Notice of Intent - Sole Source to MHS GENESIS Solution providers

This is a notice of intent to award five sole source contracts and is not a request for competitive quotes. A sole source justification in accordance with FAR Part 6 is being processed for this requirement and will be posted when the approval process is accomplished. The forthcoming Class Justification and Approval (J&A) authorizes the Defense Health Agency (DHA) to award multiple sole-source contracts, on an other than full and open competition basis, to the following proprietary platform vendors: Cerner Corporation (Oracle Health) 8779 Hillcrest RD Kansas City, Missouri, 64138-2700 Cage: 1JCJ0 UEID: DMHXTXRARC74 Philips North America LLC (Philips Healthcare) 222 Jacobs ST, East Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02141-2296 Cage: 0ZBJ4 UEID: PWFVQLA9SX78 American Well Corporation (Amwell) 75 State ST FL 26, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109-1827 Cage: 64FM6 UEID: DJC6XVXQMV15 Henry Schein, Inc. 135 Duryea RD, Melville, New York, 11747-3834 Cage: 0NUS8 UEID: D6MTSKS115L9 Solventum Health Information Systems, Inc. (Solventum) 575 W Murray BLVD, Murray, Utah, 84123-4611 Cage: 3L5X5 UEID: LUYEUMH42L88 These contracts will provide critical system components, software licensing, and specialized services that form the foundational architecture of the Military Health System (MHS) GENESIS environment, which are currently being delivered through a legacy solution provider integrator. The Government's target timing is to transition the Philips and Amwell relationships to direct contracts prior to the end of July 2026, Oracle Health by November 2026, and Henry Schein and Solventum by July 2027. Note: Additional direct relationships may be established over time based on the operational and financial benefit to the Government. If additional proprietary solutions can be broken out are identified, the J&A will be updated to support the direct procurement of those systems. This action represents a deliberate and strategic shift in the Government's acquisition approach, moving away from a monolithic solution provider integrator model toward a competitive, modular, direct-vendor contracting strategy. Under the new model, DHA will contract directly with the proprietary solution providers for core system capabilities, rather than procuring these services and paying pass-through overhead through an intermediary. This shift is driven by both operational experience and Department-level policy direction. Historically, the use of a single solution provider integrator tasked with integrating the efforts of multiple vendors enabled the rapid deployment and initial stabilization of the MHS GENESIS system-of-systems. However, as the system has reached full deployment and transitioned into the sustainment and optimization phase, this intermediary model has introduced: Reduced cost transparency Duplicative layers of vendor management and administration Limited Government visibility into underlying pricing structures Constraints on the Government s ability to directly manage vendor performance and enforce Service Level Agreements (SLAs) Consistent with Department of Defense policy, DHA is now transitioning to a model that emphasizes direct acquisition from core solution providers, systematically reducing reliance on integrators and improving overall acquisition efficiency. This sole-source action directly supports those Federal mandates by: Eliminating integrator pass-through costs and duplicative overhead Establishing direct contractual relationships with foundational solution providers Improving pricing transparency and Government cost control Stabilizing the core architecture to enable future competition at the modular component level (e.g., integration of efforts, ancillary services) While this transition introduces near-term integration and execution complexities, DHA has determined that such risks are manageable and entirely warranted to align with Department policy direction and achieve long-term improvements in cost efficiency. This phased transition ensures uninterrupted continuity of operations and a controlled assumption of integration responsibilities by the Government. Because the required capabilities are proprietary, deeply embedded, and available only from the original vendors currently providing them, DHA has determined that award on an other than full and open competition basis is required. Securing these direct vendor relationships is absolutely critical because the MHS GENESIS platform operates as the anchor of a unified Federal health IT ecosystem. In 2018, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the United States Coast Guard (USCG) determined that alignment with the DoD s Electronic Health Record (EHR) system was in the Government's best interest to enable total interoperability. Today, this shared baseline supports not only DoD operations, but also the United States Coast Guard (USCG), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and other organizations using MHS GENESIS to document the delivery of healthcare. It is also a shared baseline with the VA who is actively deploying its solutions, slated for completion in 2031. Transitioning to direct vendor contracts ensures interagency continuum of care remains stable and undisrupted. In preparation for conducting a fair and open competition at the completion of the incumbent current contract (N003915D0044), the Defense Healthcare Management System Modernization (DHMSM) Program Management Office (PMO) engaged industry and conducted extensive market research looking to inform its acquisition strategy starting in early 2023 through early 2026. The Government determined that the most responsible and effective path to expanding competition is a phased, deliberate approach. By establishing direct, sole-source contractual relationships with the current proprietary solution providers now, the Government stabilizes the core platform, preserves the unified Federal baseline, and eliminates the legacy solution provider integrator's pass-through costs. This critical stabilization serves as the prerequisite foundation that will enable the Government to progressively introduce full and open competition for discrete capability areas such as the integration of efforts, product management, and ancillary support services once delivery dependencies are mitigated and modularization objectives are fully realized. Even though alternative commercial systems possess similar functional capabilities, no alternative sources were identified that could replace the currently selected and deployed proprietary platforms without substantial disruption to interagency operations. Crucially, during the market research process, no industry respondents or participating vendors recommended changing out or replacing any of these core solution components. Industry consensus acknowledged that attempting to swap the selected foundational platforms at this stage would trigger immense interagency operational risk, severe schedule delays, and duplication of cost. Based on the above, the DHMSM PMO decided that the above proprietary platform vendors are the only sources available to meet these agencies needs to sustain the unified Federal EHR baseline within the required timeframe and without introducing unacceptable risk. Services: The Government will establish direct contractual relationships with select Best of Suite (BoS) and Best of Breed (BoB) proprietary solution providers supporting the MHS GENESIS ecosystem. These direct contracts will transition essential capabilities, services, licensing, and support functions previously obtained through the incumbent solution provider integrator under a bundled delivery model into a modular, transparent acquisition structure. Not all contractors identified in this J&A will perform all categories of work listed below. The specific scope will vary based on the solution, capability area, and operational requirements associated with each respective vendor s proprietary products. Broadly, the services authorized under this J&A include: Software Licensing, Maintenance, and Subscription Services Provision of commercial software licenses, software maintenance, subscription services, updates, patches, fixes, upgrades, enhancements, and associated vendor technical support necessary to sustain and operate the contractor s proprietary solutions within the MHS GENESIS environment. Hosting and Infrastructure Support Provision of hosting services and associated infrastructure necessary to ensure the continuous operation, availability, interoperability, security, and performance of the contractor s solution within the MHS GENESIS ecosystem. This includes cloud-based hosting, on-premises hosting, hybrid hosting models, storage, networking, compute resources, hardware, backup and recovery capabilities, disaster recovery support, cybersecurity compliance, and environment management. Interagency Coordination: Hosting services will require deep coordination with other DoD contractors, commercial cloud providers…