NOTICE OF REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

CITY OF LAWRENCE, KANSAS

RFP NUMBER: R09003

DESCRIPTION: City of Lawrence Benefit Broker/Consultant

DUE DATE: March 11, 2009

The City of Lawrence will be receiving sealed Requests for Proposals (RFP) for the City of Lawrence Benefit Broker/Consultant at the office of the City Clerk, 6 East 6^th Street, Lawrence, KS 66044-2268 on or before 3:00 P.M. CST, Wednesday, March 11, 2009, at which time proposals will be recorded, but not publicly opened. Late RFPs will not be considered and will be returned to the offeror. If you elect to respond to this request, submit in a sealed package an original marked “original”, two (3) copies marked “copy” and one (1) electronic copy in the form of a CD/DVD (MS Office or Adobe Acrobat format). All proposals shall be clearly marked “City of Lawrence – RFP R09003 – Benefit Broker/Consultant” on the outside of all packing material. At any time prior to the specified proposal due date and time, a vendor (or designated representative) may withdraw the proposal.

The City of Lawrence is not responsible for proposal information obtained from entities other than the City of Lawrence. The offeror is responsible for obtaining correct and complete RFP documents.

All questions regarding this proposal should go to Lori Carnahan, Human Resources Manager, at (785) 832-3202. Questions are due no later than 10:00 A.M. CST, Friday February 27, 2009. Questions may be faxed to Lori Carnahan at (785) 832-3228 or e-mailed to lcarnahan@ci.lawrence.ks.us.

In order to allow for an adequate evaluation, the City of Lawrence requires an offer in response to this Request for Proposals to be valid and irrevocable for one hundred twenty (120) days after the opening time and date.

The contract will be awarded to the proposal determined to be most advantageous to the City of Lawrence.

The City of Lawrence reserves the right to:

· Waive any informalities and minor irregularities in proposals received, or

· Reject any or all proposals, or portions thereof, or

· Reissue a Request for Proposals, or

· Modify or cancel this Request for Proposals, or

· Further negotiate with the successful offeror and to accept any portion of the proposal or modify the proposal if deemed to be in the best interest of the City of Lawrence to do so.

A response to a Request for Proposals is an offer to contract with the City of Lawrence based upon the terms, conditions, and specifications contained in the City’s Request for Proposals and the written amendments thereto, if any. City Commission approval is necessary and proposals do not become contracts unless and until they are accepted by the City Commission. A contract is formed when written notice of award(s) is provided to the successful Offeror(s). All offers submitted in response to this Request for Proposals shall become the property of the City of Lawrence and shall become a matter of public record available for review, subsequent to the award notification.

The contractor agrees that the contractor shall observe the provisions of the Kansas Act Against Discrimination and shall not discriminate against any person in the performance of work under the present contract because of race, religion, color, sex, disability, national origin, or ancestry. The contractor shall in all solicitations or advertisements for employees include the phrase, “equal opportunity employer.” The contractor agrees that if the contractor fails to comply with the manner in which the contractor reports to the Kansas Human Rights Commission in accordance with the provisions of K.S.A. 44-1031 and amendments thereto, the contractor shall be deemed to have breached the present contract and it may be canceled, terminated or suspended, in whole or in part, by the City. If the contractor is found guilty of a violation of the Kansas Act Against Discrimination under a decision or order of the Commission which has become final, the contractor shall be deemed to have breached the present contract and it may be canceled, terminated or suspended, in whole or in part, by the City.

Proposer agrees to enter into a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement with the City of Lawrence. This agreement is intended to ensure that the Business Associate will establish and implement appropriate safeguards for “Protected Health Information” the Business Associate may create, receive use, or disclose in connection with certain functions, activities, or services to be provided by the Business Associate to the “Covered Entity”.

Background

The City’s fiscal year begins January 1. Budget preparation generally begins each March with the City Manager’s recommended budget presented to the City Commission in early July. The City Commission adopts the final budget by mid-August.

The City of Lawrence has approximately 760 benefit-eligible employees. The City of Lawrence has two bargaining units including Police and Fire/Medical, which cover approximately one third of the 760 employees. Additionally, an average of 55 former employees has elected to continue their health insurance benefits as Retirees.

The City of Lawrence is partially self-funded for comprehensive major medical health, dental and prescription drug benefits. One preferred provider organization (PPO) network option is available to eligible employees. In 2008, the average participant enrollment was 813 while the average number of covered lives was 2,042.

The City of Lawrence also offers paid term life insurance, supplemental term life insurance, supplemental health insurance, Flexible Spending Accounts, Employ Assistance Program, 457 deferred compensation program, KPERS and KP&F retirement programs which include long term disability and life insurance coverages and various wellness programs.

Paid time off programs are accrual based vacation and sick leave, personal days, established holiday and time off wellness programs.

