Fed to Fed Podcast - Ep 1 - A Conversation with the VA's Michael Parrish

Welcome to the GOVTECH CONNECTS Fed to Fed Podcast Series, hosted by Susan Sharer! For our inaugural episode, we sit down with Michael Parrish, Chief Acquisition Officer at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. 

On today’s episode, Michael reveals the priorities and initiatives that are driving the VA in FY24, describes how the VA’s multi-year appropriations put the Department in a strong position to care for our Nation’s Veterans, and identifies the current and emerging technologies through which the Department sees potential to enhance their operations. 

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Transcript

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Welcome to the Fed to Fed podcast where we dive into the dynamic world of government technology. I'm your host, Susan Sharer. And in this series, we'll be joined by current and former federal leaders who are at the forefront of innovation in the public sector. Here we speak openly and honestly about the challenges and opportunities facing U.S. government in the modern age, championing innovation and the incredible capabilities of technology along the way. Whether you're a federal leader, a tech industry professional, or simply fascinated by I.T. modernization, just like us, this podcast is for you, and we're so happy to have you tuning in. Today, we have a truly exceptional guest with us, Mr. Michael Parrish, the chief acquisition officer at the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. He serves as senior most advisor to the secretary providing policy and oversight for all of the department's acquisition activities. He leads the VA’s 17,000 acquisition professionals and is responsible for the procurement budget of $40 billion, as well as the administration and oversight of approximately 100 billion in major programs. Additionally, Mike manages VA's$22 billion major construction and leasing program to support the largest integrated health care system in the United States. Providing care at 1255 health care facilities to over 9 million veterans enrolled in the VA health care program. Mike, welcome to the Fed to Fed podcast. We're thrilled to have you here today. Thanks, Susan. It's great to see you again. Why don't we go ahead and get started and chat about the great work you and your team are driving for FY 24? Sure. For the next the new fiscal year, which started today, we're really focused on the people, processes and technology software. I've been here for a little over two and a half years, and it's been a journey in the acquisition maturity of the VA. So my main focuses and the team's main focus across the enterprises is really from an acquisition standpoint around career management. So we want to improve our acquisition workforce, career management processes and make sure that all of our teammates from the lowest levels all the way up to to my level, have have a path and have an opportunity. It's similar to the Doorway Act of 1986, which brought me in as an acquisition officer back in the back in the D.O.D. days. But we're trying to incorporate something like that for VA, for our for all of our program managers and for all of our contracting officers and otherwise to make sure that we have that standardized level of training and then also that upward mobility, if people choose to to go into management and to other places. So, you know, technically process wise, we're looking at institutionalizing the enterprise program management process as a member. That's part of making sure that all program managers across all the administrations are following the methodologies and the concept. You know, it's the lifecycle management, as I've said in previous venues that, when I first got here was people thought acquisition was just contracting. And really it's the concept of cradle to grave from from the idea all the way through to a disposition. You know, and we've gotten much better at working through the tower, working transparently and jointly across the enterprise, working with the CIO and the CFO and others to make sure that we're driving that behavioral and cultural, cultural modernization and transformation of of acquisition processes. The other thing that we're really focused on this year rolling out is what we call the enterprise program management framework. And, you know, key component of that is what we call ALF, which is the acquisition lifecycle framework. And it's really an automated system that gives us that extra rigor and milestone maturity and governance and oversight as opposed to the old system we had, which was APMF, the acquisition program management framework, which is ten plus years old. And then the third thing on the go from process going to technology, one of the things that we're really looking at is, is it kind of ties into the later discussion is really around the concept of IVV independent validation and verification. It's really going in and making sure that our industry friends and our vendors have actually delivered what they promised on time and on budget. And it's a validation methodology which we hope to roll out initially a limited pilot, RFP, folks around arm later here, hopefully this month and then go to a bigger, more comprehensive effort is really starting with the larger programs, the major acquisitions. And so that's kind of the general topics of the the big topics. So with the normal blocking and tackling, but we're in a good place and we're we're continuing to improve our processes overall. That sounds great. My people process and technology is what it takes in terms of making sure that the culture, the people understand the direction you all are heading in. Are you going to be working with the VA Acquisition Academy to provide training to the acquisition workforce? Correct. And actually, we're going to how's that concept of of the acquisition career workforce management in the VA Academy? So training is a very key component of that. Along with that, that professional roadmap. But they're going to lead in and they are leading and managing that effort as we're rolling out. We've been working on this for about a year plus now. That's wonderful. That's very, very exciting. So, Mike, tell us more about the VA's multi-year preparations and how that puts the Department of Veterans Affairs in a strong position to continue to deliver care to our nation's veterans. First, let me give a shout out to our our VA contracting teammates who we just finished. That's July 23, and we had over a 125,000 actions which have a value. Initial preliminary numbers look at the value over $51 billion of contract efforts. And so we've we've greatly expanded, obviously, our purchasing and our purchasing power and side B and to put that in perspective, you know, we just had the Pact