Synopsis: This notice is a Notice of Intent (NOI). This notice is published in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 5.101(a)(1) requiring dissemination of information regarding proposed contract actions. This is a Notice of Intent to award a Sole Source Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) under the authority of 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1), as implemented by FAR 13.106-1(b) - Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements. This is not a request for competitive quotes. The Department of Veterans Affairs, Institute for Learning, Education and Development (ILEAD) intends to award a sole source BPA to the contractor (Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education (JA) as managed by Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education [ACPE]) 190 S La Salle St, Suite 300, Chicago IL 60603. This BPA will include: Title of Contract: Multi-Profession Interprofessional Continuing Education (CME)Provider rights for the Institute for Learning, Education and Development (ILEAD). Background: Healthcare professionals from a multitude of clinical areas e.g. general practitioners, allied health services, specialties and sub-specialties require maintenance of a valid medical licensure . In order to maintain the individual professional license , clinicians must stay abreast on cutting edge medical information and treatment protocols. These medical professionals are ILEAD s centerpiece target audience of ILEAD s educational products and services, serving over 100,000 clinicians. Only those ILEAD training events pertinent to the separate clinical disciplines can potentially count towards meeting the specific license requirements with certified education (CE) training units. CE is a structured educational activity designed to support the continuing development of the clinician/healthcare extenders to maintain and enhance their profession s competence. Historically ILEAD has provided the Veterans Healthcare Administration (VHA) clinicians 1+ million accredited CE hours annually with the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), and Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA), American Psychological Association (APA), Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB), Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR), American Dental Association (ADA), and Council on Optometric Practitioner Education (COPE). Meeting the compliance of these nine accreditation bodies are vital in order for ILEAD to continue to issue CE for its physicians, pharmacists, optometric professionals, psychologists, nurses and other ancillary professional staff that attend/complete ILEAD training events/programs. 3. Scope of Work: The contractor (Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education [ACPE]) shall provide their Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education services. Contractor shall provide all necessary resources, support and supervision in order to provide ILEAD with Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education access for ILEAD. This service shall provide ILEAD with the ability to provide crucial accredited Continuing Education (CE) hours/units for all approved ILEAD educational products and services. The Contractor shall provide a single point of service in order to simultaneously accredit and to provide pharmacy, physician, physician assistant, optometric, dental, social worker, psychologist, dietician, and nursing continuing education through a single, unified application process, fee structure, and distinct set of accreditation standards. ILEAD is currently a CE provider for the nine clinical accreditation bodies and needs that same level of CE provider service for many years into the foreseeable future. ILEAD has successfully completed all of the mandatory eligibility/initial application reviews for the three mainstay accreditations ( American Nurses Credentialing Center / ANCC, Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education /ACCME, and Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education /ACPE). In addition to these same three mainstay accreditations, ILEAD also has successfully completed the eligibility/initial application reviews for six additional/separate Profession Additions/Associate Memberships to include: American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA), American Psychological Association (APA), and Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB), Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR), American Dental Association (ADA), and Council on Optometric Practitioner Education (COPE). 4. General Requirements: The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education oversees, manages and governs this multi-service program/service. 5. Specific Mandatory Tasks and Associated Deliverables: Task 5.1 Contractor shall provide ILEAD with joint accreditation for interprofessional services and accreditation management for ACPE, ACCME, ANCC as an accreditation CE provider. These three accreditations, shall be tiered; tiering shall be based on the number of annual educational programs/products as well as the annual average number of learners as described in Table 1. Table 1: Standardized Tier Levels For ACCME, ANCC, and ACPE: Tier Level Average Volume of Learning Activities Average Number of Learners Tier 1 100 or less 6,000 or less Tier 2 101 - 200 6001 - 30,000 Tier 3 201 - 400 30,001 - 90,000 Tier 4 > 400 > 90,000 Deliverable 5.1 Contractor shall provide appointed ILEAD Accreditation team-member with a ACCME, ANCC, and ACPE accreditation status report. The report shall be completed by using Microsoft Word document or .Pdf format. As a minimum the report shall contain the application s findings, recommendations, and the anticipated ILEAD joint accreditation service fees estimates . The report shall be e-mailed to the ILEAD accreditation team-member no later than November 30th of each year. Task 5.2 Contractor shall provide CE providership status for six additional Professions & Associate Memberships accreditation services (AAPA, ASWB, APA, CDR, ADA and COPE) for ILEAD. The annual maintenance shall be incumbent on ILEAD completing all necessary documentation needed to administratively maintain these same accreditation services. Table 2: Profession Additions/Associate Membership Profession Additions/Associate Membership Profession Addition/Associate Memberships American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) American Psychological Association (APA) Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR) American Dental Association (ADA) Council on Optometric Practitioner Education (COPE) Deliverable 5.2 Contractor shall provide appointed ILEAD Accreditation team-member with status report that provides proof of provider status of each of the associate memberships described in Table 2. The report shall be completed by using Microsoft Word document or .Pdf format. As a minimum the report shall contain the application s findings, recommendations, and the anticipated ILEAD joint accreditation service fees estimates . The report shall be e-mailed to the ILEAD accreditation team-member no later than November 30th of each year. Task 5.3 Contractor shall provide ILEAD with