Inactive

INTRODUCTION This is a Sources Sought Notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding the availability and capability of ... INTRODUCTION This is a Sources Sought Notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding the availability and capability of qualified small / other than small Indian-Owned Firms (25 USC 47) and small businesses (FAR Part 19) that are capable of providing a cloud-based video conferencing solution to support the Agency’s telehealth program. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition strategy. BACKGROUND The Indian Health Service, an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, is responsible for providing federal health services to American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN). The IHS is the principal federal health care provider and health advocate for AI/AN, and its goal is to raise their health status to the highest possible level. The IHS provides a comprehensive health service delivery system for approximately 2.6 million American Indians and Alaska Natives who belong to 573 federally recognized tribes in 37 states. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a very high demand for telehealth solutions for which the IHS is seeking an affordable, secure, and scalable video conferencing solution to enable patient-to-provider and provider-to-provider telehealth meetings. The IHS is committed to supporting synchronous (real-time) telehealth services within IHS, Tribal, and Urban programs. RESPONSE INFORMATION IHS is seeking contract sources who have demonstrated experience in providing a cloud-based video conferencing solution supporting telehealth programs in similar scope, size, complexity and magnitude to the telehealth activities that IHS intend to provide with the resulting product. The capability statement shall sufficiently address how the responder’s product and related support services will be delivered for the proposed contract requirement. The qualifying response for this notice must ensure that the offeror has the experience and capacity to take part in this specific type of requirement. Generic capability statements are not sufficient and will not be considered compliant with the requirements of this notice. In particular, the responders SHALL address each and all of the following information: Contractor’s detailed past performance experience that is relevant to this requirement. The submission shall convey its relevancy to this requirement, which is to support minimum of 2000 health care providers within 12 IHS Geographical Areas. IHS locations are provided here - https://www.ihs.gov/locations. The weekly average number of audio or video telehealth conferences during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic is 30,000; For cloud services, the contractor shall provide evidence in its submission that the proposed solution is FedRAMP certified or meets the requirements to become FedRAMP certified within 60 days of the contract period of performance start date. If the latter, the submission shall include its feasible plan to achieve the FedRAMP requirement within the specified deadline. The IHS will not sponsor a new FedRAMP ATO for this solution; The product’s video conferencing capabilities for Patient-to-Provider and Provider-to-Provider modalities - with the ability for CVT system and system capability to support the plug-and-play use of various types of peripherals such as, but not limited to, Otoscope, Ophthalmoscope, Stethoscope, Laryngoscope, Glideslope, microphones, cameras, etc.; The product’s video conferencing capabilities that are optimized for end-users primarily located in rural areas throughout the United States where users have really slow network or internet connectivity speeds (as slow as 256Kbps), and high latency (higher than 300 milliseconds); The product’s seamless switching feature from audio/video to audio-only when the connection becomes unsatisfactory. The Contractor shall describe its process for reconnecting dropped calls; The product’s compatibility with the most commonly used mobile device, tablet, laptop, and personal computer platforms and shall support the latest versions of the most common operating systems as well as versions released in the past seven years; The product’s capability to support the latest versions of the most common web browsers, and WebRTC; The product’s security mechanisms for handling data at rest and in transit in accordance with FIPS 140-2 Level 2 security requirements; Information regarding how the product meets Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirement; and Information regarding the product’s Section 508 features. Information regarding how the product support most manufacture codecs and video endpoints, especially Cisco and Polycom codecs such as, but not limited to Cisco Desktop Codecs DX80 and Polycom RealPresence Group 500 codecs. INSTRUCTIONS TO INDUSTRY All capable parties are encouraged to respond. Responses must directly demonstrate the company’s capability, experience, and ability to marshal resources provide the solutions listed in the attached Performance Work Statement (PWS). The Government requests interested parties submit a written response to this notice with the following information: a. Company point of contact, mailing address, and telephone number(s), and website address; b. If any, existing contract solutions by the company such as - Federal Supply Schedules contract, or any other procurement instruments intended for use by multiple agencies, e.g., Best in Class (BIC) contracts; and c. DUNS and socio-economic category of the company. Disclaimer and Important Notes. This notice shall not obligate the Government to award contract. Any information provided by industry to the Government as a result of this sources sought synopsis is strictly voluntary. Responses will not be returned. No entitlements to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges to the Government will arise as a result of contractor submission of responses, or the Government's use of such information or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization’s qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published on a government GPE. Furthermore, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. Confidentiality. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s). Responses must be submitted via email to Paul.Premoe@ihs.gov and Cole.Cook@ihs.gov, no later than 2:00pm EST on December 21, 2020. Capability statements will not be accepted after the due date. The maximum number of pages for this submission is ten (10) pages.