Are you a small business contractor in the healthcare sector? Well, there’s good news for you: the Defense Health Agency (DHA) has released the Medical Q Coded Support and Services Next Generation (MQS2-NG) solicitation for both Unrestricted and Small Business pools. With a projected value of over $44 billion, the contract is the follow-on for the Defense Health Agency’s MQS contract for small businesses, which had an estimated dollar value of $7.5B. DHA’s MQS contract provides qualified credentialed (privileged and non-privileged) and non-credentialed HCWs in the market segments that include Physician Services, Nursing Services, and Ancillary Services.
MQS2-NG is a personal and non-personal service, multiple-award, Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contract vehicle that provides clinical & medical support services to beneficiaries at medical and dental facilities in DoD and other federal agencies for small businesses. It has a number of vendor pools that fall within the Unrestricted and Small Business size categories, allowing for the procurement of big purchases, surge demands, and short-term needs. The MQS2-NG IDIQ contract is issued under NAICS 622110 and will have a five-year ordering period and a five-year ordering period option.
In this blog, we have explained everything you need to know about this current IDIQ in the market, focusing on small business acquisition.
What does it cover?
The scope of the IDIQ is to provide professional medical, dental, and medical support services for the Department of Defense (DOD) Military/Dental Treatment Facilities located within the 50 United States, the District of Columbia (DC), Puerto Rico, and Guam, divided into five Areas of Responsibility (AOR). The MQS2-NG acquisition consists of the concurrent issuance of two (2) solicitations: Small Business and Unrestricted.
MQS2-NG will provide personal or non-personal medical services to improve the medical staff at DoD Military Treatment Facilities (MTF) with qualified Health Care Workers (HCWs). Upon award, contractors will be required to recruit, qualify, place, manage and maintain contract workers to support routine staffing, temporary increases in workload, new mission support, reorganization support, short-term and part-time requirements, and workload fluctuations in the following labor segments to meet all schedule, cost and performance requirements and standards outlined in individual Task Orders (TOs).
The services include credentialed (privileged and non-privileged) and non-credentialed contract workers in various labor categories grouped into the following five (5) labor segments procured under Product Service Codes (PSC) Q201 to Q802:
Scope Exclusions: MQS2-NG (SB) scope does not include the following services: Advisory and Assistance (A&AS); Information Technology (IT); Hospital Environmental Cleaning (HEC); Nonprofessional Medical Services (NPMS), which are coded as R services in the Product and Services Code (PSC) manual; or TRICARE Health Plan (THP).
Proposal Submission Requirements
As per the instructions in the solicitation, the following volumes must be submitted.
Some Noteworthy Points Regarding MQS2-NG
- Offerors shall select the MQS2-NG acquisition solicitation for which they would like to compete and submit an offer in response to that solicitation number only.
- Contractors can select which vendor pool they want to compete in; however, they can only participate in one of the two vendor pools.
- Contractors may bid for one of the five AORs or all five, but only one contract covering all of the AORs will be granted to them.
- Offerors will not be eligible for an award under the MQS2-NG acquisition if they submit more than one offer in response to the MQS2-NG acquisition solicitation(s).
- Cross-teaming on more than one (1) offer submitted in response to the MQS2-NG acquisition is not allowed by the government. This means that offerors are not permitted to engage on more than one (1) offer submitted in response to the MQS2-NG acquisition as a prime offeror, subcontractor, teaming partner, or member of a joint venture (JV).
- Past performance references are required for each AOR the Offeror intends to compete, as identified in the Offeror’s Self-Scoring Technical Capability Worksheet. For each chosen AOR, offerors must provide a maximum of five (5) separate past performance references, with each reference covering work in at least one (1) of the five (5) labor segments.
- Offerors may use the same past performance reference in more than one (1) AOR.
- Each past performance reference shall only include work performed on a single contract (including IDIQ), purchase order, or task order.
- All past performance references need to be for work performed by the prime Offeror, the prime Offeror’s teaming partner, subcontractor, or joint venture partner.
