R708--VISN 10 Tele Town Halls - 11 VA Sites

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Contract Opportunity

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This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with (IAW) the format in Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; quotes are being requested, and a written solicitation will not be issued. The Government reserves the right to make no award from this solicitation. Â
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This is a request for quote (RFQ), and the solicitation number is 36C25026Q0212. The Government anticipates awarding a firm-fixed price Contract (Base Year plus 3 Option Years) resulting from this solicitation. The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circulars 2025-06, effective 10/01/2025. The associated NAICS Code is 541820, Public Relations Agencies. Â
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The Department of Veterans Affairs, Network Contracting Office 10, is soliciting quotes. This is a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business Set Aside (SDVOSB) for the Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISN) 10, that include the following Ohio, Indiana and Michigan Cities. Cleveland, Columbus, Chillicothe, Cincinnati, Dayton, Indianapolis, Northern Indiana, Battle Creek, Saginaw, Ann Arbor, and Detroit The requirement is to provide tele-town halls to connect with Veteran patients, gaining insight into patient needs and gathering feedback about patient experience. Respondents to this solicitation must fully demonstrate their capability by supplying detailed quote information, along with any other documents necessary to support the requirements below.

All information shall be provided to Gina P. Crank, Contracting Officer, via email at gina.crank@va.gov, no later than January 20, 2026 by 5:00 PM EST. No telephone calls will be accepted. Offerors who do not submit all information may not be considered for award. Late submissions shall be treated in accordance with the solicitation provision at FAR 52.212-1(f).
ITEM INFORMATION
ITEM NUMBER
DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES
QUANTITY
UNIT
UNIT PRICE
AMOUNT
0001

10.00
MO
$
$

Access Live - 20K Dials (1 Event) - 60 Minutes Dayton


0002

10.00
MO
$
$

Access Live - 10K Dials (1 Event) - 60 Minutes Cleveland


0003

10.00
MO
$
$

Access Live - 20K Dials (1 Event) - 60 Minutes Cincinnati


0004

10.00
MO
$
$

Access Live - 20K Dials (1 Event) - 60 Minutes Columbus

0005

10.00
MO
$
$

Access Live - 20K Dials (1 Event) - 60 Minutes Chillicothe


0006

10.00
MO
$
$

Access Live - 20K Dials (1 Event) - 60 Minutes Indianapolis

0007

10.00
MO
$
$

Access Live - 20K Dials (1 Event) - 60 Minutes Northern Indiana


0008

10.00
MO
$
$

Access Live - 20K Dials (1 Event) - 60 Minutes Detroit


0009

10.00
MO
$
$

Access Live - 20K Dials (1 Event) - 60 Minutes Ann Arbor


0010

10.00
MO
$
$

Access Live - 20K Dials (1 Event) - 60 Minutes Saginaw

0011

10.00
MO
$
$

Access Live - 20K Dials (1 Event) - 60 Minutes Battle Creek


Base Year 03/01/2026 12/31/2026 $
Option Year One 01/01/2027 12/31/2027 $
Option Year Two 01/01/2028 - 12/31/2028 $
Option Year Three 01/01/2029 12/31/2029 $
STATEMENT OF WORK (SOW) below. Appendix C (Contract Security) is attached.

