NDID-SHIP+NONP.pdf

NOTICE OF INTENT TO MAKE A NONCOMPETITIVE PURCHASE

State Health Insurance Assistance Program

STATE OF NORTH DAKOTA

NORTH DAKOTA INSURANCE DEPARTMENT

600 E BOULEVARD AVE

BISMARCK, ND 58505

NOTICE OF INTENT TO MAKE A

NONCOMPETITIVE PURCHASE

7/30/2025

The State of North Dakota intends to make a purchase for which we believe there is no competition. The purpose of this notice is to determine if other sources are available. If there are additional vendors available, the State may have additional funds for two more vendors.

Vendors are permitted to submit bids or proposals for equivalent commodities or services in response to this notice. A party interested in providing these commodities or services is instructed to submit a written response to the Procurement Officer by the response deadline.

PURCHASING AGENCY: North Dakota Insurance Department

PURCHASE DESCRIPTION:

The State intends to make a noncompetitive purchase for its State Health Insurance Assistance Program (“SHIP”).

SHIP is administered by the Department of Insurance in North Dakota and is a federally required program that each State manages to assist its citizens find the appropriate Medicare coverage. [see ND Insurance Department’s website here, which explains the program a bit more]. SHIP provides unbiased help to Medicare beneficiaries, their families, and caregivers. SHIP assists individuals who are new to Medicare, reviewing Medicare plan options and assists with questions regarding Medicare coverage.

During October to early December, the entities’ employees assist Medicare beneficiaries with running Part D plan comparisons for their Medicare Drug Plans. They meet individually with the Medicare beneficiary and go over all the medications they take, enter them into the Medicare Plan Finder that Medicare.gov houses and then compares coverage and costs for that individual for the upcoming year to ensure they are enrolled into the most cost-effective plan for their specific needs. They also assist with enrolling them directly into these Part D plans. They are also required to enter specific details data into an online system that tracks demographic and details for each individual that they assist.

The counselors also assist Medicare beneficiaries with low-income programs after they screen them to see if they qualify. They have knowledge of the requirements of these programs. These entities and individuals are required to attend annual trainings along with self-paced trainings throughout the year.

SHIP also strives to reach demographics that CMS targets, this includes more rural areas and lower income Medicare beneficiaries. We also are required to reach each county within the state, which limits us as to who we can contract with during Open Enrollment. We need involvement Statewide and are not able to have many entities in the same area. We can still have volunteers in these areas, but it limits our paid sub contracted entities.

We have two grants. The SHIP grant is the program grant to be able to run the program, the second is the MIPPA grant which is focused on reaching those rural areas and low-income individuals and providing outreach to these areas.

https://www.insurance.nd.gov/consumers/medicare-assistance

For each of these grants we are required propose a budget for subcontracts at the beginning of each grant period, which is April 1 for the SHIP grant and Sept 1 for the MIPPA grant. This is all contingent on if these entities continue with us, meet requirement guidelines along with us seeking out entities that we feel can provide these services, with more of an interest of the ones where we already have volunteers that are fluent with the Medicare Open Enrollment process.We budgeted for 6-8 contracted entities each receiving $4,000-$5,000.

INTENDED SOURCE:

South Central Valley Senior Center – 139 2nd Ave. SE, Valley City, ND 58072 Williston Senior Center – 18 Main Street, Williston, ND 58801 Valley Senior Services of Fargo – 2801 32nd Ave. S., Fargo, ND 58103 Heart Program – 221 3rd Ave, Enderlin, ND 58027 Richland County Health - 413 3rd Ave. N. #21, Wahpeton, ND 58075

PRICE:

Total: $78,000.00 ($26,000.00x3 [3 renewals left in contract period] and it is not guaranteed that the non-profit entity providing services in Casselton will receive a contract).

1. Enderlin - $4,000.00

2. Fargo - $5,000.00

3. Valley City - $4,000.00

4. Wahpeton - $5,000.00

5. Williston - $4,000.00

6. Casselton - $4,000.00

JUSTIFICATION:

We work closely with CMS on Medicare issues, requirements, and training. SHIP is funded by federal grants.

Currently the Department has 2.5 full time employees handling all the ND SHIP requirements. The program has historically had approximately 90 volunteers located throughout the State of North Dakota to assist the SHIP staff.

As of 2023, we are down to roughly 28 total volunteers. These volunteers are required to go through extensive training annually and are also experts in the Medicare world.

Over the course of the past few years, we have seen a drastic decline in our volunteers. This has been due to the extensiveness of the expectations and not having the ability to compensate these individuals. Another obstacle we have is individuals/entities not having the capacity or resources, including staff, to volunteer within the time requirements that are expected.

The SHIP program allows funding for sub-contracting entities. We have sub-contracted for many years during the annual Open Enrollment Part D time frame of October – December, which is the busiest time for the SHIP program.

