Quality assurance surveillance plan (QASP): how a federal buyer scores your ride service

What a QASP is

A quality assurance surveillance plan (QASP) is the buyer’s written plan for checking that you deliver what the contract says. Federal rules say these plans should be prepared along with the statement of work and should specify all work requiring surveillance and the method of surveillance (FAR 46.401). A performance-based service contract must carry measurable standards and a way of assessing the contractor against them (FAR 37.601). The government may write the plan itself or require offerors to submit a proposed one (FAR 37.604). The 2026 examples below come from VA medical centers, whose buying is covered in VA transportation contracts. The wider process of winning public ride work is in government NEMT contracts.

What a ride QASP measures

VA’s 2026 wheelchair van and special mode solicitations set an acceptable quality level for on-time pickups between 90 and 97 percent, and each one says how VA will check it.

Pickups are not the only standard. The solicitations add these:

• Incident reporting. VA wants a phone call within an hour of any accident or safety problem during a trip, and a written report no later than the end of the next business day. The acceptable level is 97 percent in Jackson, Spokane and North Texas.
• Invoices. In Jackson, Spokane and North Texas, a monthly invoice with its supporting documentation at 95 percent, with VA inspecting every monthly invoice.
• Confirmations and waiting. Hines asks for next-day trips to be confirmed by 10:30 p.m. and same-day requests within 15 minutes of receipt, and checks 40 confirmation messages a month. It reviews every request for wait-time reimbursement.
• A surveillance checklist. Jackson’s checklist sets 95 percent compliance for round-the-clock service, clean vehicles and vehicle maintenance files, and 100 percent for qualified personnel, with VA watching every patient pickup.

How does a buyer sample your work?

A buyer rarely checks every trip. Hines reviews 40 trip tickets and any complaints each month. As an example, a 95 percent level on a sample of 40 means 38 tickets must pass, so a third late pickup in the sample drops the month below the level. Treat that arithmetic as an illustration: the solicitation gives the sample size and the level and leaves the scoring of each ticket to VA. Jackson and Spokane lean on customer feedback for on-time pickups and describe 100 percent surveillance of each patient pickup.

When is the plan written, and can you see it?

In these VA solicitations, the government prepares the QASP after award, built from the performance work statement and your quality control plan. VA calls it a living document it may revise at any time, but says it will coordinate changes with the contractor. Before you bid, you can read the standards table and the quality control plan requirements. What you write becomes part of what VA measures.

Jackson’s quality control plan must describe:

• your organization and who is responsible for what;
• how you will find and prevent deficiencies, and the steps you take to correct one;
• the records system that tracks background checks, certifications, tests and training for each employee;
• how you will provide on-time service around the clock;
• how you will prevent radio breakdowns and what you do if they happen; and
• a log kept if VA’s vendor portal is down, showing the date and time of each call, scheduled and actual pickup times, points of pickup and delivery, mileage and actual waiting time, sent to VA monthly.

What happens when you miss?

The solicitations say that failing to meet an acceptable quality level may result in termination. Short of that, the federal commercial-services clause lets the buyer require reperformance at no increase in price and, if that cannot fix the problem, seek an equitable price reduction (FAR 52.212-4(a)). Jackson’s solicitation also lets VA re-procure a service you cannot perform and recover the excess cost from you.

Performance records follow you. Jackson requires CPARS registration within 30 days of award for contracts over $1,000,000, evaluates contracts of more than a year annually, and gives you 30 days to comment on each evaluation. The ratings feed a database that all federal agencies can read. Broker penalty schedules work differently and are covered in NEMT broker penalties.

Keeping records that match the buyer’s

The best defense is your own record of each trip, kept in the form the buyer uses:

• Times. The scheduled pickup, the actual arrival and the actual pickup, because the buyer measures lateness from the scheduled time.
• Miles and waiting. Hines requires every vehicle to have GPS or an equivalent system that gives daily point-to-point mileage and the time spent waiting at a pickup, exportable to VA and sent with invoices.
• Incidents. The time of the phone call and the date the written report went in.
• Corrective steps. A corrective action plan for any miss, with dates.

In HealthRide, the trip log shows scheduled versus actual times and GPS-verified miles for every trip, and the on-time performance report shows how your trips ran, so you can see your own percentage before a buyer’s review. See reports.