Inactive

Introduction: 1. This announcement constitutes a Request for Information (RFI). This announcement does not constitute a commitment, implied or otherwise that a solicitation will be issued. This is not... Introduction: 1. This announcement constitutes a Request for Information (RFI). This announcement does not constitute a commitment, implied or otherwise that a solicitation will be issued. This is not a request for proposal (RFP) or an invitation for bids (IFB). 2. Please note that the collection of this requested information does not obligate the U.S. Government to incorporate any solicited comments nor does it obligate the Government to procure the services. Responses to this RFI will not be returned. The Government is not liable to pay any costs associated with companies responding to this RFI. 3. All information received resulting from this RFI will be used by the Defense Health Agency (DHA) for acquisition planning and market research purposes only. However, your response may be releasable to the public under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). If you wish the DHA to consider any portion of your response as “confidential commercial information”, you should clearly mark the portion as “confidential commercial information”. 4. The Defense Health Agency (DHA), at its discretion, may request respondents to this RFI to elaborate on information in their written response. Respondents to this RFI will not be notified of any results derived from a review of the information provided. 5. The DHA invites all interested parties to submit a written response to this Request for Information (RFI). This RFI is issued for the sole purpose of conducting market research in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 10. 6. Please respond to as many or as few of the questions posed. The questions cover a broad range of topics that may not be applicable to all responders. Description: The Department of Defense (DoD) DHA is responsible for development and implementation of a pharmacy data warehouse (PDW), resulting in a cost efficient, integrated patient drug profile for the protection and welfare of the Department of Defense Beneficiary population. The PDW serves as a comprehensive, historical and central database for prescription medications dispensed to TRICARE beneficiaries. It contains detailed data for every transaction for all Military Health System (MHS) points of service, including Military Treatment Facilities, TRICARE Retail Pharmacies, TRICARE Mail Order Pharmacies, and Overseas Theaters of Operation. The PDW provides historical data enabling the DoD to manage and enhance the TRICARE pharmacy benefit program. The PDW utilizes commercial best practices and industry standards for data exchanges with DoD systems and industry partners. It is DHA’s objective to establish, maintain, operate, and sustain hardware and software components for a PDW containing pharmacy historical records and transactions that support the management and execution of the DoD pharmacy benefit. Services required include the establishment, operations, maintenance, and support of a DoD centralized data repository that records information about prescriptions filled worldwide for DoD beneficiaries as well as other pharmaceutical data services within the MHS. The PDW is a service utilizing contractor owned and contractor operated service. DHA currently has a contract in place for the PDW. The DHA is seeking information on how any interested contractor could provide all personnel, equipment, supplies, facilities, transportation, tools, materials, supervision, and other items and non-personal services necessary to perform maintenance and support of the specific tasks outlined below. Specific Tasks: Pharmacy Data Warehouse The PDW contractor shall develop and maintain a PDW, which retains and preserves all PDW transactions and historical data. The PDW contractor shall provide a PDW capable of receiving all transaction information transmitted by the TPharm contractor, which includes receiving new and updated data-feed transmissions by the TPharm contractor. The PDW shall, at a minimum, meet the following specification: Scalable and capable of receiving, storing and updating TPharm data. Approximately 19 million records a month; Capable of storing historical pharmacy data. Currently over 2 Billion records are in the PDW which require approximately three terabytes of data storage capacity per instance of the PDW; All historical data shall be available on-line and accessible by authorized DoD users; Capable of storing and updating the DHA Pharmacy Operations Division (POD) defined drug classification, i.e. Uniform Formulary (UF); Configurable to allow the Government to specify which data elements are available for queries and reporting capabilities; Shall be built on a SQL database, allowing the interaction between the user and the database to be non-procedural and non-proprietary; The database shall be designed to report metrics and data facts across multiple dimensions; High volume tables shall be partitioned to optimize performance; Indexes and materialized views are required to optimize performance; The database shall be duplicated to provide data redundancy; Include multiple servers to provide redundant access to the data; Detailed data shall be aggregated to optimize query performance; Establish and maintain connectivity to support transfer speeds no less than 50 Mbps between the PDW and the connected DHA Business Objects and Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) solutions; Provide support for troubleshooting connectivity issues as well as communicating any revisions to the underlying PDW to relevant stakeholders; Provide technical expertise to support and participate in technical discussions with DHA to explain past and/or needed revisions to facilitate delivery of reporting capabilities; Refresh the SAS specific snapshot of the PDW daily; Refresh the Business Objects specific snapshot of the PDW daily; The contractor shall support user provisioning in support of SAS/SCE. Additionally, the contractor shall provide a data dictionary and data schema. The database shall be capabilities to preserve demographics data, reprice claims, modify historical values, etc. System Design The contractor shall provide the system design services called for hereunder. Detailed system design shall include development of detailed data and process models, program specifications, interface specifications, screen and report designs, program control specifications and/or teleprocessing considerations. This contract requires the following activities: Establish the detailed system architectures to include: system schematics, including system and