In advance of the multi-billion-dollar IHT 2.0 IDIQ RFP, VA shares more about new unrestricted pool

The next iteration of the Department of Veterans Affairs Integrated Healthcare Transformation (IHT) contract will play a pivotal role in driving forward an organizational overhaul aimed at enhancing the capacity of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to deliver seamless, top-notch, and integrated healthcare services, accessible at all times and across all locations. 

As background, the VHA IHT IDIQ contract was awarded on April 1, 2020, with a period of performance that included a 5-year base period and one 5-year option period. Due to high utilization by VHA Programs responding to COVID-19, the Presidential Transition, and myriad legislation passed since IHT’s inception, the spend on this contract was nearing its original maximum contract value in fewer than 3 years. This past Spring, VA announced plans to increase the current contract maximum value by $450M to allow Task Order competitions to continue until the next IDIQ is solicited and awarded (1-year maximum ordering permitted under the approved Justification and Approval).  

The recompetition for the heavily utilized Integrated Healthcare Transformation (IHT) contract is on the horizon, and the recent word out of Veterans Affairs that they are proposing to add an unrestricted pool to the next generation of IHT, which had previously been restricted to SDVOSB Primes only, has drawn a lot of support and critique from the GovCon community.  

Proposed Unrestricted Pool criteria 

Based on the feedback received and, in an effort, to be transparent, the Government has developed draft criteria to be incorporated into the IHT 2.0 solicitation and resulting contracts for use by Contracting Officers in determining whether a customer’s requirement should be unrestricted. Assuming the Task Order requirement is otherwise within scope of the IHT 2.0 IDIQ (in terms of type of work, labor categories, period of performance, maximum value), the criteria for an unrestricted task order is as follows: 

Pre-solicitation criteria (before issuing a task order solicitation): 

  1. Standard Market research (prior to submitting to contracting) shows that there are not two or more certified and capable SDVOSBs in the marketplace (the contracting officer does not have a reasonable expectation that two or more of those SDVSOBs will submit offers and that the award can be made at a fair and reasonable price that provides best value to the United States.)

Rationale - If full market research is conducted and documented that demonstrates two or more not capable, SDVOSB rule of two requirements are met. 

  1. Estimated Task Order value is 5x NAICS size standard (over $125M), per the Government’s Independent Government Cost estimate (IGCE).

Rationale – Assumption that award of a task order of this magnitude to an SDVOSB would, in essence, create a large business with one award. 

  1. Government estimates that 70% or greater of dollars paid for performance will be for concerns other than SDVOSB (likely Task or Labor Category Based).

Rationale – If set-aside, inherent difficulties for VITAL to make-up subcontract percentage to get back to at least 50% SDVOSB performance (especially if this TO is larger than average) 

  1. Through internal market research* of all set-aside primes, fewer than two set-aside primes confirm their ability to support (with no CO knowledge of capable SDVOSBs outside IHT).
    -or-
    No (zero) set-aside primes provide an intention to propose on the requirement based off the requirement description. 

*Internal market research would include posting a market research request with a requirements statement to all set-aside contract holders (VITALs). The requirement statement will include critical elements of the requirement such as: Urgency, Risk (Veteran patient harm/Media Scrutiny/Data Security), visibility (GAO/IG/Congressional eyes), Enterprise-wide/ Multi-Agency Requirements, specialized expertise, geographic requirements to include simultaneous deployment of resources (like EHRM deployment support or MyVA Access), predominant labor categories needed, and other pertinent requirements information as applicable. 

Rationale - Assumption is that 1) the awardees are the best at what they do, and 2) if VITALS can’t do it with their teaming partners, there is almost zero probability that two SDVOSB outside IHT are capable. 

Post-solicitation criteria (after issuing a task order solicitation): 

  1. Solicited set-aside Task Order solicitation results in no proposals submitted from any set-aside pool teams.   

Rationale – Assumption is that 1) the awardees are the best at what they do, and 2) if VITALS can’t do it with their teaming partners, there is almost zero chance that two SDVOSB outside IHT can do it. 

  1. No awardable proposal from the set-aside solicitation (based on capability) without a substantial rewrite by the offeror. (CO judgement/ determination based off technical evaluation results.)

Rationale – Assumption is that 1) the awardees are the best at what they do, and 2) if VITALS can’t do it with their teaming partners, there is almost zero chance that two SDVOSB outside IHT can do it. 

What do you think? Does it seem reasonable? What we do know is that is no matter how this was outlined, companies will be working hard every step of the way to influence the acquisition strategy on the IDIQ and at the task order level.  

The full set of details for the proposed IHT 2.0 Unrestricted Task Order criteria are provided here if you are interested in providing feedback 

Key Points of Contact (Current or Past) 

Pro Tip – Are you tracking all of the latest VA GovCon Competitive Intelligence? 

Check out the NEW VA Intel Segment page, with all of the latest Department of Veterans Affairs News and Updates 

Related  

Looking for some good teaming partners that are supporting VA today? Click Here  

You can filter the list by several key indicators, to include socio-economic status, NAICS, Contract vehicle, etc.   

VA focused SDVOSBs drawing the most attention:   

Included below is a list of the service-disabled Veteran-owned small companies we have noted as drawing the most views by Government and industry leaders on the OrangeSlices AI consultant directory since the beginning of 2023 and that bring direct past performance and/or related relationships in support of the Department of Veterans Affairs.    

** An Elev8 GovCon Honoree, noted for a corporate culture that demonstrates its own excellence, making the company a beacon for talent, for partners, and for clients.     

We cannot and will not speculate here as to the reasons for the increased interest, but whether it is a company evaluating them as a potential partner; a federal acquisition leader doing their due diligence; or a consultant weighing their next job move, this group of companies has been receiving increased interest.      

About OrangeSlices AI   

Developed by a team of government and industry contracting subject matter experts, the OrangeSlices AI data driven platform is a publicly available searchable listing of the top information technology and consulting services contractors doing business with the Federal government today. Driven by a robust and comprehensive set of authoritative and trusted data sources, the OS.ai tool is intended to help government and industry leaders find the right partner to help deliver on the important missions of the Federal government.  

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