- Each AOR vendor pool will be evaluated and awarded independently. If an offeror qualifies for an award in more than one (1) AOR, the Offeror will receive one (1) award that reflects all AORs awarded. Regardless of how many AORs an Offeror is awarded, the awardees may only invoice in the amount of $2,500.00 for mandatory attendance at the post-award conference.
- In the Self-Scoring Technical Capability Worksheet, the number of points that will be allocated per labor segment is directly related to the number of FTEs placed in each contract claimed. The greater the number of FTE, the higher the point value.
- Additionally, the offerors can gain variable points depending on the dollar value of the contract claimed.
How will your offer be evaluated?
Multiple awards will be made in response to this solicitation. DHA expects to award five (5) to ten (10) vendors in the small business category and five (5) in the unrestricted category in each of the five geographic areas of responsibility, with multiple on- and off-ramps anticipated. For the purposes of this solicitation, a technically acceptable proposal is one that has been evaluated and has received a satisfactory performance confidence rating in addition to having one of the top ten (10) highest self-scored, government-validated, Self-Scoring Technical Capability Worksheets for the AOR in which the offeror has proposed. As per the solicitation instructions, a three-step evaluation process will be used to review and evaluate each proposal conducting evaluation Steps 2-3 concurrently or sequentially. The steps include:
Step 1: Proposal Responsiveness
Step 2: Technical Capability
Step 3: Past Performance
Benefits for Small Businesses
With a small business pool included in it, MQS2-NG can offer considerable profits to small businesses as it brings together additional services for providing comprehensive solutions to address the unique needs of a given geographic area. The maximum value of all orders under MQS2-NG will not exceed $44 billion for the base ordering period and the ordering period option. The Medical Q-Coded Services (MQS) incumbent contracts have a ceiling of $7.5 Billion. The Government anticipates awarding five contracts in each of two (2) vendor pools (unrestricted and small business) in each AOR. This will equate to a maximum of approximately 25 total small business vendors and a maximum of approximately 25 unrestricted vendors for a total of a maximum of approximately 50 vendors across the MQS2-NG program. There is much potential for qualified vendors to participate in the process and make considerable profits.
Latest Developments
The MQS2-NG contract opportunity has seen several updates since its original publication date on November 16, 2022.
September 1, 2023:
– Protests Filed: There have been protests filed with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in response to the solicitation number HT001523R0003. Notable protesters include North American United Healthcare Services, JV, LLC, and Maxmed Healthcare, Inc.
– Amendments: Several amendments have been posted throughout 2023, with the most recent being Amendment HT001523R0003_0010 on July 3, 2023. These amendments provide updates and changes to the original solicitation
February 28, 2022:
Proposals are due on March 31, 2023. The RFPs for this opportunity were released on November 15, 2022. The acquisition consists of two (2) solicitations, one for the Unrestricted pool and the other for the Small Business pool. The Small Business pool is under Solicitation number HT001523R0003. The Unrestricted pool is under Solicitation number HT001523R0004. Interested firms must quickly finalize teaming decisions and start on solution development and proposal drafting to maximize win probability.
MQS2-NG is a golden opportunity to work with the government, establish yourself in the federal market, and advance your company. At the moment, there are sixty-two (62) small businesses on the two vehicles that are being consolidated under MQS2-NG. The competition will be fierce, with so many “quasi-incumbents” competing for a few slots in each geographic area on the new vehicle. Going after contract vehicles such as MQS2-NG can be a complicated process for small businesses. our team here at iQuasar simplifies the process for our clients. We support small businesses in bidding for complex contract vehicles such as Polaris, OASIS + (GSA BIC MAC), CATS+, CIO-SP4, Alliant SB, 8(a) STARS, HCaTS, Navy SEAPORT-E, MOBIS, RMAS, and other GWACs. We are constantly tracking updates related to contract vehicles like MQS2-NG. Our team of experts will supervise the entire process by helping you evaluate your eligibility, increase your readiness levels, prepare a proposal development strategy custom-made to your firm’s unique requirements, and create a high-quality and compliant proposal response to help you win.
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