subsystem performance-based descriptions, and key interfaces between them. Define hardware and software specifications to include: sizing and performance requirements, systems and subsystem, interface requirements, and systems control requirements. Design database and file structures to include: definitions of file characteristics, file layouts, data dictionary entries, file indices for each subsystem and database schema and subschema. Finalize input and output design to include: data flows, data dictionary entries, dialogue specifications and lists of all inputs and outputs by subsystem. Define special design considerations to include: network design approaches, teleprocessing design specifications, data control, security and audit procedures; archived historical, current data purging and data entry criteria, scheduling, disaster recovery, special quality assurance factors and configuration control requirements. Define program specifications to include: detailed processing logic for each module, data dictionary entries for parameter data and a list of compile and load units for each design unit and their component modules. Identify, define, and design capacity requirements and any associated limitations. Specifically, coordinate with the Government to identify facility limitations and considerations during the design phase. Apply software development processes of, or equivalent to, the stated Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standards, or the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Capability Maturity Model (CMM), Level III or higher. All telecommunications network designs shall make maximum use of existing telecommunications infrastructure. System Updates/Migration The contractor shall apply processes and procedures that ensure that all system and system component maintenance, updates and versions are implemented in a manner such that each product update or version builds on the preceding version and in no way deletes or diminishes previous functionality unless specifically directed or approved by the Government. This incremental build process shall provide for implementation of the new/upgraded product without loss of functionality which is "in process" at the time of update. Specifically, the contractor shall provide for the automatic transfer of "in process" functions from the "old" version to the new or upgraded version. Operations The contractor shall provide the operation and management of PDW systems, system components and databases at the contractor’s operational sites. This shall include but is not limited to: administration, data input, data manipulation, and data reporting. When performing system operations, the contractor shall ensure that staff sign and adhere to non-disclosure statements and protect ALL patient and system information. Maintenance The contractor shall provide maintenance and support services called for hereunder. This shall include configuration and access control, basic troubleshooting and maintenance of PDW systems. Planned, Preventative, and Emergency Maintenance The contractor shall provide support for the maintenance of software and/or hardware for the current systems and systems delivered during the period of performance of this order to include, but not be limited to: analysis of problem or change request(s), preparation of resource estimates and schedules to effect necessary changes, design and code changes, conduct testing of all changes, complete and/or update all documentation affected by the required change(s), and coordination of change implementation through appropriate approvals as required by the contractor’s configuration management procedures. General Questions/Requested Information Provide a description of the company or team’s background, technical expertise, experience, staffing, and other capabilities that demonstrate its capability to provide the anticipated PDW requirements. Describe your capability and approach to data storage, persistence, data model, architecture, security, distribution, transformation and management, which guarantees the data is permanently stored and can be retrieved rapidly and flexibly. Describe your data management capability and approach to address scale, data format (structured, unstructured and extensibility), consistency, quality and quality management, redundancy, availability. Describe your capability and approach, with a corresponding timeline, to support the inclusion/migration of legacy data and data stores into the data warehouse. Describe your capability and approach to interoperability (i.e. communicating and interacting with other systems). Describe your recommended approach to a typical deployment and implementation of the PDW, including key activities, tasks, timelines, resources, and dependencies. Does your company have a federal supply schedule contract with the scope and labor categories able to meet the requirements of this effort? Information Submission Instructions: The Government encourages responses from interested parties who are capable of responding to the entire scope of the RFI, as well as interested parties who may have specific expertise in only limited areas of this RFI. Respondents are advised that the Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the responding party’s expense. Proprietary information may be submitted; however, interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary, restricted or competition sensitive information contained in their response. Proper restrictions shall be marked as such on each page. Only the Government will review this RFI. Interested qualified interested parties, small or large organization, should submit information for this request. All responses should be submitted using PDF, HTML, MS Word or PowerPoint formats with subject “Pharmacy Data Warehouse FY22 RFI Response”. Only electronic submissions will be accepted. Electronic files larger than 10 MB should be broken down into multiple files with no one (1) file exceeding 10 MB. Each electronic submission shall include: RFI number and “Pharmacy Data Warehouse FY22 RFI Response” in the subject line. If the submission includes more than one (1) electronic email, the file number and total files being submitted (e.g., File 1 of 4, File 2 of 4, etc.) in the subject line. A brief summary of the email’s content, the vendor’s name, point of contact, vendor size and socioeconomic status (if any), and contact information including mailing address. All responses to the RFI must be submitted electronically (via e-mail) by 15 February 2022 by 5:00pm MT to: Ms. Kristin Decker, Contracting Officer, at kristin.m.decker.civ@mail.mil & Ms. Patricia Legra, Contract Specialist, at patricia.r.legra.civ@mail.mil.