Tele Town Hall
VISN 10
General Requirements

The purpose of this contract is to serve VISN 10 through the use of tele-town halls to connect with Veteran patients, gaining insight into patient needs and gathering feedback about patient experience. Medical Centers across VISN 10 will conduct a total of 102 virtual town halls over the course of a 12 month period. These medical centers are located in Cleveland, Columbus, Chillicothe, Cincinnati, Dayton, Indianapolis, Northern Indiana, Battle Creek, Saginaw, Ann Arbor, and Detroit. This will allow all of the Veterans across VISN 10 to have an opportunity to participate.
Several laws and directives for VHA require that health care systems to provide regular opportunities for patients and community members to give feedback and interact with health care system employees (Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) 2015, VHA Directive 0801). This has traditionally been accomplished with face to face town halls in communities throughout the catchment area. These town halls are resource intensive, require extensive planning and preparation, and often result in low attendance regardless of how many paid and unpaid advertising venues VA utilizes, resulting in the wording of the law being followed, but not its intent/spirit.
Facilities across VISN 10 have successfully utilized live virtual tele-town halls for years, which dial participating veterans simultaneously and connect them to a live interactive tele-town hall experience. Tele-town hall events interact live with thousands of VA stakeholders, including patients, Veteran Service Officers, and VA staff, in minutes through a monthly town hall-style meeting conducted over the telephone and web, not to exceed ten times a year. Tele-town hall programs rapidly dial out to a list of phone numbers provided by the facilities across VISN 10. The targeted audience receives a personalized, pre-recorded message inviting them to remain on the line if they wish to be transferred automatically to the live Tele-Town Hall event. The C&A requirements do not apply, and a Security Accreditation Package is not required. Though this effort has seen great success at the local level for all of our facilities, the contracts were recently removed during DOGE review. It is our intention that a VISN-level contract would effectively address any/all DOGE concerns, as has been successfully achieved at other VISNs.
The benefits of Tele-Town Hall services are many:
Allows every Veteran who is connected to the call an opportunity to leave a message for the VA with any issues, questions, or feedback and the VA returns that call within 48 hours.
Allows some Veterans the opportunity to ask questions live on the call, getting immediate responses from subject matter experts and providing that same information for the other callers on the line.
Provides an opportunity for the health care system to give critical updates and program highlights to hundreds of Veterans at a time. There is no other platform in use that has the same reach and scope.
Facilities can ask survey questions during the call to get real time feedback from Veterans and collect valuable information from the callers. For instance, press 1 if you use My HeathE Vet, press 2 if you have signed up and don t use it, and press 3 if you want more information and help getting signed up for My Health E Vet. Tele-Town Hall provides a report with the phone numbers of those who pushed 3 and the My HeathE Vet coordinator calls the patient to sign them up for the service.
Veterans who have a difficult time traveling or ambulating have an opportunity to connect with VA leadership without leaving their home or place of residence.
VA can connect with multiple demographics of Veterans, like OEF-OIF Veterans, Women Veterans, and recently separated from service veterans, among others, who are traditionally hard to connect with for a variety of reasons.
Fiscal savings from travel, event space rental, and staff time providing town hall events for 11 sites of care (plus CBOCs) across three states..
Contractor shall provide:
Customer service including call set up, operator assistance during the call, and reports from the call to use for follow-up and tracking.
Events:
Line Items 1:
102 events with 10,000 direct calls per event, including a pre-event call alerting the recipients of the upcoming teleconference event and a recorded call from the director initiating the event and connecting callers to the live teleconference. Though conducted primarily over the phone, each event will have an online option with closed captioning for those with hearing difficulties. Each event will also include two Call screeners provided by the contractor, in addition to any from facility staff.

Dashboard for call screeners, speakers, and collectors to manage the call during the event, including chat windows to keep staff connected, a speaker queue for the call coordinator to see that indicates who is waiting to speak on the line, and a rating system to indicate to the coordinator which calls should be taken in what order.
Call scripts, control sheets, and pre-call training to assist the coordinator with full preparation for the teleconference event.
Voicemail recordings of callers who opted to leave a message.
Full call event reports, including survey question responses, call volume, call participant duration, speaker queue reports, and more.

Evaluation of Quotes:
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The Government will select the quote that represents the best benefit to the Government at a price that can be determined reasonable. The Government will evaluate the following: Technical Capability/Customer Service, Past Performance, and Price.

Following receipt of quotes, the Government will perform a comparative evaluation of the products/services quoted. The Government will compare quotes to one another to select the product/service that best benefits the Government by fulfilling the requirement.

- The VA will compare quotes against each other in an impartial and simplified manner.
- The VA may ask questions to one or more submitters but is not obligated to do so.
- The VA may reject all quotes.
- The contracting officer and VA users may use any means available to examine past performance, such as contractor reliability and reputation and suitability of the product or service to meet the VA s need.
- VA may discuss price or price discounts with the one or more submitters before awarding an order or rejecting all quotes.
- The VA will evaluate quotes for award purposes by adding the total price for all options to the total price for the basic requirement. The Government may determine that a quote is unacceptable if the option prices are significantly unbalanced. Evaluation of options shall not obligate the Government to exercise the option(s).