Act, which is rolled out which which is really increasing our enrolled veterans. You know, we had about 9.1 million we got initial veterans from an additional 3 to 5 million more. And survivors. So, you know, for the FOIA, 24 requests, as you know, in our budget, we're requesting 325 billion, which includes discretionary collections and the mandatory spend. It's about a $16 billion increase over that FY 23 enacted level. But it it ties into that to that the package actions and it provides for 7.4 million unique patients treated by the VA 140 million outpatient visits. You know, it's a historic investment on our infrastructure. We actually are calling this year the first 24 in the year in infrastructure because as you know, our infrastructure is on average about 60 years for facilities where on the civilian side it's about 16 to 18 years. So so, you know, we've got a lot of work to to work on our facilities, our infrastructure debt. And we're looking at other ways other than just spending to be able to do that. So this year, a real focus on on what we're doing with that. But right now in the in the budget, we have a $4.1 billion request for construction. And, you know, education assistance is, you know, serving nearly over 820,000 trainees through the education benefits. And so when you brought that together, you know, this is a little stronger, a more robust budget. But we look at this as a long term investment. And again, it's not just a yearly investment to your question, it's really multiyear investment. So a lot of the funds that we use are from previous years and these funds also allow us to go forward to make sure that this critical national asset is continued to be to be a value. That's terrific, Mike. How exciting to lead that effort. So connected to that energy around the money you established, the Pathfinder program you lead with innovation. You're driving towards using emerging technologies as you integrate people, process and technology, you talk more about how you're driving innovation within the acquisition community at the VA. Sure. Yeah. One of the things that we're doing and we're getting mature on this level also, first of all, you know, as Pathfinder has come out, we've had over 1000 submissions and you remember the original idea was a fusion of acquisition and innovation together. So where we've been really successful on the the market research aspect of the sale side and for those who have not seen Pathfinder, it's Pathfinder Dot Vega and it's, it's that easy to use integrated and intelligent system that that helps as a tutorial go through a series of questions that help people have never worked in government or people who've worked in government quite a bit to get to get linked up with appropriate buyers based upon those ten categories OMB has said is indicated we're in management. So, you know, on the innovation side, we're getting better at I know we had a slow start, but for those people who are looking at innovative solutions, we have a rigorous process where it comes through on the innovation side and then our research is evaluated initially for strategic fit to VA and also the uniqueness or the novelty of it. And then we work on ways to to help strategically source that product, to be able to scale it to something that we and VA can use and possibly, you know, change medicine across the world. And so it's the Pathfinder that that gateway or that door to get in. And then with innovation, especially what we're working on this next next year, next generation is that is that strategic sourcing because you know, as you know, a lot of DARPA's in research centers that our researchers love to publish. So they do the research for research, they can publish things. But when you look at it to Fuze and merge acquisition pieces, let's think strategically from the very beginning when we first get that new idea and actually you have the contracting team and have the lawyers in and everybody at the beginning to be able to to work through and be able to quickly scale and source that thing you and do decide to have the the cliche of the valley of death. It's where new ideas go to die. And it's really because things are done sequentially. And then when it becomes something that's really viable, then there's no budget necessarily for it. So we're changing that paradigm. And do pathfinders have started to be able to do that going forward, and that's where we want to go with that. We're also doing a couple of things around contractor responsibility assessment and market research assessments, where we're we're using intelligent systems, expert systems that can go in and and gather data and be able to to synthesize that and do some predictive analytics for us to be able to assess the current market conditions, the business sizes and and help be more efficient in our contracting process is back to your earlier question. You know, what I'm really focused on too is compressing our cycle of time from idea all the way to contract implementation, you know, not months and years, but hopefully, you know, days or weeks. And that's kind of a long term thing is we know another idea we have is what's called federal data check and it's another tool that provides various queries of the procurement data in the in the federal procurement data system. That's our authorized federal source that identifies potential areas that we're able to to require verification. It goes around the concept that we have American sources and properly certified sources that ramp and another kind of ideas as well. So these are some of the things that we're looking into that really another couple components that we continue to to address are talk about or things like digital twinning, not just products but also facilities. As you know, our supply chain modernization effort is going out. We're into phase two of that solicitation right now and that that's kind of a proof of concept on how we can do things right with technologies and service statement of objectives as opposed to requirements. And with that, the winning industry partner is going to have a whole lot of new innovative things that are cloud based. And so that's something that's going to help us streamline our processes as well as is sunset. Some of our legacy systems that we have as those have been working. And I know that there's a significant amount, hundreds of of unique items and systems that's really in that game changer of, you know, the new VA, not our parents. VA is is transparent and joint and we make sure things are integrated across the enterprise. That's fantastic. Very exciting time to be at the VA as your are as you're using all these different technologies, we ask you a question that's connected to that. If industry often says, you know, we've got this innovative solution that we'd love to get in front of the VA and it's really