract will be modified to reflect any approved changes of key personnel. 8.5.3 For temporary substitutions where the key person will not be reporting to work for three (3) consecutive work days or more, the Contractor will provide a qualified replacement for the key person. This substitute shall have comparable qualifications to the key person. Any period exceeding two weeks will require the procedure stated in paragraph (b) above. 9. Contract Performance Monitoring. 9.1 VA Surgical Service Administrative Officer shall be the VA official responsible for verifying contract compliance. This shall be done through a review of Patient Satisfaction, and review of the monthly report identified at paragraph 7.1. If there are more than 2 patient complaints in one calendar month, the Surgical Services Department will conduct a review of optical dispensing procedures in order to determine the cause and resolve the issue. 9.2 Documentation of services performed will be reviewed prior to certifying payment. The COR will perform periodic spot checks to ensure contract is being performed. The VA will pay only for procedures actually performed at the VA, and in strict accordance with the schedule of prices/costs. 9.3 The using service, through the COR, will provide a written statement quarterly to the Contracting Officer to include a summary of Contractor actions. 9.4 A Contractor's employee may not certify bills for payment on behalf of the Government. 9.5 VA may survey patients seen to determine patient satisfaction. 10. Quality Assurance Monitor. Contractor shall have in place and maintain a Quality Control Plan related to the Optical Dispensing services covered under this contract, detailing the contractor's approach to ensure quality products are dispensed to Veterans. The results of all Quality Improvement activities performed by the Contractor involving VA patients will be shared with facility staff, to include the Performance Improvement Department. This will include, but not be limited to, quality improvement plans, minutes of staff meetings where quality improvement has been discussed and which include practitioner-specific findings, conclusions, recommendations, written plans for actions taken in response to such conclusions and recommendations, and evaluation of those actions taken. It will also include the annual evaluation required by The Joint Commission (TJC). The monitoring should reflect, at a minimum, issues related to quality of care and appropriateness of referral. 11. Health and Human Services/Office of Inspector General (HHS/OIG). To ensure that the individuals providing services under the contract have not engaged in fraud or abuse regarding Sections 1128 and 1128A of the Social Security Act regarding federal health care programs, the contractor is required to check the HHS/OIG, List of Excluded Individuals/Entities on the OIG Website (www.hhs.gov/oig) for each person providing services under this contract. Further the Contractor is required to certify in its proposal that all persons listed in the contractor's proposal have been compared against the OIG list and are NOT listed. During the performance of this contract the Contractor is prohibited from using any individual or business listed on the List of Excluded Individuals/Entities. 12. Contractor Personnel Security Requirements. Failure to comply with the contractor personnel security requirements may result in termination of the contract for default. 12.1 All contractor employees are subject to the same level of investigation as VA employees who have access to VA Sensitive Information. The level of background investigation commensurate with the level of access needed to perform the statement of work is: Special Agreement Check. This requirement is applicable to all subcontractor personnel requiring the same access. All contractor employees who require access to the Department of Veterans Affairs' Contractors computer systems or have access to sensitive information shall be the subject of a background investigation. The contractor is encouraged to have its employee immediately download the background investigation packet from http://www.osp.va.gov/Security_and_Investigations_Center_FF.asp upon notification of contract award. A contractor's employee shall not commence working at VA under contract until the Contracting Officer receives notification from the VA Office of Security and Law Enforcement that the contract employee's application was received complete. A favorable adjudication from the VA Office of Security and Law Enforcement must be received in order for a contractor employee to continue contract performance. This requirement is applicable to all subcontractor personnel. 12.2 Position Sensitivity - The position sensitivity has been designated as Low Risk. 12.3 Background Investigation - The level of background investigation commensurate with the required level of access is Special Agreement Check (Electronic) (SAC). 12.4 Contractor Responsibilities 12.4.1 The contractor shall bear the expense ($50.00 per employee) of obtaining background investigations. If the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) conducts the investigation, the contractor shall reimburse VA within 30 days. If timely payment is not made within 30 days from date of bill for collection, then VA shall deduct the cost incurred from the contractors 1st month's invoice(s) for services rendered. 12.4.2 It is imperative for the contractor to provide, at the request of VA, a listing of contractor personnel performing services under the contract in order for the background investigation process to commence. This list will include name (first, middle, last) social security number; date of birth; city, state, and country of birth. 12.4.3 The contractor shall pre-screen all personnel requiring access to the computer systems to ensure they maintain a U.S. citizenship (or are fully authorized to work in the United States per current federal law) and are able to read, write, speak, and understand the English language. 12.4.4 The contractor or their employees shall submit a complete background investigation packet to the VA Security Investigations Center within 30 days or receipt. Additional guidance and information in completing the required forms, and examples of the forms, can be found at http://www.osp.va.gov/Security_and_Investigations_Center_FF.asp. The following required forms must be submitted to the VA Office of Security and Law Enforcement before contract performance begins: 12.4.4.1 VSC Security Request Package, SAC April 2012 12.4.4.2 Electronic Fingerprint Form (FD 258) or electronic fingerprints. Fingerprinting is required with the background investigation. Fingerprinting can be done at the local VA Facility. The Electronic Fingerprint Verification Form must be submitted with the above required forms. 12.4.5 The contractor, when notified of an unfavorable determination by the Government, shall withdraw the employee from consideration from working under the contract, and at the request of the VA, submit another employee for consideration. 12.4.6 The contractor may utilize a private investigating agency if such agency possesses an OPM and Defense Security Service certification. A Cage Code number must be provided to the VA Office of Security and Law Enforcement. VA Office of Security and Law Enforcement will verify the information and advise the contracting officer whether contractor's access to the computer systems can be authorized. 