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Employees Retirement System of Texas Group Term Life Insurance and Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance Services No. 25-14331-001
Questions and Answers March 11, 2026
This document is provided in accordance with RFP Sections I.E.6. – I.E.6.d.
| Question 1 |
| please explain reason for requesting new contractor |
| Answer 1 |
| The reason for soliciting for these Services is that, consistent with State procurement best practices, ERS competitively resolicits this Contract periodically to ensure ERS continues to receive best value. |
| Question 2 |
| · Implementation PG, page 8 -12 seem to be duplicates of the previous page only changing the reference of “Participants” to “Active Employees, Retirees, Dependents and beneficiaries”. Which do we complete or do you want both completed with the same information? |
· Implementation Performance Guarantee PG No. 10, Account Management references Section VI.B.10 – VI.B.14. The RFP document only has up to VI.B.10. PG reference section VI.B 11 -14 are missing. Does the request in the performance guarantee need to be updated or does the RFP document need to be updated?
| Answer 2 |
| The RFP has been amended to revise the Performance Guarantees for the Implementation Period (Appendix F-1) as follows: |
· The first six pages have been removed as these were primarily duplicative.
· Section references for PG No. 10 have been updated.
| Question 3 |
| In the Submission Instructions, all files requested are “required.” Will this be updated so that files not applicable to the vendor(s) are considered optional? |
| Answer 3 |
| Respondent must upload a file in response to all requested information in the Submission Instructions. If the requested information does not apply or cannot be provided, Respondent shall mark the applicable statement under the interrogatory and upload a statement explaining why the requested information was not provided. |
| Question 4 |
| Please verify that if an employee enrolls or increases their benefit in Optional GTL during Summer Enrollment or Qualifying Life Event, EOI is required. |
| Answer 4 |
| RFP Sections III.H.2 and H.4. through H.4.a. provide details on when EOI is required. |
Please see the Table for Optional GTL and AD&D EOI Summary under Section III.H.4.a.
· Any Optional GTL and AD&D election after the 31st day of employment will require EOI.
· Any increase of an Active Employee’s current GTL/AD&D coverage will require EOI.
Therefore, if an Active Employee enrolls or increases their Optional GTL benefit during Summer Enrollment or based on a Qualifying Life Event, EOI is required.
| Question 5 |
| Please verify that retirees after initial retirement period cannot enroll in Retiree Optional GTL Coverage. For the Retiree Optional Fixed GTL and Retiree Optional Dependent GTL Coverages, the retiree can enroll in this plan after initial retirement period but only during an applicable Enrollment period or Qualifying Life Event and EOI will be required. Please also clarify what is an applicable Enrollment period. Is this once per year or more often? |
| Answer 5 |
| 1. If an Active Employee was not enrolled in Optional GTL in the same month that they retire in, they cannot enroll in Optional GTL as a Retiree. If, however, an Active Employee had Optional Term Life Insurance coverage at the time of retirement, then they would be eligible for Retiree Optional GTL coverage. See RFP Sections III.H.10 through III.H.16.b. for more details on Retiree Optional GTL coverage. |
2. Retirees may be eligible to enroll in Retiree Fixed Optional Life Insurance, a $10,000 benefit.
· If any optional term life insurance was in effect on the date of retirement, Retirees may elect the fixed optional life instead of the optional term life insurance without answering health questions.
· If Retiree was not enrolled in any optional term life insurance on the date of retirement, then a brief health history is required. Retirees may apply for this coverage (a) at retirement (b) during their Summer or Fall Enrollment period or (c) at the time of a Qualifying Life Event.
3. Retirees may be eligible to enroll in Retiree Optional Dependent GTL coverage.
· If Dependent Term Life Insurance was in effect on the date of retirement, Retirees may elect to continue $2,500 for their eligible spouse and children.
· If Retiree was not enrolled in Dependent Term Life Insurance prior to retirement, then a brief health history is required. Retirees may apply (a) at retirement (b) during their Summer or Fall Enrollment period or (c) at the time of a Qualifying Life Event.
