R699--After-hours (emergency) Answering Services VAPIHCS Base plus Four one-year options

age of twenty (20) emergency calls per month for the entire region. All incoming calls will be initially screened through the Department of Veterans Affairs primary phone operators. Once a call has been identified as an emergency call, the VA s phone operators will dispatch the call to the contracted answering service. The contractor will then page and/or text the appropriate on-call provider entering the requesting physician s telephone number as a call-back number. The contractor may also be responsible for sending an additional page/text to a secondary requesting physician if no response is received by the first line requesting physician. The contractor will conduct a follow-up call to the requested physician to ensure the call was successful. The contractor must be able to offer reliable answering communication services for this region. It is imperative that all modes of communications be responsive without disruptions, delays, or lack of service. Please take into consideration, there will be multiple data providers affiliated with the mobile equipment assigned to the on-call providers. The contractor must be able to respond to various mobile communications and comply within the various time zones. Government Furnished Equipment: Mobile devices and/or equipment are not required for this contract. Each physician has been assigned an alpha numeric digital pager or has provided a personal contact number to be reached via texting and/or paging the requested on-call physicians. The Department of Veteran Affairs will provide a monthly updated call roster with a list of on-call Physicians, their contact numbers, and recommended method of communication. The emergency after-hour phone services will be provided for the following health departments and clinics: Geriatric Mental Health Laboratory Primary Care Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs) Areas of Coverage: The services to be provided for the Veterans Affairs Pacific Island Health Care System (VAPIHCS), Regional location at 459 Patterson Road, Honolulu, HI 96819-1522. The Honolulu Regional Office of VAPIHCS serves the Veterans of Hawaii and the Western Pacific US Territories. Its jurisdiction covers many small island populations dispersed throughout an enormous geographic area of approximately 4.6 million square miles of the Pacific Ocean, and includes the State of Hawaii (Hilo, HI, Kahului, HI, Kauai, HI, Kona, HI, Maui, HI, and Lanai, HI) Hagatna, Guam and other US Territories of Guam, American Samoa, as well as the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (Saipan, Tinian and Rota). Schedule: The VAPIHCS normal business hours usually operate between 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, Monday through Friday, except Federal Holidays. The requested services shall be provided seven (7) days a week, to include weekends and holidays, and are anticipated 365 days out of the calendar year. Services shall be provided from 4:00 PM to 8:00 AM for all Areas of Coverage and shall be based on the individual time zones within the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)/World Clock. See below the time zones included for the requested services: Time Zones Covered: Hawaii Islands: Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time (HAST) - HAST is 10 hours behind of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Note that some places observe daylight saving time/summertime during summer and are therefore using HADT instead in the summer. American Samoa: Samoa Standard Time (SST) - SST is 11 hours behind of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Guam Territories & Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands: Chamorro Standard Time (ChST) - ChST is 10 hours (+1 day) ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Federal Holidays: The following National holidays observed by the Federal Government: New Year s Day January 1 Martin Luther King Day Third Monday in January Presidents Day Third Monday in February Memorial Day Last Monday in May Juneteenth June 19 Independence Day July 4 Labor Day First Monday in September Columbus Day Second Monday in October Veterans Day November 11 Thanksgiving Day Fourth Thursday in November Christmas Day December 25 When one of the above designated legal holidays falls on a Sunday, the following Monday will be observed as a legal holiday. When a legal holiday falls on a Saturday, the preceding Friday is observed as a holiday by U.S. Government agencies. Contractor Personnel Security Requirements: Upon contract award, all key personnel shall be subject to the appropriate type of background investigation or screening per VA/VHA directive 0710 and must receive a favorable adjudication from CCA Personnel Security Specialist or VA Security and Investigations Center (SIC) depending on investigation or screening required. This requirement is applicable to all subcontract personnel. If the investigation or screening is not completed prior to the start date of the contract, the Contractor will be responsible for the actions of those individuals they provide to perform work for VA. Privacy and Security 1. No access to a VA system or network is require for this contract. 2. VA sensitive information will be exchanged with vendor in the form of phone calls. 3. No Personal Health Information will be exchanged with vendor. 4. PDAT determination - Risk designation of the contractors. i. PDAT Degree of Potential Damage to the Public Trust from Misconduct. No risk to National Security. Protection of personal, private, controlled unclassified or proprietary information (including PA and FOIA, etc.), the nature of which does not impact national security. ii. Limited impact - Duties are carried out under such restrictive controls that the risk of violating the public s trust is extremely limited. iii. Controls After hours phone answering service provide contact with VA on-call providers without giving out personal or direct phone access to the public. iv. Position Risk/Sensitivity For all positions required under this contract, the position risk/sensitivity has been designated as: Low Risk. v. Incorporate the security clause (Appendix B) into the contract and the appropriate security/privacy language outlined in Appendix C into the solicitation. vi. Privacy Officer has determined that a BAA is required. NARA Records Management Language for Contracts (May 2017): https://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/handbook/records-mgmt-language.html RECORDS MANAGEMENT OBLIGATIONS A. Applicability This clause applies to all Contractors whose employees create, work with, or otherwise handle Federal records, as defined in Section B, regardless of the medium in which the record exists. B. Definitions Federal Record as defined in 44 U.S.C. § 3301, includes all recorded information, regardless of form or characteristics, made or received by a Federal agency under Federal law or in connection with the transaction of public business and preserved or appropriate for preservation by that agency or its legitimate successor as evidence of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of the United States Government or because of the informational value of data in them. The Term Federal Record: 1. Includes [Agency] records. 2. Does not include personal materials. 3. Applies to records created, received, or maintained by Contractors pursuant to their [Agency] contract. 4. May include deliverables and documentation associated with deliverables. C. Requir