12.4.7 All contractor employees and subcontractors are required to complete VA's Privacy training annually. All Contractor employees and subcontractors requiring access to VA computer network are required to complete Cyber Security training courses annually either on-line or hard copy. Documented proof must be provided to the Contracting Officer. 12.4.8 The contractor will notify the COR immediately when their employee(s) no longer require access to VA computer systems. 12.4.9 Failure to comply with the Contractor personnel security requirements may result in termination of the contract for default. 12.5 Government Responsibilities 12.5.1 The VA Security Investigations Center will provide the necessary forms to the contractor or to the Contractor's employees after receiving the required information. 12.5.2 Upon receipt, the VA Security Investigations Center will review the completed forms for accuracy and forward the forms to OPM to conduct the background investigation. 12.5.3 The VA facility will pay for investigations conducted by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in advance. In these instances, the Contractor will reimburse the VA facility within 30 days. 12.5.4 The VA Security Investigations Center will notify the Contracting Officer and Contractor after adjudicating the results of the background investigations received from OPM. 12.5.5 The Contracting Officer will ensure that the Contractor provides evidence that investigations have been completed or are in the process of being requested. 13. Confidentiality of Patient Records. 13.1 The Contractor is a VA contractor and will assist in the provision of health care to patients seeking such care from or through VA. As such, the Contractor is considered as being part of the Department health care activity. Contractor is considered to be a VA contractor for purposes of the Privacy Act, Title 5 U.S.C. 552a. Further, for the purpose of VA records access and patient confidentiality, Contractor is considered to be a VA contractor for the following provisions: Title 38 U.S.C. 5701, 5705, and 7332. Therefore, Contractor may have access, as would other appropriate components of VA, to patient medical records including patient treatment records pertaining to drug and alcohol abuse, HIV, and sickle cell anemia, to the extent necessary to perform its contractual responsibilities. However, like other components of the Department, and not withstanding any other provisions of the sharing agreement, the Contractor is restricted from making disclosures of VA records, or information contained in such records, to which it may have access, except to the extent that explicit disclosure authority from VA has been received. The Contractor is subject to the same penalties and liabilities for unauthorized disclosures of such records as VA. 13.2 The records referred to above shall be and remain the property of VA and shall not be removed or transferred from VA except in accordance with U.S.C.551a (Privacy Act), 38 U.S.C. 5701 (Confidentiality of claimants records), 5 U.S.C. 552 (FOIA), 38 U.S.C. 5705 (Confidentiality of Medical Quality Assurance Records) 38 U.S.C. 7332 (Confidentiality of certain medical records) and federal laws, rules and regulations. Subject to applicable federal confidentiality or privacy laws, the Contractor, or their designated representatives, and designated representatives of federal regulatory agencies having jurisdiction over Contractor, may have access to VA 's records, at VA's place of business on request during normal business hours, to inspect and review and make copies of such records. 14. The Joint Commission (TJC) Standards. 14.1 Although Joint Commission accreditation is not required, the contractor shall perform the required work in compliance with Joint Commission Standards. A copy of these standards may be obtained from Joint Commission, One Renaissance Blvd., Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181. 14.2 The Contractor will be responsible to ensure the contractor employees or subcontractors providing work on this contract are fully trained and completely competent to perform the required work. The contractor is required to develop and maintain the following documents for each contractor or subcontractor employee working on the contract: credentials and qualifications for the job; a current competence assessment checklist (an assessment of knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviors to perform a job correctly and skillfully; includes knowledge and skills required to provide care for certain patient populations, as appropriate); a current performance evaluation supporting ability of the contractor employee to successfully perform the work required in this solicitation and the listing of relevant continuing education for the last two years. The contractor will provide current copies of these records at the time of contract award and annually on the anniversary date of contract award to the VA COR, or upon request, for each contractor or subcontractor employee working on the contract. 15. Required Registration with Contractor Performance Assessment System (CPARS). 15.1 As prescribed in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 42.15, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) evaluates contractor past performance on all contracts that exceed the thresholds outlined in FAR Part 42.15, and shares those evaluations with other Federal Government contract specialists and procurement officials through the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS). The FAR requires that the contractor be provided an opportunity to comment on past performance evaluations prior to the posting of each report. To fulfill this requirement VA uses an online database, the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS). The CPARS database information is uploaded to the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS) database, which is available to all Federal agencies. 15.2 Each contractor whose contract award is estimated to exceed the thresholds outlined in FAR Part 42.15 is required to provide to the contracting officer contact information for the contractor's representative with their response to the solicitation. The contractor is responsible to notify the contracting officer of any change to the contractor's representative during the contract performance period. Contractor's representative contact information consists of a name and email address. 15.3 The Government will register the contract within thirty days after contract award. For contracts with a period of one year or less, the contracting officer will perform a single evaluation when the contract is complete. For contracts exceeding one year, the contracting officer will evaluate the contractor's performance annually. Intermediate reports will be filed each year until the last year of the contract, when the final report will be completed. Each report shall be forwarded in CPARS to the contractor's designated representative for comment. The contractor's representative will have thirty days to submit any comments and return the report to the VA contracting officer. Failure by the contractor to respond within those thirty days will result in the Government's evaluation being placed on file in PPIRS without contractor's comments. 16. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Compliance. 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 (VA). In accordance with HIPAA, the Contractor may be required to enter into a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with VA. Optical Dispensing Services qualifies as a medical service - therefore, no BAA is required.