4. Applicable enrollment period is either Summer Enrollment or Fall Enrollment. Summer Enrollment is for Active Employees and Retirees that are not Medicare eligible. Summer Enrollment is usually from mid-June to mid/late-July. Fall Enrollment is for Medicare eligible retirees and is a 2-week period at the end of October or beginning of November.
| Question 6 |
| · Are there any value-added benefits provided by the current carrier (often at no cost) that are highly utilized by your employees? |
· Which value-added benefits would you like to ensure are made available to your employees and retirees? Please advise of the coverages you would like these benefits to be aligned with.
| Answer 6 |
| ERS has included in the RFP those benefits ERS requires or wishes to be made available to the Active Employees, Retirees, and Dependents by the Carrier. |
Respondent shall provide within their Proposal their portfolio of value-added benefits. Respondents are expected to independently determine and propose supplemental or value-added benefits it believes are appropriate. This determination should be based on the Carrier’s own strategic positioning, strengths and market differentiation.
| Question 7 |
| Please provide the last 5 years of annual financial exhibits showing premium, claims, retention, deficits, and surpluses by coverage. |
| Answer 7 |
| The information contained in Appendix Q-1 should be adequate for Respondent to provide a satisfactory response to the RFP. This appendix contains all of the claims information necessary to project the claims cost. The premium will be a function of the selected Respondent’s proposed maximum claim rates and Carrier retention. Historical surplus/deficit results are not relevant to the RFP process. |
To obtain the confidential appendices Q – R-1, the NDA (Appendix D) must be properly executed and submitted through DocuSign. See RFP Sections I.E.8. – I.E.8.a. for additional information regarding submission of the NDA.
| Question 8 |
| Please provide details of any plan changes or any special enrollments where the evidence of insurability rules were different than standard in the last five years. |
| Answer 8 |
| These details are not applicable. |
| Question 9 |
| Please confirm all financial accounting for all participating coverages are combined such that surpluses from one can offset deficits from others. |
| Answer 9 |
| Confirmed. Please note that AD&D coverages are non-participating. |
| Question 10 |
| Appendix Q, Exhibit 5 shows rates that were effective from FY2023-FY2026. Please confirm the start date of FY 2023. |
Does it coincide with the start date of FY 2023, Appendix Q, Exhibit 6?
| Answer 10 |
| The start date for FY 2023 was September 1, 2022, and applies to all exhibits referencing FY 2023. |
| Question 11 |
| What is the current value of the claims portion of the GTLI premium currently held by ERS? |
| Answer 11 |
| As described in Section IX of the RFP, ERS holds the claims portion of the GTL Premium until reimbursed to the Carrier. The accumulated amount of such funds is not relevant to the RFP process. |
| Question 12 |
| Page 47 B.10-B.10.a. please advise of the communications that should be supported by the live chat CSR capabilities – in other words, what level of detail is the live chat required to provide? How will dependent enrollment information be provided to the carrier? |
| Answer 12 |
| 1. Live Chat: Live chat service, if selected, would be a service to enhance the Active Employee, Retiree and/or Dependent’s experience. Chat can provide basic information such as network, Plan design, etc. Chat cannot provide anything that would be personally identifiable information or specific information to the Active Employee, Retiree, or Dependent. |
2. Dependent enrollment information: Dependent information is provided through the completion of the EOI process. There is also a weekly death file that is sent upon the Active Employee, Retiree and/or Dependent’s death.
