Manatee County continues search for health care plan provider

MANATEE -- A five-person evaluation team decided Monday that two of the three proposals for development of a new health care plan for Manatee County's most needy citizens merited further inspection and one should be eliminated.

Proposals from Health Management Associates Inc. of Lansing, Mich., and PricewaterhouseCoopers/Health

Council of West Central Florida survived the cut to be considered for a contract to develop a comprehensive health care program for Manatee County's uninsured and underinsured residents.

A third proposal from LM Christmann Consulting of Bradenton was eliminated from consideration because the team felt the organization's infrastructure was not as developed as the others. The county requested proposals for an outside entity to "identify appropriate processes moving forward for uninsured and underinsured health care," according to the request for proposal.

According to the addendum to the RFP, work will be completed by Oct. 1, 2016, and is "not to exceed amount budgeted in the Fiscal Year 2016 budget of $125,000. This amount includes all costs associated with the contract."

The evaluation team consists of Dr. Jennifer Bencie of the Manatee County Department of Health, Jacki Dezelski of the Manatee Chamber of Commerce, Andy Guyre of the county's Community Services Department, Kim Stroud of the county's Human Resources Department and Jacob Erickson of the county's Purchasing Department.

Acting on a suggestion by Dezelski, Health Management Associates and PricewaterhouseCoopers will now be asked to do oral presentations so the team can learn more about them, said Erickson, who is the evaluation team leader.

No date has yet been set for oral presentations, Erickson added.

Health Management Associates' proposal was for $125,000, Erickson added.

PricewaterhouseCoopers' proposal was for $145,000 and Christmann's proposal was for $30,000 per quarter.

"I am not absolutely certain, but I believe they are proposing that those would be one-time costs," Erickson said.

Stroud said she was impressed that Health Management Associates of Michigan focused on working with uninsured/under-insured patients and outlined in its proposal that it would help Manatee explore options for funding indigent care.

Stroud was also drawn by the size and scope of Health Management Associates and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

"I felt like PricewaterhouseCoopers and Health Management obviously had a larger team, a bigger scope and variety of professionals," Stroud said.

Guyer was also swayed that the two larger groups already had infrastructure in place.

"I am gravitating to HCA and Pricewaterhouse," Guyer said.

The committee will eventually make a recommendation to the county administrator. The county commission will have final approval.

This story was originally published November 17, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Manatee County continues search for health care plan provider ."