Half an inch.

That is what stood between a health care contractor and a slice of a $260 million Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) procurement. Not a missed deadline, not a small-business misstep, not a price gaffe—half an inch on a hospital-bed frame. In Joerns Healthcare, LLC v. United States, No. 25-1688 (Fed. Cl. Apr. 28, 2026), the US Court of Federal Claims (COFC) made clear that it does not particularly care that the rest of the industry rounds the same way the protester did. If the solicitation specifies 36 and 42 inches as the applicable requirements and announces that the agency will bring a tape measure to verify the readings, the agency means 36 and 42 inches—and it means it with a tape measure.

For any contractor that has ever shrugged off a solicitation requirement because “the market doesn’t really build it that way,” Joerns provides a teachable moment.