Veterans' Affairs Processing Automation (VPAS) Update to RFP release date and Point of Contact Information

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION RFI 36C10D24Q0038 1.0 INTRODUCTION THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) is issuing this Request for Information (RFI) for the Veterans Affairs Processing and Automation Services (VPAS). This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes only. There is no obligation for the Government to acquire any products or services described in this RFI. In accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) Subpart 15.201(E), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. No funds have been authorized, appropriated, or received for this effort. The information provided may be used by VBA in developing its acquisition strategy and informing, refining, and finalizing the Performance Work Statement (PWS). Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary, restricted or competition sensitive information contained in their response. Only electronic responses to this RFI will be accepted. The Government will not pay for any time expended or information submitted in response to this RFI. Eligibility in participating in a future acquisition does not depend upon a response to this RFI. 2.0 BACKGROUND Through its three (3) administrations, National Cemetery Administration (NCA), Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), and Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Veterans Affairs (VA) administers vital services to America's Veterans. VA provides health care services, benefits programs, and access to national cemeteries for former military personnel and their dependents. The fundamental mission of VBA is to provide Veterans, transitioning service members, and their families with benefits and services including education benefits, home loans, life insurance, and disability compensation or pension benefits. Award of these benefits often requires information gathering from a multitude of third parties, government agencies and digital repositories as well as the application of complex rules. Prior to 2012, VBA processed most benefits utilizing paper claim folders. In September 2012 VBA began scanning claim folders and uploading the files into the Veterans Benefits Management System (VBMS) for claims processors to view electronically as searchable Portable Document Files (PDFs). Scanning efforts expanded to mail in 2014 and scanning of historical file banks in 2016. The success of VBA s scanning program supported the reduction of rating claim backlogs from over 600,000 in early 2012 to less than 90,000 by the end of Fiscal Year (FY) 2019. Although the COVID-19 period limited the pace of reducing the backlog, progress continued until COVID limitations were lifted and the pace of claims increased such that the current inventory is more than 300,000. The scanning program also enabled the opportunity to further reduce the claim cycle by extracting data from images to automate business processes. The VBA continues to need contractor support for reducing the inventory. In today s process, mail arrives at the Evidence Intake Center from Veterans, or their representatives, to support a Veteran s, or their family member s, claim for benefits and services. This mail is tracked and converted into searchable PDF (PDF Image plus Text) format in compliance with the VBMS PDF specification. Also, as records are located or generated during claim development activities, they are retrieved and added to the body of evidence supporting the claim in the systems of records for the claimant. These materials typically support one or more business processes, primarily related to Veterans benefits claims processing, using other input material provided by other entities (such as VHA, NCA and other federal partners). The Veterans Intake, Conversion and Communication Services (VICCS) Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) was established in 2019 to continuously improve benefits processing efficiency and cycle-time. VBA has partnered with industry leaders to provide a host of managed-service contracts but the period of performance for the VICCS expires in September 2024, the VA will need a replacement IDIQ. This VA Processing and Automation Services (VPAS) IDIQ provides a successor replacement to the VICCS IDIQ to provide managed services for all elements of VA to provide the following categories of services: Source Material Processing Services, such as Intake Source Material Tracking Source Material Management Digitization and data extraction Upload and Routing Inbound Mail Management Support Rule-Based Processing (such Optical Character Recognition, Iterative Fusion based Recognizer, Natural Language Processing) Centralized Outbound Data Transfer Graphical Self-Service Report Generation Inbound Calls Outbound Calls Automation Development and Operations Business Process Automation Claims / Application processing Private medical records processing Mail automation Veteran transition support Records Research Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) / Privacy Act request processing Operations and Maintenance Integration Services, such as Organizational Integration Connectivity, Access, and Security Data Integration Automation Integration Integration Library Data Storage, Sharing and Analysis Services Customer/Employee Experience Services Enabling and Support Services, such as Business Processing Professional services Organizational Change Management Marketing/Outreach Communications Strategy, Planning, and Implementation Customer Relationship Services Case Management Services System Modernization and Retirement Services Training Services Integration, Setup, Test and Validation Services Service Updates Transition In/Out Help Desk / Call Center Services Requirements may fall within one specific service area but in many cases, the requirements will encompass and apply across and within multiple service areas. VBA anticipates continuing, enhancing and expanding the above referenced services through contractor support by means of ultimately competing this work among highly qualified and capable contractors. However, this RFI does not represent a solicitation nor is it a guarantee of a future solicitation. The VA/VBA plans to hold a virtual RFI Industry Day in support of this RFI and will provide an overview presentation. The Virtual Industry Day will be held on February 21, 2024, between 2:00 pm 3:00 pm eastern time. Please view the following information for attending the event: https://veteransaffairs.webex.com/veteransaffairs/j.php?MTID=md9910927e2b26e42cd5b593c3c9bc7d9 Webinar number: 2824 841 4002 Webinar password: YWrZaPv@247 (99792781 from phones and video systems) Join by phone: 1-404-397-1596 USA Toll Number Access code: 282 484 14002 3.0 INFORMATION SOUGHT The Government is seeking the following information to be provided by the vendors when responding to the RFI: Company Information Capability Statement Answers to Questions Draft PWS Comments 3.1 Company Information RFI respondents shall provide the following information: Company Name Company Address Company Point of Contact (name, address, telephone number, email address) Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) NAICS Codes and business size for NAICS code 518210 - Identify if your company has any of the following business concern statuses (include all that apply): Small Business (SB); Certified Small Business Administration (SBA) 8(a) firm; Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB); Service-Disabled, Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB); Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB); Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Business (EDWOSB); Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB); Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HubZone) Small Business; Large Business Existing Multiple Award Contract (MAC) vehicles currently held by your company (examples may include General Service Administrations (GSA) schedules, Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs), Indefinite Delivery Contracts (IDCs), Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs)) available for the Government use. For each MAC vehicle provide: vehicle name vehicle number date of award expiration date 3.2 Capability Statement RFI respondents shall provide a capability statement with an overview of the company s capabilities to fulfill the requirements of the attached PWS. Overview should include but not be limited to: Details regarding proposed joint ventures, teaming arrangements, strategic alliances or other business arrangements to satisfy requirements of the entire PWS. Description of the company s resources available and capable of completing the work under the PWS. Explanation of what experience providing services similar in size, scope and complexity of the VPAS PWS the company has. List of specific contracts in the Government or industry where the vendor provided similar services on the same scale and provide Agency / Company name, contract number, contract period of performance and contract dollar value. 3.3 Answers to Questions RFI respondents shall provide answers to the questions provided in Section 5.0 of this RFI. RFI respondents are requested to address each question. Questions that do not apply to RFI respondents or RFI respondents cannot provide answers to shall be addressed by marking these questions with N/A . 3.4 Draft PWS Comments RFI respondents shall provide comments on the PWS in the following table format: Comment # PWS Page # PWS Section # Comment The comments may include recommended changes, noted errors, inconsistencies, ambiguities, areas requiring further clarifications or higher level of detail, etc. 4.0 SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS Points of contact for this RFI and response submissions to this RFI are due no later than March 3, 2024, 5:00 pm Eastern Time and shall be submitted to VBA.Procurements@va.gov and VBA_Procurements.vbaco@va.gov. The email subject line must contain the following: Response to RFI 36C10D24Q0038, VPAS. VBA reserves the right to not reply to any emails, responses, questions, and materials submitted in response to the RFI. Mark your response as Proprietary Information if the information included is considered to be business sensitive and/or includes trade secrets. RFI responses shall not exceed 30 pages total. Responses shall be prepared in Microsoft Word with standard 8.5 x 11-inch page format (charts may be landscaped but must be on 8.5 x 11-inch page format) and shall be in Times New Roman, font size (12), with 1 margins. All page format of the response shall be appropriately numbered and identified with the RFI number. The email file size limitation shall be no more than 40MB. 5.0 LIST OF QUESTIONS COMPANY SERVICES AND OPERATIONAL FACTORS 1) Could your company independently provide the entire range of services called for in the PWS? a. If yes, that your company can independently provide the entire range of services, would this include any existing contracts in place available to the Government under which the company can provide the full range of services needed to fulfill PWS requirements that would support the most efficient and rapid procurement of services? If yes, please provide the contract vehicle information (e.g., description of services; scope; contract vehicle number; period of performance; etc.) b. If your company cannot provide the entire range of services, what services called for in the PWS could your company provide? 2) Please describe your company s experience providing onsite organizational leadership presence at a customer s site as described in the PWS, including specific benefits and / or hurdles associated with supporting such a requirement. MAIL HANDLING AND PROCESSING 3) Please describe your company s experiences with inbound/outbound mail and notifications in all formats, as well as any experience with handling of wet, contaminated, and fragile source materials? 4) In consideration of your company s experience and innovations, what state-of-the-art mail processing strategies and / or emerging technologies should the Government consider as they develop their long-term mail handling strategy? CONVERSION, TRACKING, DATA, AND INNOVATION 5) Please describe your company's experience with providing document conversion services for original and / or historically sensitive source materials in the custody of organizations such as the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA): What measures were employed to prevent damage to the documents? What measures were employed to restore any materials damaged during conversion? 6) What is your approach, turnaround time, management plan for a source material tracking system and mail portal services? 7) Contract awardees will be required to ingest large volumes of data residing in systems maintained by VBA s current conversion and mail handling vendors. Please describe specific information related to the data your company would need to effectively ingest large volumes of data using existing APIs into the material tracking system and mail portal required by the PWS. PERFORMANCE AND RISK MANAGEMENT FACTORS 8) What are the major risk factors in the performance of the services required in the PWS and how can those risks be managed? PRICING 9) Please describe any experiences with electronic business processing based on multi-level processing complexity rules. Please describe the pricing structures used (e.g., transaction-based; quantity-based; price banding based on volume, price banding based on complexity; etc.) and provide recommendations of pricing structures for this PWS. 6.0 ATTACHMENTS Attachment 1 - Draft PWS (Veterans Affairs Processing and Automation Services PWS)

Background
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) is issuing this Request for Information (RFI) for the Veterans Affairs Processing and Automation Services (VPAS). This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes only. The fundamental mission of VBA is to provide Veterans, transitioning service members, and their families with benefits and services including education benefits, home loans, life insurance, and disability compensation or pension benefits. VBA continues to need contractor support for reducing the inventory of claims.

Work Details
The VA Processing and Automation Services (VPAS) IDIQ provides a successor replacement to the VICCS IDIQ to provide managed services for all elements of VA. The services include source material processing, integration services, enabling and support services, customer/employee experience services, system modernization and retirement services, training services, integration, setup, test and validation services, service updates, transition in/out, help desk/call center services. Requirements may fall within one specific service area but in many cases encompass and apply across multiple service areas.

Period of Performance
The period of performance for the VICCS expires in September 2024. The VA/VBA plans to hold a virtual RFI Industry Day on February 21, 2024.

Place of Performance
The place of performance will be at the Department of Veterans Affairs as specified in the PWS.