UPDATE: New RFP Out – Say What? Dental RFP Canceled by HHSC Over Proposal Problems

UPDATE: Christine Mann, the Press Officer at HHSC, has informed us that new RFP is out as of yesterday.  The information is below and is available at http://www.txsmartbuy.com/sp/HHS0002879

Response Due Date: 11/30/2018

Response Due Time: 2:00 PM

Agency Number: 529

Days Solicited: 21+ Days for Solicitation Notice

Solicitation Posting Date: 10/1/2018

Last Modified: 10/2/2018 1:59 pm

Solicitation Description: The State of Texas, by and through the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), announces the repost of request for proposal (RFP) # HHS0002879 (Repost of HHS0000634) for the statewide Dental Program for the provision of dental services to Texas Children’s Medicaid (Medicaid) and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) eligible children.

Class/Item Code: 95856-Health Care Management Services (Including Managed Care Services)
91549-*High Volume, Telephone Call Answering Services (See 915-05 For Low Volume Services)
94807-Administration Services, Health

Both the Statesman and Dallas Morning News report this morning that officials with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (as these media refer to HHS as HHSC, we are changing back too) have canceled three major requests for proposals due to rules violations in the bids received.  This includes the dental services contract for Texas Medicaid.

Almost half of bids disqualified

The bid problems stem from “prospective vendors’ plans to subcontract with businesses owned by women or minorities, known as historically underutilized businesses.”  Apparently, 22 out of 45 bidders were disqualified on this basis.

The Statesman reports:

“In some cases, the agency found that prospective vendors did not list a historically underutilized consultant in their plans. In other cases, vendors did not show a good-faith effort to identify historically utilized business providers for subcontract work, as required in the bidding process…”

Process immediately restarted

HHSC is supposed to be restarting the RFP process immediately with information sessions for vendors.  The anticipated delay for the RFPs is anywhere from a month to nine months.

TDMR attempted to confirm this with several of our own sources but there isn’t even anything on the HHSC website about it.  When we learn more, we’ll report on it.