partners to be able to do that and let them know how we can help them save time, save money, be mission focused, you know, all those things that need to happen. What is your recommendation to industry if they do have an innovative solution to get in front of the right people? Yeah. And Pathfinder is that first step because it's it's a way to actually get identified those new ideas to to the right people, to the right teams. We've seen out of a couple hundred of the the innovative ideas that we're already doing some of that work. So so they're not that needed but we've seen we've had a couple I would say a couple of dozen actually good ideas that are being processed and vetted and we can do better on our communications things. But as you know, one of my big mantras since I've been here is, is it's okay to communicate, you know, introduction wise and informational wise. And so Pathfinder is that vehicle to do that. Otherwise, you know, it's it's important for people to to be able to reach out to me and have those conversations and to look at look at ways to to say, hey, we didn't think about that. You know, let's do this. We've also got cooperative research and development ideas and agreements. We're trying to set up SBIR as our like kind of programs through the VHA and other ways. And so there's some of this stuff has to be legislated in in statutorily authorized. But we do have authorities for create in in VHA. And so those are other ways to help test and validate part of the other IBD processes, operational test evaluation that we're also looking longer term to put in place so we can test new ideas and have a centralized evaluation center that we can plug in new ideas into and and see quantitatively as well as qualitatively, does this system work with us or is it a good idea that our users then will be able to evaluate? So that's something long term, but I appreciate that question and I hope that people are seeing a exponential change in the last three or four years of that relationship between Bender and NDA partners to be able to talk and communicate and share ideas together with data. That's excellent, Mike. Thank you for your leadership in that space. Well, you said you talked about budget. You talked about all of the modernization things that you have going on there. Can you share some opportunities that will be released in FY 24 that industry should have on the radar screen? Yeah, I mentioned infrastructure a year in infrastructure, so you'll see a lot of those probably across the enterprise. Some of these are fairly large. Obviously, we work with Corps of Engineers, but others will be smaller and obviously we're looking for those innovative ideas and be able to do some of those areas. I think a real big push that industry needs to be aware of, it's really a real big push. Government wide around procurement equity and made in America. And I think one of the big concerns that we have is obviously is we know our supply chain in America. It's it's not just the VA problem. It's a national problem about having a made in America products. I think that the more we can be made aware of FDA approved and certified American made products in components, that's a huge win for us because right now that's a big gap. And so we're still relegated to being required to have to purchase some items and pharmaceuticals and others from overseas, some PPE, you know, personal protective equipment, etc.. And so that is a big push for us this coming year. So anyone that's listening that might have personal protective equipment that's made in America that can verify that, and also the FDA approved them, by all means reach out to us, because we would we would look at that very quickly. So and that's why I mentioned the improving the industrial base, because that's not just a VA item. It's a it's a U.S. overall item. I think you'll see, you know, our new medical surgical prime vendor contract was rolled out this past year. So, you know, we have some prime vendors of that that work with us to be able to source medical supplies. You'll see a lot of that and you'll see more and more as we're getting into the cloud and doing more artificial intelligence type of systems, you'll see more and more i.t related things. But what we ultimately want is partners that are going to help us kind of on this journey, not just be the ones that are spending money for money sake or just treating it necessarily solely as a business. I understand the business component coming from that side, but we want to be able to have partners that can help us move the government needle for procurement while also obviously serving our veterans. Because our main mission is is always, whatever we do, improving access and outcomes for our veterans. And that's kind of what drives everything that we do. So, Mike, there's going to be an opportunity for industry to connect in in Orlando in November. Can you tell me more about the event, the program, who we should expect that will be there and the engagement? Our National Veterans Small Business engagement, which is been on hiatus because of COVID. This is the first time we're rolling this out in a few years. It's going to be in Orlando the first week of November, I believe, and I encourage everyone to go and sign up for it. We will have a lot of our contracting leaders and a lot of our category leaders there to be able to host different events in different cities. I'll be there myself personally, and I look forward to having roundtables and other other venues to talk in and meet with the industry partners. So that's something that I think it's small business focus, but I think anyone can come in and then and I encourage you to do so. Mike, is there anything that I haven't asked you today that you'd like to share? Well, I think we've covered a lot of the top line bases and stuff. I just, you know, the strategy industry is a work in progress. I hope they've seen some benefits working with VA. And, you know, we always look for you as industry partners help to make ourselves better and make the VA better, which ultimately gets to better access and outcomes for our veterans. And I thank you all for your help with us in that journey. Thank you so much, Mike. This session was just so fantastic. We really appreciate your time. Thank you for your time. That concludes today's episode of the Fed to Fed podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please don't forget to subscribe, rate and leave a review. Your feedback helps us to continue to bring you thought provoking conversations with the brightest minds in government technology. Stay tuned for our next episode. We will continue to explore opportunities to harness the power of technology for a more innovative and efficient government. Until then, I'm Suzanne Share and this is the Fed two Fed podcast. Thank you for joining us.