• What this is: A planned sole‑source contract (not a grant) for laboratory reference testing to maintain uninterrupted patient care at the Washington DC VA Medical Center.
• Agency/Program: Department of Veterans Affairs, NCO 5 (VISN 5); order placed under the GSA Multiple Award Schedule.
• Recipient: Quest Diagnostics Inc. (incumbent), via FSS Contract V797D-70090.
• Term and value: 10/01/2025–09/30/2026; firm‑fixed‑price; estimated $1,800,000.
• Scope of services: 5,000+ lab tests, courier services, direct electronic result reporting to VA’s VistA system, and onsite staff to process and receive test orders.
• Why sole‑source: Only the incumbent can meet the required quality and timelines because:
• Quest already has a live, approved interface that feeds results directly into VistA, minimizing errors and delays.
• Other interested firms lack the necessary VA OIT agreements to transmit directly to VistA; building and validating a new interface typically takes up to a year and onboarding a new contractor takes ~9 months.
• Manual entry of results is 3–10 times slower and prone to human error, posing patient safety risks.
• Market research and competition status:
• Multiple market checks done (SBA Small Business Search, GSA eLibrary, several sources‑sought notices).
• A VISN‑wide competitive procurement (approx. $50M) is in progress (sources‑sought 36C24525Q0622 closing 8/15/2025) with a projected 180‑day timeline.
• A prior solicitation (36C24524R0060) was protested multiple times (notably by MCI Diagnostics), and further protests are likely, delaying award.
• Best‑value rationale: Pricing on the FSS schedule has been deemed fair and reasonable; using the incumbent avoids costly, risky transitions and protects patient safety.
• Next steps/longer‑term actions: VA is working with its Office of General Counsel on additional market research and a revised Statement of Work to reduce protest risk for the VISN‑wide competition; no near‑term changes planned given past performance issues with small providers and the loss of in‑house capacity.

LIMITEDSOURCESJUSTIFICATION

ORDER >SAT FARPART8.405-6

AcquisitionPlanAction ID: 36C245-26-AP-0099

ContractingActivity:688-26-1-049-0002, Department of Veterans Affairs, NCO 5, located

at 1 Med Center Dr., Clarksburg, WV 26301, in support of Veteran Affairs Washington DC VAMC 50 Irving St NW, Washington, DC 20422

Description of Action: This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple-Award Schedule Program (41 U.S.C. 152(3) and 40 U.S.C. 501. VISN 5 is requesting a new firm fixed price, FSS task order for 1 year 10/01/2025- 9/30/2026 for the DC VAMC.

Order against: FSS Contract Number: _V797D-70090

Name of Proposed Contractor: QUEST DIAGNOSTICS INC

Street Address: 500 PLAZA DRIVE

City, State, Zip: SECAUCUS, NJ 07940

Phone: (804)306-0913

DescriptionofSuppliesorServices:

The estimated value of the proposed action is $1,800,000.00. VISN 5 is requesting a new firm fixed price, FSS task order to the previous incumbent contractor for one year 10/01/2025-9/30/2026. Lab reference testing with a test catalog of 5000+ lines to include courier service, direct reporting to VISTA and onsite personnel to process and take test orders.

Identify the Authority and Supporting Rationale (see below and if applicable, a demonstration of the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications to provide the required supply or service.

FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(B): Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized;

A sources-sought is out on sam.gov currently 36C24525Q0622 that does not close until 8/15/2025 for a VISN-wide contract vehicles for laboratory reference testing. The current BPA calls expire 9/30/2025.

PALT time for the VISN-wide procurement is 180 days. The VISN-wide procurement is estimated to be roughly $50 million. It is not anticipated that the pending award will be awarded before the expiration of the current BPA.

Previous VISN wide contract(s) were already solicited 36C24524R0060 but were protested. MCI Diagnostics LLC has protested via GAO more than nine times against the Department of Veteran Affairs during the same period for lab reference testing. MCI Diagnostics LLC has also protested the Department of Veteran Affairs in the Federal Court of Claims. It is anticipated that the contractor may protest again, thus delaying the award. The Contracting Officer (CO) is working with the Office of General Counsel (OGC) regarding market research and releasing a new solicitation. OGC has recommended releasing additional sources sought and a revised Statement of Work to avoid protest. The Contracting Officer’s opinion is that the future solicitation has a high risk of being protested again.

The onboarding timeframe for a new contractor is roughly 9 months. Patient care will be severely delayed if this FSS task order is not awarded.

Describe Why You Believe the Order Represents the Best Value consistent with FAR 8.404(d) to aid the contracting officer in making this best value determination:

The firm’s FSS pricing has already been determined to be fair and reasonable.

DescribetheMarketResearchConducted:

Market research has been conducted commensurate with the size, complexity and the criticality of the acquisition. It has been determined that it is in the best interest of the Government to execute a short- term task order with the incumbent until the VISN-wide acquisition is awarded. Multiple searches of SBA Small Business Search (SBS) have been performed. GSA elibrary was consulted. Several sources sought have taken place and one is currently ongoing.

AnyOtherFactsSupportingJustification:

The current test results interface i.e., the incumbent directly into Vista with minimal review by medical technicians/technologists. This process ensures that tests results are uploaded into patient files directly without manual entry by laboratory personnel. This is essential for patient safety and workload. Incorrect manual entry of patient results is plagued by human error. Furthermore, on average, it takes three to ten times longer to result non-interfaced tests. This further increases the risk to patient care due to delay of treatment. None of the small businesses, including the interested SDVOSB, have a MOU-ISA with VA OIT although all have a HL7 interface, which means none can currently transmit results directly to VISTA. To establish a new interface system, it takes six phases to implement (Planning, Information Gathering, VISTA Test Building, Instrument Aliquoting Reprogramming, Validation, and Training phase) that could easily take up to one year to complete. This would require a team of personnel from both the VA and the reference lab. Setup would add significant cost, effort, and time to get implemented. Manual entry of results could cause reporting errors and have a negative impact on patient care in many ways. The incumbent is already interfaced with Vista and competing this order then setting up the interface will not be accomplished prior to 9/30/2025.

A Statement of the Actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the restricted consideration before any subsequent acquisition of the supplies or services is made:

No actions are being taken at this time as the medical centers gave up the FTE to perform the work in- house decades ago. The medical centers that previously received services from SDVOSB, VOSB or small businesses had issues. Firms of small size have historically struggled to provide in the past and meet the standards outlined in the SOW.