| Question 13 |
| Page 47 B.13. Please provide a sample Master Policy Document (MPD) for Group Term Life and AD&D coverage to be posted under the Benefits Information section of the Website |
| Answer 13 |
| Please refer to Appendices U and V, the Master Policy Documents for Group Term Life and AD&D Insurance. |
| Question 14 |
| Page 49 C.7. will there be any integration in between the carrier Website and ERS’s backend systems? |
| Answer 14 |
| The functionality requirements for the Carrier’s Plan-specific website are addressed in RFP Section V. B.4 through B.9.d. At this time, an integration with ERS’ backend systems is not required. |
| Question 15 |
| Page 66 C.8. states, “Carrier shall verify all Plan coverages and enrollment in line with eligibility information provided on the Plan-specific enrollment files sent by ERS.” In addition to this participant enrollment information file, will ERS also be able to submit participants’ beneficiary information via file? |
| Answer 15 |
| Beneficiary information is not sent to the Carrier. Once a death is reported, an electronic file will be sent to the Carrier at the end of each week and month. Certain employees of the Carrier will have access to PeopleSoft. Once the Carrier receives notice of the death from the file, the employee will access PeopleSoft and take screenshots of the death benefits and beneficiaries. If there is a change in the beneficiary from the time the death is reported and when ERS’s Survivor Benefits team completes their beneficiary confirmed process, ERS will notify the Carrier of the change and make updates to PeopleSoft. There is also an additional safeguard put in place between the Carrier and ERS’s Survivor Benefits team to ensure proper payment is made to the proper beneficiary. |
As noted above, beneficiary designations are currently managed and maintained by ERS; however, there are some situations in which the Carrier would be responsible for managing and maintaining the beneficiary information (e.g., an Active Employee is no longer eligible for benefits with the GBP and converts to an individual policy with the Carrier). Additionally, as noted in the Price Proposal (Appendix P) Section G - Optional Beneficiary Designation Services, ERS may be interested in the Carrier managing all beneficiary designations at some point during the Contract Term.
| Question 16 |
| Page 67 D.8. – discusses EIB processing. Who distributes the waiver notices to the employees or retirees? |
| Answer 16 |
| The Carrier will process and determine eligibility, and as such, will issue premium waiver notices to Active Employees and Retirees. |
| Question 17 |
| Please confirm who is expected to distribute claim forms to beneficiaries (carrier or ERS). |
| Answer 17 |
| The Carrier will process claims and will distribute claim forms to the beneficiaries. |
| Question 18 |
| Please advise of how your new carrier will receive notice of loss. |
| Answer 18 |
| Once a death is reported, ERS sends an electronic file to the Carrier at the end of each week and month. |
| Question 19 |
| Do you want your new carrier to handle any recordkeeping functions (please advise of which ones)? |
| Answer 19 |
| Operational requirements, which include Plan reporting, are described in RFP Article VIII Operational Specifications and Requirements. Functions will include but are not limited to: claims and benefit payment records (claims intake documentation, adjudication notes and decision history; claim payment records; appeals verification documentation); policy and coverage administration records; EOI submissions and determinations; premium invoicing and payment history; Performance Guarantee reporting data; and data retention and archival records. |
| Question 20 |
| Is ERS interested in an Accelerated Benefit Option (ABO) for people who are Chronically Ill or have a Chronic Illness? |
| Answer 20 |
| ERS has the Accelerated Life Benefit (ALB) as set forth in Section 1551.254 of the Tex. Ins. Code and addressed in the following RFP sections: |
· ALB for Active Employee Basic GTL: RFP Sections III.E.4. - E.4.C.;
· ALB for Retiree Basic GTL: RFP Sections III.E.9. - E.9.d.;
· ALB for Active Employee Optional GTL: RFP Sections III.H.7. - H.7.b.;
· ALB for Retiree Optional GTL: RFP Sections III.H.14. - H.14.b.;
· ALB for Active Employee Dependent Optional GTL: RFP Sections III.L.5. - L.5.b.; and
· ALB for Retiree Dependent Optional GTL: RFP Sections III.L.13. - L.13.c.