The evaluation of VA requirements outlined in this request for quote will determine suitability.
REQUIRED DOCUMENTATION
Technical Capability/Customer Service
-The offeror must provide sufficient documentation to allow for validation of the requirements listed in the Statement of Work.
-The offeror must provide a timeline for phase-in, delivery, installation of proposed equipment, and training of end users.
Past Performance

-The offeror is to provide a list of no more than three (3) Federal, State, and local government contracts or private contracts of similar type, scope, size, and complexity that are ongoing, or have been completed within the past 3 years.
Price
Total quote price shall be inclusive of all options.

SUBMISSION OF OFFERS
All information shall be provided to Gina P. Crank, Contracting Officer, via email at gina.crank@va.gov, no later than January 20, 2026 by 5:00 PM EST. No telephone calls will be accepted. Offerors who do not submit all information may not be considered for award. Late submissions shall be treated in accordance with the solicitation provision at FAR 52.212-1(f).

The 11 Federal Holidays observed by the Federal Government are:

New Year s Day January 1
Martin Luther King s Birthday 3rd Monday in January
Presidents Day 3rd Monday in February
Memorial Day Last Monday in May
Juneteenth Day June 19
Independence Day July 4
Labor Day 1st Monday in September
Columbus Day 2nd Monday in October
Veterans Day November 11
Thanksgiving Day 4th Thursday in November
Christmas Day December 25th

The President of the United States of America may declare additional days as a Federal holiday, and if so, this holiday will automatically be added to the list above. When a holiday falls on a Sunday, the following Monday shall be observed as a Federal holiday. When a holiday falls on a Saturday, the preceding Friday shall be observed as a Federal Holiday.
The following solicitation provisions apply to this acquisition:
FAR 52.212-1, INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS COMMERCIAL ITEMS (SEP 2023)
FAR 52.212-3, OFFERORS REPRESENTATIONS AND CERTIFICATIONS COMMERCIAL ITEMS (OCT 2025)
Offerors must complete annual representations and certifications electronically via the System for Award Management (SAM) website located at https://www.sam.gov/portal in accordance with FAR 52.212-3, Offerors Representations and Certifications Commercial Items. If paragraph (j) of the provision is applicable, a written submission is required.
The following contract clauses apply to this acquisition:
FAR 52.212-4, CONTRACT TERMS AND CONDITIONS COMMERCIAL ITEMS (NOV 2023)
ADDENDUM to FAR 52.212-4 CONTRACT TERMS AND CONDITIONS COMMERCIAL ITEMS
Clauses that are incorporated by reference (by Citation Number, Title, and Date), have the same force and effect as if they were given in full text. Upon request, the Contracting Officer will make their full text available.
The following clauses are incorporated into 52.212-4 as an addendum to this contract:
FAR 52.252-2 CLAUSES INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE (FEB 1998)
FAR 52.203-16 PREVENTING PERSONAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST (JUN 2020)
FAR 52.203-17 CONTRACTOR EMPLOYEE WHISTLEBLOWER RIGHTS AND REQUIREMENT TO INFORM EMPLOYEES OF WHISTLEBLOWER RIGHTS (JAN 2023)
FAR 52.232-40 PROVIDING ACCELERATED PAYMENTS TO SMALL BUSINESS SUBCONTRACTORS (MAR 2023)
FAR 52.233-2 SERVICE OF PROTEST (SEPT 2006) - - Hand-Carried Address: Department of Veterans Affairs, Network Contracting Office 10, 2780 Airport Drive, Suite 340, Columbus, OH 43219
VAAR 852.203-70 COMMERCIAL ADVERTISING (MAY 2018)
VAAR 852.212-71 GRAY MARKET AND COUNTERFEIT ITEMS (FEB 2023)
VAAR 852.232-72 ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION OF PAYMENT REQUESTS (NOV 2018)
VAAR 852,233-70 PROTEST CONTENT/ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION (SEP 2018)
VAAR 852.233-71 ALTERNATE PROTEST PROCEDURE (SEP 2018)
VAAR 852.246-71 REJECTED GOODS (OCT 2018)
VAAR 852.247-71 DELIVERY LOCATION (OCT 2018)

Any questions or concerns regarding this solicitation should be forwarded in writing via e-mail to the Point of Contact listed below.
Point of Contact
Gina P. Crank
Contracting Officer, Network Contract Office (NCO) 10
Email: gina.crank@va.gov

Attachments/Links