The Indian Health Service (IHS) is issuing a Request for Information (RFI) to support the National Compliance Program (NCP). This RFI issued solely for informational and planning purposes. This is not a Request for Proposal (RFP) and shall not be considered an Invitation for Bid (IB), or Request for Quotation (RFQ). Additionally, there is no obligation on the part of IHS to acquire any products or services described in this RFI, nor are responders entitled to payment for direct or indirect costs that are incurred in responding to this RFI. Responders must also understand that a solicitation is not being issued at this time, and this notice shall not be construed as a commitment by IHS to issue a solicitation, nor does it restrict IHS to a particular acquisition approach. Any information provided by industry to IHS as a result of this RFI is strictly voluntary, responses will not be returned, nor will IHS reimburse for the information submitted. While the information obtained from industry responses to this RFI may be used for planning purposes, and/or in the development of an acquisition strategy and future RFP, there is no guarantee that any solicitations will result from this notice. No funds have been authorized, appropriated or received for this effort. Responders are responsible for sufficiently annotating proprietary, restricted or competition-sensitive information contained in their response. I. Introduction The Indian Health Service (IHS), an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is responsible for providing federal health services to American Indians and Alaska Natives. The provision of health services to members of federally-recognized tribes grew out of the special government-to-government relationship between the federal government and Indian tribes. The IHS is the principal federal health care provider and health advocate for American Indian / Alaska Natives, and its mission is to raise the physical, mental, social, and spiritual health of American Indians and Alaska Natives to the highest level. The IHS provides a comprehensive health service delivery system for approximately 2.2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives who belong to 567 federally recognized tribes across 36 states. Further IHS profile information germane to this RFI can be found at https://www.ihs.gov/newsroom/factsheets/. In execution of its mission, IHS developed and currently uses a comprehensive integrated government-off-the-shelf (GOTS) health information system-of-systems, the Resource and Patient Management System (RPMS), which supports a broad range of clinical and business functions at IHS Federal, Tribal and Urban (I/T/U) hospitals and clinics across the United States. RPMS is a distant “cousin” to both the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) in use at the Veterans Administration, and the Composite Health Care System (CHCS) used in DoD’s Defense Health Administration (DHA), having been derived from the same legacy system and sharing many of the same infrastructure and business applications. Privileges and access rights within the applications that comprise RPMS are segregated by granting users access to “modules” which grant limited access, based on defined job responsibilities. The segregation of duties process is documented within RPMS’ application documentation; however, the configuration is implemented by the individual Area Offices/Sites. Currently there is no standard process in place to segregate user access to the Billing and Accounts Receivable modules within RPMS. This could allow RPMS users to submit and receive fraudulent payments. The IHS seeks contractor support to improve our practices and prevent fraud, waste, and abuse. Specifically the IHS seeks industry input on the following related tasks: 1. Performance of gap analysis on existing policies and procedures. 2. Recommendations for compensating management controls to improve control gaps in separation of duties in the above functions, given staffing challenges (availability) in remote areas. 3. Development of procedures to implement compensating controls. 4. Development of training materials to educate field staff on new procedures and facilitate monitoring for compliance. Please note this requirement is limited to corrective action support, and does not include tasks for A-123 assessments. II. Questions RFI respondent’s input is solicited to the following questions below related to the above introduction along with your experiences. Based on the services, products, and/or solutions your company offers, you are encouraged to first focus on the questions that highlight what you do best, then answer any others to the best of your ability where it makes sense and each response must identify its respective question. It is also understood that respondents may not have answers to each and every question. What commercial solutions are available, if any, at fixed prices- and what input would be required from the Government to provide accurate pricing under this method? What labor categories are typically utilized for the completion of these services? What input has been most useful when developing level of effort/number of hours required to complete work in the task areas above? What has your experience been with the roles and responsibilities, for both the contractor and the Government when providing these services? What has your experience been in regards to the need for meetings with the Government (i.e., weekly, bi-weekly, etc.)? What milestones are typical for the work described above? What deliverables are typical for the work described above? III. Instructions for Submission RFI respondents are encouraged to provide responses and comments to all or a portion of the questions above. Questions can be answered either sequentially and/or annotated throughout your responses. Responses and comments may be utilized in the development of additions or modification to future draft RFP(s). Responses to the RFI must be submitted with the subject header ‘IHS Corrective Action Support RFI Response’ and ‘your company’s name’ to
[email protected] on or before March 7th, 2022 by 4:30 PM Eastern Time. No verbal responses will be accepted. Email responses should not exceed 25MB in size nor exceed a page count of 40 pages. Proprietary information may be submitted; however, RFI respondents are responsible for adequately marking proprietary, restricted or competition sensitive information contained in their response. All submissions will be protected from disclosure outside of the Program Office.