THE PURCHASING DIVISION AND THE EVALUATION COMMITTEE RECOMMEND APPROVAL OF THE ABOVE MOTION.
Broward County (County) provides self-insured group health and pharmacy insurance coverage for benefits-eligible employees, retirees, Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) plan participants, and covered dependents. The County has been self-funded for group health insurance since January 1, 2015, and for pharmacy benefits since January 1, 2000. The Human Resources Division seeks to engage a qualified firm to provide benefits consulting services for a fixed monthly fee and additional services on an ad hoc basis related to the County’s employee benefit plans, including procurement services, analysis, compliance, strategy and monthly review of health and pharmacy claims through the use of a data warehouse maintained by the firm.
On June 13, 2017 (Item No. 71), the Board approved Request for Proposals (RFP) No. R2114673P1 for Employee Benefits Consulting Services. Three firms submitted proposals by the solicitation closing deadline.
On October 30, 2017, a Combination Initial and Final Evaluation Meeting was held and the Evaluation Committee determined that all three firms were both responsive and responsible to the requirements of the solicitation and would proceed to final evaluation, presentation and scoring. Wells Fargo Insurance Services USA, Inc. (WFIS) was named the first ranked firm.
After the meeting, Purchasing staff discovered a change to the score sheet made by one of the Evaluation Committee members. Additionally, the points for pricing were inadvertently inverted for Gallagher Benefits Services, Inc. and WFIS. Corrections to both of these items changed the second and third ranked firms.
On November 6, 2017, the Combination Initial and Final Evaluation Committee meeting was reconvened to read into the record the corrections to the scores and ranking of the firms. WFIS remained the number one ranked firm, followed by Gallagher Benefits Services, Inc., as the second ranked firm, and the Joint Venture of Bolton Partners, Inc. and Gelin Benefits Group, LLC as the third ranked firms (Exhibit 1).
The Evaluation Committee's proposed recommendation of ranking was posted on the Purchasing Division website from November 7, 2017 to November 9, 2017, which provided an opportunity for any proposer or interested party to present any new or additional information regarding the responsibility of the proposers. There was no additional information submitted within this timeframe.
On November 9, 2017, a letter was received from Gallagher Benefits Services, Inc. informing staff and the Commissioners of the recent sale of WFIS to a national brokerage, USI Insurance Services (USI) (Exhibit 3). The pending sale was mentioned to the Committee Members at the Combination Initial and Final Evaluation Committee Meeting. On December 4, 2017, the County was advised that the USI acquisition of WFIS has been completed. USI Insurance Services will be vetted, and an assignment of contractual obligations will be processed, if necessary.
The Evaluation Committee's final recommendation of ranking was posted on the Purchasing Division website from November 13, 2017 to November 17, 2017, which provided an opportunity for any aggrieved proposer to file a formal protest. There was no additional information submitted within this timeframe.
Additional supporting documentation provided to the Evaluation Committee regarding this procurement can be found on Broward County’s Purchasing Division website at: http://www.broward.org/Purchasing/Pages/Repository.aspx
The Evaluation Committee consisted of:
Jacqueline Chapman, Purchasing Agent, Purchasing Division (Non-voting Chair)
Monica Cepero, Deputy County Administrator, County Administration
Kimm Campbell, Director, Human Services Department
Kevin Kelleher, Deputy CFO/Deputy Director, Finance and Administrative Services Department |