A full description of the Plan provisions and features, terms and conditions, exclusions and limitations are fully described in the Master Policy Documents (Appendices U and V) and Benefits Books (Appendices S and T).
| Question 21 |
| Your Glossary of Terms defines CSR or Customer Service Representative: CSRs interact with Active Employees, Retirees, and/or Dependents to provide answers to inquiries regarding the Plan. Please provide: |
| • | Past years’ Life/AD&D claim volume |
| • | Any onshoring restrictions |
| Answer 21 |
| The claim volume for FY 2016 – FY 2025 is reflected in Exhibit 6, Financial Experience Summary, of the confidential appendix, Experience Data (Appendix Q-1). To obtain the confidential appendices Q – R-1, the NDA (Appendix D) must be properly executed and submitted through DocuSign. See RFP Sections I.E.8. – I.E.8.a. for additional information regarding submission of the NDA. |
See the following regarding requirements for performing the Services in the United States:
· RFP Sections VI.C.10. – C.11.b., VI.E.5., VIII.A.7.a., and VIII.C.1.
· Article 31.11 of the Contractual Agreement; and
· Article 3 of the DSBNA.
| Question 22 |
| Please provide a current billing invoice |
| Answer 22 |
| The information about the current vendor and the estimated contract value as of the date of entry can be found at the following link: |
https://contracts.lbb.texas.gov/
From the above site, scroll down to "Contracts by Agency and Vendor". Under the options for filtering searches, enter the contract number 18-9529-001 under "Contract-ID" with no additional spaces.
Any additional information about fees will not be provided for purposes of this question-and-answer process as ERS has provided the information necessary for prospective Respondents to respond to the RFP. Per RFP Section I.E.6.c., ERS will not answer questions it considers irrelevant to submitting a Proposal.
| Question 23 |
| 1. Price Scoring Methodology Clarification |
Section C (page 9) of the RFP describes the evaluation and scoring methodology, including allocation of 45 points to price. We interpret this section to mean that the lowest-priced responsive bidder will receive the full 45 points allocated to price, and that other responsive bidders will receive a prorated portion of the 45 points based on a formula comparing their price to the lowest-priced bidder.
Would the State please confirm whether this interpretation is correct? Specifically:
| • | Will the lowest-priced responsive bidder receive the full 45 points for price? |
| • | Will other bidders receive a proportionate share of the 45 points based on a defined comparative formula? |
| • | Alternatively, is there any circumstance under which only the lowest-priced bidder would receive all 45 points, and all other bidders would receive zero points for price? |
We ask to ensure that all bidders have a consistent understanding of the scoring methodology and to avoid any unintended misinterpretation of the evaluation process.
| Answer 23 |
| Per RFP Section II.C.1.a. Price Proposals are scored relative to one another such that scoring aligns with a ranking of lowest to highest, which is based on the Projected Total Cost derived from Price Proposal(s) (Appendix P). Thus, only the lowest Projected Total Cost will receive all 45 points, but this methodology does not result in the remaining Price Proposals receiving 0 points. ERS does not provide more specific criteria or methodology than that published in RFP Sections II.C.1. – II.C.1.a. |
| Question 24 |
| Premium Rates |
To ensure that all bidders are relying on complete and accurate information when developing pricing assumptions, would the State please confirm that the member contribution rates provided in Appendix Q, Exhibit 5, are not equal to the premium rates paid to the carrier? We raise this question to ensure pricing comparability and fairness among all respondents.
| Answer 24 |
| The member contribution rates in Appendix Q-1 are set annually by ERS and are not necessarily at the same rate as the premium rates paid to the Carrier. |
| Question 25 |
| Life Plan Experience Analysis |
Appendix Q-1 – Experience Data, Exhibit 6, includes Pending Claim Reserves as of 12/31/2025 for each coverage. Do these fiscal year totals represent claims that were incurred within that fiscal year but haven’t been paid out as of 12/31/2025?
| Answer 25 |
| Yes, these Fiscal Year totals represent claims that were incurred within that Fiscal Year but have not been paid out as of December 31, 2025. |
| Question 26 |
| Hardcopy Format |
Regarding the hardcopy format instructions listed in Article XII.A.1.a of the RFP, is a CD acceptable for lengthy documents, such as our audited financials (63 pages) SOC I report (83 pages)?
| Answer 26 |
| ERS relies on the electronic version of the Proposal for compliance review. In this case, Respondent may insert a one-page explanation in their hardcopy version explaining why the complete document was not provided in its hardcopy submission and there is no need to provide this information via a CD. |
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