the annual maintenance services (reaccreditation, progress reports, extension requests) required for ACPE, ACCME, and ANCC accreditation bodies. The annual maintenance shall be incumbent on ILEAD providing the contractor with the required maintenance service support documentation; documentation required to administratively maintain these same accreditation services. Tasks shall include services as described in the Table 3 below. Table 3 Accreditation Annual Maintenance Accreditation Maintenance Reaccreditation Progress Report Extension Deliverable 5.3 Contractor shall provide appointed ILEAD Accreditation team-member with maintenance of this Interprofessional accreditation services that are required for each year. The report shall be completed by using Microsoft Word document or .Pdf format. As a minimum the report shall contain the accreditation maintenance requirements as described in Table 3. The report shall be mailed/e-mailed to the ILEAD accreditation team-member no later than November 30th each year. Table 4 Mandatory Deliverable Table Deliverable Description Quantity Required 5.1 Provide ACCME, ANCC, and ACPE CE provider status for ILEAD as described in Task 9.1 above. Tiered per Table 1 Annual CE provider status report by November 30th of each year of the BPA 5.2 Provide Profession/Associate Memberships for CE provider status 6 AAPA, ASWB, APA, CDR, ADA and COPE Annual CE provider status report by November 30th of each year of the BPA 5.3 Accreditation Status Report for upcoming specific Annual Maintenance tasks for each of the nine accreditations 1 Annual report of required maintenance taskers per Table 3 by November 30th of each year of the BPA 6. Period of Performance: Period of performance shall begin on 1 February 2024. The period of performance of this BPA is five consecutive years. Each BPA Call Order shall specify the period of performance to govern that call order. No services will be provided and no charges will be incurred and/or billed to any order on this contract on any of the Federal Holidays listed below. New Year s Day January 1 Independence Day July 4 Veterans Day November 11 Christmas Day December 25 Juneteenth National Independence Day June 19 If any of the above falls on a Saturday, then Friday shall be observed as a holiday. Similarly, if one falls on a Sunday, then Monday shall be observed as a holiday. The other six holidays are set by a day of the week and month: Martin Luther Kings Birthday Third Monday in January Washingtons Birthday Third Monday in February Memorial Day Last Monday in May Labor Day First Monday in September Columbus Day Second Monday in October Thanksgiving Fourth Thursday in November 7. Type of Contract: The Government anticipates award of a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA). 8. Place of Performance: N/A 9. Contract Award Meeting: The Contractor shall not commence performance on the tasks in this Statement of Work (SOW) until the Contracting Officer (CO) has conducted a post-award meeting or has advised the Contractor that the post-award meeting has been waived. 10. Quality Control: 10.1 Contractor s Quality Control Program: The Contractor shall develop and maintain an effective internal quality control program to ensure that services performed are in accordance with the SOW. The Contractor shall develop and implement procedures to identify, prevent, and ensure non-recurrence of defective deliverable items. As a minimum requirement, the Contractor shall internally develop quality control procedures that address the areas identified below in the Tasks and Deliverables Requirements Summary (TDRS). 10.2 Program Monitoring: Contractor s delivery will be monitored by the ILEAD s Associate Director/Contracting Officer Representative (COR) in accordance with the TDRS. The Associate Director/COR will certify receipt of deliverables and recommends acceptance of the services/deliverables. This process will be used for approval of payment for the Contractor s invoices and will serve as the mechanism to document that the overall performance of the Contractor has been acceptable for the period of time covered by the invoice. TDRS: The deliverables below are defined as Work being completed within established timeframes. Deliverable Indicator Minimum Acceptable Standard Method of Surveillance Frequency Deliverable 5.1, 5.2, 5.3: 0 instance where accreditation status is impeded as outlined in the SOW Annual Report Annual 2nd Year of Ordering Period Deliverable 5.1, 5.2, 5.3: 0 instance where accreditation status is impeded as outlined in the SOW Annual Report Annual 3rd Year of Ordering Period Deliverable 5.1, 5.2, 5.3: 0 instance where accreditation status is impeded as outlined in the SOW Annual Report Annual 4th Year of Ordering Period Deliverable 5.1, 5.2, 5.3: 0 instance where accreditation status is impeded as outlined in the SOW Annual Report Annual 5th Year Ordering Period Deliverable 5.1, 5.2, 5.3: 0 instance where accreditation status is impeded as outlined in the SOW Annual Report Annual 11. Evaluated Optional Tasks And Associated Deliverables: N/A 12. Changes to the SOW: Any changes to this SOW shall be authorized and approved only through written correspondence from the CO. A copy of each change will be kept in a contract folder, along with all other products of the contract. Costs incurred by the Contractor through the actions of parties other than the CO shall be borne by the Contractor. 13. Contractor Reporting Requirements: N/A 14. Travel: None anticipated 15. Government Responsibilities: ILEAD will ensure that vendor has an ILEAD Accreditation Service Team member available to provide the contractor necessary ILEAD accreditation service protocols and procedures necessary for the contractor to complete the multi-body eligibility review. 16. Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure: It is agreed that: The preliminary and final deliverables, as well as all associated working papers and other material deemed relevant by VA that have been generated by the Contractor in the performance of this contract, are the exclusive property of the U.S. Government and shall be submitted upon request to the CO at the conclusion of the contract. The CO will be the sole authorized official to release, verbally or in writing, any data, draft deliverables, final deliverables, or any other written or printed materials pertaining to this contract. No information shall be released by the Contractor. Any request for information relating to this contract presented to the Contractor shall be submitted to the CO for response. Press releases, marketing material, or any other printed or electronic documentation related to this contract shall not be publicized without the written approval of the CO. Non-Disclosure and Conflict of Interest: The Contractor and Contractor s staff may have access to Government-sensitive information and shall be required to sign non-disclosure and conflict of interest statements. 17. Information Systems and Requirements for Unclassified Information Technology Resources: There are no security requirements as ACPE will not have access to Personal Identifiable Information (PII), nor will it have access to any of the VA ILEAD Information Systems.

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