Emergency medical transport billing and collection services are essential to the Administration’s ability to provide the City’s residents and visitors with comprehensive medical transport services, and with efficient, reliable billing and collection services thereafter. On July 13, 2016, the Mayor and City Commission approved  a resolution authorizing a Professional Services Agreement between Advanced Data Processing, Inc., a subsidiary of Intermedix Corporation, on a month to month basis, commencing on September 16, 2016, for a term not to exceed one year.  Subsequently, the Administration solicited proposals, by way of Request for Proposals (RFP) No. 2017-002-JC, for Emergency Medical Transport Billing and Collection Services, from qualified proposers, to assist the Fire Department staff in obtaining patient and insurance information for emergency medical transport services provided, verifying patient insurance and patient demographic information, filing claims and sending invoices to self-pay accounts, submitting claims to Medicare, Medicaid, insurance companies, processing third-party reimbursements, and providing specific management and financial reports on a monthly basis, as specified by the City.

RFP PROCESS

On January 11, 2017, the City Commission approved the issuance of Request for Proposals (RFP) No. 2017-002-JC, for Emergency Medical Transport Billing and Collection Services. On January 13, 2017, the RFP was issued. A voluntary pre-proposal conference to provide information to the proposers submitting a response was held on February 1, 2017. RFP responses were due and received on March 8, 2017. The City received a total of four (4) proposals. The City received proposals from the following proposers: Advanced Data Processing, Inc. ("ADP"), a subsidiary of Intermedix Corporation; Credit Bureau Systems, Inc. d/b/a Ambulance Medical Billing; Life Line Billing Systems, LLC d/b/a LifeQuest Services (“LifeQuest”); and PST Services, Inc. (“PST Services”), a subsidiary of McKesson Corporation.

The Evaluation Committee appointed by the City Manager pursuant to LTC# 135-2017 convened on March 28, 2017 to consider the responsive proposals received. The Committee was comprised of Frank Betancourt, Division Chief, Fire Department, City of Miami Beach; Joseph Florio, Technology Administrator, Fire Department, City of Miami Beach; Lazaro Guerra, Communications Manager, Fire Department, City of Miami Beach; Christine Rogers, Emergency Management Specialist, Emergency Management, City of Miami Beach; and, Jose Del Risco, Assistant Director, Parks & Recreation, City of Miami Beach.

The Committee was provided an overview of the project, information relative to the City’s Cone of Silence Ordinance and the Government Sunshine Law. The Committee was also provided with general information on the scope of services and a copy of each proposal. The Committee was instructed to score and rank each proposal pursuant to the evaluation criteria established in the RFP. The evaluation process resulted in the ranking of proposers, as indicated in Attachment A, in the following order:

    1st - PST Services,

    2nd - Advanced Data Processing,

    3rd - LifeQuest Services,

    4th - Ambulance Medical Billing.

However, after the evaluation of proposals, the Administration became aware that the RFP contained certain shortcomings that would prevent the City from obtaining best value any resulting contract. Some of the issues include: a need to clarify the type(s) of data management software that will comply with the City's requirement; establishing service level agreement (SLA) requirements for any system failures; and identifying who is responsible for merchant and/or credit card transaction processing fees. Therefore, the Administration believes it is in the City's best interest to reject all proposals so that staff can develop specifications, terms and conditions that will ensure the City ultimately purchases emergency medical transport billing and collection services, on terms that best serve the City’s interests, goals and objectives.

I have reviewed all the submissions and the results of the evaluation process. Accordingly, I recommend rejection of all bids received to permit the Administration to further evaluate and refine the technical specifications, software requirements, service level agreements (SLA's), and proposed contract terms and conditions, to ensure the City ultimately purchases emergency medical transport billing and collection services, on terms that best serve the City’s interests, goals and objectives; and, further recommend negotiating a month-to-month agreement with ADP, commencing on September 16, 2017, for a term not to exceed one (1) year, for the continuation of current services, or until such time as a new agreement is executed pursuant to the procurement process, whichever occurs first.