The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch is urging businesses interested in providing worker healthcare services at the Hanford Site in Washington state, to provide feedback on portions of a draft solicitation by Jan. 4.
The information will be used by DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center in Cincinnati as it prepares a final request for proposals (RFP) for a new Hanford Site Occupational Medical Services Contract at the former plutonium production site at Richland, Wash.
The procurement office will soon seek a follow-on contract to the business currently held by HPM Corp., which runs through Dec. 31, 2023, according to a Thursday press release from DOE. The new deal could run for up to seven years: with a three-year base period, which includes the 60-day transition, and two two-year option periods.
Also, DOE plans to hold a pre-RFP briefing with interested parties for the Hanford OccMed procurement at 1 p.m. Eastern Time on Dec. 20, according to the notice.
The next occupational medical services contract should fully reflect Hanford’s move into around-the-clock operations with the scheduled opening of the Waste Immobilization and Treatment Plant being built by Bechtel, DOE said in the release. The plant to turn radioactive tank waste into glass should start operations in 2023 or 2024, a DOE official said recently.
In addition to the performance work statement, other draft RFP documents being made available include evaluation factors for award and qualifications for key people.
The contractor’s duties will include various programs to minimize work-related illness and injuries for 10,000 federal employees, contractors and subcontractors at the site, according to materials posted on the procurement website. With the exception of drug-testing it will not include services for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which is located on the Hanford grounds.
But for Hanford workers, the services include everything from first aid and emergency stabilization to providing immunizations for maladies including flu and COVID-19, according to the procurement documents.
The DOE procurement office has said the final RFP could be released as early as February. The federal agency started its market research on a new contract in July. HPM was awarded a potential seven-year contract, valued at $152 million, in 2018 and the DOE picked up the first two-year option that runs through the end of 2023. The Thursday DOE news release makes no mention of the possibility of the agency exercising any second two-year option for HPM.
The current contractor HPM got into legal trouble and in late March agreed to pay about $3 million in restitution and penalties for making false financial statements to obtain a COVID-related Paycheck Protection Loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration, according to the Department of Justice.