Request for Proposal Freeman Health System, Joplin, Missouri FCC Healthcare Connect Fund Table of Contents Background and Goals .................................................................................................................... 2 General Provisions .......................................................................................................................... 4 Notice of Intent to Bid and Submissions of Questions and Requests for Clarification .................. 6 Proposal Requirements ................................................................................................................... 7 Project Management and Implementation Schedule ....................................................................... 8 Bidder Qualifications and References ..................................................................................................... 9 Pricing and Cost Information ...................................................................................................... 100 Proposal Evaluations ................................................................................................................... 111 1 Background and Goals Freeman Health System is a not-for- profit healthcare network headquartered in Joplin, Missouri in the far southwest corner of the state at the intersection of Interstate Highways 44 and 49. FHS serves the city of Joplin with its population of over 50,000 and the surrounding area in southwest Missouri, northwest Arkansas, southeast Kansas and northwest Oklahoma that includes more than 450,000 people. Freeman is a three-hospital system with 460+ beds providing comprehensive healthcare and behavioral health services. The health system is comprised of Freeman Hospital West, Freeman Hospital East, Freeman Neosho Hospital, Ozark Mental Health Center and numerous clinics and doctor facilities. The medical team of more than 300 physicians representing 60 specialties uses state-of-the art techniques, best practices, and technologies to provide live-saving care close to home. With more than 3,100 employees, Freeman Health System is the largest employer in Joplin and the premier healthcare provider in the area and offers the close-in community access to comprehensive healthcare resources. As a teaching hospital, Freeman provides medical students and resident doctors the opportunity to study with some of the most knowledgeable and dedicated physicians in the country. Freeman is a member of the regional Osteopathic Postdoctoral Training Institution and an affiliate of Oklahoma State University College of Medicine. Freeman sponsors graduate medical education training in four residency programs: Emergency Medicine, Ear, Nose, and Throat, Internal Medicine and Psychiatry. U.S. News & World Report ranked Freeman No. 4 in the state of Missouri for a third consecutive year for 2014-2015. In addition, Freeman was recognized among the U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals in Southwest Missouri and received special designation in seven high-performing specialties, including diabetes and endocrinology, gastroenterology and gastrointestinal surgery, geriatrics, nephrology, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics, and pulmonology. Sites that are participating in the consortium are: Freeman Clinic of Anderson, 510 Park Street, Anderson, Missouri 64831 Freeman Clinic of Baxter Springs, 322 East 11th Street, Baxter Springs, Kansas 66713 Freeman Health - Lamar Family Care, 307 West 11th Street, Lamar, Missouri 64759 Freeman Neosho Hospital, 113 West Hickory Street, Neosho, Missouri 64850 Freeman Physicians Group of Pittsburg, 1201 E. Centennial Dr, Pittsburg, Kansas 66762 Freeman Clinic of Carthage, 719 West Centennial Ave., Carthage, Missouri 64836 FHS Heart & Vascular Institute - Miami, 30 B St. SW, Miami, Oklahoma 74354 Seneca Family Medicine 1606 Olive Street, Seneca, Missouri 64865 Freeman Carthage Occumed, 1500 S Case, Carthage, Missouri 64836 Freeman Orthopedics & Sports Medicine - Pittsburg 100 N. Pine St., Pittsburg, Kansas 66762 FHS Heart & Vascular Institute in Grove1101 East 13th St., Grove, Oklahoma 74344 Freeman Hospital West, 1102 W 32nd St., Joplin Missouri 64804 Freeman Hospital East, 932 E 34th St., Joplin Missouri 64804 Freeman Health Business Center 3220 S. McClelland Blvd., Joplin, Missouri 64804 2 The long range vision of Freeman Health is to enable a set of standard telehealth connection services that will interconnect throughout the region and facilitate any healthcare location in the nearby state to share one or more telehealth services with any other healthcare location in the regional and ultimately to share on a national level. This RFP addresses the telecommunications and network maintenance to interconnect the main hospital and data center and the remote hospitals and multiple clinics and doctor’s offices. This includes: bandwidth for general Internet connectivity, voice, data circuits for sending and receiving medical billing info, files and/or images to and from remote locations, medical administration & telemedicine. 3 General Provisions 1. Frequently, sites have completed their original contract term, and have the benefit of being month to month, while maintaining their originally contracted rate. Requested bid contract terms are: 5 year, 3 year, 1 year and month to month 2. To warrant consideration for an award of contract resulting from this RFP, proposers must agree to participation in the FCC Healthcare Connect Fund (HCF) as administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) mechanism as provided for and authorized under the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 (Reference 47 U.S.c. § 254, "Universal Service"). 3. Vendors acknowledge that any contractual relationship resulting from this solicitation of proposals may be partially or entirely dependent upon the successful receipt of HCF subsidies. 4. Freeman Health will contract directly with organizations capable of performing the requirements of this RFP. Proposers must be represented directly. Participation by brokers or commissioned agents will not be allowed during the proposal process. Freeman Health is not responsible for any costs incurred by a vendor related to the preparation or delivery of the proposal, or any other activities carried out by the vendor as it relates to this RFP. Changes in applicable laws and rules may affect the award process or any resulting contracts. Vendors are responsible for ascertaining pertinent legal requirements and restrictions. Vendors are encouraged to visit the official FCC website pertaining to the Healthcare Connect Fund, at: http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/rural-health-care#HCF. 5. Freeman Health may seek clarifications concerning the submitted proposal. 6. This RFP will become part of the contract with the selected proposer(s) for services. The proposer(s) will be bound to perform according to the terms of this RFP and their Proposals. The contract is to be a consortium-level contract and Freeman Health will sign the contract for all locations. 7. The bidding period is 28 days from the day it is posted on the USAC web site. The proposal evaluation period is anticipated to be 2 business days. 4 8. In some cases, bids are being requested for connections and services that already have circuits in place and are under existing contracts. Vendors holding these contracts should view this RFP as an opportunity to extend or expand what is already in place and are under existing contract. If existing vendors' bids are deemed to be the most "cost effective," the existing vendors' solutions may be selected with whatever contract modifications are required to meet the new circumstances and HCF rules. New vendors are welcome to bid on services. 9. Quotes may be requested for variable levels of service. This will enable Freeman Health to weigh the pros and cons of higher levels of service against the additional cost incurred. However, it is recognized that for a variety of reasons different service providers will have different increments of service that they can provide. Vendors should feel free to quote the increments of service (even if not identical to what is in our request) they are in a position to deploy. 10. In those circumstances in which variable levels of bandwidth are being requested and quoted, vendors will be asked to incorporate the variable bandwidth levels and associated costs into the contract in order to allow HCPs to "turn up their bandwidths" without the need to engage in a new competitive bidding process. 11. In accordance with the Site and Substitution Rules found in the Order (47 C.F.R §54.646) Freeman Health will extend this RFP to include new healthcare providers that become new members of our consortium during the length of this agreement. 12. The vendor(s) will be responsible for all network hardware purchasing and maintenance to terminate the new connection at the premise and provide a single point of demarcation. 13. Vendor(s) may be required to purchase local access from the local exchange carrier to complete last-mile connectivity to nearest POP. The end user site would be responsible for internal wiring and connection to the room locations where the telehealth equipment will be located. The vendor will be responsible for all network hardware purchasing and maintenance in accordance with the site needs the parts list included. The vendor shall provide network services in a manner that meets HIPAA requirements concerning telecommunications. 5 Notice of Intent to Bid and Submissions of Questions