Currently the City is reviewing proposals submitted for an on-site health center.

The City does not have any current going broker/consultant relationships. We have previously utilized a benefit consultant on a project basis for health care program Request for Proposals and analysis.

Ongoing Scope of Services

The purpose of this Request for Proposals is to solicit competitive proposals to perform the full range of ongoing broker/consulting services related to the design, implementation, maintenance, communication and improvement of the City of Lawrence benefit programs that are currently offered, or may be offered in the future to employees and retirees of the City of Lawrence.

The benefit programs currently available and for which benefit broker/consulting services may be needed include, but are not limited to: self-funded medical, dental, vision, and prescription drug insurance, stop loss insurance and ASO contract, term life insurance, supplemental health insurance, flexible spending accounts, deferred compensation (457), and employee assistance program.

The immediate project as described in the following section.

The ongoing and annual scope of the work shall include, but not be limited to, the following:

Preparing requests for proposals for benefit plans, marketing the proposals, analyzing the proposals, providing a recommendation and negotiating with providers as requested;
Implementing any provider change and assisting with the communication of new programs or changes to existing programs, to include attending and presenting information at open enrollment meetings, union meetings, and health care contract negotiations;
Providing ongoing assistance with benefit plans including contract review, summary plan description development and review, and ongoing issues and/or areas of concern that may arise with the providers;
Provide review of all benefit services for technical accuracy, participate in audits of vendors;
Service as liaison between the City and benefit contractors to include assistance with adjudication of specific claims when requested by the City;
Provide any necessary actuarial services/analysis of health insurance claims reserves, including projecting funding needs (or alternative funding) for upcoming fiscal year(s) and GASB 43 and 45;
Prepare a strategic benefits review and report with benchmarking to other comparable governmental entities;
Provide quarterly statistical reports; and
Assure compliance with all federal state and local laws, regulations, or rulings regarding employee benefits.

Immediate Project Description

The services for the immediate project described below are to be completed in time for the term of the benefit program to be finalized and benefit plans ready for open enrollment to commence no later than October 1, 2009, and for the benefit plans to be effective January 1, 2010.

The immediate project will be :

Develop a Request for Proposal (RFP) for major medical, dental, vision and prescription drug servcies for plan year beginning January 1, 2010 to include plan administratior, stop loss insurance and network beginning mid April, reviewing RFP with the City the beginning of May with a May distribution date.
Provide annalysis of the RFP respondants with recommendations to the City’s Health Care Committee and subsequently present the recommendations to City Management and City Commission in June 2009.
Assist with the negociation of contracts with selected providers.
Assist with the development and distribution of information to employees on the recommendations and subsequent benefit provider changes.
Develop, deliver and report to the city a tandum RFP likely incude other benefit programs in RFP such as term life insurance, supplemental health programs and long term care programs.

This invitation to submit a proposal for RFP #R09003 is not an authorization to approach any insurance market or health benefits program. The City specifically directs that no solicitation of insurance markets or benefits programs be made on behalf of the City.

Evaluation Criteria

An evaluation committee comprised of City of Lawrence representatives will review and evaluate all proposals using the following criteria. Evaluation criteria are listed in descending order of importance.

Experience and expertise of organization
Methodology of service (Questionnaire)
Cost and ROI
Assigned personnel
Conformance to RFP

The most qualified organizations may be asked to interview and present their proposal to a selection panel after which time the committee may chose to negotiate project scope of service and cost with the highest scored firm.

Questionnaire

1. Provide firm name, address, and contact information.

2. Provide the contact information of the individual authorized to answer any questions related to this proposal, including name, title, address, phone number, fax number, and e-mail address.

3. Provide organizational structure of the firm history, including number of years in existence, number, and location of offices, total number of employees. State whether any of the services described herein will be performed at any office outside of the Lawrence geographical area, and if so, what services will be performed outside the Lawrence area and where these services will be performed.

4. Confirm that you are an actuary, licensed consultant or broker in the State of Kansas. Provide documentation.

5. Confirm that you are a consultant or broker, independently and are not affiliated with any insurance company, third party administrative agency or provider network.

6. Describe the responsibility, experience, and qualifications of the individual(s) who would comprise the service team. For each individual on the service team, estimate the percentage of his/her time to be spent on the City of Lawrence account.

7. Please indicate whom the City’s primary contact would be for day-to-day issues that may arise. Would that individual also be the City’s contact on the project related items, i.e., RFP’s? What is his/her background? Please provide a resume.

8. Who would be the City’s primary contact for consultation and program implementation? What is his/her background? Please provide a resume.

9. Please indicate whether you have provided similar Benefits Broker/Consulting Services for public sector clients. If so, please provide the reference information and identify what the project included.

