Explanation
BACKGROUND:
In 2014, the Department of Human Resources conducted a thorough evaluation of all proposals submitted as a result of a Request For Proposal in accordance with Chapter 329 of the Columbus City Code. At that time, five Prescription drug insurance proposals were reviewed by the City’s Evaluation Committee, comprised of five members. Each proposal was evaluated on the following criteria as required by Chapter 329: competency to perform, quality and feasibility of the offerors technical proposal, ability to perform the required service competently, past performance, and the cost structure of the proposal. As a result, Optum RX (formerly, Catamaran) was recommended as the prescription drug insurance administrator and the City entered into contract with Optum RX for the past 3 years: February 1, 2015 through January 31, 2018. However, due to the negotiations of all the collective bargaining contracts in 2017 and continued in 2018, and in anticipation of major changes to the City’s health insurance benefits, the Department of Human Resources decided not to engage in the Request for Proposal process for prescription drug insurance this calendar year. Therefore, the Department of Human Resources requests a waiver of competitive bidding requirements. The Department of Human Resources does plan to comply with the competitive bidding provisions in Chapter 329 of the Columbus City Code in 2018 and enter into a new contract beginning February 1, 2019.
To maintain insurance programs in accordance with the negotiated labor contracts, additional funding of the prescription drug insurance program is necessary to insure continuation of the prescription drug insurance program. Cost estimates were based on 2016-17 trust fund expenditures using a two year average of actual city utilization, expected changes due to union negotiations, as well as input from insurance carriers and from the City's employee benefits consultant. The Human Resources Department req...
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