Opinion ID: 6661188
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Request for Proposals

Text: The 2005 request for proposals (“RFP”) contemplated awarding “up to a minimum of’ five ID/IQ contracts for a four-year period, with two three-year option periods, for a total potential contract period often years. AR Tab 1 at 22, 191. The awardees would then compete for the award of individual task orders under the ID/IQ contracts. AR Tab 1 at 23-25. Task orders were to be awarded based on (1) the price of the task order; (2) the performance of the awardee on prior task orders; and (3) the quality of the proposed health care workers. AR Tab 1 at 22-23. The Air Force required offerors to submit two Excel files containing pricing information, denominated Table 1 and Table 2. Defendant’s Reply Brief in Support of its Motion to Dismiss at 4 (“Defs Reply”) (docket entry 50, March 15, 2010). Table 1 contained price ceilings generally applicable for the duration of the contract, while Table 2 contained the offerors’ specific proposals lor performing the initial task orders under their ID/IQ contracts. Id. at 5-6. Table 1 was further subdivided into upper and lower portions. Id. at 5. The upper half of Table 1 contained twenty-eight labor categories of “common” medical personnel positions such as Clinical Nurse, Family Physician, Optometrist, and Pediatrician. Id.; see also, e.g., AR Tab 2 at 247. These “common” positions were to be staffed at all 63 MTFs, and the offerors had to provide a “Not to Exceed” (“NTE”) price for each; that is, “the Task Order price may not exceed the price in the matrix.” AR Tab 1 at 22; see Defs Reply at 5. The lower half of Table 1 contained NTE ceiling rates for sixty-eight “non-common” positions, such as Anesthesiologist, Clinical Geneticist, Neurologist, and Periodontist, that would not be staffed at every MTF. Defs Reply at 5; see also, e.g., AR Tab 2 at 247-49. Because these positions did not exist at every location, certain cells within the table were shaded to let the offeror know that a particular position was not staffed at an individual locale, and thus there was no need to provide an NTE price. Defs Reply at 5. Due to the duration of the contract, the RFP set forth an Economic Price Adjustment (also referred to as an escalation rate) “to provide adjustments to the contract price as a result of changes in the economic behavior of the national economy,” although the contractor could propose an alternate escalation rate. AR Tab 1 at 33, 175. That is, the RET provided for a suggested escalation in pricing as the contract aged; however, “|ojc-cupational labor rates regulated by the Service Contract Act (SCA) [were] not to be adjusted using this clause.” AR Tab 1 at 33. The RFP also identified the positions covered by the Service Contract Act (“SCA”), 41 U.S.C. § 351 et seq., and described “the wages and fringe benefits payable to each” under that law. AR Tab 1 at 40. Some of these SCA positions, such as Dietician and Medical Lab Technician, were on the list of common positions, while others, such as Nurse-Midwife and Occupational Therapist, were included as non-common positions. See, e.g., AR Tab 2 at 247-49. The RFP contemplated, however, that the ID/IQ contract could be used to acquire all direct health services at Ar Force MTE’s, whether or not the positions were listed in the RFP. Def.’s Reply at 6-7. That is, the Table 1 NTE ceiling rates were binding “Lfjor labor categories in the Table 1 Pricing-Worksheet,” notwithstanding the potential for staffing other jobs not listed in Table 1. AR Tab 1 at 24. Ultimately, task orders were issued to fill an additional 52 labor categories that were not included in Table 1. Def.’s Reply at 8.