Description
FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY (FEMA) 500 C STREET SW, WASHINGTON, D.C. 20472 REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) Post-Trauma Disaster Case Management Barriers, Best practices, and Innovations REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) Introduction THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) IN ACCORDANCE WITH FAR 15.201(e) AND FAR 52.215-3, which states: RFIs may be used when the Government does not presently intend to award a contract, but wants to obtain price, delivery, other market information, or capabilities for planning purposes. Responses to these notices are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. There is no required format for RFIs. This is NOT a Request for Proposal (RFP). An RFP is not being issued at this time, and this notice shall not be considered as a commitment by the Government to issue a RFP, nor does it restrict the Government to a particular acquisition approach. Requests for a solicitation will not receive a response. This is a Request for Information (RFI) to gauge the marketplace and learn about the industry's capabilities to deliver turnkey congregate sheltering services. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a Solicitation nor a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a commitment for an RFP in the future, and it is not considered to be a commitment by the Government to award a contract. The Government will not pay for any information or administrative cost incurred in response to this announcement. Proprietary information will be safeguarded in accordance with Government regulations. The purpose of this RFI is to gather information regarding current capabilities and capacities in the marketplace to provide turnkey congregate sheltering services in the event of a major disaster. Background FEMA’s mission to provide post-disaster case management services to disaster survivors The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that, as a nation, we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards. FEMA receives its authority from the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act), P.L. 93-288, as amended at 42 USC 5121-5207. FEMA’s Disaster Case Management (DCM) program supplements a state, local, tribal, or territorial (SLTT) governments’ capacity to provide support services to survivors after a disaster. Section 426 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, Public Law 93-288, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 5189d, upon issuance of a Presidentially declared major disaster that includes Individual Assistance and authorizes DCM, enables FEMA to provide funding to State, Tribal, or Territorial (STT) governments or qualified private organizations to deliver disaster case management services. DCM is a time-limited program that involves a partnership between a disaster case manager and a disaster survivor, also known as a “client,” to develop and carry out an individual disaster recovery plan. Disaster recovery plans include resources, decision-making priorities, guidance, and tools to assist clients. This partnership provides the client with a single point of contact to facilitate access to a broad range of resources. The DCM program is a Stafford Act funded program promoting: (a) effective delivery of post-disaster case management services, (b) partner integration, (c) service provider capacity building, and (d) state-level program development. The program provides funding and technical assistance to ensure a whole community approach to providing or connecting local services to disaster survivors. Services are provided at no cost and are available to any survivor impacted by the disaster, regardless of eligibility for FEMA’s Individuals and Households Program (IHP) or other federal assistance. Individuals and households do not need to apply for FEMA assistance to receive disaster case management services. DCM must be accessible to people regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, English proficiency, or economic status. In particular, Providers of DCM must plan to meet the needs of people with limited English proficiency and people with disabilities, such as people who are deaf or hard of hearing who may use sign language or captioning. Programmatic Concept – Evolved post-disaster case management services There is a long history of post-disaster case management services. The Stafford Act authority for this work was added in 2006. FEMA has made fundamental and incremental changes to DCM to provide quicker and better service to customers – both STTs and survivors. In 2018, FEMA began implementing the Modern Approach to DCM, which allows for more timely and less burdensome applications for STTs and quicker delivery of services to survivors. Since 2018, FEMA has continued to make updates to DCM to make it more customer centric to include finalizing standard forms and providing updated policy. FEMA envisions a future where disaster assistance programs integrate into a seamless “whole” to help disaster survivors rebuild their homes and lives. FEMA Individual Assistance recently underwent major updates. The Reforms aim to reduce the burden of applying for assistance for disaster survivors and do three things: establish new and flexible forms of assistance, cut through red tape, and simplify the application process for survivors. In addition to these reforms, there’s a great deal of support for survivors coming from a multitude of places – and that can be a lot for someone to navigate – even on a good day. FEMA envisions case management as the connection point between survivors and all the forms of assistance that are available to them. Case management is vital to successfully cutting through red tape and simplifying the process for survivors to find and access the help they so desperately need. As FEMA continues large-scale reforms to the Individual Assistance programs, we are looking to modernize across multiple workstreams. FEMA will optimize the current Disaster Case Management (DCM) program, while evolving the DCM program to provide STTs and survivors with the service they need and deserve. With this work, FEMA is focused on: Increasing the speed of DCM. Meeting STTs where they are by providing DCM implementation options along a