New Hanford contract to care for 6,000 workers valued at $17.1M a year
The Department of Energy has put out a draft request for bids for a company to provide occupational medical and health services at the Hanford nuclear reservation.
The new contractor would provide workplace medical service to more than 6,000 Hanford workers, including DOE, its contractors and some subcontractors.
Services would range from basic first aid to exams to evaluate employees’ injuries and illnesses to set possible work restrictions.
It would include evaluating Hanford tank farm workers who may have been exposed to chemical vapors associated with waste held in underground tanks.
The work now is done by HPM Corp., of Kennewick, which holds the contract through Sept. 30, 2018.
It was awarded a work in 2012 as the only bidder when the contract was reserved for a small business.
The new contract is open to all bidders, but the winning bidder will be required to subcontract some work to small businesses.
DOE is proposing a new contract that includes different types of pay. For some tasks the winning bidder would receive pay for a price fixed in advance and other some tasks the winning bidder would be reimbursed costs and would not be eligible for incentive pay for those tasks.
The proposed contract – with a base period of three years and two possible extensions to seven years – would have a value estimated at about $120 million or about $17.1 million per year.
HPM’s current 6-year contract is valued at about $99 million, or about $16.5 million per year.
DOE is proposing evaluating bids based chiefly on the technical approach to providing service. It will be looking for a plan to provide safe, high quality, efficient and timely delivery of medical services and will evaluate bidders’ approach to communication with DOE, contractors, Hanford regulators and the public.
The evaluation also will place importance on four key people: the program manager, medical director, nursing director and business and contracts manager.
Experience and past performance of the bidders also will be considered, but will be given lesser weight.
A conference with one-on-one sessions for companies that may be interested in bidding will be Jan. 17-18. Input from prospective bidders will be used to prepare the final request for bids.