Individuals in these sub contracted entities have gone through extensive training and understand the requirements of the program. We have unfortunately found some of these entities no longer being able to commit due to the overall time commitment and requirements of data entry and training.

We remain limited as to who can provide these services. We are needing entities that are familiar with the Medicare process and assisting Medicare population demographics. We have sought out entities to assist us during annual Part D Open Enrollment from October – December where they have had volunteers with us already that are trained and already have the extensive knowledge.

QUESTIONS

A vendor may contact the Procurement Officer to discuss whether its proposed solution meets the requirements.

Submit any questions or requests for clarification to the Procurement Officer as soon as possible and before the response deadline.

Tyler Erickson Procurement Officer E-mail: tylernerickson@nd.gov mailto:tylernerickson@nd.gov

Telephone: 701-328-2459 TTY Users call: 7-1-1

RESPONSE FORMAT:

Vendors interested in submitting a response to this notice must provide the following information for consideration:

• Company Information: Provide the name of the firm, address, and website, if available.

• Contact Information: Provide the name of a contact person, telephone number, and email address.

• Specifications: Vendors are instructed to examine the Purchase Description included in this notice. When preparing your response to this notice, provide a point-by-point response to each of the described requirements. Provide detailed specifications demonstrating that the offered solution meets or exceeds the requirements stated in this notice. Provide any available documents and links to information available on the vendor’s website.

• Value-Added: Vendors may provide information about value-added features, functionality, alternatives, and additionally available components or services that are not specifically identified in the purchase description within the notice.

• Cost: Provide detailed cost information, including any applicable shipping and handling. Responses may include pricing for any offered value-added options.

RESPONSE DEADLINE: Issued Monday, August 21, 2023. Deadline to respond is Monday, August 28, 2023 by 11:59

PM CT.

RESPONSE INSTRUCTION:

ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION REQUIRED: An interested party must electronically submit their response through the State Procurement Office Online system (SPO Online) by the response deadline. This solicitation is posted on SPO Online: https://apps.nd.gov/csd/spo/services/bidder/main.htm. Upload instructions are provided below. Make sure to include your name and e-mail address when uploading responses to SPO Online.

DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE “LAST MINUTE” TO SUBMIT A RESPONSE. We recommend uploading responses 24 hours prior to the response deadline.

Bidder must begin the electronic submission process well in advance of the response deadline to allow for transmission and resolution of any technical difficulties. Be advised that the STATE is not responsible for a vendors failure to timely submit a response due to any technical difficulties. If you experience any technical difficulties, contact the Procurement Officer listed in this notice or the State Procurement Office at infospo@nd.gov or 701.328.2740.

If documents are in the process of being uploaded when the response deadline occurs, the upload process will stop. The attempted submission will not be uploaded successfully and is ineligible for consideration. The STATE takes no responsibility for electronic submissions that are captured, blocked, filtered, quarantined, or otherwise prevented from uploading by any anti-virus software or other security software.

1. This solicitation is posted on SPO Online at: https://apps.nd.gov/csd/spo/services/bidder/main.htm

2. Select “Recent Solicitations” and find this solicitation. Solicitations are listed by close date.

3. Use “Upload Response” to upload a maximum of five (5), clearly labeled documents before the response deadline.

4. Offerors must upload their response as requested in the response instruction section of this notice.

5. The maximum file size allowed is 50mb per file.

6. There is a 50 character file name limitation for the document being uploaded.

7. There is 75 character limit in the TITLE field within SPO Online.

8. All SPO Online field entries must be alphanumeric. Dashes and underscores are allowed; however, the system does not accept other special characters such as apostrophes, & symbols, or quotation marks, etc.

9. DO NOT submit documents that are embedded (zip files), movies, wmp, encrypted, or mp3 files.

10. The vendor will receive an email confirmation from infospo@nd.gov that the upload response was received including the “File Description” for the uploaded files. Review this email to ensure all files were successfully uploaded. If the vendor does not receive an email confirmation, the upload was not successful, and you will need to upload the files again. If the vendor does not receive an email confirmation after the reattempt, contact the Procurement Officer listed in this notice or the State Procurement Office at infospo@nd.gov or 701.328.2740.

Visit https://www.omb.nd.gov/sites/www/files/documents/doing-business-with-the-state/procurement/spo-electronic-response-external-job-aid.pdf for the SPO Electronic Response Job Aid which describes how to submit an electronic response.

https://apps.nd.gov/csd/spo/services/bidder/main.htm mailto:infospo@nd.gov https://apps.nd.gov/csd/spo/services/bidder/main.htm mailto:infospo@nd.gov mailto:infospo@nd.gov https://www.omb.nd.gov/sites/www/files/documents/doing-business-with-the-state/procurement/spo-electronic-response-external-job-aid.pdf https://www.omb.nd.gov/sites/www/files/documents/doing-business-with-the-state/procurement/spo-electronic-response-external-job-aid.pdf