The General Services Administration released an updated draft request for proposals for vendors interested in being included on the new health IT special item number (SIN) currently in the works.
Along with the draft, GSA released a document detailing the significant changes and is looking for feedback from industry and agency stakeholders.
Download: Health IT SIN Significant Changes Document
“Our customer agencies were having a difficult time finding the health IT expertise that meets their requirements under our existing SIN,” Roya Konzman, GSA senior IT specialist, said at a health IT forum in May. “They actually requested from us to find a way that they can get quality proposals from the experts that really know health IT.”
The SIN will pull together offerings from across the health IT spectrum, including connected health, electronic health records (EHR), health information exchanges, health analytics, personal health information (PHI) management, innovative health IT solutions, health informatics and emerging health IT research, among others.
Officials note the new SIN is restricted to IT services and will not include hardware or software offerings.
GSA procurement officials first proposed the new SIN a year ago as a response to marketplace trends.
According to GSA research, the health IT market is projected to reach $33.1 billion next year, growing at a rate of 7.4 percent annually.
“Over the last six years, health care has been the fastest growing segment in the federal government and commercial markets,” Schedule 70 officials wrote in a June 7 blog post on the update. “Given the current focus on military health and civilian health care reform, health IT has become a valued market for the General Services Administration and its customers.”
Merely proposing the SIN has already reaped rewards for IT Schedule 70.
The Defense Health Agency recently issued a memo requiring all health IT contracting be done through GSA schedules and governmentwide acquisition contractsGWACs and the Veterans Health Administration has already begun referring vendors to the new SIN, according to a GSA fact sheet.
Officials from the Federal Acquisition Service will be hosting a webinar on June 21 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. to outline their approach and answer questions. Comments on the draft RFP are due the same day.