spectrum from FEMA provides only the funding to FEMA runs the program. Empowering and educating STTs to provide post-disaster casework and case management[1] independent of an official DCM program and federal award. In order to meet these goals, understand industry requirements, and evolve post-disaster case management, FEMA is seeking information from post-trauma case management and emergency management industries on barriers in supporting FEMA’s current DCM program, best practices for providing post-trauma case management services, and innovative solutions in this space. Definitions Casework, case management services, post-trauma case management services, post-disaster case management services, and DCM are terms of art that are used frequently in the below questions. Casework focuses on providing direct services to their clients. Case management services focuses on coordinating care across multiple providers and services. Post-trauma case management services focus on coordinating care across multiple providers and services following a traumatic event, which could include, but is not limited to disasters. This care could be provided with or without support of a grant from the federal, state, tribal, territorial, or local government, and may be a part of regular services that providers offer to a community. Post-disaster case management services focus on coordinating care across multiple providers and services following a disaster. This care could be provided with or without support of a grant from the federal, state, tribal, territorial, or local government, and may be a part of regular services that providers offer to a community. DCM refers to the FEMA funded post-disaster case management services as described above. Acquisition Concept FEMA has no current plans to issue a solicitation to deliver requested services that will support FEMA Disaster Case Management Program. FEMA will, however, continue to gather information related to marketplace capabilities to be informed of barriers, best practices, and innovations in the post-trauma case management industry. FEMA is seeking information from industry that may shape future changes to FEMA’s DCM program. Request for Information (RFI) Questions In response to the RFI, please answer the following questions: Vendor Profile (No more than 3 pages) Identify the company and primary contact person responding to this RFI to include name, address, city, state, zip code, phone, fax numbers and email address. Identify the name, title, address, phone and fax number/s, and email address of the primary contact person responding to this RFI. Identify any parent corporation and/or subsidiaries, if appropriate. Identify company’s size and type, i.e. small business – woman owned. Provide a brief overview of your company including number of years in business, number of employees, nature of business, and description of clients. Provide a summary of your company’s business space and the types of services you offer to potential clients. Is this the first time that you’re aware that FEMA provides a federal award to support SLTT partners in providing post-disaster case management services? If you provide post-trauma casework and/or case management services, how do you measure success for an individual survivor? For a community? For an event? Barriers to entry (No more than 4 pages) Does your company currently work with an STT partner in support of FEMA’s Disaster Case Management program? If your company does work in support of DCM, why have you chosen to do so? What drives you in this mission space? What can FEMA do to ensure your continued support? If your company does NOT work in support of DCM, why not? If you’ve tried or wanted to try to work in this mission space, what has prevented you from doing so? Is there anything that FEMA can do or incentivize for you to enter this mission space? Post-Trauma case service and case management best practices (No more than 5 pages) What experience does your company have in identifying best practices in the post-trauma case service and case management industry? How do you identify best practices? How long has your company been doing this work? What best practices have you identified in either the funding, delivery, or customer satisfaction in this industry? What are some of your most important lessons learned/opportunities for growth in this industry? What U.S. organizations do a good job in providing post-trauma case management services and why do you think this? What can or should FEMA learn from them? Post-Trauma case service and case management innovations (No more than 5 pages) Does your company deliver, either directly or indirectly, post-trauma casework or case management services? What key tools and/or systems do you use to coordinate this care? Which of these tools and/or systems facilitate the most successful long-term outcomes for survivors? Why? Are there tools and/or systems that you recommend the federal government invest in to provide better post-disaster case management services? What U.S. organizations have important tools and/or systems to facilitate post-trauma case management services? What are those tools and what can or should FEMA learn from those organizations and/or tools? How can the federal government foster innovation in post-disaster case management? RFI Response Format: In order to better assist in the review of submittals to this RFI, respondents are encouraged to prepare responses that closely adheres to the following format: The document format shall be either Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx), or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) formats. Responses shall be prepared using 12 pt. font, 1 inch margins, and 8.5” by 11” paper and shall not exceed (20 ) pages in length, including images, data displays, charts, graphs, and tables. Respondents are encouraged to ensure that their submittals are complete and address all items outlined within this RFI. Respondents may provide additional promotional literature in addition to their response as long as the literature conforms to the response format. Submissions in response to this RFI shall not exceed 20 pages. [1] Casework focuses on providing direct services to their clients, while case management focuses on coordinating care across multiple providers and services.