10. Provide the company name, contact person and telephone number of the following clients of your organization that we may contact for references:

a. Your two largest Kansas/Missouri clients, one with 3 or more years of experience with your company.

b. Your two largest municipal clients, one with 3 or more years of experience with your company.

c. Two previous clients and the reason for leaving.

d. Any other clients of your choice.

11. Describe your experience as a broker/consultant to include the types of benefit analyses, plan design projects or third party administrator selections processes you have conducted for health care programs, life and disability insurance, flexible spending accounts, 457 deferred compensation programs and any other relevant benefit programs with firms of at least 600 full time employees.

12. Provide any ratings your company may have received, i.e. Best, etc.

13. Please identify your plan approach in working with your customers.

14. Describe any business relationships you have with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas as well as the number of clients you have who contract with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas.

15. Describe in detail your firm’s approach to benefits consulting. Include a comprehensive list of specific tasks which would be provided under the broad area of benefits consulting.

16. What is the service philosophy of your firm?

17. Describe your firm’s resources or methods to provide education on best practices, trends, or hot topics.

18. Describe your firm’s legal research capabilities and how you communicate legislative updates to your clients.

19. Describe your firm’s capabilities in terms of actuarial services.

20. Describe you firm’s process for negotiating renewals.

21. Describe your firm’s capabilities with regard to employee communication. Include ongoing employee communication, open enrollment, and web-based communication.

22. Describe the resources and tools available for benchmarking and benefit program analysis.

23. Describe the firm’s view of the roll wellness programs have on controlling healthcare costs. What resources and tools do you offer to clients around wellness initiatives?

24. Provide sample reports.

25. Is your firm HIPAA compliant?

26. Explain how confidentiality is assured and how it is communicated to the participants.

27. Have your network security systems ever been breached? If yes, please describe the breach and the outcome.

28. Describe what practices your organization has in place to protect confidentiality of individual information when electronically transferring or storing information.

29. Detail the proposed number and frequency of face to face meetings, telephone contacts, etc. between your service team and City of Lawrence benefits staff and the Health Care Committee.

30. Does your firm view this relationship as project management or account management? How do you define the two types of relationships? Which would you provide the City?

31. In assisting the City with any Requests for Proposals, would you be willing to work with an internal committee in the selection process? Describe the process you would recommend.

32. If required, would you attend the Commission and Committee meetings to present any benefit plan recommendations and supporting documentation for approval?

33. Benefit plan changes may have to be negotiated with the bargaining units. Please indicate whether you have provided similar Benefits Consulting Services for employers whose employees were represented by a labor union. If so, please provide the reference information and identify what the project entailed.

34. Please provide your sample contract for broker and/or consultant services with the City.

35. Provide a draft “hold harmless” clause you would include in the contract.

36. Provide a quote for providing Benefits Consulting Services effective April 1, 2009 for a one, two, three, four, or five-year contract. Please provide an hourly fee for services and an estimate cost for services on an annual basis.

37. List the specific services included in the quote.

38. List any additional fees or provide an independent quote for services under the “Immediate Project Description” above if not included in the scope of services quote in #37.

39. If services were requested that were not considered a part of this RFP, would you discuss the fee structure with the City prior to performing those services?

40. Please describe how you would bill for services, i.e., hourly rate, project basis, commission, etc.

41. Describe your method of compensation for your services. Discuss how your method of compensation will be transparent and reported to our team. Does your firm accept any carrier overrides? If on a commission basis, would your firm be taking any form of compensation beyond the commission built into our premium rates? If selected, what are the methods of disclosing compensation to the City and the frequency of that disclosure? Would there be a maximum annual fee? Do you wish to propose fees for subsequent years of the contract and if so, how much? Please quote for a 1, 2, and 3 year contract period.

42. Would you include any performance guarantees in our agreement? If so, please describe.

Proposals may be submitted from independent consultants or brokers however, it is important for a broker to provide assurances that their services would be in the best interest of the City. The City of Lawrence recognizes that a broker may receive compensation from the insurance provider based on a percentage of the overall account value. To objectively compare the proposals from the bidders for purposes of selecting how the City of Lawrence will pursue its goal of achieving the best value in benefits for its employees, we request that bidders identify their total compensation package for services rendered and how it will be derived (e.g. direct payment from the City of Lawrence or insurance companies, percentage of the total insurance premium paid, direct commission, or any other form of quantifiable compensation expected by the respondent). Also, advise how the City of Lawrence will be charged for services within the scope of this contract and the rate for any additional consulting services requested.

43. Describe any additional services offered by your firm that may be of interest to us. Indicate if there is an additional cost for these services.

PROVIDE ANY SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION YOU CONSIDER RELEVANT OR BENEFICIAL IN THE NARRATIVE UNDER ANY OF THE CATEGORIES TO BE RATED.